Chapter 7: Beatrice — Summary, Analysis, and Key Moments

⚠️ 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 inside a dream. Beatrice is in bed with Connor, reliving what was once their private morning routine — Connor sneaking into her room, Beatrice pulling him back under the covers. Even in the dream, she acknowledges the impossibility of their relationship, but she's chosen to savor the present rather than worry about the future. The dream dissolves when Connor murmurs that everyone needs her, and Beatrice wakes to harsh fluorescent lights.

She's in a hospital. Samantha sits beside her, looking disheveled and emotional. Dr. Jacobs, who has been managing her care at St. Stephen's, explains that Beatrice was in a car accident. The Revere Guard driving her, Shane Bartlett, died on impact. Beatrice's first fear is that Connor was in the car, and her relief when she learns otherwise is so intense she gasps.

The doctors run basic tests. Teddy Eaton arrives, visibly overcome with emotion, and embraces Beatrice, kissing her brow. His warmth and familiarity confuse her — she doesn't understand why he's acting so intimate. Sam and Teddy exchange easy, playful banter, which strikes Beatrice as odd given that she remembers Sam once having a crush on Teddy.

Sam presses Beatrice about what she remembers. Beatrice recalls the League of Kings conference as if it happened years ago, and she has no memory of a planned wedding to Teddy. Teddy realizes she's lost weeks; Sam suspects more. When Beatrice asks for her parents, Teddy gently tells her that her father died of cancer. She's been unconscious for a month. And because her father is gone, she is now queen.

Sam then delivers another blow: Beatrice and Connor ended their relationship, and Beatrice herself told Sam about it. Beatrice refuses to believe this, calls Sam a liar, and Sam leaves.

Alone, Beatrice retrieves her personal effects. Among her belongings she finds a diamond engagement ring and a heavy signet ring — the monarch's ring she remembers on her father's finger. Her phone's home screen shows a photo of her and Teddy laughing together, a selfie she doesn't remember taking. The calendar reveals the date: November 15. She has lost nearly a year of her life.

She tries to call Connor. His number is disconnected. With nowhere left to turn, Beatrice finally lets her composure crack and cries.

Key Events

Beatrice wakes from a coma after a car accident, with Samantha at her bedside.
Dr. Jacobs reports that the Revere Guard driver, Shane Bartlett, died on impact.
Beatrice initially fears Connor was in the car; her relief is immediate and visceral.
Teddy Eaton arrives and embraces her with an intimacy that bewilders her.
Beatrice cannot recall the League of Kings conference or her planned wedding to Teddy.
She learns her father died of cancer while she was unconscious — she is now queen.
Sam reveals that Beatrice and Connor ended their relationship, and that Beatrice had confided in her.
Beatrice finds an engagement ring and the monarch's signet ring among her belongings.
Her phone shows a photo of her and Teddy she doesn't remember taking; the date is November 15.
She discovers she's lost nearly a year of memory.
Connor's number is disconnected; Beatrice breaks down crying.

Character Development

Beatrice is the emotional center of this chapter, and her arc here is defined by the collision between who she was and who she has become. The dream sequence establishes her former self — a woman in a secret, doomed relationship with Connor, choosing present happiness over future security. Waking up, she's stripped of that identity. She's no longer the princess who could afford to make impulsive romantic choices; she's a queen who has lost a year of her life and the man she loved. Her instinct to control every situation is tested brutally — she can't control her memory, her grief, or the news of Connor's disappearance. Her emotional restraint, a defining trait, is shown as both strength and burden: she holds back her grief because she needs space to process it alone, but that restraint ultimately fails her, and she cries.

Samantha appears in an unfamiliar role: the responsible one. She's been at Beatrice's bedside, she's the one who insists on staying during the examination, and she's the one who delivers the hardest truths — about Connor, about their father, about Beatrice's new title. Her disheveled appearance and the comment about her hair suggest she's been neglecting herself while caring for her sister. The chapter also hints at a changed dynamic between the sisters: Sam knows things about Beatrice's life that Beatrice never intended to share.

