The Woman in Cabin 10

by

Ruth Ware

Teachers and parents! Our Teacher Edition on The Woman in Cabin 10 makes teaching easy.
Anne, around age 30, is a wealthy heiress married to Lord Richard Bullmer. Her family owned a famous car manufacturing company in Norway. She spent most of her childhood in Swiss boarding schools and speaks impeccable English. After traveling so much while young, she’s now rumored to be a recluse. Anne has been fighting breast cancer, and on the first night of the Aurora cruise, she is plainly ill, pale and wearing a headscarf. Anne is murdered by Richard later that night. However, the woman in Cabin 10/Carrie impersonates her, resulting in “Anne’s” appearance in the spa (chapter 16), in the Bullmers’ suite (chapter 19), at dinner, and in the hallway (chapter 21). After she’s trapped belowdecks, Lo briefly thinks that Anne and the girl from Cabin 10 are the same person, then figures out that the girl has been disguising herself as Anne, part of Richard’s plot to secure Anne’s fortune for himself. Anne’s body is recovered in the North Sea by Danish fishermen.

Anne Bullmer Quotes in The Woman in Cabin 10

The The Woman in Cabin 10 quotes below are all either spoken by Anne Bullmer or refer to Anne Bullmer. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Entrapment and Isolation Theme Icon
).
Chapter 21 Quotes

I was so busy thinking about Ben that as I rounded the corner near the upper-deck toilet, I almost tripped over Anne Bullmer. She was leaning back against the wall as if steeling herself for something, although whether to return to the party, or make her way back to her cabin, I wasn’t sure. She looked extremely tired, her face gray, the shadows around her eyes darker than ever […]

“I’m fine, I’m just very tired. Sometimes…” She swallowed, and her voice cracked for a moment, something in the cut-glass English accent slipping. “Sometimes it all just seems too much—d’you know what I mean? Such a performance.”

Related Characters: Laura “Lo” Blacklock (speaker), The Woman in Cabin 10/Carrie (speaker), Anne Bullmer, Ben Howard
Page Number: 214
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 25 Quotes

It wasn’t just the blood she wiped away. When she came out, I froze. With that one simple act, I realized who she was.

In wiping away the blood she had wiped both her eyebrows clean off, leaving a smooth, skull-like forehead that was instantly, unbearably recognizable.

The woman in Cabin 10 was Anne Bullmer.

Related Characters: Laura “Lo” Blacklock (speaker), The Woman in Cabin 10/Carrie, Anne Bullmer
Page Number: 251
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 26 Quotes

While Richard was back in Lars’s cabin, establishing his alibi with an uninterrupted poker game, the woman in Cabin 10 had bundled the real Anne overboard and hoped that the body would never be found.

And they would have got away with it, if I—frightened and traumatized from the burglary—hadn’t heard the splash and jumped to a conclusion that was so wrong, it was almost completely right.

So who was she? […] I had no idea. But I knew one thing—she was my best hope of getting out of here alive.

Related Characters: Laura “Lo” Blacklock (speaker), The Woman in Cabin 10/Carrie, Lord Richard Bullmer , Anne Bullmer, Lars Jenssen
Page Number: 259
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 27 Quotes

“Shut up!” She put her hands over her ears, shaking her head. “You don’t know what you’re talking about. Neither of us wanted to be in this situation!”

“Really? You think it’s coincidence he fell in love with someone who bears a startling resemblance to Anne? He planned this from the beginning. You’re just a means to an end […] All the money, without the controlling wife—I think he had that carrot waved in front of his nose by Anne’s illness […] And when the doctors gave her the all clear, he didn’t want to let go of it—is that right?”

Related Characters: Laura “Lo” Blacklock (speaker), The Woman in Cabin 10/Carrie (speaker), Lord Richard Bullmer , Anne Bullmer
Page Number: 263-264
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 32 Quotes

Somehow I would get off this boat, if not for me, then for Anne, and Carrie. No—Fuck it.

For me.

I was getting off this boat for me—because I had done nothing to deserve this apart from being in the wrong place at the wrong time, and I was damned if Bullmer was going to add me to the list of women he had screwed over.

Related Characters: Laura “Lo” Blacklock (speaker), The Woman in Cabin 10/Carrie, Lord Richard Bullmer , Anne Bullmer
Page Number: 306
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 34 Quotes

With each step, I remembered Carrie’s frantic exhortations to get running and get out—her hysterical assertions about the reach of Richard’s influence.

It didn’t seem so hysterical now.

