She's afraid of the dark. So, what is she doing out in the wilderness on a cold, cloudy night? She flees home to avoid certain death at the hands of the old man from the north. There is a refuge, Sir Thomas d'Ecouis, but only if he will marry her before she is caught by her pursuers.
So begins the journey that takes her across England, takes her from a sheltered sixteen year old girl to a woman of seventeen years, one far wiser than most.