Opening
In Chapters 31–35, Lavinia McCarten comes of age under pressure, as grief and longing for home leave her open to predatory attention and push her toward a fateful marriage to Marshall Pyke. Proposals, secrets, and an apparent rescue twist into control, driving the novel’s exploration of Power, Abuse, and Corruption and setting the characters on a collision course back at Tall Oaks.
What Happens
Chapter 31: A Proposal
At fifteen, Lavinia trains in ladylike graces under Miss Sarah with Meg, who resents the lessons. A humiliating tea ends in chaos when Meg, bristling at a condescending guest, spills scalding tea on him. In the aftermath, Lavinia and Marshall share a laugh, and he admits he longs to return to Tall Oaks. The remark intensifies Lavinia’s anxiety—she expects never to go back and pins her hope on finding her brother, Cardigan.
Mr. Boran, a rumpled associate of Mr. Madden’s, begins joining Sunday dinners with his young daughter, Molly. Lavinia feels protective toward Molly and sympathetic to Mr. Boran’s awkward kindness. When Lavinia shares Cardigan’s story, Mr. Boran offers to search for him. Meg warns he is “shopping for a wife,” but Lavinia clings to hope. Meanwhile, Marshall’s temper flashes: he lashes out when Meg grabs him from behind and later assaults Henry Crater for kissing Lavinia’s hand. These red flags fade when Mr. Boran returns with devastating news—Cardigan died years ago in an accident. As Lavinia collapses in grief, Mr. Boran comforts her and proposes. Numb and newly alone, she listens.
Chapter 32: Another Offer
At Tall Oaks, Belle reads Lavinia’s letter about searching for Cardigan and her dream of bringing Belle and Jamie north. She tells Ben, who points out the plan’s impossibility—he is enslaved, with a wife and children. Belle hears rejection and accuses him of choosing his other family. Mama Mae intervenes, urging Belle to face reality and to leave before Marshall returns.
Will Stephens proposes a lifeline: he can renegotiate his contract in Williamsburg and acquire Belle, Jamie, Ben, Lucy, and the children for his farm bordering Tall Oaks. The plan keeps their complicated family together and offers some protection from Marshall, grounding hope within the brutal calculus of Race, Slavery, and Social Hierarchy. Will admits he wants to court Lavinia and asks Belle if Lavinia is old enough. Elated by the possibility of safety, Belle scraps her first reply and writes Lavinia with guarded optimism, calling Will a good man.
Chapter 33: A Painful Truth
Lavinia accepts Mr. Boran’s proposal; Miss Sarah celebrates while Meg recoils. On Lavinia’s sixteenth birthday, Will Stephens arrives unexpectedly and her old crush flares. A drunk, jealous Marshall toasts Lavinia’s “return to Tall Oaks,” prompting Mr. Madden to counter-toast her engagement to Mr. Boran—a shock to Will. Later, Will confesses he has always thought of Lavinia as “his girl,” but they are interrupted.
The next day, after a heated meeting among Will, Marshall, and Mr. Madden, Marshall corners Lavinia in the garden. He spits out the ugly truth of Will’s visit: to secure Belle—his father’s and now Will’s “whore”—and her “bastard child,” Jamie. The revelation detonates years of Secrets and Deception, confirming that Captain James Pyke fathered Jamie. Reeling, Lavinia refuses to see Will and withdraws into grief and anger, finding her only solace with Miss Martha Pyke at the hospital, where she feels a binding tenderness for the broken woman.
Chapter 34: Worries from Home
Back at Tall Oaks, Will tells Belle and Mama Mae the plan is set to acquire them, ensuring they can live together on his land. He also reports Lavinia’s engagement. Disturbed by Marshall’s behavior and the wedding news, Belle and Mama Mae fear what Marshall will do once he inherits and returns. Mama Mae worries he will prey on her younger girls, Fanny and Beattie.
Hardened by survival, Belle vows that if Marshall attacks her again, she will “finish him off.” Her focus shifts decisively to protecting her family network—blood and chosen—reflecting a fierce ethic of Family, Belonging, and Found Kinship.
