Part 1, England 1816: Chapters 1-2 Summary

Lord and Lady Gilbert are traveling to England from France in 1816 to retrieve their niece, the daughter of Lady Gilbert's deceased sister. The girl, Whitney Stone, has been living with her father, but she has become so unruly that the father has requested that she be taken off his hands.

In chapter 1, Lord and Lady Gilbert arrive at the Stone Estate to discover Whitney riding her horse while wearing male trousers, standing on the horse's bare back. Whitney has done this in imitation of a show she once saw in hopes of impressing Paul Sevarin, a local young man on whom she has had a crush for many years. Paul is impressed, but it does not change his feelings for Whitney. Paul is deeply annoyed with the young woman because she spends much of her time following...