Philip finds himself talking more intimately to Trevose, and tells him that his marriage is a failure and that he and Helena lead their own lives. Alun suggests that he and his friend might like to go to some of the pubs and restaurants in St Ives, which has an artistic community. He makes it clear that he thinks in terms of picking up men, not women. Philip is a little shocked but says that he does not mind what Alun does for amusement, but that he himself is not interested and there's also the risk of blackmail. However soon afterwards, he begins to see that he has always cared for Trevose more than anyone else other than his mother and he and his friend become lovers.
He has reached his early 30s without ever suspecting his own homosexuality, but he and his friend have a year or so of happiness. Then another disaster strikes. An earth tremor hits the mine and several miners are drowned when the sea rushes in and floods the lower levels. Philip was over ground, to meet a visitor, though he usually tried to spend as much time in the mine as possible. The water makes it impossible even to bring the bodies to the surface.
Philip's brief time of personal happiness is over, and he knows that the mine, Sennen Garth can never be reopened. It would cost too much and would not be safe. He has lost his life's work and his lover.
I think that Howatch was one of the first writers to use the technique of using a historical background as a basis for her story. With Philip who is Richard I, she works it very well, Philip's obsession with the mine mirrors Richard's desire to fight on crusade and take Jerusalem. His marriage to Helena is a failure, as it seems was Richard's with |Berengaria which produced no children.
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