Celebrating Andith Fest with the start of a new story. This is the introduction of sorts and a bit short. More to come soon.
Lady Edith Crawley boarded the train for Downton, gladly leaving London behind. She and her sister, Mary had been staying with their Aunt Rosamund after their parents left for America. GrandMama Levinson had been ill and Lord Grantham took his wife to visit her mother. Edith didn't think much would be exciting at Downton but it had one very large advantage; Mary would not be there and Edith needed time to think.
A visit to her London doctor had confirmed what she had suspected; she was pregnant. Her brief affair with her editor, Michael Gregson, had ended badly with him scurrying off to the continent and quite literally leaving her holding the bag. She had a little time to decide what she should do but she needed some quiet time to consider. Downton with the family away would offer the perfect opportunity.
She had just settled in with a book when her compartment door opened and a woman asked if she might join her. Edith blinked as she took in the features of the other woman. The woman had hair almost the color of Edith's with dark eyes and was built very similarly. Their facial features had the same general look and the likeness was eerie. From her attire, Edith surmised that the woman was moneyed and her demeanor spoke of aristocracy. "It's simply too crowded in my own compartment. The conductor put a family in there and the children are very noisy," the other woman complained.
Edith shrugged inwardly and nodded. "Yes of course," Edith replied.
The woman took the seat across from Edith and seemed to want to talk. "Are you going to York?" she asked.
Edith smiled. "Yes, Downton actually. It is near Ripon."
"Yes, I know where it is. I'm getting off at Ripon…to meet my husband. I've been in London, shopping. I just adore Selfridge's. Have you been to Selfridge's? There seems to always be something exciting happening there, don't you think?"
The woman rattled on and on about shopping and London, barely pausing for breath and apparently oblivious that she had yet to give Edith a chance to reply to anything she had said. Resigned to a boring ride with the woman, Edith settled back into her seat and pretended to pay attention as the countryside passed by their window.
Without warning the train lurched, throwing the women around the car and then screams filled Edith's ears as the train left its rails and tumbled down a steep incline, landing at the bottom as a pile of rubble, steam pouring from the engine. In the tumble the outer door to their compartment had become unlatched and both women were thrown from the car, one hitting a tree and dying instantly. The other landed near the rail car, her body and face so swollen and broken that she was unrecognizable. When the rescuers found the two women sometime later, they couldn't identify them except that the handle of a bag was caught on the body of the dead woman. The contents belonged to Lady Edith Crawley. Both women were sent to York, one to the undertaker and the other to the hospital.