Clever heroine

In Joseph Jacob’s Mr. Fox, I believe that the main woman character in the story, Lady Mary, is actually made out to be clever rather than disobedient. First of all, there is not prohibition that Lady Mary shouldn’t enter a certain room or go to a certain place. Mr. Fox describes his castle where they will live and the story simply says, “but, strange to say, did not ask her or her brothers to come and see it.” But he also does not say to NOT go see it, so Lady Mark goes and when seeing the castle decides to enter. Also the sign at the gate instructs her to “Be bold, be bold” which if I were to see, would make me think I was supposed to enter the castle. Then again the signs continue on to say “but not too bold” but still this does not caution Lady Mary from entering the castle, so she is not being disobedient.
Once inside the castle Lady Mary witnesses the murder done by her groom to be, Mr. Fox, and how he chops off the hand of the woman in order to get at a ring. The hand flies off and Lady Mark retrieves it while hiding so Mr. Fox does not know she is there or where the hand has gone. The next day, Lady Mary shows her true cleverness as she is able to reveal the true murderous identity of Mr. Fox from telling a “dream” at breakfast about her trip to the castle. She then brings out the hand at the end to show that it indeed was not a dream and Mr. Fox suffers his punishment. Lady Mary’s actions of telling her story through the dream, just like the girl in “The Robber’s Bridegroom,” is very clever because she tells it in public and then shows her proof so that her evil fiancée will not be able to escape. Never does she truly disobey her man and is therefore not punished. Rather, the heroine is presented as outgoing and clever, and it is her slight bit of boldness and independence that allows her to save herself from her murdering fiancé.