Rachel is so horrified by Tim's betrayal that she actually shouts, Damn you! Poor Tim tries to keep Trask from touching her but once again Trask orders him off.
Rachel wipes her eyes with her handkerchief. Rubbing his hands together with pleasure at this outcome and gazing avidly at her beauty, Trask tells his prisoner, Reason, not tears, will move me--calm reason. He touches her arm, and she pulls away from him. He folds his hands together as if in prayer. What will you do with me? Rachel asks. I have asked Divine Providence for help, he replies. I see my way clearly. Oh, Rachel, such hatred you feel, such needless hatred--I feel only compassion for you, he says, as his hand crawls like some vile insect across her slender, white throat. Pulling away again in revulsion, she tells him, I want to be sent back to Collinwood. What is there for you? he asks mildly, since the children are with me? You don't know how sorry I am about that, she retorts. Trask suggests, Why don’t you help me with them. You won't really allow me to show kindness to them, Rachel argues. They miss you, Trask says coaxingly. Perhaps our maker has chosen you as some strange instrument of change for them. You don't believe that any more than I do, Rachel says in disgust. Perhaps we were meant to change...each other, Trask says. Again he attempts to touch her, and again she flinches away. Undeterred, he continues, I always believed you belonged at the Hall, along with Charity and Minerva, who will welcome you back. Yes, and for the same reason you want me back, retorts Rachel--because nobody escapes Reverend Trask! When I think of what you've done to Tim, who has changed for _your_ better, not his own--! It's useless to talk more with you, Trask says as if conceding. You're still too emotionally upset, and the devils inside you won't allow you to be rational. Where are you taking me? she asks. Wherever you want to go, he assures her--Worthington Hall or the police, as would be my duty. Every night I hear Mrs. Trask sobbing over her dead brother. Rachel insists, Tim and I had nothing to do with Simon's death. I'm incapable of confession now, and I knew nothing about it until Tim-- Admitted it? Trask finishes triumphantly. What the Good Book says about thieves and liars is true. He told me he had no knowledge of the affair, but that you did it! I don't believe that, Rachel says defiantly. I find your trust of Tim astounding, Trask observes. I wish you had the same kind of loyalty to me as you do for Tim Shaw. I am willing that the both of us should have the chance to make it happen--unless, of course, you are martyr enough to choose the police. Which is it, Miss Drummond? Worthington Hall? Or a murder charge?
At Collinwood, Laura causes three candles in a candelabrum to light spontaneously with only her fingers. This apparently opens a hailing frequency to Nora. Nora is so desperate to see her mother that she gets dangerously close to the fire. Tim arrives just in time. Trask and Rachel arrive, and somehow Rachel manages to keep up the pretense that Laura sent her back to the school to watch over Nora. She manages to grab the little girl from Trask and give her a good-night kiss before Trask drags her off. Tim notes sadly, Once again Trask has succeeded in coming between us. Never speak to me again! Rachel orders him harshly. Tim pleads, Rachel, listen to me. Trask-- well, he said that not only did I kill Simon but that you ... you, Rachel, are implicated. So you see, it is much worse than we thought. You could have run away. But he would have found you no matter how far you had run. He is determined that we both should share the guilt. That you should be guilty--that you and I both should be guilty. The two stand very close together, looking into each other’s eyes.
Trask is seated in his study, which is sparsely furnished except for books and bookcases. The volume that interests him at the moment is labeled Punishment Book. He is about to make a notation when Laura Collins, wearing a black dress and a little black hat with a small brim and trimmed with a wide blue ribbon, knocks. When he doesn’t answer, she lets herself in. Are there no servants at Worthington Hall? she asks, displeased. I’m not accustomed to letting myself in. (This seems the same as at Collinwood.) Laura demands that Trask turn over her children. When he refuses, she warns him that they won't spend another night at his school.
Nora tells Rachel that she feels her mother is very close by, so Rachel goes to Trask's study and asks if Laura has been there. Trask is far too full of himself to notice the smoke coming under the door, but Rachel notices it.
*hums "Mine eyes have seen the glory of the burning of the school"*
