The McBride family’s barn is a frequent motif throughout the novel and functions as a symbol of protection and refuge. Even before Annabelle hides Toby there, the barn is where members of the McBride family can go to be alone. It is where John naps after farm work, where kittens and hatchlings begin their lives, and where Annabelle longs to escape “with a book and an apple” (1). The barn’s numerous stalls and storerooms are nurturing spaces where tender forms of life, like “fresh and soft kittens” or people at their most vulnerable can heal and thrive (112). Although Annabelle would like to treat herself as one of the vulnerable and hide in the barn too, she knows that her responsibility is to be out in the world and toil for good.

Instead, Toby who has been out wandering in the world, should have the barn’s protection. There, in the safe space of the storerooms, he recovers enough to trust Annabelle and to tell her about what happened to him. However, he is aware that hiding in the McBride’s barn is not a permanent solution, and he too will have to emerge and face the full force of society’s hatred towards him.