Finishing school continues to exhaust Ella. Areida remains Ella’s only friend, and Hattie continues to exploit Ella’s curse and order her around. Ella puts bogweed in a bouquet which she gives to Hattie; this enchants Hattie to admit that she is scared of many things and admires Ella’s bravery. Ella tells Areida about her mother’s death; Areida brings Ella to tears by singing a beautiful mourning song. Hattie orders Ella to end her friendship with Areida.

Ella is devastated by Hattie’s order to end her friendship with Areida, who Ella adores and values. Ella finds out from her enchanted fairy tales book that Hattie wears a wig. The book also reveals a letter from Char to his father where he admits that he admires Ella, and a letter from her father to the bailiff. In her father’s letter, Sir Peter explains that he will be attending a giant’s wedding. Ella remembers that fairies usually attend weddings, and wonders if the fairy Lucinda—who cursed Ella at birth—will be there. Ella decides to leave finishing school that very night and travel to the giant’s wedding. She takes Hattie’s wig and sneaks out into the night.