Blanchette returns to the convent with the prioress, after a visit with her mother. Katherine is finally able to let her know that she heard wrong, that she wasn’t involved in the death of her first husband, Blanchette’s father. But Blanchette has a true vocation, and does not with to give up her vows, even intending to become an anchoress, like Julian.
John watches with Katherine as the younger woman departs and says softly “I believe this has given you more happiness than I have ever done. I think I’m jealous of that look in your eyes.”
To which Katherine replies* “Don’t you see that it’s more than thanksgiving for the safety of the child I so deeply wronged? It’s that this means forgiveness at last–We are forgiven all that we’ve done to harm others. I feel it.”*
John has been troubled by dreams concerning Richard, in which the king seems to be threatening Henry, John’s oldest son. But he too seems to find some peace, and the story ends with him thinking that whatever happens he has Katherine as a loyal friend.
There is also an historical Afterword detailing Richard’s antagonism to his Lancastrian relatives. John dies. Henry returns from exile, deposes Richard, and the latter dies in a prison where Katherine’s son Thomas Swynford happens to be constable. Katherine retires to Lincolnshire, where Harry Beaufort has become a bishop. Her tomb is in Lincoln cathedral beside that of her daughter Joan.
There is a genealogical paragraph on how Katherine, through John Beaufort, became an ancestress of the Tudor line, and through Joan Beaufort an ancestress ofEdward IV and Richard III.
Yes! That’s perfect. Thanks, Baker. What was so annoying is that I was missing the closure between John and Katherine that I’d been waiting for the entire book.
;j