Summary

Nick explains to Bex the truth of Emma’s seclusion. Emma and Richard met, fell in love, and were engaged just two months later. The “constant microscope” (176) of the palace and the press caused her to wither and her confidence to disappear. Richard’s inability to deal with emotions made him cold to her plight. After the birth of her two sons, she was especially paranoid. Because of the press, she became reclusive and, eventually, completely non-communicative by the time Nick was five. She now lives alone at Trewsbury house, visited occasionally by her husband and sons. Nick wishes that the truth about her condition would be revealed to the public. Nick ends the story with an explanation of how the press is capable of completely ruining a person, and how he does not want that for either...