#ask44

The Daily Punctillo definitely played a part in the break-up, but that had more to do with the fact that Lemony was accused of arson. Jacques mentions in his last letter to Lemony he will try to assure Beatrice that he is innocent of these crimes (knowing Lemony’s criminal past, she’d be forgiven believing the newspapers).

We know for a fact that Beatrice did not break the engagement because she believed Lemony to be dead; otherwise she wouldn’t have bothered writing him a 200-pages letter. Lemony does not argue about his innocence in his answer, so Beatrice knew he was innocent after all.

What confused you, I think, is this particular passage:

CaptainWiddershins was wrong to trust his stepson for so many years, andwrong to participate in the destruction of Anwhistle Aquatics, and hewas wrong to insist, as he did so many years ago, that a story in TheDaily Punctilio was completely true, and to show this article to somany volunteers, including the Baudelaire parents, the Snicketsiblings, and the woman I happened to love.[The Grim Grotto, Chapter Thirteen]

This, I think, applies to the mistaken reports about Lemony’s supposed death that the Daily Punctillo published some time after Lemony left the country. This may have affected their (already impossible) relationship in some way since Beatrice stopped trying to reach him after that and settled in with Bertrand as her husband. We know that she definitely believed Lemony to be dead at the time she left the Island, while she was carrying Violet.

“I could not ask for better,” Kit said quietly. “Name the baby after one of  your parents, Baudelaires. The custom of my family is to name a baby for someone who has died.”“Ours too,” Sunny said, remembering something her father had told her when she had inquired about her own name.“Our families have always been close,” Kit said, “even if we had to stay apart from one another. Now, finally, we are all together, as if we are one family.”[The End - Chapter Thirteen]