The Scottish Chiefs

[meltintall3]

 

For those of you who were wondering if my memory of The Scottish Chiefs by Jane Porter as 'stabbings and secret passages!' was accurate... well, I did a reread, with Wikipedia open in a browser tab pretty much the whole time. :p

Buckle up! This got long, but not as long as the novel... (And there are some, hmm, shifts of opinion as I go so that's fun too!)

 

We begin by noting that our author lived from 1775 to 1850!

"...purchasing life at the price of all that makes life estimable--liberty and honor." --*squints at the dates* see also, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness?? *checks Wikipedia* Ah, she IS Scottish, and not an American writer... Wait, abridged versions were popular with children... which one did I read?? Which one am I reading now???!

*switches to a scan of an 1857 edition*

"...the spirit of one brave man remained unsubdued." --Smol!Mel is making heart eyes already.

He's living in seclusion! He loves his wife! Her name is Marion!! This is peak Romance, y'all! And we're only on the second page. ;))

Hmm, I don't remember this Monteith guy as a fave, so he might be brave and true and all that but if I were an English captain at the castle _I_ would find the silence of the friends and the motions for more silence Highly Suspicious, and so I am come to the conclusion that Monteith is not the brightest guy in the conspiracy. Which has yet to be revealed to Our Hero.

Oooh, I remember this Pandora's box--wait. Wait! Wallace is steadfast in "I agreed to hold it unopened." There is no if, and, but, or. Is this an early example of the type of character who "If I found it on the road would not take it"?!

"...no time must now be lost in unavailing lamentation." --We've already spent more time mourning the murder than doing anything at all to prevent it!! *grumbles in furious reader* By modern conventions, we would have spent a lot more time assuring the audience the violence was an unexpected anomaly and that no one in the household was able to intervene. OR there would have been a much more convoluted explanation for remaining behind to face a known danger.

...oh, to be as blasé as Lord Mar after his adventure in the well. XD

zootopia_bloodbloodblood.gif -- So. That happened. o_O

Enter Lady Mar, asking reasonable questions and being framed by the narrative as ungrateful and unfeeling. Cruel world for a woman who just wants assurance her husband has looked two, maybe three steps ahead before hazarding his life and hers. :(

Enter Helen! Enter Andrew Murray! Beloveds of Smol!Mel! And the banner, which Helen worked with her own sweet hands! *heart eyes intensify*

"If I have no influence with a husband, it would be madness to expect it over a more distant kindred." --petition to see the version of the story where cooler heads (aka Lady Joanna Mar) prevail and are allowed to strategize before setting off to save Scotland. She's not just saying her husband shouldn't go, she's trying to find a way he could conceivably win! And he hasn't done her the courtesy of listening to what she has to say, and Helen, all fired up with dreams of the supremacy of a just cause and also glory, isn't really listening either. :(

Secret tunnel!! Coolest escape route ever!! (Though, uh, one does begin to wonder why anyone bothers with a castle when they are so easy to over-run... And was it not mere pages ago that Lord Mar was saying he could hold this castle indefinitely? XD )

...what's better than a secret tunnel? TWO secret tunnels!!!

Oh, sure, when a MAN expresses discontent with the idea of an uprising it turns into a dialogue, but when I, Lady Joanna Mar--

"The forebearance of tyrants is not that of mercy, but of convenience." -- !!

Ah. I'd forgotten Lady Mar's treachery and the kidnapping of Helen. :( :/ I suppose this helps explain why Lady Mar was not ranked among smol!Mel's favorites... :( (Though if the other major plot involving this lady goes as I recall, smol!Mel was in the right.)

(stabbings to date: A LOT. I should have started a chicken scratch tally. I think Helen vs Soulis is at least number eight. :/ )

WHY did you break camp when a storm was about to break?? Why did you keep going??? Why? You didn't even pose dramatically! *crosses arms* You're going to lose your captive if you keep this up, you know.

o_O HOW does the guy who has just been stabbed TWICE survive whereas the poor woman he SLAPS expires on the spot???

The opening descriptions in "The Glen of Stones" are <3 <3 <3. Stop the book, I'm staying in this moment.

Oooh, I KNOW Smol!Mel entirely missed the significance of visiting the former abbot of Scone. *squeaks in excited reader* The abbot of Scone!! The pillar of Jacob, where the kings are crowned! iunderstoodthatreference.jpg vs the previous allusion to the Bard of Morven and Oscar which I am going off to look up...

