Part 1, Chapter 1 Summary

On June 21, 1921, Captain Everand Gault shoots at three boys who have come to set Lahardane, the Gault's family estate, on fire. He does not mean to hit anyone, but one of the boys takes the bullet in his shoulder before they all escape. The boys had been there once before but were scared off by the sheepdogs. Within a week, the sheepdogs were found poisoned, and then the boys had come again on this night. Attempts on Captain Gault's part to apologize to the boy's family about the injury are met with stony unresponsiveness. Usually a stoic woman, Heloise Gault feels strongly that there will be future attempts to burn the house down, and that sooner or later, they will succeed. For the sake of Lucy, their 8-year-old daughter, she proposes to move back to England, where she comes from. Everand...