Ashley reunites with Laurel and they become engaged. Ashley and Laurel are later remarried, but on their wedding night, Laurel is devastated when Ashley cannot remember them marrying and thinks that she is married to Marlon and he is with Harriet. During a church service on Easter Sunday, Ashley suffers a crisis of faith and decides to retire from his duties as vicar. Ashley becomes a father again, when Laurel gives birth to a daughter, Dotty Thomas, named after Ashley's late mother.