England, 1793.

Chase Mansion stood on a tree-shaded, man-made island in the middle of a pond. A small bridge lead from the main road to the island. In high spring, the bridge and the wall which surrounded the island were overgrown with wisteria vines. The house itself was made from rosy, rust-colored stone.

"Who is there, my dear?" Mr. Chase asked, having spied his wife getting up and walking over to the drawing room window from over the newspaper he was reading.
"Why Mr. Chase," Mrs. Chase replied, "It's the McLean carriage. Lady McLean and her daughters have come for a visit."
"What could she want?" Mr. Chase huffed.
He thought Lady McLean was a silly and obnoxious woman and did not much like her company.
"Now Mr. Chase, please try to be polite. Her daughters are dear friends of our Annabeth."
"Very well."
Mr. Chase folded up his newspaper and placed it on one of the tea tables. Mrs. Chase smoothed her apron and the white petticoat she wore under her blue round gown. In a looking glass, she tidied up her starched linen cap.

Lady McLean scarcely looked older than five and twenty, though she was nearly twice that age. She had a petite, slim, girlish figure and pale, flawless skin. That morning, she wore a green redingote over a pink petticoat with a large blue hat. Her dark hair was worn in the hedgehog style and powdered.

"Ma chère Madame Chase (she pronounced Chase like "shaw-ss.")," she said to Mrs. Chase, giving her a kiss on the cheek.
"Always a pleasure, Lady McLean," Mrs. Chase answered.
Lady McLean had been born into an aristocratic French family. Her first husband had been a Monsieur Beauregard, a wealthy merchant who sold chocolate, sugar, coffee, and tea, who had died a year into the marriage, leaving her with a large fortune and an unborn child, her elder daughter Silena. The second and current husband was Sir Tristan McLean, the father of Piper, her younger daughter.
Both girls had their mother's eyes which seemed to change color from blue to green to brown. Silena had dark hair and delicate, pretty features. She wore a pink robe à la turque over a white petticoat with a light blue bonnet.

Piper's hair was chocolate brown and her features were strong and regal. Her dress was a simple grayish round gown with a purple floral print. A bluish-green lunardi hat shaded her face.

"Mrs. Chase," Piper asked her hostess, "Is Annabeth home?"
"Annabeth went for a walk into town," Mrs. Chase replied, "Hopefully she will be back shortly."
"It's Annabeth we've come to talk about," Lady McLean cut it, "But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's make ourselves comfortable first."

The walls of the drawing room were a pale, bluish-green. White moldings accented with gilt framed the windows, doors, ceiling, and fireplace. Landscape paintings and scenes from the Bible hung on the wall in gilded frames. Round mahogany tea tables and chairs with cushions that matched the wall color were placed up against the edges of the room to be brought forward as needed.

Mr. and Mrs. Chase and their guests made themselves comfortable while servants brought out hot water, milk, and lemon for the tea as well as bread, butter, and jam and fresh apple puffs. Mrs. Chase prepared the expensive tea and sugar which were kept looked up in the drawing room cupboard.
The company settled into affable smalltalk. Silena fidgeted in her seat, anxious to talk about something.
"Bring it up, mamma," she whispered to her mother.
"Patience, Ma bonne-aimée," Lady McLean replied, "I'm getting to it."
Piper sulked a little in her chair, unsure of what to do or say and anxious for her friend Annabeth's return.
"Silena, my dear," Mrs. Chase cut in, "We've heard about your engagement to Mr. Beckendorf."
This distracted Silena from whatever she wanted to talk to. The handsome Charles Beckendorf Esq., master of Vulcan Hall, had purposed to her back in June and been accepted. She produced a miniature portrait of Mr. Beckendorf, which she wore on a ribbon around her neck, to show off how good looking her betrothed was.

Annabeth returned home after walking into town to pick up a book she had ordered. It was a volume of prints depicting Ancient Greek and Roman ruins.
Upon walking through the front door, she adjusted the skirt of her yellow print dress to cover up where her petticoat had been splattered with mud from the walk.

She hung up her blue striped apron and straw bonnet on some pegs by the door.

Before heading into the drawing room, Annabeth adjusted her floppy ruffled cap in the looking glass.

"Mamma, Papa," she called to her parents, "I've returned."
She walked into the drawing room to find her parents taking tea with the McLean ladies. Piper went over to Annabeth and gave her a kiss on the cheek. Silena did likewise.
"Silena, Piper," Annabeth said, "It's wonderful to see you."
"Annabeth," Mrs. Chase added, "You're just in time. Lady McLean was about to give us some news."
"It concerns you, Annabeth mon enfant," Lady McLean continued, "My dearly departed late husband, Monsieur Beauregard, did business with the Duke of Olympus. His Grace, the Duke, is hosting a house party in a couple weeks and he sent us an invitation. Sir Tristan and Silena are going to spend the autumn in London, preparing for Silena's wedding, so I decided that I would bring Annabeth to the house party in her place. You did not hear this from me, but it seems like His Grace is looking to find a bride for his son, the Marquis of Skye."
A/N I did not intend this pun but "your grace" is one of the terms of address for a Duke and also happens to be Zeus and Jason's family name.
"Mamma," Piper asked her mother, "May Annabeth and I take a stroll outside?"

