"A Study In Drowning" Day 6 Readalong

As a reminder, from now on, our monthly discussions will be both here on the OwlCrate blog AND on The Nest! Go check out Amber's discussion that will be full of fun extras like bookish charades, shelf scavenger hunts and coloring pages!
 

On each day we'll read a section of A Study In Drowning both on the blog and in The Nest's group, and then discuss in the comments our theories and predictions. This means there will be spoilers for each section! Beware! 
 

Just a reminder that this will be a SPOILER discussion for chapters 12-13 of A Study In Drowning, so make sure you read or are finished this section before continuing.
 

Effy showers, and while waiting for Preston to do the same, she searches the room they’re staying in.
 

Under the bed, she finds several scraps of paper. Preston comes back into the room, and they read the papers together.
 

They are letters from Blackmar’s daughter, Arethusa, to Emrys Myrddin and a character from Angharad. The Fairy King’s consort at the beginning of the book.
 

The last note holds the quote, “I will love you to ruination” from Angharad.
 

Effy puts it together that Myrddin had an affair with Blackmar’s daughter, which inspired Angharad.
 

Effy wishes she could speak with Blackmar’s daughter, but Preston tells her they must settle for the Greenebough editor instead.

They searched the room more thoroughly but found no more notes, just a tiny knife you may use to cut fruit.
 

Effy and Preston then went downstairs for breakfast. A vast buffet was laid out in the dining room, and staff were serving olives and tiny fruit tarts.
 

Blackmar then came in and became angry that they were eating the food meant for a party. He invites them to the party, and they go upstairs to change into formal clothes Blackmar is lending them.
 

Later, Effy tells Preston of an idea she has. She believes the photographs they found in Ianto’s room are Blackmar’s daughter. Effy wants to leave to get the photograph, but Preston suggests they stay to talk to the editor.
 

At the party, Blackmar finds them, and Effy asks for an introduction to the editor. Blackmar asks her to wait a moment and tells Effy how lovely she looks in his daughter’s dress. Baldly, Effy asks in response where his daughter is.

Blackmar says nothing but then introduces Effy and Preston to Mr. Marlowe, Greenebough’s editor-in-chief.
 

Marlowe is yet again another grade a creep in a sea of lecherous men and leers at Effy.

They sit down, and Preston asks Blackmar and Marlowe questions about his published books and their connection to Myrddin.
 

They press with questions about Angharad, looking for clues as to who published it from the two men.
 

Effy pushes for answers, and Blackmar shuts her down. However, Marlowe tells Effy that he’ll tell her anything she wants to know for a dance.

Preston then steps in, taking Effy’s hand and staring Marlowe down. He takes Effy for a dance, and they embrace closely. 

After the song ends, they book it from the estate and into the car, speeding down Penrhos's drive. 

 

Preston drives back to Hiraeth at a high speed. Effy cries next to him, and he comforts her as best as possible.
 

She's upset that everything Myrddin wrote is a lie. That the Fairy King isn't real, and as she sobs, Preston gives her his jacket.
 

She's taken aback by it and asks him why he's so nice to her.
 

Preston replies that Effy doesn't see herself very clearly.
 

They then talk about Preston's father, who received a traumatic brain injury in a car accident that robbed him of his personality. It turned him into a man no one could recognize before eventually passing away.
 

Effy then falls asleep and wakes when they are back at Hiraeth. Preston walks her to the guest house door, and Effy takes her sleeping pills. This time, not for the Fairy King or other men, but because otherwise, she'd have lain awake thinking about Preston all night.
 

The next day, Ianto is furious with Effy and Preston. He tells them a big storm is coming. Effy suggests boarding up the house, and Ianto snaps at her. He means he doesn't need a Northern girl telling him how to weather the storm.
 

He asks for Effy's blueprints, and she responds that they'll be done in two or three more days. Ianto grumbles for a while, responding that there is still much to do before construction by the end of the year.
 

Effy promises that it will be done, and Ianto tells both she and Preston he hopes they had a gratifying trip.
 

Ugh.
 

Effy tries to return to work, but Ianto dismisses Preston, asking to speak with her alone.
 

When they find themselves alone, he asks if Preston did anything untoward and then wonders aloud to Effy whether she may be a seductress or a submissive girl.
 

Effy fears Ianto and stammers through the rest of the conversation before fleeing upstairs.

She finds Preston holding Myrddin's diary. He's found the photographs.
 

Effy is about to panic, thinking about all the men who have taken advantage of her, until Preston calms her.
 

Preston thinks out loud about why Blackmar is so uncomfortable before Effy interrupts him, telling him they must go into the basement.

Preston is afraid and tells her they don't even have the key. Effy says she will get it, and Preston snaps at her to stop being reckless.

Effy responds that she's not reckless. She's a survivor. Preston disagrees. He tells her that she's brave and brilliant.
 

Effy then straddles Preston, but he tells her he can't, that he won't take advantage of her like the other men she's known and her professor at the university.
 

Effy recoils and tells him she didn't sleep with him.
 

Preston reassures Effy, telling her he'd like to be intimate with her but that he respects her.

But that he's wanted her for so long. And Preston holds Effy as the sea roars against the rocks.