Chapter 35: A New Engagement
Mr. Boran’s private behavior turns coercive—grabbing, pressing, ignoring boundaries—until, after a ball, he tricks Lavinia into his empty house and assaults her. She fights free and runs straight into Marshall, who has followed them from the tavern. He brings her home; the engagement ends at once, leaving Lavinia scandal-stained and the Maddens humiliated.
On her seventeenth birthday, after a lucid, tender visit with Miss Martha, Marshall proposes. He plans to return to Tall Oaks and wants Lavinia as his wife. Seeing safety, a path home, and no other option, she accepts. In the months that follow, Marshall grows distant, moody, and unaffectionate, and Lavinia learns to keep silent to avoid his dark turns. News then arrives: Mr. Boran is dead from a supposed drunken fall from his horse—a story few believe. Marshall shrugs off the topic. Before the wedding, Lavinia convinces him to bring Miss Martha home to Tall Oaks. They marry in a small garden ceremony and depart—Miss Martha in a separate carriage—while Lavinia feels a surge of gladness, convinced she is finally going home.
Character Development
Lavinia’s arc pivots from hopeful girl to traumatized young woman who equates marriage with safety and belonging. Rescue and security blur as her choices narrow, and compliance becomes her survival strategy.
- Lavinia: Grief over Cardigan and Boran’s assault strip her illusions. She rejects Will’s explanation, aligns with the white household, and accepts Marshall’s proposal as a way back “home,” learning to mute her opinions to manage his moods.
- Marshall: Possessiveness and volatility intensify. He alternates between violence and staged heroism, manipulates Lavinia’s desire for Tall Oaks, and treats obstacles—romantic or otherwise—as problems to eliminate.
- Belle: She relinquishes fantasies of freedom with Ben alone and backs Will’s practical plan. Her vow to “finish” Marshall if he harms her again marks a shift from victim to protector, centering the safety of her family unit.
Themes & Symbols
Power, Abuse, and Corruption: Authority masquerades as care. Mr. Boran exploits Lavinia’s grief to secure an engagement and attempts to cement control through sexual violence. Marshall’s “rescue” confers leverage; his proposal binds Lavinia to him and to Tall Oaks under his terms. The suspicious convenience of Boran’s death hints at the ruthless protections power affords.
Secrets and Deception: Truths long sensed but unspoken—Belle’s exploitation by the Captain and Jamie’s paternity—surface as a weapon in Marshall’s hands. The revelation severs Lavinia’s trust in Belle and Will at the very moment she most needs them, pushing her toward the security of the Pyke household and away from the kinship she once claimed.
Family, Belonging, and Found Kinship: Family means safety, status, and home for Lavinia, which makes her vulnerable to predation and control. For Belle, family widens to include Ben’s wife and children, prioritizing collective survival over individual romance. Two definitions of “home” and belonging diverge—one gilded and dangerous, one precarious but honest.
Key Quotes
“His girl.”
Will’s confession crystallizes a long-simmering bond that arrives too late to change Lavinia’s course. The intimacy of the phrase collides with Lavinia’s shock and racial conditioning, underscoring how one interruption and one lie can redirect a life.
“Whore” and “bastard child.”
Marshall’s language reduces Belle and Jamie to slurs and property, exposing how sexual violence and racism underpin the plantation’s order. The words aren’t just insults—they’re instruments of control that isolate Lavinia and rewrite her loyalties.
“Finish him off.”
Belle’s vow marks a decisive transformation from prey to protector. It reframes resistance as self-defense and foreshadows a future confrontation in which Belle refuses to be Marshall’s victim again.
“Finally going home.”
Lavinia’s belief as she rides toward Tall Oaks is steeped in dramatic irony. What she names as homecoming is a gilded cage—safety purchased by silence and submission.
Why This Matters and Section Significance
These chapters close Lavinia’s Williamsburg arc and launch the novel’s central conflict at Tall Oaks. The choice to marry Marshall—born of grief, fear, and a yearning for belonging—gives her status but binds her to a man whose temper, secrecy, and power threaten everyone she loves.
Meanwhile, Belle’s path hardens toward protection and solidarity, not romance. The two women now move toward each other not as sisters but as mistress and enslaved woman, with Marshall in the middle. The stage is set: a household ruled by secrets, a “savior” who thrives on control, and a home that promises belonging even as it readies harm.