- St. John slips a note under Jane’s door in the morning; he can tell she was ready to sacrifice everything and become his wife and fellow missionary, and he’ll ask her again when he comes back in two weeks.
- After St. John leaves, Jane thinks about the supernatural voice and wonders where it came from. She decides she must know what’s going on with Rochester, wherever he is.
- Jane arranges a journey back to Thornfield; after thirty-six hours, she arrives at an inn called the Rochester Arms. She can’t bring herself to ask anyone there about him, so she just starts walking to Thornfield.
- Jane comes up toward Thornfield walking along the wall of the orchard. She peeks out from around a corner of the wall... and sees a complete ruin.
- It’s burned down, blackened and collapsed. She compares it to a man sneaking up to peek at the face of his sleeping beloved and finding her dead.
- Shocked, Jane goes back to the inn and asks the host what happened. From him she learns the whole story of what happened: Bertha burned down the house in the middle of the night by setting fire to what used to be Jane’s own bed.
- Rochester saved the servants and then climbed up to a high wall where Bertha was standing to try to rescue her, but she jumped off and committed suicide. Rochester was blinded and lost a hand when the wall collapsed.
- Jane asks where Rochester is now, and the innkeeper tells her that he’s at his other home, Ferndean. Jane arranges to go there in a chaise right away.