Chapter Summaries

Georgiana assigned guards to protect Paris from American Scourers and monsters, then confronted Miss Georgina in Bonaparte’s bedroom. She drove Georgina into the study for questioning, but Fouché intervened and Georgiana returned to her room alone.

• Georgiana concentrated most of her forces on the American mercenaries and the monsters lurking in Paris, while leaving a small guard at Versailles.
• After a noblewoman told her Miss Georgina was in the First Consul’s bedroom, Georgiana went there with several women following her.
• Georgiana found Bonaparte and Miss Georgina lying fully clothed on the bed, then dragged Georgina into the study and questioned her about her identity and jewels.
• Georgina refused to answer, and Bonaparte left without intervening as Georgiana kept her under questioning.
• Fouché arrived, dismissed Georgiana’s questioning as a game, and escorted Georgina away.
• Georgiana left the study and returned to her room after finding Bonaparte gone.

Georgiana struggled with her feelings about her marriage and the women trapped by it, while Chateaubriand urged her not to abandon British law. After learning that Mazzi had returned penniless, Georgiana withdrew from the conversation and went to bed with Catherina.

• Georgiana reflected on divorce, convents, and women who had fled abusive marriages before Chateaubriand came to speak with her.
• Chateaubriand warned Georgiana that she would not find a good life if she returned and asked why she had cast aside the British law she once admired.
• Georgiana told Chateaubriand that Merry had said the Habeas Corpus Act was only a remedy that could be cut off, and that Mazzi had returned penniless.
• Catherina arranged for Handel to be played, and Georgiana recalled the story of Hannibal and his father before learning that the little girl had left.
• Catherina accompanied Georgiana to bed, where Georgiana lay awake thinking about British military law and a soldier who had faced legal trouble.

Georgiana prepared to leave while reflecting on political intrigue, secret wars, and the risks of foreign expansion. After Bonaparte confronted her over her conduct, she challenged his relationship with a young girl, then learned Talleyrand was leaving for Brussels and Fouché would become her colleague.

• Georgiana sorted documents and packed for departure while considering the dangers of political secrets and Britain's actions in the Spice Islands.
• Bonaparte summoned Georgiana and demanded an explanation for her behavior at the palace.
• Georgiana defended enforcing palace rules and criticized Bonaparte for sleeping with a sixteen-year-old girl.
• Talleyrand told Georgiana he was leaving for Brussels and offered advice about attending to her own interests.
• Fouché told Georgiana that they would be colleagues and thanked her for recommending him.

Georgiana traveled toward Amiens with Mazzi and Catherina while reflecting on Napoleon’s past and cautioning Mazzi about obeying orders. She refused to say whether she would disobey Napoleon and left Mazzi to describe what Napoleon had been like when young.

• Georgiana recalled Chateaubriand’s family losses and his praise for Napoleon after Napoleon abolished the Hostages Law.
• Georgiana wondered whether British Aurors in France were meddling in affairs that did not concern them and turned to Mazzi.
• Catherina asked Mazzi to describe the First Consul when he was young, and Georgiana warned Mazzi against reckless actions and blindly following orders.
• Georgiana recalled Napoleon’s long absence from his regiment and his commander’s decision to pay him three months of back pay.
• Catherina asked whether Georgiana would dare disobey Napoleon’s orders, but Georgiana refused to answer and said they would reach Amiens to see Catherina’s husband.
• Georgiana asked Mazzi to tell them about Napoleon, and Mazzi looked uncertain.

After Napoleon returned Georgiana to Paris, he placed her under house arrest at the Jardin des Plantes for allegedly encouraging Matthi's soldiers to defy him. Georgiana remained guarded and planned to pass along a map identifying suitable American land for cotton cultivation.

• Julian Ouvrard brought Georgiana back to Paris after Napoleon’s forces had departed, and she was sent to Saint-Cloud.
• Napoleon accused Georgiana of inciting rebellion and ordered her confined within fifty meters of her residence unless she had permission to leave.
• Georgiana challenged Napoleon over his claim on her and mocked his new nickname, the “Corsican Pirate Captain.”
• Julian Ouvrard visited Georgiana at the Jardin des Plantes and invited her to dinner, but she refused and used a Latin phrase to make him leave her alone.
• Layla told Georgiana about a party at the Jardin des Plantes, while Georgiana studied a map she had made with Cuvier and Redouté showing suitable American areas for growing cotton.
• Georgiana copied the map and hid it upstairs, intending to find a way to send it out.

