Lord West may become an Unintended HERO

August 23 1883 (vol 3)

(may or may not have spoilers, read at your own risk)

Lady Bedford’s ball with Brookstone twins, Charles Goddard, and a well-timed waltz with Islington. This night has several snake / medusa / gorgon references as well as a hidden twist.

Lord West may prove to be the unintended hero of the night.

Emma squeaks when a spider drops on her journal and Emma says it was fitting for the spider to die on Aunt Eugenia’s words - I tried to imagine a squished spider - wouldn’t it have legs all over everywhere - maybe like Medusa snake hair?

Emma is supposed to be blocking the Brookstone twins from contact Arabella; if they do not behave, Emma threatens to put snakes in their beds.

Distracting Lord West away from pursuing moths, Emma mentions sweet pea flowers she had seen in Bournemouth and gives Lord West Matilde’s exact address. Emma laughs to herself to think of Lord West trespassing in Matilde’s garden. Her musing ends with they would terrify each other.

Emma goes off to a well-timed waltz with Islington after calling him a “regular Perseus”. He whisks her off dancing in time to avoid Charles Goddard and later that night Emma is home and talks with Pierce on the front steps of LLH.

But earlier:
Why did I get snagged on the Lord West exchange?

Lord West now has Matilde’s address and a reason to visit.

In the prologue to this volume, Matilde is described as a dragon of a woman.

Lord West’s 1st name: George

as in St George slays a dragon and rescues a princess from being eaten by the said dragon

(aside: when Emma arrived in St Crispians, she tells Aunt Eugenia that her replacement was a girl of 16 and things would go along as well as could be expected (but Emma confides she does not predict things will end well.)

This might be foreshadowing Lord West’s HEA. 🥸