Black Cake

The story of Coventina dominates these chapters. We return to spring 1965. Covey is 17. Her father, unbeknown to her, is deeply in debt to Little Man Henry, the local loan shark, a repulsive little man more than 20 years older than Covey. When Little Man starts hanging around the Lyncook home, Lin tells his daughter he is there to court her, an idea repellant to Covey. Do this for me, the father pleads. Little Man’s awkward courtship of Covey, made more sinister when Little Man makes vaguely threatening comments about Gibbs, moves very quickly to a marriage proposal, which Covey feels obligated to go along with. Gibbs for his part is heading off to London to begin his law studies and begs Covey to go with him.

The day of the wedding, Covey moves about the ceremony in a kind of haze, uncertain and uneasy. At the reception, in a stunning moment, her new husband collapses, “gagging and stumbling” (122). In the confusion, Covey disappears. When Little Man dies on the way to the hospital, rumors fly that Covey poisoned the reception’s splendid black cake. Search parties quickly focus on the island’s coast—they are certain Covey would try to swim to safety somewhere on the island—but no one finds any evidence of the runaway bride.