Summary

Prologue

Alma is born in January of 1800 to a Dutch mother and English father. Alma is the only biological child of Henry and Beatrix Whittaker to survive to birth. Alma’s birth is not especially celebrated in the Whittaker home.

Chapter 1

Henry Whittaker was born in 1760 in Richmond, outside of London. Henry’s father is the orchard man at Kew, the botanical gardens. Henry is not impressed with his father or his lack of ambition and vows to be better. Therefore, when Henry is given a job at the Kew, he begins stealing plants from the greenhouses to sell to Sir Joseph Banks, the director of the Kew, competitors. Henry makes a good amount of money by doing this, but is eventually caught by his own father. Henry’s father turns him in in order to...