In this, the second part of the second Village Tale, the Woolfonts are reeling from the loss in the ducal family, the knock-on effects on the duke's health, and the breakdown under stress of the Rector's iron constitution. The aftershocks of the dirty dealings by his fellow Councillors which Teddy Gates has suffered, for all the duke's crafty retrieval of the situation, still reverberate. The Bishop is dreading a possible upheaval in the neighbouring parishes; Edmond Huskisson is being forced to learn how to balance his domestic and his activist commitments. Then again, this is the Woolfonts: where, as the Rural Dean responsible for them notes, the impossible always happens, and the inevitable, never does. Can the parishes pull together and see the crises through? Of course they can: even if it wants blood, toil, tears, and sweat.