Cleo Fabares: The Steady Heart of The Mirror

Overview

Cleo Fabares is the fiercely loyal, artistically gifted best friend of protagonist Sonya Poole in Nora Roberts’s The Mirror, the second volume of the Lost Bride Trilogy. An artist by trade and a pragmatist by nature, Cleo moves into the ancient, haunted manor on the Maine coast to support Sonya after the ordeal of a broken engagement and the discovery of a two-hundred-year-old curse. More than a sidekick, Cleo functions as the story’s emotional anchor: she performs smudging rituals, cooks comfort food, deflects supernatural attacks with defiant humor, and helps Sonya transform the manor from a house of grief into a home of joy and community.

Plot Role

Cleo’s presence in the manor is established early. In Chapter One, after Sonya sleepwalks to the ballroom and witnesses a murder from 1916, Cleo reveals that she guided Sonya’s trance — not as a passive observer but as an active participant in the battle against the curse. This moment sets the tone for her role: she is not merely a confidante but a co-strategist.

Throughout the novel, Cleo performs practical, grounding tasks. She shops for pot roast, bakes an apple pie using her mother’s recipe, and helps plan the June open-house party (Chapter Two). When Hester Dobbs’s ghost causes doors to slam and cabinets to rattle, Cleo shouts defiance and silences the noise — a pattern she repeats later when she aims her middle finger at the ceiling after hanging the third portrait (Chapter Four). Her defiance is not impulsive; it is a deliberate act of claiming the house for the living.

Cleo’s studio becomes a crucial location for supernatural activity. The mirror appears there (Chapter Twenty-nine), and she and Sonya discover lost portraits of the brides — Lisbeth’s portrait, painted by Collin Poole, is found hidden in Cleo’s closet (Chapter Four). Cleo also paints a mural for Anna’s nursery, a whimsical scene of dragons, fairies, and a castle (Chapter Twenty-nine). This mural symbolizes her belief that joy and creativity can counteract the curse.

In the climactic chapters, Cleo’s support remains constant. She and Sonya sail Cleo’s boat The Siren to celebrate small victories (Chapter Thirty-one). She kisses Owen goodbye before he and Sonya step through the mirror into 1995, trusting him to protect her friend (Chapter Thirty). Cleo’s character arc is less about personal transformation than about deepening her commitment to the mission and to the chosen family she has built.

Motivations and Traits Shown Through Actions

Cleo is motivated by loyalty, love, and a desire to create order out of chaos. She moves into the manor because Sonya needs her — not because she seeks adventure. Her actions reveal:

• Bravery: She stands firm against supernatural attacks, mocking Dobbs with a middle finger and shouting “Up yours” (Chapter Four). She does not flinch when the ghost hurls an apparition from the Gold Room or when Dobbs’s suicide reenactment occurs (Chapter Four, Chapter Three).
• Nurturance: Cooking pot roast and pie (Chapter Two), buying a black cat named Pyewacket (Chapter Seven), planting herbs (Chapter Two) — these acts are deliberate counterweights to the manor’s malevolence. She creates a home.
• Artistic Vision: Her mural for Anna (Chapter Twenty-nine) and her decision to sell paintings at Bay Arts (Chapter Thirty-one) demonstrate that art is both her livelihood and her weapon. She channels creativity as a form of resistance.
• Emotional Intelligence: She intuitively knows when Sonya has had “morning sex” (Chapter Seven) and can read the emotional temperature of the house. She recognizes that Dobbs’s attacks escalate when the group’s happiness grows (Chapter Twenty-four).
• Faith in Community: Cleo believes in “people and fun and light and music” as antidotes to evil (Chapter Four). She encourages Sonya to embrace the manor’s ghosts as part of a larger family.

Chronological Arc

Arrival and First Defence (Prologue – Chapter One)

Cleo moves in with Sonya shortly after the curse is confirmed. She is present during the first mirror trip and reveals she guided Sonya’s trance — establishing that she has her own intuitive connection to the supernatural.

Establishing a Home (Chapters Two – Five)

Cleo cooks, bakes, plans the party, and adopts Pyewacket. She hangs Lisbeth’s portrait with Sonya and defiantly flips off the ghost. She meets Trey’s grandmother Corrine, who praises her (Chapter Four). Her friendship with Sonya is tested and strengthened.

Confrontations (Chapters Six – Eight)

Dobbs retaliates for the portrait hanging with a violent windstorm and pounding on doors. Cleo helps Sonya force the balcony doors closed and then sits with her, steadying both the dog and her friend. She later sells paintings and discusses the curse’s mechanics with Deuce Doyle.

