Norman arrives in the city, attacks some of Rose's friends from the shelter, and then goes to Rose's apartment. Rose returns to her world and puts the strange incident at the back of her mind. Rose enters the temple, where she manages to save the child, escape Erinyes, and return the baby girl to Rose Madder, who promises to repay her. One is soaked in Dorcas' blood and tied around a rock. Before Rose parts from Dorcas, she is made to strip naked and rip her nightgown into several strips. Dorcas cannot enter the labyrinth, as she is afflicted by the same mysterious illness as her mistress, and Erinyes would be able to smell her. Rose Madder asks Rose to rescue her baby from an underground labyrinth inhabited by a blind, one-eyed bull called Erinyes who orients by his sense of smell.ĭorcas leads Rose to the edge of the temple grounds. She also sees the woman in the painting, whom she calls 'Rose Madder' because of her gown and her evident madness. On the other side, she encounters a woman called Dorcas, who resembles Wendy Yarrow. Eventually she is able to travel through it. Rose discovers that the painting seems to change from time to time.

Rose falls in love with him, but she is afraid to begin a new relationship.

Bill Steiner, the owner of the pawnshop, asks her for a date. She trades her ring for the painting, which has no signature. When Rose tries to pawn her engagement ring, she takes a liking to a painting of a woman in a rose madder gown. She quickly makes several friends and, with the help of shelter director Anna Stevenson, gets an apartment and a job as a hotel housekeeper. At the bus station, she meets a man named Peter Slowik, who guides her to a local women's shelter. Rose arrives in a Midwestern city, disoriented and afraid. Once Norman realizes that Rose is gone, he resolves to hunt her down and kill her. Rose departs on a bus with their bank card. Rose realizes that she has passively suffered through Norman's abuse for fourteen years and that if she continues to put up with it, he will eventually kill her. She sees a drop of blood on the sheet that dripped from her nose the night before, when Norman had punched her in the face for spilling iced tea on him. Nine years later, Rose is making the bed. The subsequent lawsuit and internal affairs investigation has made him even more volatile. He also has a violent temper and has been recently accused of assaulting and raping a black woman named Wendy Yarrow. Rose considers leaving Norman but dismisses the idea: Norman is a policeman, and is excellent at finding people.

In 1985, Rose Daniels' husband, Norman, beats her while she is four months pregnant, causing her to miscarry.

Rose madder novel