TMOHD Chapter 5: Wardrobes Full of Clothes

[duchess of malfi]

At the beginning of this chapter Terisa is still with the King and Adapt Havelock in the King's rooms. She is close to panicking.

She shouldn't have spoken so sarcastically, so assertively. She was dependent on these people. With one cross word, she could be dismissed from existence...I'm sorry, she thought involuntarily, while her alarm increased. Let me stay. I'll be a good girl, I promise.

The King, however smiles at her and calls for a maid to show her to her rooms.
And then the King questions her about her family. When told that Terisa only has a father, and that he will never notice that she is gone:

When she said that, the King's gaze flashed at her. For an instant she couldn't see the whiteness of his hair, the weakness of his stature, the blue tinge of his wrinkled old skin: she saw only the direct strength of his eyes.

Clearly, Joyse is stronger than he is letting on...
When the maid comes it turns out to be a pretty woman named Saddith. She takes Terisa to the rooms assigned to her, and ir becomes clear on the way that Saddith is a woman who uses her physical and sexual charms to get ahead in life...
Terisa takes a nap and after some time wakes up and is introduced to the two men Garaden had asked to guard her rooms. They are flirting with Saddith, and frighten her when they try to flirt with her, as well. Terisa locks the servants out of her room and settles down to eat her dinner and try on some of the clothes lent to her by the princesses Elega and Myste. As she is going through the wardrobes of gowns, the back of one of the wardrobes opens up to reveal Adept Havelock and a secret passage.
It becomes clear to her that the Adept wants her to accompany him, for his actions and gestures make that very clear, though his words seem to be nonsense. She deosn't want to go, is frightened to go into the darkness, as her parents used to lock her into closets .
As a last protest she says

"Geraden warned me that the King has enemies. Are you trying to betray him?" At once, Havelock stopped. He stared at her as though he had been stung. For a second, his whole face expressed nothing but astonishment and dismay.

He then shines a bright light into her face to blind her and then takes her away into the secret passages.

[danlo]

Ah, the tru introduction of Adept Havelock. Joyce and Havelock, frail and mad, old men addicted 2 hopboard. But so much it going on behind those eyes. I feel like a bad moderator cauz I haven't participated enuf in this read--the ladies appear 2 have taken over--so come on Ryzel and Birinair we'll have 2 work 2gether... ..but yeah, we're dudes, we wait 4 the action scenes!

[Skyweir]

bah!! its all good!!

yes duchy havelocks appearance in the closet is interesting isnt it .. combined with Joyses flash of passion when speaking to Teresa about her father's nonchalent attitude to her existence .. it all adds up to a very telling duo .. not so mad and frail as we are lead to believe/perceive them as.

[Ryzel]

Havelock is a great character. Somehow he has managed to hold on to shreds of his sanity even while being subjected to the flat glass transition. I have always wondered if there is some kind of hidden trick to understanding Havelocks speech in the books, kind of a code of insanity that one has to break to make sense of what he says.

[MsMary]

I don't think there's any kind of code to understanding Havelock. When he's lucid, he is understandable. When he's not, he's usually going on about "rutting"!

yes duchy havelocks appearance in the closet is interesting isnt it .. combined with Joyses flash of passion when speaking to Teresa about her father's nonchalent attitude to her existence .. it all adds up to a very telling duo .. not so mad and frail as we are lead to believe/perceive them as.

Yes, Sky, so true. I agree with your comments here.

When she said that, the King's gaze flashed at her. For an instant she couldn't see the whiteness of his hair, the weakness of his stature, the blue tinge of his wrinkled old skin: she saw only the direct strength of his eyes.

I love this quote, Duchess.

That Joyce knows what is going on, and is keeping track of things is further shown when the maid Saddith is shown in:

At the sight of her, King Joyce frowned involuntarily, as if he had made a mistake; but at once he rubbed his expression clear. "Saddith. Just the one I wanted."

I get the feeling that Joyce knows exactly what kind of woman Saddith is, and what she has been up to. But he decides to let Saddith be Terisa's maid, anyway; perhaps he thinks it will given Terisa an opportunity to find out more about what is going on in Mordant.

~MsMary~

[Cord Hurn]

I feel it's interesting trying to imagine Havelock saying these sexually suggestive things while simultaneously projecting a reassuring stance and gentle tone of voice. It's not easy for me to picture, but I find the exercise entertaining.

"What're you doing here?" she breathed. "What you want?"

His thick lips shaking, Adept Havelock flinched as if she had threatened to strike him.

In spite of the alarm pounding in her throat, she felt forcibly the conflict between his ascetic nose and sybaritic mouth, the disfocus of his hot eyes. His self-contradictory visage made him look made him look wild--an appearance aggravated by his few remaining tufts of hair. And yet he seemed to be doing his best to calm her. His hands made reassuring gestures; his whole stance was unthreatening, even deferential.

"Luscious," he said, as though he meant, Forgive me. "All women are flesh, but you are its perfection." I didn't mean to frighten you. "Ha, ha, sneaking into bedchambers." I'm not going to hurt you. "Lust and lechery." You can trust me.

He was a madman--that much was unmistakable. Unfortunately, the knowledge wasn't much help. So he was crazy. So what was she going to do about it? She had no idea. Studying him warily, she retreated a step or two to give herself more space. Then she said, "There are two guards outside my door. They're both big, and they've got longswords. If I shout"--she faltered and almost panicked when she remembered that the door was bolted--"they'll be here before you can touch me."

Palms toward her, hands continued to make placating movements. Parts of his face expressed a fear of which other parts were ignorant: his eyes rolled, and his lower lip drooped, exposing crooked, yellow teeth; but his nose and cheekbones looked too determined to admit fear.

"This winter chills my bones," he told her as if it were a high secret. "No one understands hop-board."

Though they were speaking softly, he put a finger to his lips. Then he turned back toward the wardrobe and beckoned for her to follow.

"You want me to go in there?" Tension made her voice jump like his. The darkness behind the clothes was too deep to be measured. "Why?"

As persuasively as possible, he replied, "The King tries to protect his pieces. Individuals. What good are they? Worthless. Wor-r-r-r-rthless. It's all strategy. Sacrifice the right men to trap your opponent."

While he spoke, he kept beckoning, urging her toward him.

Note that Havelock initially tries to persuade Terisa without coercion. But when she balks at following, he uses his small mirror to temporarily blind her and pull her to the wardrobe. He took a big risk she would call for the guards--but perhaps a flash of light from his mirror told him the door was bolted and Terisa was bluffing.