Jamie asks Claire where she got it, and Brianna tells him she gave it to her mother. She tells him she got it from Stephen Bonnet when he raped her. Jamie roars in agony, and Brianna damns her father and says she’s sorry she ever saw him.
That night, Jamie and Ian disappear and Claire comforts her daughter. Brianna refuses to speak to her father when he returns. Jamie brings her to River Run and insists they stay there while they search for Roger. Bree wants to go with them, but he refuses and even Claire insists. With Brianna already four months pregnant and no idea how long they might be gone, she has to remain behind. Before they leave, Jamie tells his daughter that he will bring Roger home to her, or he won’t return himself. She refuses to say anything to him. Brianna begs her mother to bring back Roger. Claire assures her die will make sure Roger comes home. Claire is loath to leave her, but Brianna tells her that she is the only one who can bring him installment loans New Hampshire back.
Jocasta is delighted to have her niece there and gives Brianna her art equipment that she could not use since becoming blind. By March, Brianna has settled into her routine. She enjoys her aunt Jocasta’s company, but doesn’t care for Jocasta’s servant Ulysses who she feels tells Jocasta everything. However, to Brianna’s dis of guests, mostly single men, to visit the plantation. It’s Jocasta’s servant Phaedre who tells Brianna that Jocasta intends to leave the plantation to her and had the lawyer Forbes change her will. She says Jocasta will leave some money to Jamie and some personal things to friends, but everything else, including the plantation, timber works, sawmill, is hers.
If Jocasta had her way, then Brianna would own him
Phaedre tells Brianna that Jocasta doesn’t know Roger Wakefield, so in her mind it’s better to pick a suitable husband for Bree, one who will run the plantation and business so it will thrive long after she is gone. Brianna says she doesn’t want anything from Jocasta, but Phaedre points out that it doesn’t matter what Bree wants, it’s what Jocasta wants.
After living in her parents’ cabin, Brianna finds life at River Run to be luxurious
One evening, Brianna is looking a drawing of Roger and other drawings of her family she’s made in her loneliness, when Ulysses comes into the room to light the candelabra. She tells him she doesn’t need any more light, but he says that Miss Jo will be down soon, and the light helps her navigate through the room. She watches as he gets everything in the room just right and Brianna wonders what it must be like to live a life dedicated only for the entertainment of one autocratic woman. Impulsively, she asks if wishes he were free and he tells her he was born free, but his father died and his mother was forced to sell herself to pay for an apprenticeship for him. When she died, the carpenter claimed he was the child of a slave and sold Ulysses to a schoolmaster who educated him. When he died, Hector Cameron bought him and immediately recognized his talents.
One day, Phaedre tells Brianna that the guests for that night include a real lord. Phaedre insists that Brianna wear a corset to hide her pregnancy and Brianna points out that the whole county knows she’s pregnant and Phaedre says people knowing is not the same as her flaunting it at dinner. Brianna finally submits to the maid’s dressing and asks who the lord is. Phaedre tells her it is Lord John Grey of Mount Josiah plantation in Virginia, a friend of Brianna’s father. It is the last that worries Bree.