The Viscount Who Loved Me

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2000

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Prologue-Chapters 2

Chapters 3-5

Chapters 6-8

Chapters 9-11

Chapters 12-14

Chapters 15-17

Chapters 18-20

Chapters 21-22

Epilogues

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

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Discussion Questions

Chapters 18-20Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 18 Summary

Content Warning: The Chapters 18-20 and Analysis of this section include discussion of night terrors and panic attacks.

Kate and Anthony spend a brief time at Aubrey Hall, then return to London to finish the social season. Edwina visits Kate one afternoon and tells her that she has fallen in love with a Mr. Bagwell, a scholar she met at the Aubrey Hall house party. Anthony joins them, as he has an unexpected block of free time in his afternoon. Kate tells him of Edwina’s new romance, and Anthony says he would like to meet Mr. Bagwell since he is the head of the family. Kate walks Edwina out, and Anthony stays behind in the sitting room. He reflects on his afternoons of late, and how contrary to what he told Kate, he has spent his time at White’s gentlemen’s club playing cards and reading the paper. Anthony thinks about how to maneuver Kate to the bedroom, not realizing that Kate is trying to talk to him. Anthony says he would like to provide a dowry for Edwina, which makes Kate start to cry because she thinks it is the nicest thing anyone has ever done. Kate happily sits in his lap, and Anthony thinks they fit together perfectly. Anthony asks what their plans are for the evening; Kate says they are meant to attend a ball at Lady Mottram’s, but Anthony says they ought to go to bed instead.

Chapter 19 Summary

That night, Anthony and Kate are cuddled in bed when it starts raining. When Anthony sees a flash of lightning, he moves to close the drapes, accidentally disturbing Kate in the process. He closes the drapes and returns to bed, and he sees that Kate’s panic now is much worse than it was at Aubrey Hall. Kate, still sleeping, turns quickly into Anthony’s arms and calls out for her mother.

In the morning, Kate wakes up and sees Anthony is already awake and watching her. Anthony suggests she talk to Mary about her nightmares and about her mother, since her father might have told Mary something. Later in the day, Kate and Anthony visit Mary. She admits she only knows what Kate’s father told her but offers to share whatever she can. Mary explains that Kate’s mother became sick on a Thursday and died on Tuesday. It rained the whole time she was sick, and the rivers flooded and blocked the roads. A bolt of lightning even struck a tree in the yard and split it in two. While he was focused on her mother, Kate’s father did not realize she snuck into the room. Kate jumped onto the bed and clung to her mother, and no one could pull her away until she tired herself out. In the present, Mary explains that Kate’s father never pressed her about that night because she seemed happier not talking about it. Mary holds her and they cry together, and when Kate looks up at Anthony, she sees he is crying too. Kate knows in that moment she loves Anthony.

Chapter 20 Summary

That night, Kate tells Anthony that the next time it storms, she thinks she will be fine. Kate tells him the first time she ever felt like she would survive the storm was the night he sat under the table with her at Aubrey Hall. Anthony realizes Kate has a sense of her own mortality just like he does, but he also feels jealous that Kate conquered her fear, and he has not. He is happy for her, but he is now afraid of his looming death because—despite his best efforts—he is in love with her. Kate tells him she hopes they will be like this “always and forever,” and Anthony feels his breath tighten and a panic rise in him. He thinks about what forever really means if he is going to die young, and he jumps from the bed and dresses in a hurry.

Anthony stumbles down the front steps and crosses the street in a daze. Once on the opposite side, he looks up at the townhouse and sees Kate in the window. Anthony feels like his heart is cut open. He stands outside looking up at her, frozen, until she turns away. Even when she is gone, Anthony still stares up at where she was, fighting the urge to run back inside the house and beg forgiveness. Anthony feels the rain pick up. He stands for an hour in the rain, and finally brings himself to walk away.

Chapters 18-20 Analysis

Public opinion quickly changes once the ton sees Kate and Anthony interact with one another at social events. They adore one another, so the rumors of entrapment are abandoned and the “true love match” story circulates even in Lady Whistledown. Until her engagement, Kate spent her energy focused on helping Edwina find a match, teaching Edwina how to navigate London society, and protecting Edwina from unsuitable bachelors. Now, however, Kate takes time to focus on herself, and her relationship with Anthony. A key piece of Kate’s character development revolves around her feeling chosen and special, but she has never seen herself that way. It is significant that the first person to choose Kate is Kate, as it opens her up to accepting the same love from others.

The storm that night triggers more than a panic attack for Kate: She has an intense nightmare that makes her cry out for her birth mother in her sleep. Even though this episode is much worse than the one at Aubrey Hall, Anthony is once supportive. The fact that Kate does not recall her nightmare indicates that the storms trigger something that she has repressed. Anthony relates to how Kate feels she always must be the strong one, since he felt similarly after Edmund died. Both Kate and Anthony became parental figures in their families, and it deeply affected their emotional intelligence as they grew up: They do not share their burdens with their loved ones, they shy away from romantic love altogether, and they do not have the language to aptly address and begin to heal from the traumas that parentified them in the first place.

Mary’s revelation about Kate’s birth mother helps Kate heal from the trauma of her childhood. The story about how Kate’s mother died is poignant in its use of the weather as a literary device. Weather is never merely weather, and rain is symbolically associated with transformation. The night of Kate’s mother’s death was the final night of a rainstorm of near Biblical proportions. The lightning split a tree in the backyard where Kate used to play, symbolizing not only the fracturing of the family in this moment, but also how this death marked an emotional transition in Kate’s early development. She watched her mother die when she was three years old, and all she remembers is the noise of the storm and her fear.

The conversation with Mary is an important turning point in Anthony and Kate’s relationship, since Anthony now understands his wife to her core, and Kate realizes how much she loves Anthony when she sees him cry with her and Mary. Although he still has not said “I love you,” his behavior indicates that there is a deeper feeling for Kate than mere friendship and mutual respect. Kate’s wish for them to be “like this forever” frightens Anthony so much because his trauma convinced him he will die young, and he does not want to cause Kate the same pain Violet felt when Edmund passed away. Just like when they played Pall Mall, Anthony’s solution is to put physical distance between them. Kate’s wish that it would storm is granted, and Anthony stands outside in the rain for hours. Just as the rain when Kate’s mother died signifies transformation, the storm that Anthony is caught in accomplishes something similar. Rain can be cleansing as well as transformative, and his walk to Bridgerton House in the rain marks the beginning of his healing journey.