Lavinia and Meg are best friends and feel like sisters. Meg’s mother, Sarah, “used our close relationship to teach the two of us the social skills required of young ladies in Williamsburg” (193). Meg hates the lessons, as she’s more concerned with her botany study, but Lavinia, eager to please Sarah, obediently follows. Marshall is now 19 and Lavinia is 15, and the two grow closer.

Mr. Boran, one of Mr. Madden’s friends, is widowed and asks Lavinia to marry him. Mr. Boran helps her discover that Cardigan, her older brother and only surviving relative, has died.

Belle gets a letter from Lavinia saying that once she finds her older brother, Cardigan, she’s going to come get Belle and Jamie. At the same time, Will says that when Marshall returns to inherit the farm, he’s getting his own land and wants to know if Belle and Jamie will move to his farm. He says he will also invite Ben, Lucy, and their children. He also asks her if she thinks Lavinia would court him.