It was a shame that all the family had their perfectly happily ever after endings except her, and her best ending was to be the 'legitimate' wife to the villain. I found
this page on historical divorce and it seems her only ground for divorce would've been adultery and it would've been a long process that might not work:
Quote:
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In 1670, English law allowed a spouse to bring an action for "criminal conversation" to establish adultery, then obtain a divorce a mensa et thoro (from bed and board) from the church and then finally to petition the House of Lords to grant the divorce.
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However with his history and her position after marriage, it's possible she might've been one of the lucky ones that prevailed in divorce if she'd wanted it.
With our modern first world sensibilities her best ending being the wife of the villain is unjust, and it's sad to think there's still many places in the world where women have even less freedom than she. Going back to my post, what struck me about the vicar (and apparently the readers) not caring about the other women the squire had 'ruined' or even that they may have had more claim to be his legal wife (especially the first one whomever that may have been) is that that trope is in a general sense still alive and well today - the trope of an important character being more, well, important while sometimes much larger collateral damage to others is ignored. Many action and thriller stories and movies are still based on that exact premise - someone is in danger and must be rescued while many unnamed innocent people are killed along the way because of the main character(s) trying to rescue the important person.