Tom Branson acted on instinct when he saw Sir Anthony Strallan coming down the aisle after leaving Edith at the altar with her grandmother. He stepped out of the pew and held his arms out as far as he could reach to hinder the other man to get past. Sir Anthony had to stop short in the middle of a step not to knock Tom over.
Sir Anthony stood there trying to decide on which side to pass by this unexpected obstacle. He was in a hurry to get out of the church because he didn't know for how long he would be able to hold back his tears. And he didn't want anyone to see them. He didn't want anyone to tell Edith that he had been crying when he left her.
Tom continued to act on instinct, throwing his arms around the other man to hold him still. Sir Anthony was really very tall, Tom thought, but he had to stop him. He would even have knocked the man down if nothing else had helped. But Tom really didn't like the idea of fighting with a friendly man, who only had one arm to use and who was probably old enough to be Tom's father.
"Please don't hurt my sister", Tom said very softly. He let go of Anthony, who remained where he was, too tired to try to get away any more. Tom seemed so determined and Anthony didn't want this to end in violence.
Sybil, who had stepped out of the pew after Tom and was rubbing her baby-belly, added: "Yes. Please don't hurt my sister, Sir Anthony. You have no idea of how much Edith has been looking forward to marrying you."
After a moments thought Sybil added: "To marry you and to have your babies." Sybil was thinking a lot about babies right now.
"But I don't deserve her", Sir Anthony complained. "She deserves so much better. She needs someone younger, someone with a whole body and a whole soul. I am too old and too damaged for a lovely young girl like her."
"I think you should let her be the judge of that", Sybil said. "She is constantly praising you, telling me what a kind and wonderful man you are, how much she loves you. How brave she thinks you are, fighting in the war even though you didn't have to. I think you should turn around now and see how unhappy you have made her by leaving her like that!"
Sir Anthony turned around, but he couldn't see how unhappy Edith looked because everything was a blur to him. He had lost the battle. The tears that he had been fighting back were finally rising in his eyes.
When Edith saw that Anthony was crying, her grandmother wasn't able to hold her back any longer. Edith started running down the aisle, stumbling on her beautiful dress. She finally fell on it in just the right moment to throw her arms around Anthony, who instinctively put his arm around her to hold her up.
They stood like that for some moments. Holding Edith's panting body so close to his own filled Anthony with a mixture of tenderness and desire. He felt some of his strength returning. He briefly wished he had Edith alone in bed with him, panting like that while he was making love to her.
But he could still have that... Tonight... If only... If he only was worthy of it...
"I love you", Edith whispered, after catching her breath. "There is no other man in the world for me. Please come back with me and marry me! I will never be happy without you, no matter how much you pray. You have got the whole thing wrong from beginning to end. You are my dearest darling, Anthony. Always have been, always will be. Always."
...
At the reception afterwards Sir Anthony Strallan took his new wife's hand and went up to Tom Branson and his wife Sybil, his new brother and sister-in-law.
"Thank you so much!" Sir Anthony said. "You saved the day. I will never forget what you did for me, and I am sure my darling wife here won't forget it either."
"I owed you this", Tom said with a defiant smile. "I'm happy to help! Because you were a great help to me when you exposed that bastard Larry Grey."
"You saved that day", he added.
...
That night Anthony was holding Edith's panting body close to his own again. But this time they were alone and there were absolutely no clothes between them.
And when he made love to Edith, he had the pleasure of hearing her panting and moaning in a louder and very different way from what she had done in church.
...
Back in their room at Downton Abbey, the Bransons were having their own kind of fun after the happy day. Which was - of course - very similar to the kind of fun the Strallans were enjoying.
...
AN: Just a little fluffy story, suitable for the day. I wrote this yesterday evening, thinking it could be fun to have a little something with Edith/Anthony/Sybil/Tom to publish today.
Thank you for reading! Reviews are, as always, most welcome!