Mary Lamb and Trev

Mary and Trev’s relationship is defined by an abrupt reversal of apparent companionship into sexual violence, followed by Mary’s self-protective resistance and Trev’s pursuit of revenge. Their first encounter establishes the imbalance between them; the later attack on the Botham home shows that Trev’s grievance has become a continuing threat to Mary.

Initial Encounter and Rupture

Mary first encounters Trev when Sharon calls over Jock and him, making clear that Sharon has brought Mary only so far and is no longer on her side. Trev approaches Mary while Jock accompanies Sharon. The narrative notes that the pairings seem to follow size rather than hair colour: Trev, compact and firm like Mary, walks with her, while Jock and Sharon move together. As they go up a narrow passage, Trev keeps an arm pressed over Mary’s shoulders to prevent her from getting away. When Jock and Sharon move farther into the night, Trev forces Mary against a wall and tries to kiss her. Mary tries to turn her face away, but she does not yet understand what kind of harm he intends.

Mary later recalls the stretched night not as a continuous sequence but in disconnected images. In a dark room, while the others drink and Sharon and Jock are together behind a screen, Trev assaults Mary. She initially cannot understand what he wants or how to respond; after he hits her, she tries to make herself less able to resist, then realizes the assault is continuing. The account presents her confusion as part of the danger: she is trying to interpret what is happening while Trev controls the encounter. When he eventually moves away and falls asleep, Mary remains still for some time, believing he has killed her and fearing that he may do so again.

When Trev begins to wake, Mary decides to act before he can attack her again. She reaches among the rubble on the floor, finds a wedge-shaped brick, and strikes him twice. The action reverses the immediate balance of power: Trev, who had controlled and harmed her, is left incapacitated, while Mary is able to remain alert as Sharon and Jock wake. She sits against the wall and waits. When Jock sees Trev and recognizes that he has been badly struck, Mary begins to apologize and is about to explain what she did and why. Her response is not presented as the end of the danger between them: Trev remembers the assault and her retaliation, and the unresolved conflict later returns as a threat against Mary.

Retaliation and the Renewed Threat

Trev does not treat Mary Lamb’s escape from his assault as the end of their conflict. The memory of what happened, including her resistance, remains with him; his mouth still hurts, and he fixes on retaliation rather than accepting that she was defending herself. He plans to enter the Botham home with Jock, cause harm there, and target Mary in particular. The narration makes the imbalance between the two men clear: Jock has little appetite for the attack and participates because Trev wants him to, while Trev assumes that Jock shares his own determination. His grievance thus turns Mary’s moment of self-protection into the pretext for a continuing threat.

When the men enter, Trev moves toward Mary, but the planned assault is disrupted by the people around her. Jock is stopped by Mrs Botham, and Gavin Botham strikes Trev and sends him back into the passage. Mary remains motionless through the confrontation. The scene does not show the conflict between her and Trev resolved through reconciliation or explanation; instead, his attempt at revenge fails because the household intervenes, leaving their history marked by the original violence and her refusal to remain helpless.

Trev’s Pattern of Violence

The novel places Trev’s attack on Mary within a broader pattern: drink and fighting dominate his life, yet he cannot explain why he repeatedly does harm, and his hatred of strangers is no sufficient account because he also hates people he knows. He routinely starts fights that others finish, while still believing himself a capable fighter; the fights he wins are with women. This pattern makes Mary’s experience more than an isolated quarrel. Trev expects violence against women to affirm his power, and her resistance overturns that expectation. Rather than recognize the boundary he crossed, he treats the reversal as a grievance to avenge. His renewed pursuit of Mary thus reflects a habit of treating aggression as ordinary and opposition as provocation.

Narrative Significance

The relation is shaped by an unsettling reversal: Mary Lamb’s resistance briefly halts Trev’s power over her, but it does not make her safe. The narration carries his remembered grievance forward into the later attack on the Botham home, turning that earlier act of self-preservation into the cause of a renewed danger. Trev’s intention to turn Mary inside out echoes the novel’s recurring language of reversal, but here the image signals his wish to undo her agency and reassert control. The household’s intervention prevents him from carrying out that threat; it does not resolve the underlying conflict. Mary Lamb and Trev therefore remain joined not by mutual attachment but by an unfinished history of violence, in which her refusal to submit is both a decisive act and the pretext he uses to pursue her again.