52 pages • 1-hour read
The Viscount Who Loved Me
A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 9-11Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 9 Summary
Colin interrupts Kate and Anthony’s private moment. He tells them that Simon and Daphne have arrived, and that Daphne suggested the family play a game of Pall Mall. They agree Kate and Edwina should join them. Anthony decides to go inside to find Edwina, and Colin and Kate head to the field. Daphne takes Kate with her to set up half the wickets, while Simon and Colin set up the other half. Colin gives Kate first pick of the mallets. Kate picks the black mallet, which the Bridgertons call “the mallet of death” (173). Kate worries that Anthony and Edwina should have joined them by now.
Colin tosses the purple mallet and ball in the shed, ensuring Anthony will be stuck with the pink mallet and ball. Anthony waits for Edwina to finish getting ready, and she is now 10 minutes later than she said she would be. Anthony worries about Edwina’s punctuality: “Was she the sort who was chronically late? That might grow vexing after a while” (176). Anthony is perplexed by the fact that he appreciates her beauty but is not attracted to her. As they walk down to the Pall Mall field, Edwina asks him what he studied at university. Anthony says he studied history and literature and is surprised to learn that Edwina loves to read. She reads novels and philosophical texts, and remarks that Kate dislikes philosophy. Anthony says he agrees with Kate on that subject, since he cannot stomach philosophy either. Edwina teases Anthony, saying that she ought to have a notebook to make a record of the first time he ever agreed with Kate about anything. As they come over the last hill before the Pall Mall field, Anthony sees that Kate has the mallet of death.
Chapter 10 Summary
Daphne and Simon introduce themselves to Edwina, and Daphne explains that Anthony usually plays with the black mallet—in fact, Anthony is the one who named it the mallet of death. Anthony begrudgingly accepts the pink mallet, and the game begins.
On his turn, Anthony steps on top of his ball, securing it to the ground, and with a strong swing, he knocks his ball into Kate’s, sending hers flying down the hill away from the field. Colin hits Anthony’s ball backwards down the course, and it lands beside Kate. On Kate’s turn, she hits her ball hard enough that it knocks into Anthony’s and sends his flying down the hill into the lake. The group agrees that nothing can possibly top Kate’s revenge on Anthony, so Colin declares her the winner and Anthony the loser—even though Kate was in last place.
After the game, Anthony and Kate retrieve the pink ball from the lake. Kate sees that everyone else gone back to Aubrey Hall without them. She and Anthony return their equipment to the shed, and Kate catches Anthony looking at her in a way she does not understand. He says everything is fine, and they begin their walk back to the house.
Chapter 11 Summary
As they walk back to Aubrey Hall, Anthony realizes he made a mistake thinking of her only in terms of how she compares to Edwina, as Kate is quite enchanting in her own right. He steals a glance at her again and finds her frowning at the sky. Anthony asks her what is wrong, and Kate says she wonders when the rain will start, because she hates the rain. Anthony says that because she humiliated him in Pall Mall, she owes him a boon. The boon, he decides, is he will ask her one question of his choosing, and she must answer honestly. Kate agrees. Anthony leans against a tree in front of Kate, and as he asks his question, he eases his face closer to Kate’s with every word: “Do you…still…hate me?” (201). Kate cannot gather herself to answer, and Anthony smiles. Anthony says he will go inside and prepare for the evening, and he suggests Kate ought to stay outside in the fresh air before it rains. He takes her hand, kisses the inside of her wrist, and leaves.
As dinnertime approaches, Penelope Featherington and Kate decide to go down to supper together instead of waiting for their families. They became friends after being insulted by Lady Whistledown. When they join the other guests in the drawing room, they see Cressida Cowper, who makes rude comments about Penelope’s gown. Cressida sees Anthony nearby and calls him over; when he joins their group, he greets Kate and Penelope directly and ignores Cressida. Anthony asks Kate to excuse him as he escorts Penelope to dinner, and Cressida angrily blurts that he cannot do that. He turns his back on Cressida, offers Penelope his arm, and declares that he hates bullies. He smiles over his shoulder at Kate and she feels she understands him completely. Edwina joins Kate and asks what happened. Kate responds that Anthony was a hero.
