The Heiress

Content Warning: This section of the guide contains references to physical abuse, domestic violence, psychological manipulation, death by suicide, alcohol use disorder, and substance misuse.

Ashby House is a symbolic presence throughout the novel, a physical representation of the McTavish family. Its imposing façade and isolated location highlight the family’s insulated entitlement bought by their wealth and influence. Jules is impressed with the house, first describing it as “eternal, immovable. A fortress” (75). She initially sees the house as protection, but Cam experiences it as imprisonment; when he first returns, Cam comments that he “let Ashby House pull [him] back in” (73).

While Cam sees Ashby House as restrictive, a place he escaped from and is reluctant to return to, the other members of the family enjoy it as a retreat from accountability. As Cam notes, “Stay there long enough, and you forget there’s a world outside its tall doors, its oversize windows, and shadowed lawns” (24). Ashby House is where the McTavishes retreat, most notably Ruby, who returns to Ashby House to avoid rumors and investigation; as she notes, “I’d gotten so used to life there at Ashby […] Out in the rest of the world, my money still opened doors and smoothed paths, but it wasn’t the same” (201).