The Rose Bargain

A footman takes a nightgown-clad Ivy to a private audience with the queen. Mor says that Ivy has lost the contest, but Mor doesn’t plan to take Ivy’s family’s titles or land. Ivy leaves courteously, tells the footman that she needs to vomit, and heads to the bushes. Then she runs to the secret tunnel and into Emmett’s room.

Emmett is there, which surprises Ivy. He says he tried to leave, but couldn’t stay away because he is obsessed with Ivy. She tells him that she has lost the competition. Emmett kisses her and suggests that they run away together. Ivy assures him that she is his. After she consents, she and Emmett have sex. This is her first sexual experience, but not Emmett’s. After they finish, she plans to tell him that she loves him, but is out of breath.

When Ivy gets out of bed, she says that she plans to get Bram to elope with her. Emmett is upset but believes that Bram will make a good husband. When Ivy says that Emmett will find someone else to love, he disagrees and offers to stop Ivy from going to Bram. When she turns down this offer, Emmett tells her where to find Bram’s bedroom.

Ivy tells Bram that Mor told her she lost. As she cries, Bram declares that the winner of the contest is his to choose, not the queen’s; he says that he was going to pick Ivy. Bram suggests that they run away together. He kisses her and tells her to pack a bag. They declare their love for each other, and Ivy trusts this because she believes that faeries cannot lie. Ivy walks to her family home and packs a bag. When she takes a hat from a high shelf, she knocks down dozens of Lydia’s drawings of Bram.

Lydia hears the crash and comes into the hall. She reveals that she has been dreaming about Bram ever since her disappearance. Ivy confesses that she and Bram are eloping. Suddenly, a footman knocks on the front door and says that the queen demands an audience with Ivy. Ivy rejects this and tries to close the door, but the footman holds it open. As the footman drags Ivy out of the house, she tells Lydia to “tell Emmett” (327). When Ivy arrives at the palace, it takes a total of four footmen to get her into the throne room. Mor congratulates Ivy.

The queen hugs Ivy and says that she has always wanted a daughter. She explains that telling Ivy that she lost was just another test: one that she inflicted on the other debutantes as well. Mor describes how the other girls reacted; Marion laughed, Emmy was in shock, Faith tried to cry, and Olive begged. Bram will officially propose to Ivy at Kendall’s ball the next day. Mor offers to make Lydia Ivy’s lady-in-waiting, then demands that Ivy make a Rose Bargain. Then, the queen asks if Ivy wants to be with Emmett. Edgar comes into the room briefly to tell the queen that breakfast is ready.

Ivy tells Mor that she doesn’t want Emmett; she explains that he was merely coaching her on how to win Bram. She asks the queen for an hour to consider her bargain, and the queen agrees. Ivy goes to Savile Row and picks up a coat that she made for Emmett. She writes him a letter, puts it in a box along with the coat, and tells a footman to deliver the box to Emmett. Ivy then returns to the throne room, and for her Rose Bargain, she asks the queen to remove all of her memories of Emmett.

Emmett ignores a knock at his door and remains in bed. A little while later, Bram comes in and tells Emmett that Ivy came to see him. Emmett privately regrets not telling Ivy that he loved her; he surreptitiously hides a ribbon that fell off of Ivy’s nightgown. Bram says that he planned to elope with Ivy, but the queen came to him as he was packing and asked if he wanted to marry Ivy; he said yes. The brothers discuss the queen’s love of playing games. Emmett recalls that Bram’s game of choice is billiards. As Bram leaves, he gives Emmett the package that was sitting outside his door.

Emmett reads Ivy’s note. She writes that if they run away, they can never unseat the queen. Ivy wants to repair Lydia’s life, Eduart’s life, and Emmett’s relationship with Edgar, and she also wants revenge for Greer’s death. Lastly, she confesses her love for Emmett and relates her plan to have the queen erase him from her memory. Her postscript states that she owes him a coat.

