Jaunting with Kids
There was no better place to spend a hot summer day, but this flowery meadow close to the little lake right half way between Downton and Ripon.
Edith was sitting on blanket, making a wreath of flowers her daughter had brought her. Sybil, highly pregnant with her second child, leaned back on a comfy chair. Tom had insisted that she didn't sit on the ground. He thought it might be too cold and uncomfortable down there, and his wife was thankful for his care.
"Everything fine?" Edith wanted to know.
Her sister nodded. "Yes, I feel great, thank you."
Both overlooked the lakeside, where Tom was playing with the kids. Little Sybbie and her cousin Isabella jumped around in the shallow water, while Isabella's younger brother Edward tried to avoid getting wet. He was two years only and still mama's boy.
The girls' shrieking and their giggling mixed up with Tom's deeper sounding laughter. He accompanied both youngsters in the water. He had left his shoes and socks in the grass and had rolled up his trouser legs.
It was a scene of pure child happiness. Well, nearly.
Isabella splashed some water towards her brother. "Maaama," he squeaked immediately.
"We should better have called her Mary," Edith sighed. She got on her feet, but Anthony was faster. He grabbed his son with his good arm and lifted him up.
"What's wrong, my boy?" he asked him.
Edward answered with a whimper. Only the words Bella and not nice were to understand.
"Shush, shush," Anthony tried to calm the toddler. "Bella didn't intent to harm you."
The smile Isabella sent first to her cousin and then to her father told something else.
"Mary, indeed," Edith whispered.
On a day less hot Sybil had contradicted, but she felt a bit tired and wasn't fit enough for the discussion about their older sister that would follow unavoidably.
Tom came over to her. "These girls are really temperamental. I wonder where they this get from..."
He kissed his wife's forehead and sat down in the grass next to her chair.
Sybil answered with a loving smile. She couldn't remember her and her sisters doing such a trip with their parents. There had been picnics, of course, and shooting lunches, going to the seaside and travels to Scotland, but although Cora Crawley had always been more unconventional than other mothers of her class, such a pleasure trip had been unimaginably. Sybil tried to imagine Robert, Earl of Grantham swashing on the lakeside – and failed.
Meanwhile Edith went to her husband and son, who had found a place far from the water. Both sat in a tree's shadow, looking in book together. Anthony held the book with one hand, while Edward turned the pages. It seemed that Anthony was reading a fairy tale to his boy, but Edith knew that the book was actually about modern agronomy.
She joined them on their blanket. "What is daddy telling you about?" she asked her son.
"Draggoons," the boy babbled.
"Saving the princess...," Edith joked. "Like daddy did?"
"Who was then dragon then?" Anthony asked her back.
"Obviously granny," Edith replied, reaching out for kiss. Her husband chuckled and indulged her desire.
Edward protested. He wanted to hear the story about the dragon and the brave prince. His parents gave in. There would be enough time for them alone later in the evening. Edith huddled up to Anthony's left side and listened to his tales together with her son.
Suddenly the peaceful atmosphere was disturbed.
"Edith," Tom called her.
His sister in law was immediately alarmed by the tone of his voice. She looked over to him and recognised the slight panic in his face.
Right away Edith jumped on her feet. "Take the car and bring Sybil to Downton," she commanded. "Papa's chauffeur can pick us here later."
Little Sybbie was alarmed at once. She observed the adults attentively. "I want to go with daddy, too," she begged.
"No, darling," her uncle Anthony replied. "You better stay with us. Your daddy has to drive fast and can't keep an eye on you, while he is driving."
Isabella's hand grabbing Sybbie's calmed the girl down more than Anthony's explanation. Being an older sister Isabella still remembered the time, when her little brother arrived and she felt very grown up to support her cousin during this confusing time.