I still think about the absolut Disaster (affectionate) an AU where TUH MC romanced John and still goes through with marrying Francis against her will could have been.
I mean, picture it. MC is married to Francis. MC still loves John. John still loves MC. Francis knows they still love each other and feels guilty that both of them are suffering. John feels guilty both that he stands in the way of his brother having a happy marriage and that he resents Francis for being married to the woman he loves. MC feels guily for the tension between the brothers. They all love each other but that love only causes pain because their unhappiness magnifies that of the others. John is too dutiful to consider an affair with his brother's wife. They can't stay away from each other. Staying away from each other is painful. Being together, but always forced to hide, would be moreso.
Francis still loves his wife's dead sister and all he sees when he looks at her is Amelia. Amelia who would hate that her baby sister is miserable.
MC knows he still loves her sister.
They all live together.
With his track record, John will probably just flee abroad within weeks. Then World War 1 happens, and while it is a distraction, John is also stuck in the trenches with no loving wife to write letters to, as he would have had in a slightly happier timeline.
Honestly, I want to write that AU just to describe Delia's horror when it all predictably crashes and burns.
