The Maidens

The next morning Mariana visits Zoe, who is studying revenge tragedies. Zoe apologizes for implying that Mariana is a poor substitute for Sebastian, and Mariana is understanding. She recalls that Zoe had always connected more with Sebastian, even as a child. After leaving Zoe, Mariana phones her patients in London to tell them that she will be out of town due to “a family emergency” (101). Only Henry takes it poorly, claiming Mariana does not care about him and saying that he is watching and can see her. Mariana ends the call “unnerved.”

Mariana questions whether she should involve herself in the investigation but finds her thoughts returning to the case. She believes the answer to who killed Tara lies in uncovering the victim’s secrets. The killer, whom Mariana assumes is male given the violence of the crime, must be suffering, perhaps because of childhood trauma: Having been denied empathy, he thus had been unable to develop it. Tara must have somehow provoked “the terrified child inside him” (105).

Lost in her thoughts, Mariana does not notice Fred, who greets her enthusiastically. She notices his “nice eyes” but quickly banishes the thought. He invites Mariana for a drink later. Her first instinct is to decline, but realizing he might know something about Conrad, she accepts.

Claiming to be investigating at the dean’s request, Mariana approaches Elsie, Tara’s “bedder”—one of many local women who clean up after the students. Mariana bribes her for information, offering to buy her cake.

Elsie brings Mariana to a tearoom for their chat. Mariana is taken aback when Elsie tells her that Zoe has been rude to her. Elsie knows that Mariana is not working on behalf of the dean. When Mariana strokes her ego, Elsie softens, revealing that she saw Tara leaving her room with an upset expression on the day she died. She further claims that only Zoe and Elsie herself were kind to Tara. The other girls bullied her because they were jealous of her beauty. When Mariana wonders whether “there might be more to it than that” (114), Elsie cryptically tells her to speak to Zoe, refusing to elaborate. Though she distrusts Elsie, Mariana flatters her to gain entry into Tara’s room.

The police have already been through Tara’s room, but the smell of marijuana and perfume lingers. The room is a mess of discarded clothes, books, and personal effects. Among them, Mariana finds a postcard of a Titian painting, Tarquin and Lucretia, on the back of which are four lines of ancient Greek.

Mariana brings the postcard to Clarissa, who explains that the lines are from Euripides’s tragedy The Children of Heracles, in which an oracle demands a high-born daughter be sacrificed to Demeter’s daughter Persephone in order to save Athens. The coincidence disturbs Mariana, but Clarissa believes it is merely ironic; Tara was studying Greek tragedy with Edward this term. Clarissa suggests Mariana speak with Zoe about Edward since he is her director of studies—a fact Mariana didn’t know.

Mariana takes Zoe to lunch at a popular French brasserie. At first, they discuss Zoe’s studies and future, but when the topic shifts to love, Zoe’s offhand comment that love only brings sorrow upsets Mariana. The “little bubble of the present moment” shattered (125), Mariana asks Zoe how she is coping with Tara's death. Zoe admits to being distressed, prompting Mariana to ask her about Elsie. Zoe calls her “a psycho” whom Tara hated.

Mariana shows Zoe the postcard from Tara’s room, and she claims not to know who could have sent it. Mariana asks about Edward, noting that Sebastian thought Zoe had a crush on him. She denies this so vehemently that Mariana wonders if Sebastian was right and if she “might be reading Zoe wrong” (128).

Walking along the river after lunch brings back painful memories of first introducing Sebastian to Zoe there and of kissing Sebastian on a nearby bench. Mariana asks about Edward again and is surprised when Zoe admits that he “dazzles” her in a way she finds unnerving; she senses he is pretending to be someone he is not. She refers to his popularity as cult-like, especially with the Maidens. Mariana wants to speak with them, so Zoe offers to take her to his lecture, which is beginning shortly.

Mariana and Zoe arrive just in time to a packed auditorium. With tears running down his face, Edward pays tribute to Tara, prompting prolonged applause. He then shifts into a discussion of “the liminal in Greek tragedy” (134)—specifically, the state of being suspended between life and death. He describes the Eleusinian cult and the secret rite that provided initiates with a symbolic experience of death and rebirth, concluding with an impassioned plea for attendees to “[p]articipate in the wonder” of being alive while they can (138).