The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels

“She tugged unconsciously on the silver locket that hung from a black ribbon around her neck.”

Cecilia touches her locket, which contains a portrait of her mother. She performs this gesture unconsciously when under stress. The portrait is an early example of Cilla’s presence in the narrative, even though she is dead (See: Symbols & Motifs).

“Ned would have whispered, I don’t need anyone at all, but at that moment a shadow fell over him, a coolness, a great dragging silence like the empty dark chambers of an ancient abbey.”

Ned’s emotional state changes throughout the narrative, as at first, he believes that he needs no one to support or love him. Later, he realizes he needs Cecilia, that he loves her deeply. The imagery of the abbey is also evocative of Northrangerland Abbey, demonstrating the connection between Cecilia’s childhood loneliness and Ned’s current loneliness.

“The more honorable members had been forced to separate themselves from these degenerates by forming the Wisteria Society, a noble coterie of ladies who were virtuously open about their crimes.”

The women regarded as “degenerates” by the Society are the women who use the flying incantation for witchcraft. These women feature in the next book in the series, The League of Gentlewomen Witches. The women of the Wisteria Society, in regarding themselves as “virtuously open about their crimes,” represent a humorous combination of both adhering to some ideas of Victorian propriety and social standing while nevertheless engaging in The Subversion of Gender Roles through their piracy.

“In our noble hearts. But that’s enough history for today. Come and learn how to kill someone with a teaspoon.”

This line is an example of the humor India Holton uses throughout the narrative. While the women often behave in ways that conform to Victorian ideals—such as spending much of their time at home, albeit in flying houses—they are nevertheless violent criminals, seizing power and agency for themselves through piracy. The idea that even a mundane domestic object like a “teaspoon” can be wielded by the women as a weapon reinforces The Subversion of Gender Roles they engage in.

“I shall be nothing more overt than a silence, a shifting of the air perhaps gently scented with lilacs, when I come again into your presence. You will see only the knife I leave in your rib cage. Just who shall assassinate whom, Captain Charming Ned Flirting Lightbourne?”

In Cecilia’s second encounter with Ned, she fantasizes about killing him, even though she finds him charming and flirtatious. Her positive description of his personality foreshadows her changing feelings about him, while her ability to match his assassination plans with violent plans of her own invokes Romance and Partnership Between Equals.

“‘It is violence that best overcomes hate, vengeance that most certainly heals injury, and a good cup of tea that soothes the most anguished soul’; thus ran the motto of the Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels.”

This is another example of Holton’s humor and The Subversion of Gender Roles. Instead of accepting a demure moral code, the Wisteria Society’s adages reflect their justification of their violent means.

“No men sat at the table, having been left at home to mind the children, guard the treasure, or quite frankly just stay out of the way of women’s business.”

This passage also demonstrates The Subversion of Gender Roles. Men stay home with the children and out of the way of the “women’s business,” a clear subversion of the usual phrasing of “men’s business” that kept women at home in the private sphere.

“That I inherited his brilliance proves God is on my side and that my mission of restoring England to men’s superior rule is a divine one.”

Morvath’s delusions feed into his misogyny. He believes that his Brontë heritage makes him more intelligent than those around him and better suited to rule England than the women currently in charge, a belief that will shatter when the truth of his parentage is revealed.

“That feeling of longing, of mystery and distant magic, pulls always on my soul. I suppose that’s where my mother must be. Roaming through the afterlight, stealing heaven…”

When Cecilia is drunk, her emotions become more clearly evident. She ventures into the poetic language that her father often utilizes, demonstrating her lingering connection to him, even after he severed it by killing her mother.

“A Brontë book. It represents the bastard heritage that drives all he does.”

Ned succinctly distills Morvath’s motivations when he sees Wuthering Heights. Morvath’s supposed Brontë heritage gives him a sense of superiority that fuels his misogynistic rage. The reference to Wuthering Heights also speaks to the importance of books and literature as a motif in the text (See: Symbols & Motifs).

“Yet beneath that innocence he sensed a ribald longing, and wondered if it was for him in particular or just a general interest in kissing. He wished it was for him. He longed for her. She was smart and strong, and, God, just the way she held a gun made his toes curl with lust.”

Ned can see through the layers of propriety that motivate Cecilia to tamp down her romantic and sexual desires. He knows that she has yearnings she refuses, while he also acknowledges her competency that draws him toward her, illustrating the theme of Romance and Partnership Between Equals.

“One can be happy in eternal solitude: a book, a cup of tea, and no company; that was Cecilia’s idea of heaven.”

