39 pages • 1 hour read
Casey McQuistonRed, White, and Royal Blue
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2019A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 9-11 Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 9 Summary
Alex finally works up the courage to tell his mother about Henry. On a personal level, she has no problem with her son’s bisexuality. However, the political implications are an entirely different matter. Ellen prepares a PowerPoint presentation showing Alex the intricacies of the problem. As a last bit of advice, she adds, “So you need to figure out if you feel forever about him. And if you don’t, you need to cut it the fuck out” (238). She then fires her son from her campaign because his involvement might jeopardize her reelection.
With too much time on his hands, Alex frets, even though Henry tries to console him from a distance. As a way to relieve the pressure, the Washington Trio stages a getaway to Oscar’s ranch in Texas. Alex invites Henry to join them there. The group spends idyllic days, swimming in the lake and eating barbecue. Oscar guesses the nature of his son’s relationship with Henry. When Alex asks for advice about what to do, Oscar says, “That kind of love is rare, even if it was a complete disaster […] Sometimes you just jump and hope it’s not a cliff” (255-56).
In the days that follow, Alex is convinced that he’s fallen for Henry and wants to confess his love. One night, when they go skinny-dipping together, Alex is on the point of declaring his feelings, but he senses Henry withdrawing. Making an excuse, the prince goes back to his room alone. Alex worries:
Something’s wrong, and he knows it, but he’s too afraid to push back or ask. That, he realizes suddenly, is the danger of allowing love into this—the acknowledgment that if something goes wrong, he doesn’t know how he will stand it (264).
The next morning, Henry is gone. He’s left a note pleading a family emergency back home. This is the last message Alex receives from him.
Chapter 10 Summary
A week passes with no contact from Henry. Alex is slowly losing his mind and can’t concentrate on anything but their relationship. In desperation, he gets Cash to accompany him to London. On a rainy night at nine pm, Alex bangs on the door of Henry’s residence and demands to be let in. Shaan is about to send him away when Henry intervenes and allows Alex inside. They go to Henry’s bedroom and have an angry confrontation. Alex finally tells Henry that he loves him. Henry protests that their relationship is impossible even though he also admits that he loves Alex. He says, “I’m not like you. I can’t afford to be reckless […] It makes me a man with some infinitesimal shred of self-preservation, unlike you, and you don’t get to come here and call me a coward for it” (273).
Alex challenges Henry to send him away forever, but the prince can’t bring himself to say goodbye. Instead, they make love for hours before falling asleep, emotionally and physically exhausted. The next morning, Henry agrees that they should try to find a way to make their relationship work in spite of the world. Alex realizes the enormity of the step they’re taking. He thinks, “It hits him, fully: the weight of this. How completely neither of them will ever be able to undo it” (280).
That night, Henry sneaks Alex into the Victoria and Albert Museum to show him the prince’s favorite refuge. It’s the replica of a piazza in Florence. Alex realizes that this place means as much to Henry as the house in West Austin means to him.
A few days later, Henry accompanies Alex to a private airstrip where Alex will take a plane back to America. As they say goodbye, Henry gives Alex his signet ring, declaring that he, too, is a thousand percent sure about their love. Alex places the ring on a chain around his neck, right next to the key of his boyhood home. He notes, “They clink together gently as he tucks them both under his shirt, two homes side by side” (291).
Chapter 11 Summary
This chapter consists entirely of emails between Alex and Henry. Each message ends with a quote from some historic or fictional person pining for an absent love. Henry says that he finally told his brother Philip about his homosexuality. The discussion didn’t go as he hoped it would. Although Philip shows no surprise that Henry is gay, he is astonished that Henry doesn’t intend to keep up the pretense of normalcy for the sake of tradition and the family bloodline.
Henry then goes on to confess his real feelings the first time he met Alex at the Olympics. He was instantly attracted and confides, “I thought, this is the most incredible thing I have ever seen, and I had better keep it a safe distance away from me. I thought, if someone like that ever loved me, it would set me on fire” (300).
Alex can’t match Henry’s way with words, but he composes a list of all the things he loves about the prince and ends the message by saying, “Please stay gorgeous and strong and unbelievable. I miss you I miss you I miss you I love you. I’m calling you as soon as I send this, but I know you like to have these things written down” (304).
Chapters 9-11 Analysis
The segment begins with the conflict between public and private when Alex is forced to break the news of his affair to his mother. As a parent, Ellen supports her son’s relationship. As a politician, she recognizes the damage a public disclosure could do to her reelection campaign. She wants to keep these two worlds separate. Alex doesn’t seem inclined to contradict her. He feels guilty for surfacing an issue that ought to remain hidden from the world of politics.
The increasing emotional attachment between Alex and Henry foregrounds another theme—honoring one’s true nature. Now that Alex has acknowledged his bisexuality, he wants to express the depth of his feelings for Henry. Their encounter at the lake house proves pivotal in changing the depth of their relationship. Alex knows he’s in love with Henry and wants to plan a future together. Henry flees both the declaration of love and the need to do something about the situation.
Alex is forced, quite literally, to storm the castle to get Henry to talk about the problem. When pressed, Henry admits his own love for Alex, but this precipitates a cascade of despair. Henry wants to compartmentalize his private desires and his public duties. That’s traditionally how such matters have been handled. Alex’s insistence on taking their relationship to the next level implies some kind of forward momentum. Henry’s conditioning has made this possibility unthinkable, but a glimmer of self-assertion makes him want to honor his true nature in the same way that Alex does.
Alex’s boundless optimism finally prevails. As a gesture of commitment, Henry gives Alex his signet ring. The symbolism of the ring and key is emphasized when Alex places the ring on the chain around his neck. This gesture implies that his sense of stability now depends on Henry as well as his boyhood home.
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By Casey McQuiston
