68 pages • 2-hour read
The Rose Bargain
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Prologue-Chapter 7Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Content Warning: Both the source text and this guide include depictions of physical abuse, emotional abuse, illness, death, graphic violence, and sexually explicit scenes.
Prologue Summary: “1471: The War of the Roses”
During the Battle of Barnet, Queen Moryen of the Others (a euphemism for faeries) intervenes in the fighting and makes a bargain with Edward IV, after which his opponent Henry VI dies on the battlefield. However, Edward IV is only king for one year and one minute before he drops dead. Queen Moryen, who is immortal, then becomes the queen of England, and her reign lasts for centuries.
Chapter 1 Summary: “London, February 1848”
Ivy Elizabeth Benton, the novel’s human protagonist, sneaks out to look for her sister, Lydia, who has been missing for eight days. Ivy gets lost around Hyde Park. While she searches, she thinks about the past, when their old cook, Mrs. Osbourne, used to read to her and Lydia about faeries. Mrs. Osbourne’s book inspires Ivy and Lydia to leave their pearl initial necklaces out as a gift for the Others one night, and the necklaces were gone by the next morning. Ivy, in her excitement, revealed the book to her mother, who made Osbourne burn it. Although Ivy’s necklace was never found, Lydia later revealed that she had hidden her own necklace; she then scolded Ivy and told her end her childlike obsession with the Others.
In the present moment, Ivy searches the trees around the palace, trying to find a gateway to the realm of the Others, commonly known as the Otherworld. Hearing a guard, she drops Lydia’s necklace near a random tree and runs into the street. When a carriage approaches, Ivy trips, falls, and strikes her head. She wakes up to find herself in the carriage, where a young man is pressing his coat against her head injury. She accuses him of hitting her with the carriage, and he counters that he is not to blame for the fact that she tripped. As the driver takes them to Ivy’s home in Belgrave Square, she realizes that the man is Prince Emmett, Queen Moryen’s stepson; he is the son of her husband, Prince Consort Edgar, whose first wife died in childbirth.
Ivy considers Emmett’s scandalous reputation as a lover of many women, including a ballerina, and she realizes that he is very attractive. They joke about him hitting her with the carriage, and when Emmett tells her that she is pretty, she rejects this compliment. When the driver drops her at her house, Emmett asks to see her again, but she refuses. He gives her his card anyway and also tries to give her his blood-stained coat, but she tosses it back at him. After Ivy returns to her room, Lydia suddenly arrives at the front door.
Chapter 2 Summary: “Three Months Later”
On the eve of the May first celebration, Ivy and her mother visit the dressmaker to adjust Lydia’s dress to fit Ivy. Ivy will wear this dress to the formal “debutante coming-out” (19): a social event at which young women formally enter society, walk through the Pact Parade, and make Rose Bargains with the queen. Rose Bargains are exchanges; the humans ask the queen for magical favors (such as being prettier or more talented), and she sets a price for them. Common costs for the bargains include losing a body part, a sensory experience, or a mental ability.
Ivy’s former best friend, Greer, enters the dressmaker’s shop. (Greer stopped spending time with Ivy after Lydia’s disappearance ruined the Benton family’s reputation. Ivy has been lying to her mother about spending time with Greer. When Ivy’s mother asks Greer about one of their supposed outings, Greer goes along with Ivy’s lie.
The narrative reveals that Lydia didn’t seem to gain anything from her Rose Bargain, and she now has no memory of where she was for eight days. She merely told Ivy that her bargain “wasn’t worth it” (29), and she claimed to have run off with a lower-class printer. Since Lydia’s return, she has been hiding in her room. Now, after leaving the dressmaker’s shop, Ivy asks Lydia to fix her hair for the Pact Parade, but Lydia refuses.
Later that evening, Ivy and her mother sit in the drawing room. Ivy writes a letter to an old woman named Ethel. Because Lydia and Greer believe that being interested in faeries is immature and low-class, Ivy can only talk to Ethel about their shared interest in faeries. Ivy’s mother speculates about what the other debutantes might ask for in their bargains. Back in her day, she asked for a perfect memory and sacrificed the tip of her pinky finger. Ivy’s mother journals every day to manage all the memories. She asks Ivy what she will bargain for, and Ivy claims that she hasn’t decided yet. Her mother stresses the importance of finding a husband and improving the family’s reputation because they are going to lose their house in a year. Alone in her room, Ivy writes down her request to the queen, then burns the paper.
Chapter 3 Summary
On the morning of the Pact Parade, while Ivy’s mother styles her hair, Ivy reflects on the fact that her father’s land is barren. (In a past bargain with Queen Moryen, he gave up all childhood memories in exchange for the land, and he now reads books to fill the gap created by the missing memories.)
Ivy’s mother asks again about her bargain, and Ivy claims that she will ask for a perfect memory like her mother. The family couldn’t afford new shoes, so Ivy tries to squeeze into Lydia’s ill-fitting shoes. Then Ivy secretly decides to wear her boots instead, as they will be hidden by her dress.
Ivy and the other debutantes entering society are invited to Rensington Palace at the same time; they are accompanied by their guardians. A debutante named Marion whispers to her mother that she is surprised to see Ivy there; this comment makes Ivy’s mother feel ashamed. In the throne room, Ivy is overwhelmed by Queen Moryen’s immortal beauty. When the young women curtsy, one debutante stumbles and runs from the room. Prince Bram, who is fae like Moryen, enters the room, and a debutante named Olive faints when she sees him. Queen Moryen, who is also called Queen Mor, announces that Bram will be selecting a wife this season; willing debutantes will compete for the honor of being his bride.
