I adore it! It's chilling but also somehow freeing to imagine Tobias as one in a long line of unpleasant people - and it casts a completely new sort of light on Severus and Severus' choices. Eileen seems particularly well painted here, and I have a fondness for your publican - how real he seems, wanting to do the right thing as long as it isn't his girl going to the altar in Eileen's place.
You pull together a sweeping history and a pivotal moment in time in a concise, meaningful way, and I thought the extra touches of Eileen's imaginings and the reference to South Pacific made the reader's awareness of the conflict-to-come even more poignant. Beautiful work.
Thank you for this excellent, excellent story - I'm so pleased!