Fingersmith

Sue once again resumes narrating her story. She is trapped within the psychiatric hospital for gentlewomen, certain that she is to be killed. The nurses are brutal with her, hitting, pinching, and taunting her. She is frantic to make anyone believe that she is not Maud Lilly or Mrs. Rivers; she is Sue Smith or Sue Trinder. Because she is so overcome with fright and rage, she is placed in solitary confinement, a room with padded walls. She finds the single glove of Maud’s that she had intended to take with her as a keepsake, and it enrages her further: “I gripped and bit and twisted that glove, until the light beyond the window faded, and the room grew dark” (375). Sue had expected such double-crossing from Gentleman but not from Maud. Even though Sue is consumed with hatred for Maud, she will not allow the nurses to take the glove from her.

Sue is convinced that, once Mrs. Sucksby has found out what Gentleman has done, the elder will come looking for her substitute daughter. Nobody at the psychiatric hospital, not even Dr. Christie, will believe her story—especially given that there are certain details Sue must omit if she is not to incriminate herself or give away the location of her fingersmith friends.