...Okay, so this seems to map to Ossian, (presumably no surprise that there's a shrine to him at the Hermitage* which is where this bit of story happens??) who seems to have been Very Popular in the early 1800s. Further research is required, as well as sticking some pins in a map to see who did what where**... But! Oscar seems to have been Ossian's son; as well as the namesake of the contemporary Prince of Sweden.

*LATER: Not that Hermitage, interesting as it is, but this Hermitage--the second one is indeed far more foreboding

**ALSO LATER: no pins were stuck in a map, so my geographical sense remains nonexistent

*squishes the characters' cheeks* Look at you, all noble and generous, NOT PRYING, not asking simple questions like, oh, "What's your name?" XD XD XD (I mean, sure, if you're going to keep your identity a secret, Helen, it's only right you not ask the knight _his_ but once you tell him your father is Lord Mar _you should probably ask the man_. Y'know, something polite like, "Whom shall I commend to heaven for his efforts on my father's behalf?" XD ) (I am EAGERLY awaiting an explanation for the "he is besieged! no he's not, he's across(?) the country!" plot we've got going here...) (I also think I should maybe have a serious thought about Helen saying, "Don't tell my cousin!" but it is framed as "I'm fine, I don't want him to do anything rash," rather than shame...but still... :/ )

Y'know what would have been really fun? If the abbot had included Margaret, Maid of Norway in his history lesson... (Meanwhile Smol!Mel has heart eyes for Robert Bruce...) And the philosophy of freedom _still_ sounds like an echo of the American Founding Fathers, though I can't say if it's a direct echo or a bounce-back from current interpretations.

"Till he reveals his own secret, for us to divulge it would be folly and dishonor." --Folly indeed since I am operating under the assumption that the characters are wrong about who the knight is but I just don't know if that's a memory or if I'm guessing too. XD

Anyway! We've made it through the first sixth of the book! There have been stabbings! Hidden doors! Secret passages! Two thunderstorms! Kidnapping! Escape! A proto-Faramir! Can this possibly get any more exciting???

What's this? A funeral procession?! *squeals in excited reader* I remember this ruse from Ivanhoe!!! C'mon, what's his name, what's his naaaaaaame...!! IT IS! Edwin my beloved!!!! My faaaaaave!!! I had forgotten you made such a magnificent entrance. <3 <3 <3 (Also, can it be? Talk of actual strategy? Will wonders never cease?)

Already there are murmurs of, "Wallace for king," and he's shaking his head and not allowing the standard to dip. *flails* Also, babies. (Including Edwin, who just wants the honor of calling Wallace 'brother'--!!)

"Generous Kirkpatrick! ...Say what you will I can trust your heart from this moment." --This sounds like a _terrible_ idea. Remember your Spidey senses having you call Edwin away from this guy only this morning? Remember that?? That was a much better plan!

How does Kirkpatrick get taken prisoner twice in the same sortee? Does he go, "...I surrender! Oh, NEVERMIND!! ...no, no, really, I surrender?" o_O Honestly, when he says his friends had to hold him back after the governor insulted him--I don't think they had to try very hard. I think he's a braggart and a bully and is going to be A Problem. :/ Why does this guy get plot armor?? Why can't he just get conveniently stabbed?? Whhhhhhhhy?

...annnnnnnnnd Lady Mar is starstruck. :/ (All the characters are like, "Hurrah! A victory!" and I'm over here going, "Oh, you got trouble, right here in River City..." on at least a couple of different plot threads. :p )

*grits teeth all the way through Lady Mar's machinations* (Also, the death of _her_ infant daughter merits only a sentence--and only from her? Rude. In some ways it's no wonder she's acting out. :( ) (And, granted, Edwin and the cousins are no less obsessive, they just happen to channel their obsession a _little_ more...constructively... :/ )

"...beating their whelming waters with his invincible arm, soon gained the vessel and jumped on the deck." --Unfortunately for the Dramatic Atmosphere of the scene I am sniggering at this description. :p (But also, look! An occurrence of 'whelming' on its own! In its natural habitat so to speak! They're so rare these days. ^_^ ) (And I'll make a kind notation on the fact that the first thing they did on reaching safety was return thanks to God. Also a rare occurrence in fiction these days.) (Actually I'm going to come back to this sequence... Our pastor is going through Proverbs and talking about the power of the tongue, and I thought about how Wallace gets paragraphs dedicated to his efforts, and how great he is, and Lord Mar gets _a sentence_ about how his knowledge of the shoreline keeps them alive. And given that this section we're more-or-less in Lady Mar's POV, this unbalance kind of makes sense, but also--WHAT IF SHE WERE TALKING UP HER HUSBAND INSTEAD? :( )

Oh look. It's Monteith. He's a musician? of some skill? (guess he's got to be good at something) and has, somehow, survived the massacre at Ayr. *remains unimpressed by the fellow*

And we end the first third of the book with the English king's son-in-law vowing not to return to Scotland except in peace. Things are looking up for our heroes? Except for all these incidents of retribution that keep happening?

