Summary

The first chapter begins with the teenage narrator, Hollis Brite, telling us that spring had just started. She was in her bedroom with her best friend, Delia Grace. They were both ladies at court, but Delia had recently started acting like her lady-in-waiting because she believed the king of Cordoa, Jameson, was going to propose to Hollis. Hollis thought the idea was preposterous. Jameson was a serial womanizer and she imagined he was just flirting with her for fun. Delia seemed upset about Hollis’s cavalier attitude toward the king. When a letter from him arrived, Delia answered the door and teased Hollis with it. The two girls ran around the room screaming like children, and then Hollis’s mother came in and scolded them. After she left, they opened the letter and saw that the king wanted them to spend the day...