After they were excused, Annabeth and Piper walked along the wall which surrounded Chase Mansion.
"To think," Annabeth said, "The two of us will be staying with a Duke."
"I know mamma is hoping that she can marry one of us off to Lord Skye," Piper responded, "She's going to be profoundly disappointed."
"Me, marry a marquis. In my dreams."
The Chases had a large enough income to live in modest gentility but were not very wealthy. Chase Mansion was entailed, meaning it would not go to Annabeth when her father died but rather it would go to her cousin Magnus. Piper's family's situation was not much grander. Both girls knew that they wanted to avoid becoming a destitute spinster, a burden tossed around by resentful relatives. Catching a wealthy husband would be their best option.
"Even if Lord Skye did wish to marry me, I don't think his family would approve of him marrying so much below his station. Besides, what man would notice me when you are there, Annabeth."
"Nonsense, you are so much prettier than me, Piper."
Annabeth had always envied Piper's high coloring, rich chocolate brown hair, and stunning polychromatic eyes. Her own fair hair and complexion were pretty enough but rather pallid and bland.
"But you are cleverer, wittier, and more outgoing. People always notice you before they notice me."
Annabeth spoke Italian and German as well as Latin and Ancient Greek and had read nearly every book in her father's library, even the works which would be considered too heavy and radical for a young lady, such as The Rights of Man by Thomas Paine and A Vindication of the Rights of Woman by Mary Wollstonecraft. This had caused her to be labeled a "blue-stocking." She could draw buildings and landscapes and was skilled with needlework.
Piper spoke French, which she had picked up from her mother and on the rare occurrence that she felt inclined to read a book, it would be a romantic novel, such as Pamela by Samuel Richardson or Evelina by Frances Burney, or a volume of poetry by poets such as William Cowper and William Shakespeare. Most of the time, she preferred to be outside, taking long walks or working in the garden. When she was a little girl, she had liked to climb trees and play cricket with her father. She was hopeless with a needle and her only ladylike accomplishments were that she was said to play the piano forte and sing very well.
Annabeth kissed Piper's cheek.
"Your problem, my love, is that you don't think highly enough of yourself. Even if we can't catch ourselves a marquis, there will be other eligible young men at the house party. The name of the goddess of love suits your mother because she won't rest until the two of us are married."
A/N I'm going to base Jason and Piper's first interaction on "Helpless" from Hamilton with Annabeth playing the Angelica role of "dazzling the room" and making the first move by introducing Jason to Piper. If Annabeth, Piper, and Hazel were the Schuyler Sisters, I feel like Piper would be Eliza. IRL Eliza was unfussy and tomboyish like Piper. Like Eliza, Piper is very pretty but not "one to try and grab the spotlight" and not as outgoing as Annabeth/Angelica and might feel like the guy they like wouldn't notice them. BTW. Hazel would definitely be Peggy, the cute little one who's a badass. bellaschneeb

After the McLean ladies had left, Annabeth went up to her bedroom with her new book. Her bedroom had a wooden floor spread with an oriental carpet. The wallpaper was cream colored with a pale pink floral print. Annabeth's bed had white dimity curtains and coverlet. By it was a night stand, where Annabeth kept a candle and the books she was reading.

There was another bed with pale pink curtains which was used when guests were staying at the house. Across from the guest bed were the fireplace, which had figurines of owls and the classical goddess Minerva on the mantle and a mirror hanging over it, and Annabeth's dressing table.

Annabeth slid off her shoes and lay down on her bed to read. The first print in the book was a drawing of the ruins of Parthenon in Athens. Her mind began to wander and imagine seeing the Parthenon for herself. Visiting Greece was a dream of hers but Greece was a wild, out of the way place and not on the itinerary of the typical grand tour of Europe.
A/N The Grand Tour was a typical rite of passage for a wealthy English gentleman in the 18th and 19th centuries and often took them to places such as France and Italy. The goal was soak up culture but it was more often an excuse for drinking and whoring. In the early 19th Century, the adventurous Lord Byron popularized traveling to Greece.
When she was finished looking through her new book, Annabeth went over to her wardrobe to look through her clothes. She was thankful that she still had two weeks to update her gowns and bonnets into garments fit to be worn in the presence of a Duke.
Annabeth enjoying making and trimming clothing because her hats and dresses were one of the few places where a woman could express her creativity and individuality.
She made a mental note to ask her parents for money to go to the milliners to buy ribbons, lace, and other trimming as well as fashion plates to get ideas for how she would redo her gowns and bonnets.
The next two weeks passed quickly with preparations to visit Skye Castle, the home of the Duke of Olympus. Annabeth day dreamed about its beauty and glamour and was anxious to see what kinds of adventures lay in store for her there.