The epigraph quotes from Lewis’s The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, with a description of Aslan as the kind of lion that can’t be tamed.

Chapter 9 opens with an epigraph from Davidman’s “Sonnet III” that describes love.

Joy arrives in Southampton, traveling by ship from New York. Journeying to London, she arrives at her friend Phyl’s house, where she will stay until she travels to Oxford. Amid their discussion about Bill and Jack, the chapter includes quotations from a series of letters. The first excerpt is from a letter to Renee describing Joy’s excitement at seeing London. A quotation from a letter from Bill follows, wherein he acknowledges her happiness and apologizes for not sending more money. A quotation from Joy’s response to Bill describes how she is writing daily and mentions experiences that he would have enjoyed.

Joy visits Michal, the wife of deceased author Charles Williams, a member of the Inklings with Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien. A trio of letter excerpts follows. In the first, Bill is happy that Joy has gone to the doctor. In the second, Renee thanks Joy for a gift and confesses that Bill hasn’t been successful in making money from his writing.