Bailey’s Reviews > The Hounding > Status Update

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Temperance while working give in and drinks a couple pints of ale and gets drunk. She comes out the tavern asking for Pete, John her husband let her know that Pete has been murdered. She decides to go visit Thomas. He confesses that he’s innocent and that it was Robin and he’s asking her to help him escape. Thomas finally says that he almost killed him, on top of threatening the girls. She helps him escape.

The village arrived with questions to what happened. Thomas took the fall for Robin and declared his love for Ann. There was no defense call or nothing just straight up took the blame. Robin was sobbing because he’s “become like them”, meaning violent like the rest of the town. I feel bad for him & while killing someone is hard, at least it was a no good scum of a horrible man that fell.

Temperance is mad at her husband cause he allows Pete to continue drinking. Pete says some unpleasant things to her, so she pulls his hair & he pulls off her gloves & dips her fingers in it.
The day has come where Pete is getting married. He thinks his life is over & goes to be by the river where he sees the angel again in his dream. Temperance bites her nails with the ale on it and she enjoys the taste too much.

Mr. Mansfield brought in a doctor from Oxford who was interested in inspecting the girls. The girls were "howling" Thomas described it. The doctor came to the conclusion that the girls animal spirits were disturbed & set one anothers off. r. Mansfield confined the girls to their rooms for rest. Connie & amy left the household as to not "catch" what the girls had. Thomas is helping Mr. Mansfield care for the girls.

Ch 15 - Pete is a terrible man who thinks he’s “special” in a way that puts him above everyone else in the town & has made it his mission to destroy the Mansfield girls. I hate being in his chapters but love seeing him panic & the girls get the best of him without even trying.
Ch 16 - Hay making has started & Robin is trying to keep from agreeing with the rest of the town. He sees Thomas & Ann together.

Joseph speaks to Ann about the rest of the girls, come to find out Hester has stepped into womanhood & Ann is possibly in love. Hester is taking this rather hard, wishing that she could live the life of a man & not be constrained by societies roles of women. The Vicar visit the Mansfield’s farm, shares the rumor, he sees Ann “change” but Thomas said it was a trick of the light. He now more worries than ever.

Temperance witnesses a burial of a woman who passed in childbirth & the town has a tradition of other pregnant women carrying the coffin. Temperance wants equality for the women in a “man’s world” & wants this tradition abolished. She seeks out the Vicar who cannot be bothered long by her so she asks him to speak with Pete in regards to the rumor. Instead of seeing it as Pete’s fault, he sees it as the girls.

I’m hooked, the mystery of these girls, the judgement of others, & the insecurities of the citizens form an intriguing story. Strongly dislike Peye, the Ferrymen, due to his severe insecurities & overall views. Got chapters of Mr. Mansfields POV where the girls will not confide in him & someone left the fish guts at their farms gate. Robin, a Mansfield farm hand, is kinder than the other men but is mocked for it.

Each ch. is in the perspective of another character but the characters all have interactions with the Mansfield sisters. 5 girls with odd tendencies, says the townspeople, and unladylike qualities. Their parents & grandmother passed so they are in care of their grandfather.
Ch. 1 was the rivers ferryman Pete, ch. 2 was the waitress at the pub Temperance, and ch. 3 was a new farm hand for the Mansfield’s, Thomas.