Chap­ter 19 unfolds as Van Cleve seizes an oppor­tu­ni­ty to shift the town’s focus away from his own ques­tion­able deal­ings by orches­trat­ing Margery O’Hare’s arrest. Upon learn­ing about McCullough’s body being dis­cov­ered, he wastes no time storm­ing into the sheriff’s office, push­ing for Margery to be charged with mur­der. Van Cleve paints her as a dan­ger­ous influ­ence on the town, accus­ing her of poi­son­ing the minds of women—including his own family—through her work with the Pack­horse Library. He frames the sit­u­a­tion as more than just a crime; he por­trays Margery as a desta­bi­liz­ing force, an out­sider whose ideas threat­en the moral foun­da­tion of Bai­leyville. Using the O’Hare-McCullough fam­i­ly feud as a con­ve­nient back­drop, he fab­ri­cates a nar­ra­tive in which Margery’s long-stand­ing con­flict with the McCul­loughs makes her the obvi­ous sus­pect. How­ev­er, despite Van Cleve’s fer­vent insis­tence, the sher­iff remains hes­i­tant, rec­og­niz­ing that the evi­dence against Margery is flim­sy at best.

The ten­sion in Bai­leyville esca­lates as the arrest is car­ried out in a dra­mat­ic scene at the library, send­ing shock­waves through the com­mu­ni­ty. Margery, in the midst of her dai­ly rou­tine, is blind­sided when the sher­iff arrives with a war­rant, cit­ing wit­ness tes­ti­mo­ny from Nan­cy Stone, who claims she over­heard Margery near the crime scene before a gun­shot rang out. The library, once a sanc­tu­ary of knowl­edge and progress, is sud­den­ly trans­formed into the set­ting of an unjust arrest, leav­ing Alice, Beth, Izzy, and the oth­er librar­i­ans in stunned silence. Despite their protests and efforts to dis­cred­it the accu­sa­tions, the sher­iff pro­ceeds with the arrest, cit­ing the dis­cov­ery of a library book near McCullough’s body as damn­ing evi­dence. Margery is hand­cuffed and led out into the street, where towns­peo­ple gath­er in mor­bid curios­i­ty, some whis­per­ing in dis­be­lief, oth­ers eager to accept the accu­sa­tion with­out ques­tion. The moment becomes a stark reminder of how quick­ly a town’s loy­al­ty can shift, espe­cial­ly when prej­u­dice and old feuds cloud the truth.

As Margery is tak­en into cus­tody, the librar­i­ans and her clos­est allies scram­ble to com­pre­hend the sever­i­ty of the sit­u­a­tion and for­mu­late a plan to fight the charges. Van Cleve, ful­ly aware of the town’s deep-seat­ed bias­es, cap­i­tal­izes on the oppor­tu­ni­ty to ensure Margery remains behind bars, manip­u­lat­ing pub­lic opin­ion to serve his own inter­ests. He fuels the community’s hys­te­ria by paint­ing Margery as a cor­rupt­ing influ­ence, rein­forc­ing the idea that her defi­ance of tra­di­tion­al gen­der roles and her inde­pen­dence have final­ly caught up with her. The whis­pers of “the mur­der­ing librar­i­an” spread rapid­ly, deep­en­ing the divide between those who believe in her inno­cence and those eager to see her pun­ished. Mean­while, Alice, Fred, and the oth­er librar­i­ans ral­ly behind Margery, deter­mined to expose the flaws in the accu­sa­tions against her and fight against the oppres­sive forces work­ing to silence her.

Inside the cramped, dim­ly lit jail cell, Margery grap­ples with the crush­ing weight of her predica­ment. The con­di­tions are deplorable, the air thick with the scent of unwashed bod­ies, and the noise of oth­er pris­on­ers pro­vides no solace. Preg­nant and exhaust­ed, she is left to con­tend with the harsh real­i­ty of her cir­cum­stances, the suf­fo­cat­ing iso­la­tion, and the knowl­edge that she is at the mer­cy of a deeply biased sys­tem. Despite the occa­sion­al kind­ness shown by Deputy Dulles, who offers her a blan­ket and a few words of reas­sur­ance, the over­whelm­ing fear of what’s to come gnaws at her resolve. The taunts from fel­low inmates and the dis­mis­sive atti­tude of the guards remind her that, in the eyes of many, she is already guilty, her fate seem­ing­ly sealed before a fair tri­al can even take place.

As night falls over Bai­leyville, the town remains divid­ed, with some qui­et­ly ques­tion­ing the truth while oth­ers rev­el in the scan­dal. Alice and her friends gath­er in hushed urgency, know­ing that prov­ing Margery’s inno­cence will be an uphill bat­tle against a sys­tem that favors men like Van Cleve. Despite the odds, they refuse to aban­don her, vow­ing to uncov­er the truth and fight for the woman who had, for so long, fought for them and the free­dom to read, learn, and exist on their own terms. In the still­ness of the jail, Margery clings to the thought of her unborn child, a frag­ile yet pow­er­ful reminder that she still has some­thing worth fight­ing for. The chap­ter clos­es with a heavy sense of fore­bod­ing, as the bat­tle for jus­tice begins—not just for Margery, but for the very future of the library and the ideals it rep­re­sents in a town on the brink of change.