Teddy is devoted and gentle, but his presence is also a source of confusion for Beatrice. He's been at the hospital nearly every moment, he embraces her without hesitation, and he's the one who breaks the news about her father. His tenderness is genuine, but it underscores how much Beatrice has lost — she can't remember the relationship that apparently developed between them.

Themes, Symbols, or Motifs

Memory loss and lost time dominate the chapter. Beatrice's mind is described as porous, her memories like droplets she can't separate. The calendar date — November 15 — is the concrete symbol of what she's lost: nearly a year of her life, including her father's final months, the end of her relationship with Connor, and the beginning of something with Teddy.

Grief is layered throughout. Beatrice must process her father's death as if it just happened, even though a month has passed. She's grieving twice — once for the loss itself, and once for the time she'll never get back with him.

Duty versus desire is embodied in the contrast between the dream (Connor, private, forbidden) and the waking world (Teddy, public, sanctioned). Beatrice's old life was defined by choosing desire in secret; her new life as queen demands duty above all.

Identity transformation is literal here: Beatrice wakes up as someone else. She's no longer Princess Royal but queen, and she carries the monarch's signet ring as proof. The ring is a symbol of the role she never asked for and isn't ready for.

Loss of control is the chapter's undercurrent. Beatrice has always lived by logic and reason, but she can't reason her way out of amnesia, grief, or a disconnected phone number.

Emotional restraint is shown as both a coping mechanism and a failing. Beatrice holds her emotions on a very tight leash throughout the chapter, but the leash snaps when she's alone.

Sibling bonds are tested and redefined. Sam is the one person who stays, who tells Beatrice the truth, and who Beatrice ultimately rejects — calling her a liar. The chapter leaves their relationship in a fragile place.

Why This Chapter Matters

This is a hinge chapter for the entire novel. Beatrice's accident and memory loss reset the story's emotional and political landscape. She wakes up as queen, a role she never anticipated assuming so soon, and she's lost the man she loved without understanding why. The chapter establishes the central mysteries that will drive the narrative forward: What happened during the missing year? Why did Beatrice and Connor end things? What is her relationship with Teddy now? And can she rule a kingdom while grieving a father she never got to say goodbye to?

The chapter also deepens the novel's exploration of what it means to be royal — the way duty can erase personal identity, and the way grief must be managed publicly even when it's privately unbearable.

Study Questions and Answers

1. Why does Beatrice's reaction to Shane Bartlett's death reveal more about her state of mind than she intends?

Beatrice's immediate fear is that Connor was in the car with her. When she learns the driver was Shane Bartlett, her relief is so acute she gasps aloud. This reaction reveals that Connor is still the person she thinks about first in a crisis — even though, as Sam later tells her, their relationship ended. It also shows that Beatrice's memory loss hasn't erased her feelings; it's only erased the events that changed them.

2. How does the chapter use objects to dramatize Beatrice's loss of identity?

The chapter uses three objects to show how much Beatrice has lost. The engagement ring from Teddy signals a relationship she doesn't remember. The monarch's signet ring — which she remembers on her father's finger — marks her new role as queen, a role she never expected to assume so soon. And the photo on her phone, a selfie of her and Teddy laughing, is a picture of a person she doesn't recognize as herself. Each object is a physical reminder that her life has moved on without her.

3. What does Beatrice's reaction to Sam's news about Connor suggest about her relationship with her sister?

Beatrice refuses to believe Sam, calling her a liar and pressing her hands over her ears. This reaction suggests several things: that Beatrice never intended to share anything about Connor with Sam, that she doesn't trust Sam's reliability, and that the sisters' relationship is more distant than Sam's bedside presence might suggest. It also sets up tension for the rest of the novel — Sam knows secrets about Beatrice's missing year, but Beatrice isn't ready to hear them.