Attempted positive spin on the Cousin Henry ending: Isabel and Owen are good people who will train their children and grandchildren properly as good heirs, and certainty about inheritance means that the next generation won't be put through the mess that both Isabel *and* Henry were. (The narrative acknowledges that it was cruel to Henry for Indefer to build up his expectations and take them away from him at the last minute, even though this was also the best decision for the sake of the property.)
On the other hand, I really think that you're right and entails are a bad idea, because even with the best intentions parents cannot guarantee firstborn male heirs who are skilled and interested in following in the parents' path. I see the ending as part irony, part Isabel trying to give absolute certainty rather than allow her family to go through the issues caused by the uncertainty that she and Henry went through - in other words, a character making an understandable decision to let the pendulum swing too far in the opposite direction. At least, I suppose, entails can be broken with consent of the parties.
MR SCARBOROUGH'S FAMILY has some rather interesting ideas about how to break an entail...which Isabel would be too scrupulous to engage in, however.
If I do a fic, I'll post it to my FF.Net account (http://www.fanfiction.net/u/674329) sometime in January. :) (Edit by-the-way: have you already heard the Word of Yuletide being preached by fandom missionaries, or are you up for some now? Sign ups are not started yet, just nominations.)
Wortle is an honourable man, just an infuriating one.
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On the other hand, I really think that you're right and entails are a bad idea, because even with the best intentions parents cannot guarantee firstborn male heirs who are skilled and interested in following in the parents' path. I see the ending as part irony, part Isabel trying to give absolute certainty rather than allow her family to go through the issues caused by the uncertainty that she and Henry went through - in other words, a character making an understandable decision to let the pendulum swing too far in the opposite direction. At least, I suppose, entails can be broken with consent of the parties.
MR SCARBOROUGH'S FAMILY has some rather interesting ideas about how to break an entail...which Isabel would be too scrupulous to engage in, however.
If I do a fic, I'll post it to my FF.Net account (http://www.fanfiction.net/u/674329) sometime in January. :) (Edit by-the-way: have you already heard the Word of Yuletide being preached by fandom missionaries, or are you up for some now? Sign ups are not started yet, just nominations.)
Wortle is an honourable man, just an infuriating one.