A Crown for the Steam Age
- Back at their house, Rose hides in the cupboard and doesn't want to talk about it.
- Pearl, who has an ugly baby and used to help out the family before their father remarried, points out that Rose doesn't like the men who are visiting.
- They try to bribe Rose to get out of the cupboard with iced buns. Um… we want iced buns too.
- Briony wants to go visit Tiddy Rex who has the swamp cough to compare Rose's symptoms, though she knows that if Rose has the cough there will be nothing they can do about it.
- Eldric walks in right as Rose asks for iced buns. He makes a joke about talking cupboards and tells Briony her father wants to see her in the dining room.
- Pearl says she will take care of Rose. Briony thanks her, but then thinks about the fact that she's getting paid. This leads her down self pity street as she starts to wish she could get far away from her responsibilities to Rose.
- In order to get better acquainted (and please their parents), Eldric and Briony talk about Eldric's being kicked out of university, studying, and boxing.
- Briony reminisces about all the ways her stepmother encouraged her—even though things like boxing are thought to be only for boys, Briony knows her stepmother would have supported her doing it.
- Eldric apologizes for her stepmother's death.
- Briony thinks that she has something to apologize for regarding her stepmother. Apparently she injured her spine, which is um… a pretty bad thing to do.
- While the men in the dining room talk about draining the swamp, Eldric and Briony take a tour of the house.
- Briony's description of the house throughout the chapter reveals that there was a flood that destroyed many elements of their once beautiful house.
- On their tour the two find something in common—they both think paperclips are the coolest. Eldric actually took a bet for paperclips that got him kicked out of school. These kids are weird.
- Cecil Trumpington (the guy who wants to marry Briony) is brought up again, this time as Eldric's competition for the title of local bad boy.
- So not only is their house ruined from a flood, but six months ago Briony decided to set their library on fire and cremate the stories she wrote. Might we suggest crumpling them in a ball and throwing them out next time instead?
- Eldric gives her a crown made of paperclips. Though we don't normally associate paperclips with romance, this definitely gets an ooh la la, we think.
- When Briony goes to show Eldric his new room, which is Stepmother's sick room, he innocently asks her if she visits the swamp. She says she hasn't for a long time, while thinking about the last time she visited, which was three years ago. It was the day her stepmother told her she was a witch.
- Briony has a moment of attraction to Eldric while looking at him in the light, but this is interrupted by Pearl screaming that Rose ran into the swamp.
- More self-hatred and regret from Briony as she remembers her promise to take care of Rose. The chapter closes on this depressing note as Briony tells herself to never, ever forget to hate herself.