Even As We Breathe

In the weeks following his grandmother’s funeral, Cowney and Essie return to the Grove Park Inn and their work. They continue to spend time together in room 447. Periodically, Essie engages in a relationship with Andrea. Peter, Carol—another housekeeper—Essie, and Cowney take a very enjoyable canoe trip to the Swannanoa and the French Broad Rivers. Essie tells Cowney that she is going to have a picnic dinner on the inn’s grounds after dark with Andrea, something they must go about surreptitiously.

The next morning Cowney awakens to the sound of a siren. The cause of the siren is the disappearance of the young daughter of an Italian diplomat. Cowney worries about Essie, who had been outside with Andrea while soldiers searched for the child. He encounters her in the main building. Essie confesses to him that the military intercepted her and Andrea. In their interrogation of Essie, she told them about the bone that Cowney found and keeps. She expressed it in such a way that they begin to believe that Cowney had something to do with the disappearance of the Italian girl.

Cowney hides from the soldiers who are searching for him. He manages to get down to the basement of the main building, where he realizes he is essentially in a prison camp and there is no way he can get out.