Penmarric Jan's narration 2

 Jan renews his affair with Rebecca, Jonas' mother but he is not sure if he wants to marry her.  She has always been reluctant to marry him, claiming that Hugh was the one she really care for.  Jan finds her exasperating at times partly because of her mixed social heritage.  She is awkward with the Castallacks because of her farmer father's background. 

Jan also finds Jonas spoiled and tiresome.  But he continues with the affair for a time.  Then another tragedy strikes.  Philip is killed while exploring old mines with Esmond.  His death at only 41 comes as a shock to Jeanne, who is now remarried and having a baby, and she dies giving birth to a stillborn child.  Jan is very shaken as he has grown much closer to his brother.. but he now has inherited Penmarric. He has achieved his ambition.  However when Rebecca finds that he has cut her son out of the estate, she is furious and breaks off with him. 

Jan is lonely after this, since his mother does not want to live in Penmarric and remains at Roslyn farm.. and while he is busy with the estate, he feels that he and Rebecca will never get over this break up.  Soon afterwards, he meets a young woman, some years his junior, who is the daughter of a former army officer, and who is very beautiful.  She is engaged to another man but Jan beleives that she is only marrying him to get away from her parents.   He persuades her to break off her engagement and marry him instead.  

Janna is a little wary of Isabella but decides that she genuinely loves Jan and will make him happy.  They get married and settle down at Penmarric but war is looming,  now... Jan is very happy with his new wife but he does find on their wedding night that she was not a virgin, and this worries him a little that she might be unfaithful if  she is not kept busy and happy.   

The couple are busy running the estate and visiting London at times, but then Rebecca reappears in Jan's life.  She tells him that she's pregnant, that she had a brief affair with a schoolmaster who had been staying as a summer guest in her farmhouse, and became pregnant.  The man has deserted her and she needs help. 

Penmarric Jan's narration

 Janna comes to see Jan when Philip returns from Canada and tells him that she wants him to face up to what he's done and face Philip once more.  He says that he can't do that, that he's made a mess of his life.  

Janna tells him that Philip has returned to Helena, but that she cant have any children so there is still a chance for him to become heir to the estate.  He begins to soften more towards his mother, realising that she loves him.. even if Philip was her favourite.  He can see that Philip is ambivalent about being back in Cornwall.. but he and Helena seem contented enough.  Jan has always guessed that his brother was homosexual so he hopes that while the couple are reconciled, they are not likely to produce children.   In the meantime, they have been spending more time with Jonas, trying to introduce him to life at Penmarric. 

Jan has been maturing, but he is still far from happy about his brother leaving the estate to Jonas.  He doesn't like his nephew much.. he himself is very depressed by his lowly status after being virtually master of Penmarric for a time.  He works in the estate office but he is paying back the money he took from the accounts and Felicity, though still fond of him, is being pressured by her father to get a divorce.  

Jan gets his divorce, but he can see that his brother is not that happy in Cornwall though he seems to get on well enough with Helena, and he is trying conscientiously to make Jonas into a suitable heir.   However, Jonas does not care for sports or for swimming, because of his father's drowning and it is hard for Philip to find common ground with him.  After a while, Jonas's aversion to the sea causes a rupture.  He runs away when Philip tries to persuade him to go to the beach, and runs home.  Jan goes after him and finds that Rebecca is in a hysterical state, believing that Philip made sexual advances to the boy. 

He tries to calm her down  and to reassure her that although Philip may not be interested in women, he is not a child molester... but Rebecca remains upset and then tells Philip that she doesn't want the boy to be sent to school as had been planned. 

Philip decides to make Jan his heir, and he and his brother get on much better.  He tells Jan that Helena found she didn't like sex, when she tried having an affair and the 2 of them are reasonably happy now as companions.  However he misses his friends and the end of the mine has taken away his main passion in life.