He makes Bart swear to take revenge on those who did Malcolm wrong. After he recovers, Bart goes to John Amos, who declares that Bart is just like his great-grandfather. While Bart is in the hospital, Jory goes to check on Apple and finds the dog starving. Bart has an accident in the garden and is rushed to the hospital because of blood poisoning, but not before finding Clover’s corpse in the hollow of a tree.
Jory also overhears strange conversations between his parents and knows that they are keeping terrible secrets. Jory’s dog, Clover, goes missing, and Jory suspects Bart of killing him. Corinne reveals that her second husband was named Bart, and that her daughter seduced him. Jory sees a just-arrived oil painting of Corinne in her younger days, and notes that she closely resembles his own mother. Her love of another man led to her to do terrible things to her children. Corrine explains that she once had four children, born of a forbidden relationship. Jory is concerned about all the time Bart is spending at the mansion and goes to confront Grandmother, whose name is revealed to be Corrine. Jory discovers Bart and the puppy, now named Apple, and decides not tell their parents, reasoning that Bart is lonely.
Bart grows anxious about the puppy’s loyalties, worrying that it will prefer someone else to him. He asks Grandmother for a pony, but she buys him a puppy instead.
The baby, Cindy, comes to live with the family through an informal adoption. Chris is opposed to the idea, saying the child should be adopted into more stable circumstances. Cathy, a dance instructor, wants to adopt the infant daughter of one of her students, who is close to death. Grandmother’s butler, John Amos, also takes an interest in Bart, confirming that Bart and the old woman are related and giving Bart a diary that once belonged to Malcolm, Bart’s great-grandfather. Bart and the old woman quickly become close, though she urges him not to tell Cathy of their friendship. Jory goes looking for his brother and encounters the old woman, but distrusts her. When Bart is alone, the old woman invites him into her home, asking him to call her “Grandmother” and plying him with treats. One day, movers arrive at the mansion, and the boys see that the new resident is an old woman dressed all in black. Bart and Jory play near an old, abandoned mansion next door. Both previous husbands died some time before. Cathy has been married twice before, to Jory’s father, Julian, and Bart’s father and Chris’ brother, Paul. Both boys live with their mother, Cathy, and her husband, Chris. Jory, fourteen, is sensitive, artistic, and good-natured, while Bart, nine years old, is odd and prone to jealousy and fits of rage. If There Be Thorns, a sequel to Flowers in the Attic, is told from the perspective of two half-brothers, Jory and Bart.
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