- Hold onto your hats, Shmoopers. This is a super long and twisty chapter.
- First up: Montoni and his drinking buddies stay out 'til the break of dawn.
- Meet the rest of his friends: besides Cavigni, there's Bertolini, Orsino, and Verezzi. Oh yeah, and Count Morano. Madame Montoni doesn't really like them.
- Like everyone who's ever gone to Venice, Emily and the whole gang take a gondola ride.
- Count Morano is definitely into Emily. He sings her a song.
- When the group lands at St. Mark's, everyone heads into Count Morano's casino.
- Morano also figures out that the only way to win Emily is to butter up her auntie.
- Being a brown-noser might work on Madame Cheron, but not on Emily. She's still all dreamy-eyed over Valancourt.
- A couple of weeks go by, and Montoni gets a letter from Quesnel. Quesnel is humble-bragging about inheriting a villa after the death of his brother's uncle.
- Montoni gets a little jealous, because he's also related to Quesnel's brother's uncle. Got that?
- Emily picks up on the fact that Montoni is treating her aunt pretty rudely. Actually, it doesn't even seem like he likes the old dame.
- Surprise, surprise: Montoni just wanted to marry Madame Cheron for her money, but it turns out she's not that rich. We told you she was a tricky lady.
- But everyone's a trickster in this neck of the woods. Montoni's broke, too, which leaves the couple in a sticky situation.
- New plan: since money's tight, the group will head to Montoni's other residence, a.k.a. the Castle of Udolpho. Of course Montoni has a castle in his back pocket.
- It's good timing for Emily, because Morano is making his move. She wants to get out of there.
- While Emily's waiting to hear what's up with going to Udolpho, she notices that Montoni seems to be on the outs with his former buddy Cavigni.
- Oh, and he's spending a lot of time in secret with his other buddy, Orsino.
- Em gets a letter from Valancourt (oh, joy!) that mentions his visit to her old home. Couple of things: La Vallée has been rented out to random strangers and Quesnel has fired the loyal servant, Theresa.
- Emily goes straight to Montoni with fire in her eyes. She needs him to get a message to Quesnel, ASAP.
- Cool, Montoni says. Just write a few lines at the end of my letter to Quesnel about the Theresa thing.
- He also asks her to write a little bit about how she's learned to conquer her emotions about La Vallée and submit to Quesnel's will.
- The next night, out on the boat, Morano takes some liberties with Em. Turns out, Montoni tricked her into consenting to marriage in the letter.
- Emily is pretty horrified, but there's nothing she can do to get out of the marriage.