As Shakespeare rises to fame, Emilia regrets the bargain she has made. She knows that her work, and the work of others he will not identify to her, have made him famous, but he reaps the credit. She meets with him one last time to attempt to renegotiate their bargain and to be paid better, but he rebuffs her. He also tells her that Jonson and others have begun publishing their collected works and that he intends to do the same and keep all the profit.

Alphonso continues to gamble away their money, so Emilia reinvents herself as a tutor. She is hired by Margaret Clifford, Countess of Cumberland to teach her teenage daughter Anne. A recent widow, Lady Clifford hated her husband and runs a household where women are well-educated and treated as intellectual beings. Emilia loves working there and while in her service hatches a plan—she will write a series of religious poems under her name and dedicate them to women like Lady Clifford. In doing so, she will hopefully gain some recognition and wealthy benefactors.

When the plague resurges in 1606, Emilia returns home. There she and Alphonso maintain an uneasy truth while she continues to write her poems.