Matilda’s death was a surprise to me too and I agree she seems to be held up as the ideal daughter just like her mother is the ideal wife—ready to believe and do her lord’s bidding no matter the cost to herself. :D I wonder if HW is poking more fun with the death of Goodness. Matilda hardly had a smidgeon of a chance to escape the doom of prophesy but somehow I thought that Theodore would come through for her. Her death is tragic but I always thought the villains and valiant in gothic novels got their appropriate due. :D