We Have Always Lived in the Castle: Chapter 3 Summary & Analysis

Merricat is the only one who can tell that a change is coming, though Constance might suspect it. Merricat watches Constance looking often down the driveway. The day after Helen Clarke’s visit, Uncle Julian stays in bed, and Jonas is restless, often running all over the house. That morning Merricat thinks her family is calling her as she wakes up.

When Merricat doesn’t have to go into the village, she does her work. On Wednesday mornings she checks the length of the fence to make sure it’s secure. On Sunday mornings she checks her safeguards, which are items, such as silver dollars and dolls, that she’s buried around the property to keep her remaining family safe. In the past, she’s buried things to make the grass grow or the river run dry. Constance used to give Merricat pretty things to bury, and she also buried her baby teeth. On Thursdays, Merricat dresses in her family’s clothes in the attic. On Mondays, the sisters neaten the house. Merricat isn’t allowed into Uncle Julian’s room.

On Saturday mornings, Merricat helps Constance in the garden. Their cellar is filled with jars of food that have been stored by generations of Blackwood women, and Constance takes pride in adding to the store. They never eat the food that their relatives have canned, however, and Constance says it would kill them. As Merricat eats jam that morning, she thinks of Constance making it.

Uncle Julian sometimes has trouble getting up, so Constance always brings him a breakfast tray. On good days, he eats in the kitchen and studies his papers, saying that if he dies, someone who isn’t too worried about truth must write his book for him. Merricat hopes that this morning he’ll be able to sit in the garden. She tells Constance there’s a change coming, but Constance chalks it up to the coming of spring.

Constance brings Uncle Julian his tray, and Merricat hears him ask whether her father is home. At first, Uncle Julian thinks that Constance is her mother. Merricat decides to choose three protective words, and as long as they’re never spoken aloud, the change won’t come. Her first word is “melody.” Constance emerges, saying that Uncle Julian isn’t well. Merricat wants to take him to the moon. She decides her second word will be “Gloucester” and she suggests that Constance make a pie.

Later, Constance runs down to the garden to gather vegetables while Merricat listens for Uncle Julian to awaken. A little after eleven, Constance goes to her room. Merricat opens the front door as Dr. Levy arrives. He hurries to Uncle Julian’s room. Uncle Julian always wants to know why Dr. Mason, who was the doctor Constance called on the night of the poisoning, isn’t there. Dr. Levy closes the bedroom door, and Merricat decides “Pegasus” will be her third magic word. The doctor emerges and rushes out of the house. Merricat calls Constance down from her room.

In the afternoon, Uncle Julian sits outside while Constance gardens. Uncle Julian describes the morning of the poisoning, remembering Constance and her father coming downstairs. He asks Constance what tune her father used to whistle, and she hums it. Uncle Julian thinks the girls’ father might not have been whistling if he knew he was about to die. That day, Uncle Julian told his wife that she should go help Constance in the kitchen, since they were living in his brother’s house.

Uncle Julian recalls that he was still strong in those days and could dress himself. He lists the breakfast items that day, thinking that he might have let his wife eat more sausage if he’d known it was her last day. Uncle Julian’s brother (the girls’ father) always watched how much Uncle Julian’s wife ate, and Uncle Julian thinks his brother wanted his wife to be more helpful around the house. After breakfast, Uncle Julian sat in the garden with the women, and they talked about music while Constance weeded the vegetables.

Constance reminds Uncle Julian that her brother was climbing a tree and dropping twigs on them. Uncle Julian says he hopes and believes his wife was nice to Constance’s mother. They had a rarebit for lunch, and Uncle Julian wonders why the arsenic wasn’t in that. He doesn’t like rarebit. Constance takes him inside, since the sun is going down. He says he can’t afford to rest, since he has too many details to write down about the day of the poisoning. Merricat and Jonas follow them inside. Merricat asks whether Constance will take care of her when she’s old, and Constance says she will as long as she’s around, which frightens Merricat. They plan to have dinner and sit safely in the kitchen, where no one can see them.