Marguerite chafes at the small garden during lessons with Suzanne and Ysabeau, having grown used to walking freely. Trumpets announce the arrival of Lord and Lady Montfort with their grown stepdaughters. Lady Katherine spends her first day with her young daughters, praising their music and teachers, but does not summon Marguerite, leaving her anxious about her uncertain status as a dowerless ward.

The next morning, after Marguerite prays to the Virgin for protection from Roberval, the girls bring word that Lady Katherine wishes to see her. In the richly refurbished great hall, Marguerite meets Lady Katherine and her stepdaughters Louise (calm, fair) and Anne (bold, recently widowed). Pressed for tales, Marguerite recounts hunting white bears with her arquebus and skinning them with her knife, producing the blade and a black bear claw to enthrall the ladies.

Captivated, Lady Katherine declares Marguerite must be presented to Queen Marguerite, who will visit in a month. Louise and Anne offer to dress her. Marguerite is thrilled and terrified. Afterward, Claire and Madame D'Artois express sorrow rather than disapproval at her ordeals, hoping the Queen's audience will bring her aid.

Unable to sleep, Marguerite wakes Claire to ask why Madame D'Artois left the Queen's service. Claire reveals that the poet Clément Marot, translator of psalms, fell in love with her mother and wished to marry her; the Queen forbade it and never forgave Madame D'Artois even after she refused him. Marguerite realizes Roberval was Marot's patron and arranged the D'Artois women's position with her. Troubled by these contradictions and her own hidden sins, Marguerite fears she cannot stand before the pious Queen, though Claire urges her she must.