Emmett runs out of his room and sees Ivy with Mor in the foyer. Ivy responds as if she is meeting Emmett for the first time, and he notices blood in her mouth and sees that one of her teeth is missing. Ivy says she hopes that she and Emmett can be friends. Emmett longs to hold her. Mor privately tells Emmett that she gave Ivy the option to marry him; Ivy’s rejection of this option makes him love Ivy all the more. Over the next day, Emmett searches through the library for a note from his father and finds one that reads “SOON” (340).

As Emmett prepares for Kendall’s ball, Bram comes into his room, holding Emmett’s bank statements, which were obtained from Emmett’s valet. Bram fears that Emmett is going to gamble his money, and Emmett deflects the question with a joke. Emmett realizes that he inherited enough money from his mother to run away with Ivy. Bram shows Emmett the engagement ring, which Emmett compliments. Bram asks if Emmett is upset about Faith and confesses that Faith bit him when he tried to kiss her.

Watching Ivy at the ball, Emmett notices a hickey that he left on her neck. As Bram proposes to Ivy, Emmett goes outside and vomits. Faith comes up to him, and Emmett cries on her shoulder. As rain begins to fall, Faith gets Marion, and the three take a carriage back to the palace. Faith and Marion sleep in Emmett’s bed while he stays up, tending the fire and thinking about Ivy. Throughout the next week, Emmett contemplates leaving entirely but worries that Ivy will need him, so he agrees to be Bram’s best man at the wedding.

During the wedding preparations, Ivy sleeps in Lydia’s room. Ivy still can’t remember her bargain, and she feels that she is forgetting something else important. The wedding takes place on the summer solstice. Marion, Faith, Olive, and Emmy are Ivy’s bridesmaids. No one’s family has been stripped of their titles or lands. Ivy and her father privately prepare for their entrance, and Emmett notes that her father has forgotten his boutonniere.

In a private moment, Emmett asks Ivy if she loves Bram. She is shocked and asks if he has ever been in love. He tells her that falling in love was like getting hit by a carriage, but Ivy doesn’t understand this reference to their first meeting. As she approaches the altar, Ivy cannot stop looking at Emmett, who is next to Bram. She reflects that her marriage will help her family. After she and Bram exchange rings, Bram puts the May Queen tiara on Ivy, and the priestess declares that they are husband and wife. Bram kisses Ivy passionately. Then, chaos breaks loose as Ivy’s memories and missing tooth suddenly return. Bram orders Mor to be seized.

Lydia sees Ivy collapse into Emmett’s arms. Bram appears in front of Lydia and says that he missed her. When he kisses her, Lydia pushes him away. He grabs her hair, and she kicks him in the groin, lamenting her failure to protect Ivy. When Lydia tries to catch Emmett’s attention, Bram grabs her arms and says they are leaving. Lydia begs to talk to Ivy and admits that she loves Bram. He orders her to obey him and hits her with the hilt of his sword.

Lydia awakens in the Otherworld, where she stayed during her disappearance. The door to her room is locked and enchanted. Eloree, who was Lydia’s fae maid, comes in and cries. She gives Lydia food and promises to return to help Lydia dress for the feast. After Eloree leaves, Lydia tries hitting the window with the fire poker, but the window is also enchanted. She sits on the floor and bangs her head against the wall.

Lydia recalls trying to talk to Percival Chapwick; when she realized that he couldn’t carry on a conversation, she decided not to marry him. Her bargain was to “experience something completely new” (358) in exchange for not being able to remember what it was. After striking her bargain, she was magically pulled to a tree in Kensington Park that transported her to the Otherworld. Guards took her to a wild faerie revel at the palace, where Bram welcomed her. She danced and feasted all night.

Bram gave her a room and forbade her from attending any more revels. He was often gone for days. Lydia became lonely and started losing memories of London. Eventually, she fell in love with Bram. He proposed, and she accepted, but he still continued to revel without her every night. He crowned her with flowers at lunch one day, but Lydia wanted a proper ceremony. Right after they were married, Bram ran off and sent Lydia magically to bed.

She woke up to an unlocked door and found Bram at the revel, arguing with an adviser. Bram said that the double crowning would not work, and the adviser said the crowning must occur in England. Bram noticed Lydia but wandered off, allowing her to stay. Lydia drank and danced, seeing other humans who had been enchanted to dance until their feet bled. She also saw Bram laughing at the humans’ pain. At dawn, Lydia found the dungeon cells where the humans were being held. They begged for help and said they were born in the 1400s.

