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Folk said she'd died of her disappointment after the fifth girl was born, though Gervase had never reproached her for what he must believe was the will of God and the course of Nature rather than her fault. He had, however, often been distressed, first by the thought of Louise cutting him out with another son, and then, when he saw this was not going to happen, by the thought of the family's extinction at his death. Once before the chain had been nearly broken, when an earlier Gervase, Peter Alard's son, had become a seminary priest; but the gap had been filled by Peter's brother Tom, Sir Stephen's grandfather. Now there was no brother to inherit: the property without the title would go to the Oxenbrigges of Iden, on the Kentish border, who were the family's next of kin. Gervase's death would mean the end of the house of Alard—that ancient, honourable house of Squires and Crusaders, which would then become mere dead history, as musty as de Icklesham and de Etchingham and other names on tombs.