The Middle Peace (Chapters Twenty-one – Twenty-five)

Cleo helps with Christmas shopping and gift-wrapping. She joins Sonya in Boston, where they visit Winter. She paints the nursery mural and sells paintings. During a calm week, she and Sonya garden and sail the Siren.

Final Confrontation (Chapters Twenty-nine – Thirty-one)

Cleo’s studio becomes the gateway for Sonya’s most dangerous mirror trip. She kisses Owen goodbye and waits. After Trey and Sonya return with the revelation about Johanna’s death, Cleo is part of the group that vows to send Dobbs to hell. The novel ends with Cleo’s art likely continuing to fill the manor with light.

Relationships

Sonya Poole

Cleo is Sonya’s primary emotional support. She knows Sonya’s history with Brandon Wise (Chapter Four) and helps her prepare for the Ryder Sports pitch. Their bond is reciprocal: Sonya trusts Cleo with her life, and Cleo trusts Sonya with her art. They are “on the same page” regarding the curse’s resolution (Chapter Two).

Owen Lafayette

Cleo and Owen become a couple over the course of the book. Their relationship is playful — Owen teases her about sexual favors (Chapter Thirty-one), and Cleo challenges him to build outdoor furniture. He is the one who helps Sonya through the mirror, and Cleo’s kiss before that journey (Chapter Thirty) is a moment of trust and vulnerability.

Ghosts

Cleo interacts with the manor’s friendly spirits — Molly lays out dresses for her and Sonya (Chapter Two), and Clover plays music in response to her presence (Chapter Five). She has not seen the ghosts as clearly as Sonya, but she feels them. The evidence suggests Cleo treats them as part of the household: she uses Lisbeth’s platter as a gesture of remembrance (Chapter Two).

Hester Dobbs

Cleo is a direct antagonist to Dobbs. She silences Dobbs’s noise with defiance, does not fear her, and encourages Sonya to fight back. Dobbs seems to target Cleo less than Sonya, perhaps because Cleo lacks the Poole blood that Dobbs needs to steal the rings.

Key Decisions and Consequences

Theme and Symbol Connections

Cleo embodies several of the novel’s central themes:

• Resilience and Defiance: Her middle-finger gesture and shouted profanity are symbols of refusing to submit to terror. See our theme page on resilience and defiance.
• Love and Community: Cleo builds relationships with Owen, Trey, Winter, and the townspeople. She ensures that the manor is not isolated but open to connection. Visit love and community.
• Power of Memory and Witness: By painting portraits of the brides and creating the mural, Cleo acts as a witness to the past and a creator of new memories. Read more on memory and witness.
• Family Secrets and Legacy: Cleo’s own family recipes (the pie) and her role in uncovering hidden portraits tie her to the theme of family secrets and legacy.

Five Book-Specific Questions and Answers

1. Why does Cleo choose to move into the manor?
   Answer: Cleo moves in because she is Sonya’s best friend and recognizes that Sonya needs a steady emotional anchor against the haunting. She is not drawn by the supernatural but by loyalty. The novel shows her unpacking and making the space her own from the first chapters.

2. How does Cleo’s art function as both a livelihood and a weapon?
   Answer: Her art sells through Bay Arts (Chapter Thirty-one), supporting her financially. Thematically, her mural for Anna’s nursery and her paintings of the manor’s ghostly beauty counteract the curse’s darkness. In the text, Cleo states that “people and fun and light and music” counteract evil — art is the vehicle for that light.

3. What is the significance of Cleo guiding Sonya’s trance in Chapter One?
   Answer: It reveals that Cleo has her own intuitive spiritual sensitivity, though it is less pronounced than Sonya’s. It also establishes that Cleo is not merely a bystander; she actively shapes the mission to break the curse. This moment is explicitly described in the outline: “Cleo reveals she guided Sonya’s trance.”

4. Does Cleo ever see any of the ghosts directly?
   Answer: The evidence suggests Cleo senses the ghosts and communicates with them through music and objects, but she has not seen them as vividly as Sonya has. For example, Clover plays songs in response to her words, and Cleo feels the ghostly approval of Molly’s dress choices. The novel implies that her connection is emotional and auditory rather than visual.

5. How does Cleo’s relationship with Owen contribute to the story’s theme of community?
   Answer: Cleo and Owen’s romance demonstrates that love can flourish even in a haunted environment. Their playful banter (Owen building chairs in exchange for “sexual favors,” Chapter Thirty-one) lightens the tone and reinforces that the manor is a place for living, full relationships. Owen’s trust in Cleo (kissing her before stepping through the mirror) deepens the sense of chosen family that the novel champions.