This section opens with the troubled marriage of the Lestrange family and the birth of Richard, already marked by emotional rejection and social judgment. After Lady Lestrange’s death, the nurse Jane Tuke’s decision to flee with the child becomes an act of protection rather than betrayal. New environments and figures such as the bookbinder introduce alternative forms of care and moral influence beyond blood ties. Part 1 establishes the novel’s central tension between inherited status and earned love.