Chapters 9-11 Analysis
The game of Pall Mall exemplifies a distinction in the novel between adhering to the rules for propriety’s sake and bending the rules to achieve one’s true goals. Colin explicitly states that hitting Anthony’s ball into the lake matters more than scoring points for oneself, so the game’s true purpose is to make the individual player confront what “winning” really means to them. The spirit of the game draws out aspects of each player’s true goals. Kate could use her turns to help Edwina progress in the game, but she gradually switches from trying to win herself into an effort to sabotage Anthony. Kate’s strategy eventually results in her and Anthony spending more time together, and Colin’s own gameplay helps make their interactions possible. Anthony tries to either hit his ball away from Kate, or hit Kate’s away from him, because he still does not understand his feelings for her. After the game ends, the others leave Kate and Anthony behind, and their walk back to Aubrey Hall together is the first time Anthony really sees Kate. She does not realize he is paying such close attention to her in this moment, because she thinks nobody pays attention to her, so she feels free to look at the sky, kick a small stone down the path, and admire nature. Anthony realizes, as he watches her, that it was unfair of him to compare her to Edwina since she is beautiful in her own way. Although he does not know how much these comparisons affect Kate, he does recognize that the act of comparing her to someone else is unfair and does not reflect who Kate really is. It is important in this scene to distinguish between looking and seeing, because Anthony looked at Kate more than he looked at Edwina during the game, but during their walk, he sees Kate in a new light. Neither is performing a persona in this moment, so the act of looking leads to the deeper realizations of seeing.
Their conversation also introduces Anthony to Kate’s dislike of storms. He does not know the extent of or the reason behind her dislike, and he finds it to be another amusing topic about which they disagree. Anthony’s immediate action on his sudden urge to know what Kate thinks of him is reflective of his belief that procrastination is for people who have more time. Once Anthony makes up his mind to do something, he will do it as soon as he possibly can. Anthony knows how his presence affects Kate, and he uses a similar tactic as he did in his study earlier, in which he leans in close to her and barely touches her.
Before he leaves, Anthony kisses the inside of Kate’s wrist. Typically, if one kisses in greeting or departing, the most common of kisses in that scenario is kissing the back of the person’s hand. It is sweet, but polite and chivalrous. Kissing the palm of a person’s hand or the inside of their wrist falls outside the realm of typical decorum, carrying an intimate connotation. Kate does not understand why she feels the kiss was important, but her uncertainty is relative to her inexperience when it comes to gestures of physical intimacy with men. Anthony initiating the kiss is another example of adhering to versus bending the rules of decorum. Kate does not initiate a hand-kiss because she does not trust Anthony’s attempts at intimacy. Anthony kisses her wrist instead of her hand, which is not traditionally proper, but he wants to leave Kate with that intimate gesture since it conveys his attraction. Even though Anthony cannot yet verbalize his feelings, his emotional truth appears in his actions.
Now that he knows Kate does not hate him, Anthony’s behavior at dinner illustrates what kind of person he really is. He not only puts Cressida in her place, but he intervenes to spare Penelope any humiliation. Cressida is so upset that Anthony escorts Penelope to dinner because it is improper; the man of the house traditionally escorts the highest-ranking lady, if he chooses to escort anyone at all. Anthony defies this “rule” and in doing so, he uses his position to honor Penelope and protect her from Cressida’s bullying.
Kate and Penelope’s friendship is significant as their bond is forged as both being subjected to the gossip of Lady Whistledown’s newsletter. On a deeper level, the women understand each other in a way few others could, because Penelope also knows what it feels like to be passed over by nearly everyone, even her own family. Kate is overlooked by society because Edwina is more beautiful, and Penelope is also ignored for many factors, like her weight, her gowns, and her mother’s behavior. Kate and Penelope also share a disdainfulness for the backhanded games people in the ton play. While behaving like Cressida Cowper might be considered acceptable, Kate feels it is wrong and as such, she does not participate. Kate even tries to make Cressida back off Penelope, even though being argumentative in public is “improper,” Kate stands up for her friend because she knows Cressida’s cruelty is wrong. This is also why Kate is so moved by Anthony’s intervention, because it demonstrates to her that he will also do what he thinks is right even if it is not “correct,” like pushing back against the ton’s attitude about bullying. Kate is so surprised to realize she thinks his behavior is “heroic,” because until now, she only thought of him as being a Rake. Kate witnesses Anthony’s kindness, and she realizes there is more to him than she originally thought.
Unlock all 52 pages of this Study Guide
Get in-depth, chapter-by-chapter summaries and analysis from our literary experts.
- Grasp challenging concepts with clear, comprehensive explanations
- Revisit key plot points and ideas without rereading the book
- Share impressive insights in classes and book clubs