Foxglove

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of gender discrimination and sexual content.

Signa, Blythe, and Byron arrive at Wisteria Gardens, and while Signa feels something uncanny about the place, no one else questions the sudden appearance of the prince and palace. The guests are all amazed by the grandeur of the palace, but the murder scandal has followed the group from Thorn Grove. Signa finds it odd that Julius’s niece, Eliza Wakefield, is at the ball and not in mourning, and that Eliza is often talking with Byron.

Though Blythe is surrounded by people she has known all her life, none address her or ask how she is doing. Less concerned with social propriety and niceties than Signa, Blythe does not care what these people think of her. As Blythe is small and frail from prolonged illness, people tend to underestimate her, which she uses to her advantage. Blythe sneaks from the ballroom and runs into “Prince Aris,” whom she recognizes as the man who accused her father. Though Blythe wants to confront him, she needs Prince Aris to help her father and settles with merely bickering with him. When Blythe mentions her recent illness, he calls her “the girl who defied death” (86) and seems to take an interest in her.