That night Edith had met Bertie in the corridor on his way down to dinner. He had told her that he was glad that he had met her there. It would make him less nervous about going down to meet her relatives for the first time since Brancaster if she was with him.

When Edith told Bertie that she was going to the night-nursery before she went down, he had asked her if he could come with her.

Edith always went to the night-nursery every night before dinner when she was at Downton. Not even being with him could keep her from checking that Marigold was alright for the night. She couldn't enjoy her dinner properly if she hadn't seen that her little girl was well and fast asleep. And if Marigold wasn't asleep, Edith stayed and talked to her a little while, or sang for her.

Edith didn't know if Bertie was really interested in the children, or if he only wanted to be with her to avoid getting down to dinner alone. But of course she invited him to come with her.

...

That afternoon, when Edith hadn't managed to start the car, it had taken her half an hour to find Stark, and then more than half another hour for Stark to help her get the car running. She had feared that Bertie would just hop onto the next train and return home.

At least she expected him to be furious. Well, he had reason to be. She had promised to pick him up, and now he was left on his own without any explanation whatsoever.

But when she found Bertie, carrying all his luggage, he wasn't angry at all. He was just happy to see her. She realised that he was an even better man than she had known before.

He had kissed her, and it had been good, and she had managed to make herself believe that this would never end. He belonged to her, and she belonged to him. It would always be like that. Being with him - it was like a dream, really. She didn't want to wake up.

But she had to remind herself that he loved her because he didn't really know her. She hadn't told him the most important thing about her life. He would stop loving her as soon as he knew about that.

Sometimes she felt really horrible about keeping him in the dark about Marigold.

...

Now they were standing there in the nursery while she told him about the sleeping children. And he was interested in them, she noticed, of course he was. He smiled lovingly as he looked down at Marigold.

And then he said it.

"God bless you, Marigold."

That was when Edith realised she couldn't go on like this any longer. She couldn't let him believe that Marigold was an orphan that she was taking care of from the goodness of her heart, when Marigold in fact was the result of something most people would despise Edith for.

Bertie would probably be shocked when she told him. He would probably not want to have anything more to do with her. But it couldn't be helped, Edith couldn't live with herself any longer if she didn't tell Bertie the truth. He didn't deserve to be lied to like that.

So, she took a deep breath. Then she looked him straight into his eyes and said:

"Bertie, there is something I need to tell you. Something important, something that will probably make you look down on me."

Bertie was about to protest, but before he had time to say anything, the door opened and Nanny Jones returned.


AN: Thank you for reading! Please let me know what you think!