Peter

Peter is Isobel’s elder brother, a former guardian whose authority becomes central to the effort to expose Rupert’s treatment of her. He is both a protector and a participant in the family’s legal disputes: he helps Isobel recover the history of her forced removal, challenges Rupert and DeLisle’s claims about her marriage, and insists that Rupert be kept alive to face justice. His own account of a past love, Jemima, reveals a private vulnerability beneath his often decisive concern for others.

Identity and Family Position

Peter is Isobel’s elder sibling and shares conspicuous physical features with her, including striking eyes. He is presented as handsome, tall, and broad-shouldered, with grey beginning to appear at his temples. Although his appearance might attract attention in society, he seems either unaware of that effect or indifferent to it. His significance in the story, however, rests less on social appeal than on the duties attached to his place in the family.

As Isobel’s guardian, Peter’s position bears directly on her freedom to marry and on the competing claims made by Rupert and DeLisle. He later tells them that he never gave permission for Isobel to marry anyone except Lord Havistock. He also invokes papers drawn up and signed years earlier, with magistrates as witnesses, that record Isobel’s betrothal to Dominic. Rather than accept Rupert and DeLisle’s assertion that Isobel could lawfully have married DeLisle, Peter challenges their account and says he intends to investigate it before Isobel is taken anywhere. His intervention makes guardianship more than a family title: in the confrontation, it becomes a way to contest the men’s attempt to control her marital status.

The Rupture of Guardianship

Isobel’s recollection of her removal from Willowbrook shows how Rupert exploited the apparent absence of her guardian. She had been staying with Aunt Elspeth for two and a half weeks when Rupert arrived, angry at having been kept waiting and helping himself to the decanters. He announced that Peter had died, claiming that a magistrate named Worthing had informed him of Peter’s death in Norfolk. On that basis, Rupert asserted that he had become Isobel’s guardian and ordered her to pack at once.

Isobel was horrified by the news and unable to verify it. When she resisted leaving Willowbrook, Rupert threatened that Elspeth should be sent to an asylum. Isobel agreed to go only after securing his promise that Elspeth could remain at Willowbrook for the time being. Rupert gave her little time to pack and did not tell her where she was going. She insisted that Kitty accompany her as her maid, and Rupert eventually agreed. The account makes clear how the report of Peter’s death and Rupert’s claimed authority combined to isolate Isobel and hurry her into his control; Peter’s later presence and actions stand against the false premise on which that removal depended.

Peter also explains the significance of Gosport Hall, a remote hunting lodge outside Northampton that had passed to Isobel after her father’s death. It had belonged to the family since her grandmother’s time, but the siblings stopped visiting after their mother died, and the house was eventually closed and mothballed. Peter admits that he had forgotten the property, which was Isobel’s to decide about when she came of age. This forgotten family place becomes relevant because Dominic suspects Rupert may have hidden Isobel nearby, close to those searching for her yet out of their sight.

Protective Decisions and Alliances

Peter’s care for Isobel is expressed through both trust and action. When Dominic has to leave, he asks Isobel to avoid accepting any marriage offers while he is away. Dominic has reservations about leaving her with Elspeth but accepts Peter’s judgment that the two women can be left together at Willowbrook. Peter’s role thus gives Dominic a reason to trust the household in his absence, even as Isobel’s safety remains a concern.

After a search for Rupert fails, Peter says that he should go and warn his uncle, insisting that it is his responsibility to bring him into line. Dominic stops him. He believes Rupert is trying to frighten Isobel into fleeing again so that he can get access to her funds, and argues that Peter’s direct approach would play into Rupert’s intentions. The exchange shows Peter’s instinct to confront the family wrong himself, but also his willingness to act within a joint effort rather than simply proceed alone.

Peter supports Isobel’s attempt to recover evidence as well as her physical safety. When she explains that writing a sequential account of what had driven her onto the streets helped her remember the betrothal document, the room’s attention turns to what she has recalled. She says Rupert tried to force her to sign a document naming DeLisle as her intended and that she refused. Peter’s earlier insistence on the significance of his own papers gains a sharper context: the disputed marriage is set against a history in which Rupert tried to impose a different intended upon Isobel.

Jemima and an Unfinished Past

Peter’s personal history emerges when Isobel asks why he has never married. After a long silence, he tells her there was once someone named Jemima. She came from Cornwall and was living in Derbyshire, near where Peter spends time. His visits there are connected not only to being with Isobel and Dominic but also to making inquiries of his own; he has not yet found Jemima.

Peter explains that Jemima was a servant in Dominic’s uncle’s household, though she did not come from a background of service. She told Peter a secret and asked for his help. He agreed because the matter was linked to his past, and they fell in love despite the dangers she faced. Peter is careful about the limits of what he can explain, and his account distinguishes his own feelings from what he could not know: he loved her and thought she might have felt something for him. Isobel initially responds with surprise at his having loved a servant, but Peter confirms that this was so.

Isobel refuses to treat Peter’s loss as a reason to abandon hope. Drawing on her own experience of desperate vulnerability, she tells him that she and Dominic will help discover Jemima’s whereabouts. The promise makes the search for Jemima a shared undertaking between the siblings and Dominic. It also reveals a reciprocal element in their bond: Peter has protected Isobel, while she now wants to help him recover the possibility of happiness he has not been able to find.

Confrontation and Narrative Role

Peter’s family loyalty does not mean that he shields Rupert from consequence. When Rupert’s conduct culminates in a confrontation, Peter warns Dominic to stop striking him because they need Rupert alive to face the gallows. The intervention is practical and controlled: Peter restrains the immediate violence in order to preserve the possibility of formal punishment. His judgment places the aim of justice above the satisfaction of revenge, even when the accused man is his own uncle.

Peter is also present at a moment that makes the cost of Isobel’s supposed death plain. Dominic later recalls standing with Peter beside Isobel’s grave, believing her beyond their reach. Peter’s presence at the graveside links the earlier false report of his own death to the later grief surrounding Isobel’s presumed death: in both cases, a belief about death shapes the family’s choices before the truth is secure. During the final crisis, Peter suddenly appears in the doorway carrying a length of rope, just before Isobel is shot. The available account records his arrival but does not specify what he intended to do with it.

Across these episodes, Peter functions as Isobel’s brother, a guardian whose authority can be turned against coercion, and an ally in the pursuit of evidence and accountability. He is not simply a rescuer: he can be impulsive in his desire to confront Rupert, yet he listens when Dominic identifies the danger in that plan and insists on keeping Rupert alive for trial. His unresolved search for Jemima extends his concern beyond the immediate family crisis, while Isobel’s commitment to help him makes their relationship a source of mutual support.