When William Ashby comes to court Kit on Saturday night, she can’t figure out what to say to him. He seems content just to stare at her. When he does speak at all, he talks about the fine new house that he is just starting to build. After he leaves, Aunt Rachel says that he has chosen Kit to be his bride, and that is why he is letting everyone know about his house construction. Kit is flattered by the attention, but she is wary of his self-assuredness: “Then, just as suddenly, rebellion would rise in her. He was so sure! Without even asking, he was reckoning on her as deliberately as he calculated his growing pile of lumber” (74). However, Kit also realizes that William is the only person who values her as something more than a workhorse.

One day, Kit and Judith are sent out to weed a patch of onions near the Meadows, which is an open grassland on the outskirts of town. Kit is overwhelmed by the beauty of the spot: “From that first moment, in a way she could never explain, the Meadows claimed her and made her their own […] Was it the sense of freedom and space and light that spoke to her of home?” (76).