Harry and Hermione found the Sword of Gryffindor beneath the ice in the Forest of Dean, while Georgiana reflected on obedience, authority, and how institutions could survive their leaders. After considering her own emblem and the history of forests and policing, she left the Beast of Gévaudan exhibit to meet Monsieur Antoine.

• Harry and Hermione followed a silver stag Patronus to a pond and spotted the Sword of Gryffindor under the ice.
• Georgiana considered how soldiers’ obedience to orders could conflict with personal principles and how systems might outlast their leaders.
• Georgiana saw the letter “n” on her carriage door and realized she needed to choose her own emblem rather than let someone else decide it.
• Georgiana recalled France’s forests, the history of forest policing, and the Beast of Gévaudan as she viewed its specimen in Brussels.
• Margarita told Georgiana that Monsieur Antoine had arrived, and Georgiana left the exhibition room to meet him.

Georgiana received a sapphire necklace and a message from the First Consul, who wanted her to take Princess Polina to Italy with Jean-Antoine Houdon and the Director of the Denon Wing. She agreed only on the condition that the First Consul find her a necklace she liked, and wrote down her demand to send him.

• The chapter described the Forbidden Forest, its dangerous creatures and poachers, and Severus's commendation for challenging a poaching gang.
• Georgiana reflected on sword duels and the convicted sentry's failure to use blank rounds to alert his side.
• Jean-Antoine Houdon visited Georgiana in her greenhouse and delivered a jewelry box from the First Consul.
• Georgiana found a sapphire necklace and a note comparing her to a wild white deer whose neck had been adorned with diamonds.
• Houdon told Georgiana that the First Consul wanted her to take Princess Polina to Italy with him and the Director of the Denon Wing.
• Georgiana rejected the necklace and asked for a finer design, then wrote her demand down for Houdon to deliver.

Georgiana returned to the shelter and reflected on how punishment had disrupted the daycare’s customs. While preparing for an upcoming party, she ordered jewelry that carried messages for Bonaparte and Mazzi, and considered the dangers of her journey to Italy.

• Georgiana returned and learned that the shelter’s daycare had begun charging late parents, which led more parents to arrive late and made lateness seem acceptable.
• Georgiana considered choosing jewelry as a visible mark of shame that might allow her to leave the Jardin des Plantes.
• Georgiana ordered a strand of garnet beads engraved with a person’s head and selected peridot jewelry for the First Consul.
• Georgiana gave Mazzi a topaz telescope as a symbol of friendship and sincerity.
• Georgiana reflected on leadership, her choices, and the danger of traveling to Italy, then resolved to remain strong.

Georgiana considered how to protect the women at her shelter as Rabastan Lestrange brought her a mysterious golden box recovered from Rue de Rivoli. She recognized the magical figure forming above it as Metatron’s Cube, and Julian Ouvrard’s inability to see it left her wondering what the box might mean.

• Georgiana worried that the women at her shelter could not safely leave or start over elsewhere, and Margarita announced Rabastan Lestrange’s arrival.
• Rabastan told Georgiana that Napoleon had been injured in a carriage accident and that the party had been postponed.
• A misty figure appeared above the golden box, and Georgiana identified it as Metatron’s Cube and asked Rabastan to leave it with her.
• Rabastan invited Georgiana to visit where the box had been found, but she refused to go out.
• Julian Ouvrard brought Georgiana wine, and she discovered that he could not see Metatron’s Cube.
• Georgiana remembered the wind rose at Burgundy Castle and touched her Fire Opal Ring, wondering if she would need to use it.

Georgiana reflected on Napoleon’s history, her vulnerability to Grindelwald’s schemes, and the uncertain future as she traveled to Saint-Cloud. She arrived wearing the necklace she had ordered, unsure how her visit would affect her standing or safety.

• Georgiana recalled the history of Rue de Rivoli, Paris’s markets, Genevieve’s relics, and the upheavals that had reshaped the city.
• Georgiana considered how Grindelwald exploited people’s gifts and feared being treated as a pawn, while telling herself that Protego could stop bullets.
• The jeweler delivered Georgiana’s necklace with peridot replacing Bonaparte’s portrait, and she put it on before leaving in Julian Ouvrard’s carriage.
• Georgiana wondered whether her journey and meeting at Saint-Cloud would expose her movements or bring consequences, and the carriage reached Saint-Cloud.

