"Rebecca": Epilogue

[wanda1969]

 

Title: “Rebecca”
Author: wanda1969
Prompt: “Rebecca”
Pairing(s): Jack Harkness/Ianto Jones
Rating: PG
Warnings: very occasional expletive. ALSO, SOMEONE HAD TO BE MRS DANVERS...
Spoilers: More for “Rebecca” (mainly the Hitchcock movie) rather than Torchwood
Disclaimer: I have created no characters here: I have merely borrowed the Torchwood characters from the BBC & their creators. I have also borrowed the plot and some characters from Daphne Du Maurier and Hitchcock (and his scriptwriters). No copyright infringement is intended. In fact, I know this film so well, it was really hard for me not to completely ‘quote’ it...I hope I have paraphrased where necessary.
Author's Notes: Torchwood characters shoehorned into “Rebecca”. This is closer to the Hitchcock film than the book. I’ve also added an Epilogue which is a bit like one of the first chapters of the book, but at the end- THE EPILOGUE  IS THE ONE TO NOT READ IF YOU WANT TO STOP WHERE THE FILM DID. I’ve deviated from the book by (mainly) not writing in the first person, and also by allowing the “second Mrs De Winter” to have a ‘name’.

My aim was for romantic drama/suspense in the 1930s film/book stylee with a bit of modern fanfiction (this is set in the modern day).

Many, many, many thanks to the very lovely and patient janiemc for both beta-ing and putting up with me...I am painfully pedantic (if only that would translate to tidying up...).

 

Epilogue

“And so, all these years after the happenings at Manderley, I find myself so many, many miles away, yet still sometimes dreaming of the place. I had so wanted to make Jack’s life there happy, but it wasn’t to be. Yet, he does seem happy, happy that he no longer has to return there and relive all of the painful memories that Manderley created for him.  The sunshine does him good.

The sunshine, I think, reminds us both of those carefree days in Monte Carlo, when I knew nothing of Manderley, or of the misery that it could bring.

After the fire, Jack could no longer bear to even think of the place; it had brought him all of the unhappiness of his adult life.

The insurance company, after so many months of wrangling paid out a quite a significant sum, enough to at least start to rebuild the old house. Jack had insisted that we never again returned there- he wanted to go back to the sun and to the continent where all of this had started for us, when I had no idea how returning to Cornwall could change our lives so much.  I believe Jack:  he so very much wanted Manderley to be different, for us both to be happy there, but there were too many ghosts and  too many memories there.

Instead, when the insurance payout came, we travelled around Italy, until one day we saw a villa with a small vineyard, Fiaccola Selva, surrounded by small woodlands. It was for sale, and the owner was happy with Jack’s generous offer. Over the years, we have made the villa our own, made a new life. Jack was already almost irritatingly fluent in both Italian and French, so things haven’t been as hard as they could have been. Luckily I found that I had quite a skill for learning languages- at least to a point that I could be understood and carry out a conversation with our neighbours. I even figured out that the villa’s name meant Torch Wood.

We have new friends from the nearby town now. Don’t get me wrong, some of our old friends are still our friends. Tosh and Rhys come to stay- they have a holiday home on the edge of the small estate. They bring their daughter and son and their visits are something that both Jack and I look forward to.

After the events that destroyed Manderley, Owen Harper worked in property in London for a while. He eventually moved to Italy; he has a converted barn on the edge of the estate, near to Tosh and Rhys’ holiday house. He helps Jack and me with the day to day running of the vineyard, to some extent, but the rest of the time he runs a small project management company in the nearest town. He met a beautiful local girl, Isabella, and they’re engaged now.

We even see my sister, Rhiannon, and her family, after so long drifting apart. I didn’t think that that we'd get back to our old relationship; I certainly hadn’t expected Johnny, her husband, to be in any way accepting of my relationship with Jack. I was wrong. They got on from the moment they met- I was surprised to find that they had the same sense of humour. Sometimes Jack really can have the worst kind of “Carry On” style wit...

All in all, I suppose we all have regrets, but more than that we look forward to what life offers us.

As for Jack and me- well, to me he looks the same as the day I first saw him, though perhaps even more distinguished, grey starting to pepper the hair at his temples. For his part, he’s insistent that he’s happier than he’s ever been. I’ve no reason to doubt him any longer; nowadays he smiles and laughs more than he ever did all those years ago.

No, we’ll never go back to Manderley, except perhaps in our dreams.”

***

 The End

Comments

[morgia.livejournal.com]

Great job. :)

[wanda1969.livejournal.com]

Thanks! It's good to know that people are reading it.