Wait. Is Isabella only Helen's half-sister? And Lady Mar is the third wife?? (This is the second reference to a character I DO NOT REMEMBER so I don't know if we just keep getting offhand mentions of her, or if she ends up being Plot Relevant at some point... XD )

Lord Mar, damsel in distress. Again. SOMEONE LET THE MAN REST AND HEAL FROM BEING STABBED ON PAGE THREE. And yet, plot armor continues to keep his head attached to his shoulders when other folks just get theirs whacked off not twenty minutes after chatting with some other character...

((I finally pulled out my childhood copy and discovered it was edited by no less august personages than Kate Douglas Wiggen and her sister. They call out the original publication date in the forward but this clearly made no impression on Smol!Mel. My suspicion was correct; one of the things removed was an aside calling Soulis out as a supposed necromancer. Again, very different from modern novels where that would _not_ be the very worst thing you could possibly say about someone; and if you _did_ it would work back in to the plot in some horrifying or heroic fashion. My quick skim says the ladies did an excellent job of trimming extra verbiage and preserving the spirit of the tale--but I would argue they didn't have to cut as many footnotes as they did.))

Edwin has been stabbed while saving Wallace's life, alack, alas! (Tis but a scratch, he's probably fine. <_< ) Meanwhile, de Valance pulls a Kirkpatrick and snatches his life from an earned death in fair combat by begging a mercy he himself would not offer. Twice. But at least he's sticking to once a battle. (Do we still write these moments where mercy triumphs over justice and vengeance? Or do we stick to the safer exchange of swords between two honorable opponents? I'm drawing a blank, though I think I could come up with someone getting stabbed in the back by a treacherous opponent?)

...Lord Mar is Not Having A Good Day. To be fair, neither is anyone else at Stirling, but... :/ (Kirkpatrick is probably frothing at the mouth at the latest power plays by his arch-nemesis, Cressingham, but there is a certain satisfaction in knowing that de Valance is worth something as a counter hostage, even if it's primarily because Cressingham doesn't want to deal with the fall out back home!! Who cares if the Scots break the wall and kill us all in revenge, I can't bear the thought of surviving and being shunned... XD )

Secret tunnel!

...and Kirkpatrick horrifies the nice young earl who came to surrender; and no wonder as he's been exalting in his revenge. Will Kirkpatrick now recall his promise and settle down? Will he continue to be the problem child in the rebellion?? We just don't know. Meanwhile the English commanders surrender; the prisoners are saved, and we start drawing a web of who is in love with whom... I'm over here going !!! at the coming reveal of our "mystery knight" as well as Helen heaping coals of fire on her step-mother's head... *bites nails in distress* There is A LOT going on here and a lot of people are about to get some unpleasant surprises. :/

...contrast the reaction of the cousins to that of Lady Mar who is _still_ scheming. :/ something something self-control, fixing one's mind not on earthly things but on those above, true nobility, etc... There is very little subtlety here with the themes. XD

"After having displayed their efficiency in making a king, they would prove their independence by striving to pull him down the moment he made them feel his scepter." -- !!!! (This speech!! It and the imagery in this scene make me think of George Washington and I wish I knew if it were intentional!!) (Also can we pause to consider if the mystery knight HAD been nobility... o_O )

Oh? Interesting that Helen chooses cousin Edwin to be her proxy in looking after Wallace, though it could be argued the kid has already taken the role on so nobody will notice the difference... XD

Buchan? Huntingtower?! (In Scotland? It's more likely than you think. XD *laughs at self*)

I keep hoping that the classical allusion to Lady Mar will be "Potifar's wife"... She continues to be an example of a powerful and influential woman only she's using these gifts for silly and selfish reasons! As a modern reader I would love to see, say, Lady Ruthven shown as her foil--performing similar acts but _in support of her husband and the cause_ instead of just Helen rationalizing the letter that led to Helen's kidnapping as a misguided effort to save the family... [something something role of women + evil stepmother... but I don't have a coherent thought yet]

And the web spins wider; again a fascinating look at how conventions have changed, a more modern author would have shown the bulk of the de Valance's musings as they occurred instead of holding back until this point in the story. However...it is more about the impact this is going to have on the returning Wallace than anything else, so...

