Chapter 7 Summary and Analysis: Key Events and Character Development
⚠️ Spoiler Warning: This guide contains detailed spoilers for the entire novel. Proceed only if you've finished reading or are comfortable knowing the plot.
Summary
The chapter opens late at night with Gwen alone in her chambers, pretending to read while waiting for Arthur. She grows increasingly annoyed as the hours pass. When Arthur finally tumbles through her window, he is drunk, hat filthy, and without Sidney—who was too drunk to make the climb. They exchange bitter words; Gwen tells him to fetch Agnes from the ladies' solar and reminds him they are to attend the joust together first thing in the morning. Arthur gives a sarcastic farewell and leaves.
At breakfast, Gwen is exhausted and barely listening to Gabriel's lecture on market fluctuations. Her mother, the queen, summons her for a private conversation. The queen reveals that Lord Stafford heard from Sir Hurst that Arthur visited Gwen's rooms unaccompanied the night before. Gwen, blushing, insists they were accompanied by servants and only talked by the fire. The queen warns her about propriety—betrothed is not married—and expresses pleasant surprise that Gwen is finally getting along with her future husband. She adds a pointed remark about Gwen having spent years resisting what a future bride ought to be, and Gwen feels something harden in her chest. The queen releases her to the joust, noting that she and the king will not attend.
Arthur is not in the entrance hall. Gwen waits, then stalks out alone, guards scrambling behind her. The arena is wilder and more celebratory without the king present. Gwen takes her usual seat awkwardly, feeling many eyes on her—a discomfort she has never adjusted to, even since childhood. A guard approaches with a lady who claims she received a royal invitation to join Gwen: Lady Bridget Leclair, wearing men's clothes, a shortsword at her hip, her face bruised and lip healing. Gwen realizes Arthur sent the invitation as a prank to vex her, but she cannot turn Bridget away.
They sit together, and Bridget quickly deduces Gwen didn't send the note. Gwen stammers an explanation about an acquaintance trying to vex her, and Bridget asks, in a low, amused voice, what about her is so particularly vexing. Gwen is spared answering by the start of the joust. The first round ends messily—one knight wins without receiving a blow but takes a splinter of wood to the cheek. Bridget comments that it's not much of a victory, and they talk about why she jousts: she likes risk, and it's nice to have a win.
The next match is announced: Sir Woolcott, an enormous man, against Sir Marlin—the man Gwen calls