If only I had believed her—I should never have shown Anne’s ID at the hotel, or trusted Erik with even the few details I’d given him. But I just hadn’t quite believed that anyone, however wealthy, could have the kind of reach Carrie believed. Now I realized I was wrong. […]

What was I going to do? […] My best hope was finding a police station, but how? Where? And did I dare tell them the truth when I got there?

Related Characters: Laura “Lo” Blacklock (speaker), The Woman in Cabin 10/Carrie, Lord Richard Bullmer , Anne Bullmer
Page Number: 317
Explanation and Analysis:
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Anne Bullmer Quotes in The Woman in Cabin 10

The The Woman in Cabin 10 quotes below are all either spoken by Anne Bullmer or refer to Anne Bullmer. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Entrapment and Isolation Theme Icon
).
Chapter 21 Quotes

I was so busy thinking about Ben that as I rounded the corner near the upper-deck toilet, I almost tripped over Anne Bullmer. She was leaning back against the wall as if steeling herself for something, although whether to return to the party, or make her way back to her cabin, I wasn’t sure. She looked extremely tired, her face gray, the shadows around her eyes darker than ever […]

“I’m fine, I’m just very tired. Sometimes…” She swallowed, and her voice cracked for a moment, something in the cut-glass English accent slipping. “Sometimes it all just seems too much—d’you know what I mean? Such a performance.”

Related Characters: Laura “Lo” Blacklock (speaker), The Woman in Cabin 10/Carrie (speaker), Anne Bullmer, Ben Howard
Page Number: 214
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 25 Quotes

It wasn’t just the blood she wiped away. When she came out, I froze. With that one simple act, I realized who she was.

In wiping away the blood she had wiped both her eyebrows clean off, leaving a smooth, skull-like forehead that was instantly, unbearably recognizable.

The woman in Cabin 10 was Anne Bullmer.

Related Characters: Laura “Lo” Blacklock (speaker), The Woman in Cabin 10/Carrie, Anne Bullmer
Page Number: 251
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 26 Quotes

While Richard was back in Lars’s cabin, establishing his alibi with an uninterrupted poker game, the woman in Cabin 10 had bundled the real Anne overboard and hoped that the body would never be found.

And they would have got away with it, if I—frightened and traumatized from the burglary—hadn’t heard the splash and jumped to a conclusion that was so wrong, it was almost completely right.

So who was she? […] I had no idea. But I knew one thing—she was my best hope of getting out of here alive.

Related Characters: Laura “Lo” Blacklock (speaker), The Woman in Cabin 10/Carrie, Lord Richard Bullmer , Anne Bullmer, Lars Jenssen
Page Number: 259
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 27 Quotes

“Shut up!” She put her hands over her ears, shaking her head. “You don’t know what you’re talking about. Neither of us wanted to be in this situation!”

“Really? You think it’s coincidence he fell in love with someone who bears a startling resemblance to Anne? He planned this from the beginning. You’re just a means to an end […] All the money, without the controlling wife—I think he had that carrot waved in front of his nose by Anne’s illness […] And when the doctors gave her the all clear, he didn’t want to let go of it—is that right?”

Related Characters: Laura “Lo” Blacklock (speaker), The Woman in Cabin 10/Carrie (speaker), Lord Richard Bullmer , Anne Bullmer
Page Number: 263-264
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 32 Quotes

Somehow I would get off this boat, if not for me, then for Anne, and Carrie. No—Fuck it.

For me.

I was getting off this boat for me—because I had done nothing to deserve this apart from being in the wrong place at the wrong time, and I was damned if Bullmer was going to add me to the list of women he had screwed over.

Related Characters: Laura “Lo” Blacklock (speaker), The Woman in Cabin 10/Carrie, Lord Richard Bullmer , Anne Bullmer
Page Number: 306
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 34 Quotes

With each step, I remembered Carrie’s frantic exhortations to get running and get out—her hysterical assertions about the reach of Richard’s influence.

It didn’t seem so hysterical now.

If only I had believed her—I should never have shown Anne’s ID at the hotel, or trusted Erik with even the few details I’d given him. But I just hadn’t quite believed that anyone, however wealthy, could have the kind of reach Carrie believed. Now I realized I was wrong. […]

What was I going to do? […] My best hope was finding a police station, but how? Where? And did I dare tell them the truth when I got there?

Related Characters: Laura “Lo” Blacklock (speaker), The Woman in Cabin 10/Carrie, Lord Richard Bullmer , Anne Bullmer
Page Number: 317
Explanation and Analysis: