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The King has died and been replaced by a Catholic King. An outbreak of rebels resisting the new regime, among which is Annie’s husband. John searches for him at Annie’s request only to be captured as a presumed rebel. He’s saved from being shot by a Jeremy Stickles. This brings a John to London where he contrives to see Lorna pass by as she enters church.

Whose story is this? Lorna’s? John’s?

John, as narrator, is telling us a story about Lorna, but also about himself, perhaps more so.

It seemed insensitive of John to visit Ruth to tell her his love troubles, since he can no longer plead ignorance of her feelings for him.

Lori wrote: "John, as narrator, is telling us a story about Lorna, but also about himself, perhaps more so.

It seemed insensitive of John to visit Ruth to tell her his love troubles, since he can no longer pl..."

Yes he’s almost cruel to Ruth. The part of John beating the horse was very hard for me. I feel like this is more the story of John and his feelings than Lorna’s

Yes, John� s behavior to Ruth is disturbing once again. It’s convenient for John that he doesn’t have a personal attachment to one religion or the other. That could have been a,big issue with Lorna or with his family accepting her.

Deborah wrote: " Whose story is this? Lorna’s? John’s?..."

The story is John's but his passion for Lorna is the key theme. Lorna is the catalyst for John's actions throughout this story, making the title appropriate.
Titling a book after the catalyst character rather than the main character is often done, for instance with the novels Lolita (not Humbert) So Big (not Selina) and Rebecca ( not ??) (Actually, she could have called it Mrs. deWinter and covered both the main and catalyst character)
I also think of the movie Laura (Detective McPherson), and how the Dahl book and movie versions of it flipped between using the main character Charlie and the catalyst character Willie Wonka.

I agree with Brian that the story belongs to John. It is his coming of age tale and his first love is a main part of the novel, Lorna becomes a way for us to see how John sees Class, gender, family roles. As well as how he believes on matters of politics and justice. I see Lorna as a way for us to understand John better.
Also, I wonder how many readers at the time Preferred books with a woman’s title? I don’t know , and I know most of the books Brian listed are written later in time than this one, but they are almost all named after women. I wonder if the publishers thought that was a good idea....

We never get Lorna’s internal thoughts, or anyone else’s, everything is through John.