Flora wrote to Molly that Algernon Braun never faced consequences for Mrs. Mead’s death; it was ruled an accident and his family covered his misdeeds. When Flora asked her father about repercussions, he told her to “Let it go,” and life at Gray Manor resumed as though nothing had happened.

During a dinner with both families, Flora publicly ended her engagement to Algernon, shocking everyone. The Brauns left in anger, with Magnus Braun warning Flora’s father that he would not “get away with this.” Anticipating her father’s rage, Flora fled to Mrs. Mead’s cottage with help from Uncle Willy and John Preston, who guarded her through the night.

Returning home the next day, Flora found her parents cold and punitive. She retrieved the Fabergé egg from her father’s office and hid it in the library. As the merger collapsed, Braun agents arrived with divestment papers, the manor’s finances crumbled, staff were dismissed, and only Uncle Willy remained. Flora survived on simple meals and sought solace at the cottage.

Flora realized she was pregnant and told John, who reacted with joy, and Uncle Willy, who was moved but worried about John’s university. John proposed deferring school to support a new life together. He later proposed under the old oak tree, placing his Claddagh ring on Flora’s finger; Flora accepted.

When Flora informed her parents she was with child, they initially assumed Algernon was the father and celebrated, but when Flora named John, her father exploded. He fired Uncle Willy, accused John of rape, struck Flora, and barred Uncle Willy from the house. Flora’s mother proposed either a secret abortion or sending Flora to a birth house to conceal the pregnancy; Flora refused the former but agreed to the latter.

Flora met John and Uncle Willy at the cottage as they packed to leave. To protect John’s future, she persuaded him to give her a week to join him, arranging a meeting at noon under the oak tree. In truth, Flora planned to depart for a distant birth house arranged by her mother before that rendezvous, leaving John only the returned Claddagh ring in the tree’s knothole. Flora framed this as a painful sacrifice made for love.