Nancy

Nancy is an American journalist drawn into the Banfield story both as a reporter and as a witness to its dangers. Her earlier experience at St. Peter’s Church at Stapley leaves her fearful when the shrine disaster begins; she escapes through the church grounds and misses the catastrophe’s final moments. Afterwards, she presses Gerry Fenn to tell the story to the Washington Post, but his refusal leaves their affection audible across the distance.

Identity and Involvement

Nancy is identified in the aftermath as an American journalist who had been present at Our Lady of Sion Convent during Alice Pagett’s Communion incident. She is therefore connected to the unfolding Banfield story before its final disaster, though the evidence does not establish what she reported about that earlier event.

Her experience at St. Peter’s Church at Stapley shapes her response when the shrine gathering turns dangerous. Still frightened by what happened there, she is among the first to flee once she recognizes that trouble is beginning. The memory is not abstract professional caution: it makes her quick to act when the crowd panics.

Escape from the Shrine

Nancy heads toward the church grounds rather than following the crowd toward the congested exits, anticipating that the routes out will be overwhelmed. She follows a man she takes to be George Southworth, the village hotelier, but loses sight of him in the graveyard. From there she uses the entrance to St. Joseph’s Church as her way out.

That escape saves her from the disaster’s final stage, but it also means she does not witness it. She is relieved to be alive and frustrated that she missed what she calls the “grand slam.” Her reaction holds fear and the journalist’s appetite for a complete account in uneasy balance: she knows why she fled, yet resents having been absent when the story reached its climax.

Reporting and Relationship with Gerry Fenn

After the disaster, Nancy calls Gerry Fenn from the United States. Her bosses want him at the Washington Post and offer him a job on his own terms in exchange for the full story of the shrine. Nancy urges him to accept, then grows angry when he refuses both the offer and the chance to recount what happened. The exchange shows her acting as an intermediary between the story and a major American newspaper, while Fenn chooses not to re-enter the media frenzy.

Their argument ends with Nancy saying, “I love you, you fink,” before hanging up. The line turns professional frustration into a personal declaration: she is angry with Fenn, but the disagreement does not erase her affection for him. Her response to his refusal is both a plea for the story and an intimate rebuke.

Narrative Role

Nancy’s brief but consequential appearances connect the novel’s press coverage to the physical risks surrounding the shrine. She is not simply an outside observer: she has been present at an earlier religious incident, carries fear from St. Peter’s, and must make a decision about escape when the crowd becomes dangerous. Her absence from the finale also marks the limit of what she can report firsthand.

In the aftermath, her offer from the Washington Post shows that the events remain commercially and journalistically compelling even after Fenn withdraws from coverage. Nancy’s mixture of alarm, regret, professional persistence, and affection gives that pursuit a personal dimension without making her an authority on what ultimately happened.