Georgiana arrived at Saint-Cloud with the completed Cotton Belt map and presented it to Bonaparte, while reflecting on love, fate, and the cost of the freedom her plan promised. She left the map on the table, knowing it could lead to people being used as collateral and sold into slavery in the Americas.

• Citizens moved the free market from Place de Grève to Île de la Cité, where they traded by the Pont Neuf.
• Georgiana arrived at Saint-Cloud under Julian Ouvrard’s escort, surprising people who had expected her to be in Chantilly.
• Georgiana reflected on cotton production, Paris’s arcades, and how consumption could drive demand for blended textiles.
• Georgiana met Bonaparte, who wore the sunflower brooch she had made, and told him she had chosen a charging bull as her symbol.
• Georgiana spread the Cotton Belt map on the table and called it freedom, while acknowledging that her plan could make people collateral for slavery in the Americas.

Georgiana tended to Napoleon’s supposedly injured hand and challenged his assumptions about pleasure, marriage, and her place in politics. She refused to join him over a map, left Saint-Cloud, and taunted an aristocratic woman waiting outside.

• Georgiana unwrapped Napoleon’s bandages and found that his hand was only sprained and unharmed.
• Georgiana reflected on immediate pleasure, long-term gratification, and the limits of trying to bind someone through marriage.
• Napoleon admired Georgiana’s gemstone necklace, discussed her birthday gift and a possible place for her, and invited her to look at a map.
• Georgiana refused to join Napoleon, criticized him for kissing her while wearing his wedding ring, and left the room.
• Georgiana found an old aristocratic woman outside, warned her about virtue and terror, and left Saint-Cloud escorted by Julian.

Georgiana learned that a Siberian bone flute could awaken animal spirits within plants, then abandoned her plan to investigate Siberia. As Marquis Lorban proposed joining her and Princess Polina on a journey through Corsica and Italy, Georgiana realized she was reluctant to leave because Bonaparte had become part of her life.

• Georgiana met Marquis Lorban, who explained the Evenki beliefs behind a reindeer-bone hunting flute and its connection to spirits inhabiting trees.
• Georgiana blew the flute, causing a clover to come alive and run before returning to an ordinary plant, while Lorban sensed that a falcon had been summoned.
• Georgiana asked Lorban about Robert Barker and decided to sponsor the painter’s world-spanning panoramas for a proposed amusement park called Sun City.
• Georgiana declined to continue to Siberia, and Lorban proposed traveling with her and Princess Polina from Marseille to Corsica and then Pisa.
• Georgiana reflected on the planned departure and recognized that she was reluctant to leave Bonaparte, who had become part of her life.

Georgiana studied the political and economic forces shaping cotton production before Sir Merry arrived with a warning about ministers’ legal responsibility for the king’s actions. He left with her map and urged her to use her influence to discuss constitutional monarchy with Chateaubriand.

• Georgiana reflected on the history of slavery and cotton production as she planned affordable clothing with Bertin.
• After Bertin left, Georgiana resumed studying Metatron’s Cube until Layla announced Sir Merry’s arrival.
• Georgiana gave Sir Merry a map copied from the one she had given Napoleon, and he pointed out that it omitted Spanish territory in Florida.
• Sir Merry explained that ministers could be prosecuted or impeached for participating in unlawful royal acts once they were sealed.
• Sir Merry took the map and urged Georgiana to use her influence to discuss constitutional monarchy with Chateaubriand.

Georgiana considered the political and economic history behind Louisiana and the Americas during her Louvre visit with Denon and David. David introduced her to Antoine-Jean Gros and asked her to model for The Rape of the Sabine Women, leaving her offended and undecided.

• Georgiana reflected on Louisiana’s boundaries, American expansion, and Britain’s colonial trade policies.
• Georgiana visited the Louvre with Denon and learned about the museum’s past and its unfinished revolutionary engravings.
• David showed Georgiana a painting of Napoleon by his student Antoine-Jean Gros and asked her to take Gros to Italy.
• David asked Georgiana to model for The Rape of the Sabine Women, and she felt offended by the proposal.

Georgiana received Talleyrand’s proposal to sell Louisiana in pieces for sixty million francs and learned that Britain had established naval bases in Nassau and Trinidad. Troubled by jealousy and the forces shaping events, she left the Louvre reflecting on Harry’s death and Dumbledore’s role in it.

