We meet Ravenclaw in this chapter! His description... I'm getting ahead of myself.
At the beginning of the chapter, we see Prudence being determined to find a way into Wolfinger Abbey (giggle) and being unable to focus on her writing. The adventure abounds. Anyway, remember how I thought it was weird that two sisters were living alone except for servants? Mrs. Bates agrees with me. She's mad because the two sisters got a visit from Penhurst and she didn't. Apparently, Mrs. Bates is kind of a big deal. She suggests/demands that the two girls get a chaperone. Apparently the sisters have been in the cottage since their grandma died four years ago. That's all the detail we get so far. I demand a tragic story about their parents!
Anyway, Prudence points out that she's a spinster now. You know, twenty four is really old. Mrs. Bates argues that Prudence could still catch a man's eye and she can't handle Phoebe. Keep this in mind because it comes up later. Then Mrs. Bates, who is incredibly fat for some reason, moans about a London season for Phoebe. You know, I didn't care while I was reading this. Let's skip ahead. The point is that because Mrs. Bates says so, Prudence can't invite Penhurst back to her house. Apparently, Prudence does care about social rules, even though later she claims not to.
Later Prudence is trying to write, but nothing is coming to her. Clearly the cure is to go pester Penhurst. Prudence tells Phoebe they should go visit Penhurst at his house. Phoebe is aghast. She argues that Penhurst doesn't want visitors and he's only forced to stay in Wolfinger Abbey because...stuff. Yeah! Stuff. Prudence asks when Phoebe heard about this and Phoebe is non-committal. Clearly it happened when Penhurst was at their house earlier. ...and no other time.
Prudence is dumb, just sayin'. This is why Mrs. Bates came over and ordered Prudence to get a chaperone. I mean, it doesn't matter to me if Phoebe is running off in the middle of the night and having secret meetings... Wait! This is a romance novel! Why isn't Phoebe the main character? Argh. Fine. So, Phoebe says she doesn't want Prudence caught in the rain alone, because it's cloudy outside you see. There's a storm brewing. Things are going to change... You get it. Prudence thinks there's something weird with her sister, but she ignores this and boldly strides forth vaguely towards Wolfinger Abbey.
If Phoebe didn't want to go, why didn't she just stay at home? She had to know her sister was just going to walk to Wolfinger Abbey anyway. Maybe these two sisters, who've lived together at least four years if not all their lives, don't know each other. ...or either of them realizing these things would have messed up the plot. One of the two.
In any case, they make it to Wolfinger Abbey eventually and even see Penhurst there. Prudence notices again that Penhurst isn't mysterious at all. She's disappointed and trying to think of a way to finagle an invitation into the abbey when out of the west, heralded by a roll of thunder and a lightning flash, comes a carriage all in black, with the driver muffled up against the elements. Prudence thinks it looks like a funeral carriage. This is the stuff of her dreams, and merely seeing this gets her blood pumping. Well, just wait until the carriage's lone occupant leaves it. Prudence sees the Ravenclaw coat of arms on the carriage door, but she's still somehow surprised when Ravenclaw himself steps out. He looks “like some phantom from hell” as well as having “a devilish look, heightened by the inch-long scar under one of his steel gray eyes.” Do you think he's the Devil Earl? I don't. He's also tall, has a “very masculine” mouth, and black hair that's just a little too long. Others might find him scary, but Prudence thinks he's the sexiest thing since sex. Geeze, even his voice, addressed to his brother, sends chills up Prudence's spine. (By the way, the only part of this I made up was his carriage coming out of the west. The book doesn't give a cardinal direction. More's the pity.)
Oh, also. His name is Ravenscar. His hair is black and he has a scar on his face, under his eye. What a well named character. It doesn't seem that Prudence is as well named.
Ravenclaw, whose first name is Sebastian apparently, tells the ladies he needs to speak with his brother privately now and sends them off in the rain. Phoebe is pissed about this and is unable to think of anything scarier than Ravenclaw and probably anyone ruder, nastier, whateves. We get it, Mrs. Simmons. He's a bad man. Purdence is still enamored with him and has new inspiration for her story. The villain will be just like Ravenclaw! This could never come back to haunt her! Also, her pulse leaps with excitement to write about him. Yeah, definitely not Prudent. Just sayin'.
Also, Phoebe is sixteen. I'm telling you this partially in case it's important later, but mostly to marvel at the eight-year age difference between them. I am expecting some really great story about their parents now. Maybe Prudence's mom died in some heartbreaking way so her father remarried and had Phoebe years later. Then Phoebe's mom and their girls' mutual dad died in some terrible way and their grandma took them in.
Based on Ravenclaw's over dramatic appearance, I'm pretty sure that something bad happened to their parents, anyway.
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