Summary

In the first chapter “The Driven Snow,” the author details how Ada and Evered Best came to live alone on the cove. After their baby sister died, the same illness took their mother. Their father, Sennet Best, stripped their mother of her clothes before burying her at sea. He told Ada that she would need the dress when she grew out of her current clothing but Ada was adamant that she did not want it. Sennet Best died shortly after. Evered hauled his father from his deathbed and buried him at sea with their mother. When he returned to the tilt his hair had turned white.

After their parents' death, Ada and Evered bunkered down in the tilt. Evered suggested that they go to Mockbeggar and inquire if they could stay with Mary Orman but he and...