• Stanley met Georgiana at the Louvre and delivered a sealed letter from Talleyrand.
• Georgiana read Talleyrand’s suggestion to sell Louisiana in pieces for sixty million francs rather than accept an offer of eighty million.
• Stanley told Georgiana that Britain had established naval bases in Nassau and Trinidad.
• Georgiana questioned Stanley about his new position and, after confronting her own jealousy, left the Louvre.
• Georgiana wondered why Harry had died so young and blamed Dumbledore for persuading him to listen to others.

Georgiana received Carnot and his son Sadi, whose respectful relationship made her wonder how Bonaparte would treat his own son. After reflecting on law, family authority, and the wish-fulfilling pearl, she thought she saw a black dog pass outside the greenhouse.

• Georgiana examined the hidden peridot from her garnet necklace and reflected on Bonaparte's courage at Arcole Bridge and the suffering of Rebecca Nurse and her family.
• Georgiana considered Talleyrand's renewed clerical robes and concluded that he would not become Louisiana's governor.
• Carnot visited Georgiana to protest the Legion of Honour and introduced his son, Sadi, who planned to study physics and chemistry at École Polytechnique.
• Georgiana and Carnot discussed Sufi poets and Songs of Kabir, while Sadi's independent choice of studies made her consider Bonaparte's likely need to control his son.
• Georgiana thought she saw a black dog pass outside the greenhouse.

Georgiana reflected on how motives could justify actions as she worked to expand the Jardin des Plantes’ spice collection with Fargeon and the shelter children. After receiving a letter from Bonaparte, she wrote back and sent her reply to him at Malmaison, uncertain whether he still wanted to return to his former life.

• Georgiana considered how motives and justifications shaped judgments of crimes, then chose books to send to the Heidelberg library.
• Georgiana welcomed shelter children to the Jardin des Plantes, where they helped plant spice seeds Fargeon had brought and received ice cream for their work.
• Fargeon gave Georgiana a letter from Bonaparte, and Georgiana blushed as she read it.
• Georgiana wrote a reply, sealed it with her bull crest, and told Fargeon that the roses she grew near Sèvres were called René Violet.
• Fargeon left to deliver Georgiana’s letter to Bonaparte at Malmaison, while Georgiana returned to work.

Georgiana and Bonaparte discussed France’s trade deficit, Louisiana, and their strained relationship, while he asked her to help arrange a territorial exchange with Spain. After Bonaparte left, Matilda returned to serve Georgiana and warned her that soldiers were distributing pamphlets urging war with Britain.

• Bonaparte told Georgiana that France had lost in the latest trade figures and discussed Monroe’s claim that the Louisiana sale contract could not be dissolved.
• Bonaparte asked Georgiana to show interest in Tuscany so France could exchange Louisiana with Spain and demand repayment of Spanish debts; Georgiana agreed.
• Georgiana explained her plans for blended fabric and a City of the Sun, then argued with Bonaparte about her loyalty to another man and his intention to have David paint her.
• Bonaparte declared that Georgiana was his wife and said she should consider the other man dead if he had not appeared by Vendémiaire.
• Matilda returned to serve Georgiana and told her that someone in the army was distributing pamphlets inciting war with Britain.

Georgiana discussed constitutional law and Louisiana’s boundaries with Sieyès, who asked why she had wanted him and Napoleon to reconcile. Sieyès left the region’s conflicting laws unresolved, while the map and the proposed purchase remained under discussion.

• Matilda learned through her acquaintances that Barère’s pamphlet had spread widely, Lucien had confronted Fouché, and Lucien had been sent to Madrid.
• Sieyès visited Georgiana in the greenhouse and asked why she had hoped he and Napoleon would reconcile.
• Georgiana asked whether Sieyès still supported a constitutional monarchy and raised the need to define states of war and peace during the Quasi-War.
• Sieyès showed Georgiana a map of Anglo-America and proposed a boundary through Louisiana that would leave much of the region west of it.
• Georgiana suggested that several buyers jointly purchase Louisiana, and she and Sieyès considered the Americans’ proposed price and the rule of addictio in diem.
• Georgiana asked who would defend the region between Little Rock and Saint Louis, and Sieyès said he was not responsible and that its laws were conflicting.