Smol!Mel is _still_ screaming about the return to the banquet hall after the double stabbing in the chapel. ICONIC. UNPARALLELED.

(Halfway mark.)

These provisions for individual liberties! The army being set to rebuild villages! Jane, Jane, I'm begging you, _who were you reading?_ and WHY have we not mentioned that Edward is, like, the brother-in-law of the previous king?? Did you feel his claim to an interest in Scotland so tenuous as to not merit a mention? Because otherwise family ties are super important to you--Lord Arundel derives merit from _his_ brother-in-law... And then there is the Mar/Murray/Ruthven + whatever Lady Mar has going on with her kin...

Okay, so the English church, unsurprisingly, is not a fan of Wallace, but how does the Scottish church feel about the declaration of this English bishop?? Are they all, like the Abbot of Scone, just out somewhere in the wilderness?? I don't know my church history well enough to say if we're seeing contemporary-to-the-1800s ideas about faith on display or if this was what they thought the church looked like 400 years prior...

"...proud folly in a woman, otherwise of shrewd understanding..." -- Ha! Textual confirmation of Lady Mar's abilities as well as the narrative calling her on her actions

Oh no. I'm going to have to actually think about relative ages. :/ OK. So Lord Mar's age was eventually given as 60. Lady Mar was introduced as a "well-preserved" early 30s mother of infant twins. Helen, daughter of the first wife, can't be more than 25 and might still be under 20 (come to think of it, Soulis is supposed to have offered for her hand when she was 14 and it can't be too many years later unless they were visiting the English court at the time??). Compare Wallace, early 30s, married to his childhood sweetheart and expecting his first child, universally remarked on as a youthful commander (though older than some of his lieutenants who seem to be drawn from his contemporaries). Lord Mar has a (presumably younger) sister with a fifteen-year-old son. These data points make having your first kid in your thirties sound normal which makes the jab of "well-preserved" an uncalled-for insult because the English governor wanted to hand Marion out as a prize and _they should be roughly contemporary_!! ...where was I going with this? XD somewhere about how Lady Mar can quit whining about her age but also the narrative is unkind to her? OH! There it is, she says she was quite a child when she married Lord Mar. WELL. There's also Isabella who is younger than Helen and they can't have been married longer than Isabella is old...and she's 15? depends on how old Helen actually is? Lady Mar may have a valid point but also shouldn't her kids be older as well?

I've been side-eying the famine/plenty flourishes since it took what seemed like three days to render a settlement, on their own grounds and presumably thrifty, starving by the addition of _one_ outlaw. And now, even with the English plunder, we ought to be looking at tight belts nationwide if there was no Scottish harvest??

How is this unstinting adulation not going to our hero's head? O_o On one hand it's kind of sweet and on the other it is very much Too Much.

But wait. Be there foreshadowings of Doom as we await Edward and his armies? :o (Oh hey! Finally!! We acknowledge kinship between Alexander and Edward! And we keep going because it's barely an aside! Now granted, I myself only thought of this over halfway through, but shouldn't it have come up in the first discussion of how Baloil ended up on the throne??)

Oh ho ho, we have Lady Mar backstory!! And ages! Lord Mar had one previous wife, so Helen and the still-off-page Isabella _are_ full sisters and Helen is only two years older than Isabella. Our current Lady Mar was nineteen when she married (and seems to have conveniently forgotten the ultimatum "I shall _die_ if I marry anyone else!" she gave her father when he suggested a different alliance :p ) which means... 32-19=13...she married a guy who was 47... and Helen is...only 15. :/ I was going to say 16 but talked myself into guessing more so yay for me? But if Soulis with the marriage-proposal-at 14 wasn't SUPER sketchy (and he IS/(was? I can't recall off-hand if he's been permanently removed from the active cast which would argue he's lurking somewhere to show up again)), than our over-dramatic Joanna has been showered with all good things and refuses to recognize it. (This _still_ puts Joanna and Marion at having their first kids in their 30s...) (And I love how Joanna's cousin is like, "I have pointed out that your proposed course of action is invalid on these various points" and when she nods at the appropriate places congratulates himself on a job well done. Meanwhile _all_ his cousins are like, "We reject this reasonable view of our various pet projects and will trouble you no more." :p )

(Oh and there's a conspiracy going on! Because we can't have nice things!)