Cecilia’s core desires are for peace and solitude. Her ambivalent feelings toward the adventurous expectations of the Wisteria Society reflect The Quest for Independence against Societal Constraints that she undergoes in her character arc. These desires shift and change as she becomes closer and more connected to Ned, though he recognizes her dreams at the end of the narrative when he gifts her a stolen library.

“They sat at the table—pirate matron, evil mastermind’s daughter, and the man hired by the former to murder the latter.”

This line succinctly illustrates the irony of the dealings of the Wisteria Society. They sit together to have a meal when all three of them are connected by the threads of murder and scheming, once more speaking to the ironic contrast between their outward social niceties and their unconventional deeds.

“Northangerland Abbey had been a spruce, well-lit, modern building until her father took possession of it. He spent years transforming it to a state of mournful gloom. It was, he liked to say, his tangible opus.”

Northrangerland Abbey, as a “tangible opus,” reflects Morvath’s literary opus. His writing is odd, difficult to read, and unpublishable. The abbey is odd, off-putting, and difficult to navigate.

“He’d had that chloroform with him the whole time, yet had not taken her to the Queen’s prison, nor to her father’s house until it landed right in front of them. He’d supported and protected her—and kissed her too, although she didn’t want to think about that.”

Cecilia meditates on her conflict about Ned’s true intentions. Even though she ended up in Northrangerland Abbey against her wishes, that did not seem to be Ned’s intention, which foreshadows the reveal of his machinations to keep her safe.

“He’d been awestruck by Cilla Bassingthwaite, but it was Cecilia’s coolness that paradoxically warmed him; her implacability that made him hot in dangerous places; her shadows, so deep beneath the still surface, that burned right through his heart.”

Ned’s love for Cecilia becomes clearer toward the end of the narrative. It also informs the theme of Romance and Partnership Between Equals, as the things that Ned loves about Cecilia are the things that complement him (her coolness versus his charm/charisma, etc.).

“Once this Morvath business was over, Cecilia intended to collect a stack of books and lock herself in her sitting room until Captain Lightbourne went away.”

Cecilia’s plan to ignore Ned is in stark contrast with the rest of her thoughts about him and their encounters. In the stress of Morvath’s abbey, she yearns for the familiar comforts of solitude and reading, two things that comfort her when she is stressed (See: Symbols & Motifs).

“She glanced over, and he winked at her, and she snapped her gaze back to the corridor with such speed she saw stars. Felt stars beneath her heart.”

The imagery of stars harkens back to when Ned wondered if he saw stars in Cecilia’s hair when they first met in Chapter 1. Now, Cecilia is the one experiencing stars in the context of her feelings for Ned: The way Cecilia and Ned mirror each other reflects Romance and Partnership Between Equals.

“All her life she had run away, doing as she was told, escaping into emptiness and leaving death in her wake.”

Cecilia’s loneliness echoes Ned’s in Chapter 2. She feels guilty for surviving when her mother did not, the same guilt that Ned feels about surviving Morvath’s attack on his own mother. Her realization that she is always “doing as she [is] told” reflects her growing sense of self and The Quest for Independence against Societal Constraints.

“Cecilia closed her eyes and thought of England. Lush, flowering England laid open to the gasping, caressing winds.”

Holton uses evocative and erotic language to describe the countryside and to describe Cecilia’s thoughts during her intimate encounter with Ned. The idea of thinking “of England” during sex is an allusion to the real-life Queen Victoria’s advice to her daughter during her daughter’s unhappy marriage: Here, Cecilia thinks of England while in a moment of sexual ecstasy instead of sexual resignation.

“‘Cecilia,’ he whispered in the scorched darkness. ‘Ned,’ she breathed. It was the simplest truth of them. It felt like everything.”

The “simplest truth” that Ned and Cecilia have is their love for each other, made clear in the reverent way they say each other’s names. The exchange of names encapsulates a moment of consummated intimacy and connection, reflecting Romance and Partnership Between Equals.

“It shone like the crooked grin of Cilla Bassingthwaite, the lost pirate queen, blowing wishes that freckled the sky and flared gently in Cecilia’s memory. She never had to look to sense her mother’s light.”

Cilla’s presence now exists for Cecilia outside of the symbol of the portraits (See: Symbols & Motifs). She is everywhere to Cecilia, echoing Cecilia’s drunken wondering about her mother’s presence in the sky or heaven above.

“Etiquette demands that a gentleman remove his glove before helping a lady up from the floor onto which he has so recklessly tossed her.”

Even when Ned and Cecilia are engaged, Cecilia still playfully engages with ideas of propriety and moral behavior. It is also a direct inversion of Cecilia’s earlier complaint that Ned touched her without a glove on during their battle outside Miss Dole’s house.