Alias Grace: Chapter 42 Summary & Analysis

Simon is dreaming of the servants’ corridor in his childhood home. He opens a door, seeking the maid with whom he had his first kiss, but finds that he is at the hospital in London where he completed his medical training. He sees a dead woman covered in a sheet, but when he lifts it he finds that there are more and more layers, including a black veil and a petticoat. He hears running water and “a quick indrawn breath” and then feels a hand touching his shoulder.

Simon awakens, but he “knows he must still be asleep, because Grace Marks is bending over him in the close darkness, her loosened hair brushing his face.” He flips Grace over and begins having sex with her, “his spine jerk[ing] him like a hooked fish.” After he ejaculates, he realizes “he’s not dreaming; or not dreaming the woman”—he realizes that the woman lying next to him is Mrs. Humphrey, whose first name he doesn’t even know. He thinks back to the sex they’ve just had and realizes that “when he entered her she made no sound, either of protest or delight,” which makes him worry that Mrs. Humphrey isn’t breathing. He begins kissing her, until he finds a vein in her neck, which he also kisses, as “the alternative to taking her pulse.” After confirming that Mrs. Humphrey is breathing, Simon thinks, “What next? What have I done?”