She gave them the keys, but the guard awoke and tried to grab Lydia. She ran to the forest found the gateway back to England. When she returned, she could not remember anything about the Otherworld.

Now, in the present moment, she finds her wedding ring and Ivy’s necklace and puts them on.

In the human world, Ivy doesn’t see Bram and Lydia, but she does see her mother gazing at a restored pinky finger even as Olive regards her restored fingernails. Footmen who were made immortal by the queen suddenly turn into ash. Palace guards attack the queen, who strikes with magic, killing five of them. Edgar jumps on Mor, and she stabs him. As she kills two more guards, others cuff her in iron. She collapses, and they lead her away. Emmett runs to Edgar’s side. With his final breath, Edgar tells Emmett that he has done well.

Ivy tells her parents to go home and not to let anyone in except for her, Lydia, or Emmett. She and Emmett look for Lydia and see Bram ordering the guards around. Bram says that Emmett got what he wanted, revealing that he always knew about Edgar’s plan. Then, Bram reveals that he killed his father and is now king of the Otherworld; he also reveals that faeries can lie. Ivy demands that Bram tell her where Lydia is, and he promises that Lydia is safe.

Bram reveals that he heard Ivy and Emmett having sex; Emmett tries to take all the blame. Ivy apologizes and begs Bram not to hurt Emmett. Bram orders his guards to seize Emmett and magically steals Ivy’s voice. Emmett apologizes to Ivy and tells her that he loves her. The guards drag him away. Bram returns Ivy’s voice, kisses her cheek, and leaves. Ivy runs outside to find Marion, Emmy, Faith, and Olive huddled under a tree. She leads them to the cottage. After they barricade the doors and windows, Ivy tells them what she has learned. She plans to find Emmett while the others stay at the cottage.

The other debutantes decide to come with Ivy. They go to the Tower of London, and because Ivy is Bram’s queen, a guard reluctantly allows her to enter. As they search, Ivy apologizes to Faith for viewing her as competition rather than as an ally. In Wakefield Tower, they finally find Mor, who claims not to know where Bram took Emmett. Ivy says she knows the queen can lie. Mor admits that Emmett was desperate for love and blindly trusted Bram as well as his father. Meanwhile, Edgar was willing to sacrifice anyone for his goal of unseating the queen. Mor didn’t know that this was Edgar’s goal until after they married.

Mor also wrongly trusted Bram, believing his lie that the king had exiled exiling him, not realizing that in reality, Bram had committed patricide and become King of the Otherworld before he ever appeared in England. Ivy reflects on the irony of her own childhood fantasy of becoming the queen of the Otherworld. Mor explains that she closed the portal between worlds because she got bored with faeries bringing humans from “the Hunting Grounds” (378)—another name for England—to the Otherworld. Bram disagreed with Mor’s decision and planned for many years to overthrow her; he is over 1,000 years old.

Olive thinks that Bram might still get rid of the bargain system and create a better world, but Mor laughs at this idea. (Mor’s favorite debutante is Ivy.) Faith suggests killing the queen, but Mor says they need her. As guards arrive, Mor finally answers Ivy’s questions about Lydia’s disappearance, confirming that Lydia was in the Otherworld. However, Ivy doesn’t believe the queen’s explanation for sending Lydia there: that Mor was bored.

The guards take the debutantes back to the palace, only to find a riot at the palace gates. After the girls are safely inside, the guards tell them not to leave the palace grounds. The palace lawn is covered with people partying, including Ivy’s parents. Ivy believes that the champagne is enchanted; it sizzles when she pours some on the ground. The other debutantes find their parents, then go to sleep in the cottage. A footman takes Ivy to her royal chambers.

Bram isn’t there, so she sneaks out and goes to Emmett’s room, grabs Pig the dog, and puts him in her bed. Eventually, Ivy falls asleep. She awakens the following afternoon to find the palace reception hall filled with faeries who are dancing on the blood-soaked floor. Bram happily greets Ivy and tells her that he is excited to introduce her to his friends.