These episodes strike me as a strong turning point away from the 'wives' storyline of 1897. Jenny, Laura, Minerva, Pansy, and Rachel are all killed. But Ironically, this new period begins with a different engagement, - not the 'pretty young wives' that Laura said Judith was terribly jealous of, and not a marriage between other young girls--as Charity's engagement ends, Rachel is unable to marry Barnabas, and soon Angelique [spoiler]throws up her hands and leaves him.[/spoiler] Indeed, this time when one of Judith's brothers brings a girl home, it is completely circumvented, as it is only [spoiler]Judith who becomes a wife, even though she finds this triumph incredibly dubious, and she vanishes for a long period. [/spoiler] I started right here (the beginning of Collection 15) in my recent viewing of the second half of 1897; when the wives leave in place of bachelors and one in particular, Count Petofi who prefers to surround himself with attractive young men. From now on, no matter if crushing non-consensual engagements or sincere pledges are made, no one will marry well, or badly, no one will be a governess, and villains will not be gotten rid of so easily as Dirk and Laura were.
I know some people despise Rachel for not doing more to get out of her situation, but I think she did all she was capable of doing after being so traumatized by that school and learning so long to be subservient to those terrible Trasks. I just hope that those poor children were sent some place nicer when[spoiler] the school closed.[/spoiler]