In 1930 an unmarked grave was found in the woods outside Munich. The man in the grave was identified as an English tourist that had disappeared from his hotel many years earlier.
There wasn't much left of the body. The man was identified by the inscription on a ring. "To Michael with love, Elizabeth, London 1913", the inscription read.
The man's wallet was missing, so it was assumed that he had been robbed. The thieves had probably not found the ring, otherwise they had very likely taken that too. He didn't have it on his finger but in what had probably once been a pocket on his jacket.
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The ring was sent to the British embassy in Berlin, where they immediately understood that it belonged to Michael Gregson, who had disappeared in Munich many years before. They sent it on to his wife, whom he had lived separated from for many years already when he disappeared. She sighed when she saw the ring - to Michael with love - well, she had loved him once, before she got to know him a little better.
She was now officially a widow which made life easier for her. But she shivered at the thought of Michael being killed and buried like that. She had once loved him, after all.
The German police didn't do much to solve the murder. Of course they told the people at the British Embassy that they were doing their utmost, but in truth they didn't waste much time on it. After all, it wasn't the only murder case in Munich at the time. And a man who had been killed eight years ago - the case was as cold as they get.
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There was another person directly affected by these news, when they finally reached her. Little Alice Strallan, who was the natural daughter of Michael Gregson and seven years old when his body was found.
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When little Alice Strallan was five years old her parents had decided that it was time to tell her about her background. They didn't tell her on her birthday - it wasn't exactly a gift after all - but a few days later. She had wondered about her father since that, hoping he would come back some day.
Anthony was a good Papa to her, he loved her just as much as her little brother Jonathan and her little sister Elizabeth. But she still couldn't stop wondering about the father she had never met.
Little Alice cried when she was told by her Mummy that Michael Gregson was dead. Now it was too late, she would never meet him.
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In the end it turned out that Alice was the only one to cry about Michael Gregson's death. Edith was actually relieved to find out that he hadn't deserted her on purpose - it was much better to think Alice was the result of love on his side as well as hers. And she had cried so much over Michael Gregson already, it was all so long ago.
And Anthony had dreaded ever since he married Edith that Gregson would come back some day. No matter how much Edith proved every day that she loved him, he knew that she had once loved Gregson too. What would happen if Gregson wanted Edith and Alice back?
So Anthony was happy that Gregson was dead - but of course he felt bad about being so. Partly because he found it un-gentlemanly to be glad about another human being's death. But mostly because his little darling Alice was so sad that she would never be able to meet her biological father.
AN: Thank you for reading! Please leave a comment, it would so brighten my day!
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I don't know where this came from. I have neither been writing nor reading fanfiction for a couple of weeks, and almost thought I had finished doing it for good.
Perhaps I wrote this because I am scared that Gregson will return as a Nazi and influence Edith. There are real examples of that from the British aristocracy.
I don't know for sure if this is a one-shot. It probably is, I have two long stories that I ought to finish already, so I mark this one as complete.
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I have not seen any of S5. I will watch it when it comes to Swedish television in October.
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Edith's daughter is still Alice for me and in this story. Why would Edith call her Marigold? To annoy Aunt Rosamund, who was with her in Geneva? Marigold was the name of Rosamund's maid, who slept with Rosamund's beau in the first CS.
JF doesn't appear to think very much about the names he gives his characters, like he let both Mary and Edith have Josephine as their second name.