Chapter 4 Summary
Bram, who is Queen Mor’s fae son by the King of the Others, came from the Otherworld four years ago, claiming to be 14. The immortal queen outlives her many human husbands (the Prince Consorts). Each time she is widowed, she takes another husband. Her current Prince Consort, Edgar, isn’t present at this event, nor does he attend many other events. Mor announces that the terms of the competition for marrying Bram are that all those who lose may never marry anyone else.
Ivy laughs, because Lydia’s scandal already has already ruined her chances of finding a husband. The queen gives the debutantes 10 minutes to decide if they want to compete for Bram. Ivy realizes that this opportunity could help her family’s reputation and financial woes. She is the first to sign up and must sign in blood. Ivy cuts herself twice with the proffered knife in order to get enough blood, then signs her name. Queen Mor wishes her luck.
Chapter 5 Summary
Bram gives Ivy his handkerchief for her bleeding hand. His touch magically causes the pain to stop. Olive is the second debutante to sign up, and Emmy and Marion also join. Greer’s mother cuts Greer’s hand and forces her to sign. The final debutante to sign up, whom Ivy doesn’t recognize, doesn’t look at Bram. She is the 24th person in the contest. Mor leads the contestants out of the throne room.
Chapter 6 Summary
In Kensington Park, Queen Mor announces that the 24 women will be reduced to six through a maypole dancing contest. The winner of this contest will receive a May Queen tiara. As the debutantes start circling the maypole while holding ribbons, their fancy shoes get stuck in the mud, and some fall, but Ivy’s boots help her stay upright. After an hour and a half, only 18 girls are left.
When there are only six girls left, Marion falls, but it looks intentional to Ivy. When Olive falls next, she starts crying. Emmy is the third of the six girls to fall. Ivy thanks Greer for lying at the dressmaker’s shop; she then tells Greer that she can be a lady-in-waiting when Ivy wins. Greer missteps and falls. The crowd favors the other remaining girl, Faith, and chants her name. Faith gets distracted by two cheering little girls and falls. Mor crowns Ivy, who hopes to sell the tiara to fix her family’s finances. Bram looks at her with interest, while Emmett regards her with loathing.
Chapter 7 Summary
Bram congratulates Ivy. Queen Mor says the bargaining will begin soon. The debutants line up before Mor in alphabetical order. Ivy reflects that these particular Rose Bargains will be made with the goal of gaining Bram as a husband. The first girl gains thickened and lengthened hair and sports a bloody left foot. Ivy recalls the fun things that she planned to bargain for as a child, and suddenly it is her turn.
Prologue-Chapter 7 Analysis
Throughout the novel, Smith strategically alters the storytelling perspective in order to create a myriad of effects. The majority of the narrative is told from a succession of first-person perspectives; Ivy’s remains dominant, while other characters each get one unnumbered chapter in which to tell their side of the story. Notably, the only use of the third-person point of view occurs in the Prologue, when Smith recounts the early actions of the faerie queen, Moryen, as she manipulates humans and ultimately claims the throne for herself. By framing the novel with this brief third-person section, Smith imbues Moryen’s early rise to power with an air of inevitability, giving it a tone similar to that of a history book. By contrast, the individual characters’ subjective observations make the bulk of the story more real and immediate, while also using the various narrators’ revelations to employ dramatic irony.
Because the novel is loosely based upon the dictates of Victorian society, Smith’s world-building contains a range of logical extrapolations that critique real-world social systems and oppressive patterns. To this end, the contest between Ivy and the other debutantes aptly emphasizes the Societal Limitations on Victorian Women. In Queen Mor’s version of Victorian England, unmarried women cannot inherit their family’s money and titles, even as unmarried men “still have options and financial and social freedoms” (40). By situating the narrative in an alternate social reality in which a woman’s fate in life is entirely dependent upon her marriageability, Smith gains immediate access to an otherwise farfetched collection of narrative conflicts. In this framework, Ivy can only help her family by adhering to the strict laws and expectations of her society, and Smith further complicates this dynamic by creating a world in which making a bad bargain with Queen Mor can also ruin a woman’s reputation and her future—as in Lydia’s case.
For this reason, the novel’s titular “Rose Bargain” stands as an onerous challenge for participants, and the treacherous nature of Mor’s offers illustrate The Hidden Costs of Bargains. Traditionally, these bargains are made upon debutantes’ entrance to high society, and the women usually ask for qualities that will make them “beautiful, fragile, sweet—perfect English roses” (19). However, to bargain with Mor is to gamble with one’s very life and well-being. Notably, those whose requests are destined to be punishments in and of themselves often pay a low cost when the bargain is struck, only to suffer for their own choice for the rest of their lives. Ivy’s mother is a prime example of this dynamic; she only loses a part of a pinky finger, but she soon learns that having a perfect memory is itself a heavy burden.
With this casually cruel approach, Mor and the other faeries collectively represent The Ruinous Impact of Upper-Class Corruption. Their exalted status in society, when combined with their near-total power and their immortality, fuels their taste for toying with the relatively powerless humans for their own entertainment. Smith pointedly compares the faeries to Greek gods, stating, “Like the gods meddling in the affairs of men in the Trojan War, the Others [the fae] played with mortal conflicts for fun” (1). Because the fae are terminally bored with existence itself, they glory in causing human suffering and inciting people to violence. Although Queen Mor’s interference in the human world has created a centuries-long peace in England—one that spans from the Renaissance to the Victorian Era—she misses the excitement of large-scale conflicts and therefore manufactures new intrigues for herself. In this, her actions are designed to indirectly mirror the real-world excesses of upper-class individuals who exploit less powerful people for their own entertainment or gain.
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