Chapter VI: The Marriage Plot Goes Public
⚠️ Spoiler Warning: This guide contains detailed spoilers for the entire novel. Proceed only if you've finished reading or are comfortable knowing the plot.
Chapter Summary
The morning after the hot-air balloon outing, Rosina Leung texts Arabella Gresham from her bed at Le Royal Mansour, urging her to check Page Six. Arabella opens the gossip app and finds an item headlined “Martha Dung’s Sky-High Romance.” The article describes Martha, a Chinese heiress, embracing a mysterious young man in a hot-air balloon above Marrakech. The man is identified as Rufus Gresham, Viscount St. Ives—a playboy photographer who was named Tattle’s Most Eligible Bachelor three consecutive years. The piece notes his rumpled tux and calls the pairing a match made in heaven.
Rosina confirms she has been watching the romance blossom and, when Arabella quizzes her, provides details: Martha is Chinese, born in Hong Kong after the Greshams left; her father was from Fujian, her mother a former Hong Kong starlet with a Shanghai accent who only wears Chanel and Akris. Martha’s English is perfect from an Australian education. Crucially, her net worth exceeds everyone on the Sunday Times Rich List.
Despite Arabella’s initial snobbery about “Mainland new money” and the mother’s profession, Rosina insists she stop looking a gift horse in the mouth. The conversation pivots to strategy: Martha is obsessed with royalty and has been in love with Rufus since his infamous photo was published. Rosina instructs Arabella to “roll out the red carpet” and throw a ball at Greshamsbury, inviting every grand Briton. Arabella enthusiastically lists dukes, earls, barons, and celebrities she will summon, though she admits Prince George is “not gettable yet.” Rosina adds one crucial warning: keep Rufus away from Eden Tong to prevent a relapse. Arabella replies, “Leave Eden to me.”
Key Events
- Rosina Leung directs Arabella Gresham to a Page Six gossip item that publicizes Rufus and Martha’s rendezvous.
- The article presents Rufus Gresham as Viscount St. Ives, enhancing his aristocratic allure for the match.
- Arabella questions Martha’s background with a series of prejudiced assumptions about her ethnicity, language, and class.
- Rosina reveals Martha’s colossal fortune, dwarfing all entries on the Sunday Times Rich List.
- The two women plan to invite Martha to Greshamsbury and stage a lavish ball to secure the engagement.
- Rosina identifies Eden Tong as a threat and insists Rufus be kept away from her.
Character Development
- Arabella Gresham: Her texts lay bare a reflexive classism and xenophobia—she instantly brands Martha “so dark,” asks if she is Mongolian, and dismisses “Mainland new money.” Yet the promise of a bailout for the family hotel empire instantly overrides those objections, and she pivots to performative name-dropping of aristocrats.
- Rosina Leung: She emerges as the pragmatic orchestrator of the romance, feeding the gossip press, coaching Arabella through her prejudices, and treating the match as a fait accompli. Her warning about Eden shows she distrusts Arabella’s ability to control her son’s heart.
- Martha Dung: Introduced entirely offstage through Rosina’s description, she is an avatar of new Asian wealth—royal-obsessed, infatuated with Rufus’s public image, and a pawn in a dynastic scheme.
- Rufus Gresham: Though absent from the scene, his tabloid persona as a “lanky lothario” and his previous attachment to Eden are invoked, setting up a collision between arranged advantage and genuine feeling.
Themes, Symbols, or Motifs
- Gossip as power: The Page Six item blurs orchestration and reality, transforming a private encounter into public “truth” that pressures the family into action.
- Aristocratic hypocrisy: Arabella’s scorn for new money vanishes the moment she learns the sum; her morality is purely transactional.
- Racial othering: The exchange is laced with casual racism—Arabella’s fixation on Martha’s skin tone and “Mainland” origins highlights a colonial mindset embedded in her social world.
- Hospitality as theater: Rosina’s demand for a “Full English” and a ball with every grand name turns Greshamsbury into a stage designed to dazzle and entrap a wealthy heiress.
Why This Chapter Matters
Chapter 37 pivots the narrative from a secret romantic experiment in Morocco to an open family campaign back in England. By weaponizing a gossip column, Rosina and Arabella escalate the stakes, forcing the courtship into the public eye. It introduces the central conflict between the engineered match with Martha and Rufus’s unresolved connection to Eden Tong, setting the stage for the return to Greshamsbury. The chapter also deepens the satire of a fading aristocracy willing to trade any scruple for a financial lifeline.
Study Questions and Answers
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What do Arabella’s initial questions about Martha’s ethnicity and background reveal about her character?
Her immediate “so dark,” “Mongolian?” and “Mainland new money” reactions expose a worldview that stratifies people by race, colonial origin, and class. She values pedigree over personhood, yet her prejudices are instantly negotiable when the price is right—a devastating satire of aristocratic morality. -
How does the Page Six article function as both a manipulation and a narrative catalyst?
Rosina likely planted the story, using the media to create a fait accompli that pressures the Greshams. At the same time, the article captures a genuine moment (the balloon embrace), blurring the line between authentic connection and orchestrated performance, and it propels the plot toward a formal courtship. -
Why is keeping Rufus away from Eden Tong immediately critical to the plan?
Rosina sees Eden as a romantic threat who could cause Rufus to “relapse,” implying that his affections are not yet aligned with the scheme. The warning foreshadows that no amount of aristocratic staging can control Rufus’s heart, setting up the novel’s central romantic tension.