Up at the Big House
- Pin goes off to the big house to try to get hired… but instead she goes swimming with Acton, and then they kiss and roll around outside the water as well.
- She tells him she got a job as a clothes folder. He thinks that's a funny job, but she thinks it will be good because she can even get out early sometimes, which will give them more time to spend together.
- When she gets home, she tells her folks about the job, noting that will be good for her dowry.
- Her dad was planning on taking care of that since that's the custom and all, but Pin wants to contribute toward it.
- One day while folding clothes, Pin sees Graceful. She wants to look at her and talk to her, but Pin's told by the lady in charge to keep her head down.
- She reports the sighting back to her fam and her brothers think Graceful's just putting on an act. What makes her better than the rest of us anyway?
- Pin is folding a green dress with pine on it one day, and it reminds her of when she was going to make a dress out of lettuce. She's told to practice her fold, and she even starts to learn the Uplander language a little bit.
- She tells Acton some words in Uplander, and together they laugh about how weird the language seems to them.
- After a month, Pin asks the servant in charge if she can see the lady of the house sometime. She explains it's because her brother is Cam—she's told to eat and then she might be able to.
- She gets to meet the lady and is introduced to Uncle Vercamer, Appin, and a bunch of lords and ladies—she wishes she could see her brother, but doesn't have the guts to ask for him.
- Back home, her dad complains that he barely sees Pin anymore since after she leaves the Big House in the afternoon, she meets up with Acton in the watering hole.
- She confides in him that she thought her brother would be at the house. Her parents never talk of him anymore, and instead they act like he's dead.
- When Pin shows Graceful a fancy dress, the two chat like old friends. Pin admits she wanted to see her brother, and Graceful tells her that he's off at Dorn-Lannet advising her husband—he's so valuable, they wouldn't be able to spare him.
- Pin mentions this to her dad, and he gets annoyed. Don't mention Cam anymore—ever. Don't ask about him either. Looks like somebody's got a bee in a bonnet when it comes to his son…
- We guess some time has passed because one day in the garden, Graceful watches her children play and asks Pin if she wants to pass a message along to her brother.
- All Pin wants is for Cam to come to her wedding, so though Graceful admits that Cam is not hers to order around, she agrees to send a message nonetheless.
- Pin finally gets a note from Cam. She's disappointed because he mustn't remember that none of them can read—but at least she gets to hear something from him. It's the first she's heard from him in seven years.
- The note says he doesn't know how to come home and Acton's a good guy; Pin cries, but has to keep folding clothes.
- At dinner Pin tells her family she thinks she'll quit the Big House once she gets married—and then she drops the bomb that Cam wrote to them.
- At first, everyone stops—no one knows what to do.
- She tells them that Cam will come home when he's ready. Huh is pretty much the response.
- That night though, Pin dreams of Cam riding into the yard on a horse.