Horseman Riding by Part III

Grace agrees to marry Paul, though she is not sure if she loves him. Claire Derwent gives up her hopes that she might marry him. She decides to leave the Valley. She goes to stay with relatives who own a tea shop in a country town and stays away for a while. Grace and Paul get married, but soon problems arise. She is still interested in women's suffrage which is regarded as heretical by both country people and the local gentry. Paul tries to be tolerant of her ideas but he is becoming a country gentleman. When one of the Potters is caught poaching, he is sympathetic, but Grace is angry that the man is sent to prison. Paul loves her but finds her rebellious views a bit difficult to understand. He becomes friendly with James Grenfell, the local Liberal politican and supports him running for parliament. Grace becomes pregnant, but she is increasingly unsettled. When she has her baby, a son, Simon, Paul has to go out to one of the farms where the tenant farmer has been having marital problems. He has been drinking and becoming more unstable. Paul is called out to find that the man, Martin Codsall has killed his wife and then killed himself. He rescues Sydney, their younger son. He gets Eveleigh, the foreman, to take over the farm. Grace is getting unhappy being stuck in Shallowford. She embarks on a flirtation with Roddy, the son of John Rudd who is the bailiff. Roddy is a young Naval officer who has a car and Grace is thrilled by his modernity. She and Paul have a row about it, and she walks out and goes to London. Paul is horrified and grieved, because it seems as if she has given up on their marriage already. In Edwardian times, divorce was very rare, even among the rich. He mopes unhappily, and hopes she will come back. She disappears to London and leaves her baby son behind. Paul is badly injured when he bravely leads a team of rescuers to save men from a foundering ship. Then, Ikey Palfrey, whom Paul rescues from a life in the London slums, writes to Claire. He tells her that Paul is calling for her. Claire returns to the Valley and Paul turns to her. He decides to get a divorce and marry Claire who is clearly more suited to country life than Grace ever was. Claire is very happy with her marriage, she enjoys being the Squire's wife and loves Paul and admires him in a way that Grace never did. They soon have several children and rarely go away from Devon. But they go to London for the coronation, and run into Grace who is demonstrating for women's rights. Claire, although she is bored by politics, feels sympathy for her ideals. Paul sympathises with Grace who is being ill treated by police and public at times, but he is not that political.