"He will not be called a king; because, with our crown certain limitations are placed on the prerogative; but he will be our regent, that he may be our dictator, and every day demand gratitude for voluntary services, which, performed as a king, could only be considered as his duty!" -- an interesting perspective from the conspiracy

No! Not a Bruce in Edward's lines! :o :o :o

The wood! The wood! The end of the world!

...And we take a dire turn toward tragedy. Or perhaps, we made that turn at the beginning of the battle, and we have now plunged into the Valley of the Shadow of Death. :/

(Smol!Mel is agog over the feat of sword-splintering)(and also Concerned over Helen's current whereabouts if even the Bruce are held prisoners at the moment...)

"Aunt! He has a Divine Master, whose example he follows, though in deep humility! He lays down his power; it is not taken from him." -- !!!!!!!!!!!!

"I pity you now, aunt," replied he. "But you bewilder me. ...Surely, love comes not in a whirlwind, to seize the soul at once; but grows by degrees, according to the development of the virtues of the object, and the freedom we give ourselves in the contemplation:--and if it be virtue that you love in Sir William Wallace, had you not virtue in your noble husband?" -- Edwin gets some of the best speeches AND a scathing commentary on the adultery trope. <3 <3 <3 ("Listen up, kids. Infidelity is NOT love." -- Jane Porter, circa 1809, modern paraphrase)

Oh? We get to enter the court of the king of England in disguise? In hopes of rescuing Helen? And meet up with a certain _royal_ prisoner? *delighted reader*

A SECRET PASSAGE?! <3

O_o Rabid jealousy is not a good look for a king. Neither is the notion that he cannot discern the character of the men who brought the accusation and go, "...nah, I think I'll take my wife and sister at their word." :( (On the other hand, he accepts the word of his bitter enemy? Shades of Saul and David in the cave, perhaps??)(Also, much as it pains me to say it, my Not-Fave Monteith might be better at the whole 'Act Natural' shtick than the prince-in-mourning-and-under-arrest...and Monteith was _really really bad_. XD But at least _he_ erred on the side of keeping his mouth shut. XD )

Murdering pirates is good. :p As is the wardrobe and equippage upgrade. :p (Smol!Mel would like to protest that the Idea of a Knight on an Arabian steed is the stuff of a thousand doodles, and...I can not argue on that point. :p)

Thunderstorm! A stricken traveller! A CHANCE MEETING!!!!!!!! *flails* Who could have seen it coming!!!!! (Although, again, I have some serious concerns about the weather forecasting abilities of ANYONE involved in a thunderstorm scene. *shakes head* Like, y'all could at least NOT be surprised. Or at least pretend you thought the storm would miss you! XD )

"I will decide" -- a bit arrogant, yeah? considering you had _just_ been urged to let God make you a king like Solomon instead of desiring glory on the battlefield? under these circumstances you claim there is an actual choice to make??

"If to be beloved is a source of joy, you must be peculiarly blessed" -- I can't decide if this is a wonderful compliment to give someone or if it's just an odd way of saying that person has a lot of good friends

Oh, so now it's laudable for the prince to take the field?? What happened to that fine speech about Solomon? (Also these castles switch hands at the drop of a hat... No siege warfare here...)

"Beware, then, my dear prince, of changing the simple habits of the simple habits of those virtuous mountaineers. Introduce the luxurious cultivation of France... [and] you will infect them with artificial wants..." -- On one hand I am all in favor of living content with what you have, but on the other is it not Biblical to flourish??

((somewhere in here the lovely and mysterious Isabella makes a brief cameo))

*eyes the Knight of the Green Plume with _deep_ suspicion* *is proved correct mere pages later* :/ You could have been great, Joanna... :(

'Tis but a mild stabbing, a mere physical wound, compared to the jealous power of the tongue. XD

(I complain there are no sieges, and we get one the very next moment! XD )

(This impersonating a pirate/reclaiming the kingdom business has been so engaging I missed the three-quarter mark; we are rapidly approaching the final sixth of the book. !! )

"Never while I live, will I consent to loose sight of you again!" -- Edwin!! Don't _say_ that!!

