Lady Etheldreda Verity Isolde Tremaine Bramley takes a walk in the woods one morning with her hawk, Lucy. On her way out, she chats with one of the housekeepers, Alice, about the poor condition of the house, the leak in the roof, and the money they might get from selling Lady Tremaine’s daughters’ embroidery. Then, she heads out into the woods to hunt small game, thinking about her daughters, Mathilde and Rosamund; her stepdaughter, Elin; and their futures. Lady Tremaine inherited the land around Bramley Hall when her first husband, Henry Tremaine, died, but the game only lives on the opposite side of the river, which is technically royal land.

After catching a rabbit, Lady Tremaine runs into a man from the court who interrogates her about the origin of the rodent. She notices him studying her muddy, tattered dress, skeptical that she’s a lady and owns the adjacent manor. She cuts the conversation short when she notices a carriage stuck in the mud on the road to the house. Hopeful that it’s a royal carriage bearing an invitation to the upcoming hall, she races back up the hill.