"I'm going down to see Tim Drewe today", Edith said at the breakfast table. "I'm writing an article about pigs."
Robert looked up from his newspaper. Edith seemed to be much happier now, though nothing more had been heard from Gregson. She was smiling more, perhaps those months in Switzerland had done her good. Though he hadn't really noticed that her mode had improved until after she had gone there the second time.
She wasn't as restless as she had been earlier, running up to London all the time. She seemed much more content with the quiet life at Downton. And she had written quite a few articles about agriculture and the running of estates.
...
"Where is Edith?" Cora asked an hour later. "I want her to help me with some charity work I'm planning."
"She said she would go down to tenant Drewe", Robert said. "Apparently she wants to write an article about pigs."
"Pigs?" Mary exclaimed. "Why on earth! I thought she was writing for a women's magazine."
"She is always hanging around there", Cora said thoughtfully. "Where did she get that sudden interest in pigs?"
So Cora decided to find out.
...
Sir Anthony Strallan sat in his library, reading the Sketch. He had saved the best part. He always did that, ending his reading with Lady Edith's column, before he cut it out and placed it in a drawer.
This time she was writing about the necessary ways to keep up agriculture and food production in the country. With a smile he remembered the young girl who had asked him across the table on that dinner if he would show her his new harvester. He had found her remarkably clever already then.
That first impression had been right, of course. But he didn't fall in love with her then, that had come later. But her intelligence and her many interests had been important when he did fall in love with her. He had dreamt about being able to discuss almost everything with her. And of laughing with her, they shared the same sence of humour.
He had given her up, and the rest of the world had profited from that. All he had left of her now was her articles.
Her columns were brilliant, there was no other word for it. They were full of interesting insights, well researched and funny. He always smiled when he read them, even laughed a couple of times, but he also learnt something, at least from most of them. Next week's article would be about pigs, it said. He was looking forward to what she could make of that. Make of them, he thought with a smile.
Sir Anthony Strallan felt a sudden interest in pigs.
...
AN: Thank you for reading! Please comment if you like!
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I have seen the Christmas Special now, and I'm happy! Edith is going to get her baby back. She stood up for herself and her child. And she had the chance to breastfeed it, the little one has memories of her mother's soothing voice!
It must be horrible to give away a child. Especially for a person like Edith, who doesn't believe her parents truly love her. Even if she would get other children later on she would always have felt bad about giving this one away, she would have felt she had let the little one down.