Oh hai, Kirkpatrick, is it you again? And is it your earlier bloody revenge that the false lords are using as an excuse to ignore you? Imagine that. :( (On one hand I find myself fond of Kirkpatrick: he's blunt and loyal, despite his savagery; he gets a few good zingers in, he's almost a loveable bear of a man. But first impressions hold strong, he has shown himself unchivalrous to his enemies, and it seems thematically sound to find him a bent reed in the end, foiled in his good intentions by his own unbridled passions. :/ )

Not me, a jaded reader who has seen betrayal many times before, making the surprised pikachu face during the trial...

And also look how FAST things fall apart. o_O *benoitblanc-compelsmethough.jpg*

Oh, it was de Valance who kidnapped Helen recently, not de Warren! I was confused there for a bit, thinking his passion easily enough forgotten when presented with... hmm... Other Opportunities. >_> That said, Edward's response of, "Why not get married tonight!" when presented with Joanna's scheme to Make Everyone Sorry is kind of hilarious. :p (I suppose the king believed the scheme advantageous and wanted to be certain neither de Warren or Joanna backed out, but there was zero hesitation there on Edward's part---not even a consideration of a potential double cross...)

...Mr. Wyeth, illustrator, sir; I believe the scene with the seer is at night, not in the afternoon.

Yeeesh, yet another victory for Wallace and now folks are all going, "eh, Edward would make an okay king after all..." ?!?

...while Edward sincerely?? suggests, "How about Ireland? Could you stop destroying my fabulous armies if I give you Ireland??"

*flails all over Wallace's speech to the English heralds* there is Christ-figure imagery invoked here and I am not skilled enough to comment coherently

RIP Ker, a man of great loyalty and few words... If only you'd been given a smidgen more character I would have adored you too

*yowls in distressed reader over the parting of friends and the exile's journey* again with the imagery and the symbolism on the tip of my tongue... It's evocative and effective... And then the visit to the ruined house and mourning the loss of his wife anew... sadkitten.jpg

Mmmmm...more symmetry since Monteith is back. (And do _I_ know what happened to his box? Did we leave it with a churchman in this area?? Not that he's asked for it, but if it's important and the guy to whom it was entrusted is now _persona non grata_... :/ )

Oooh, our first sprained ankle... Hey, what's this??! "Monteith nodded the same, and closed the door on his victims" --hmm, no, don't like the way that sentence ends... o_O

"Ill-deeds must sometimes be done; but we do not emblazon their perpetrators" -- even Edward has standards, I see... :/ (now, a modern author would be a bit more persnickety about timelines here because we seem to suddenly be moving a great many pieces in a very short time... :/ )

Oooooh, I KNEW that was going to go down... :(

Race against time, check. Resumed disguise, check. Pawning jewels, check. End game Romance is...??? (As a modern reader I do not know what to make of that speech or the obviously convoluted explanation of Why This Is Okay. XD I just... I don't know what to do with this. XD ;)) UM. Make that... Marriage of Convenience?? ? ??? )

Bruce is _still_ Really Bad at being in disguise and inconspicuous.

A king disguised as a monk, check... Backstabbing, check... Kirkpatrick gets to stab people...

Oh, so when the cousins adore Wallace it's 'veneration' but when I, Kirkpatrick, grieve his loss it's 'almost idolatry'???

St. Ninian's is a real place?! Did I know that??

Hmmm, so way back when, we did actually spend a lot of time mourning Lord Mar. And now Wallace's funeral gets top billing over both the coronation and Bruce and Isabella's wedding. And, technically, I suppose we give Marion's funeral plenty of attention as well. And the grandfather's burial. And the harper. (But Edwin gets a paragraph? Rude. He got more attention when he was pretending to be dead... oh. oh, hey. SYMMETRY of first and last appearances... That's very clever and goes in a "thanks I hate it" pile. XD ) Where was I going with this--ah, yes, an observation that all (two) in-story marriages are blink-and-you'll-miss-the-paragraph vs the much more conspicuous funerals. It's a very different sort of focus.

As is relegating the fate of the former Lady Mar to the appendix, after giving us a 'villain is driven mad by their own hubris' ending to her arc and then leaving it as an exercise for the reader as to how de Warren would handle a mad wife...

Someone else would probably have interesting things to say about the contrast of Helen in disguise as a page vs Joanna in disguise as a knight but I don't want to think up those thoughts, I just want to read them. XD (I still think Joanna had amazing potential to be a _vastly different character_; too bad she walked down the road she did. :( )