The Maidens

Now at Cambridge, Mariana reflects on the myth of Demeter and Persephone; like Demeter after Persephone was kidnapped, she feels paralyzed in her mourning for Sebastian and haunted by his absence. Standing before the school gates, she feels as “small and fraudulent […] scared and alone” as when she first arrived from Greece at 17 (50). 

Once on campus, Mariana feels comforted by its solid, unchanging presence. Her and Sebastian’s story is one of many and no more important than any other. Seeing police officers milling around reminds Mariana to find Zoe, but first she runs into Julian Ashcroft, an old psychotherapy classmate who is now a “talking head” for true-crime documentaries and strikes Mariana as “slightly artificial.” He reveals that he is working with police to identify the killer, that the murder was excessively brutal, and that the victim was indeed Tara. Mariana rushes off to find Zoe. 

Glimpsing Zoe through a stained-glass window, Mariana recalls Zoe’s childhood; scarred by her parents’ sudden death, Zoe struggled with depression in adolescence but eventually overcame her trauma to gain admittance to Cambridge. Mariana worries about how the death of Tara, Zoe’s best friend, will affect her.