In Memoriam
"Lady Edith, Mrs. Denker telephoned. Your grandmother would like you to pay her a visit."
Lady Mary raised an amused eyebrow at Carson's announcement. "A summons from Granny? What did you do now?" Mary asked in her slightly snide way.
Lady Edith pondered it a moment before admitting. "I have no idea."
OOOOOOO
"I know how your sister can be. I wanted you to have the news in private, but a letter seemed too impersonal."
Perhaps she should have thanked her grandmother but Edith wasn't feeling very thankful.
"If you would prefer to be alone I will leave."
Not wanting to be left alone in her grandmother's sitting room, Edith shook her head.
Tea service had been set before the two of them upon Edith's arrival, but neither had touched it.
Edith said nothing for a time. Her grandmother was for once blessedly silent. When Edith did finally speak it was to bring up a very old wound.
"Why did you tell Papa to let him go? Why were you so opposed to my marrying Sir Anthony?"
"Experience, my dear Edith." Her grandmother answered gently. "I married a man thirty years my senior and I can tell you from experience it can make for a lonely existence."
Whatever answer Edith had been expecting that wasn't it.
"You don't recall your grandfather. He died shortly after you were born. Despite what my children might believe, I did come to love your grandfather a great deal in my own peculiar way, but it still isn't a path I would wish upon you or your sister."
Interested despite her grief, Edith sat up in her chair, listening intently to her grandmother as she spoke however vaguely of her past.
"I wanted a different life for you. I didn't want you to step into the life someone else had already built. I wanted you to find a man closer to your own age that you might build a life together. That you two might grow old together."
"Because that worked out so well for Mary and Sybil!" Edith couldn't keep the bitterness out of her tone even as with a sigh, she added. "And me with Michael."
"I feared you would be a wife for only a few years and then a widow for life."
Rather unnecessarily, Edith pointed out. "If the wedding had gone through that day my marriage to Sir Anthony would have outlasted both Sybil's and Mary's."
"Forgive me. We can't always know what the future has in store for us." Violet admitted. "But I do know that if you had married Anthony Strallan you wouldn't have your daughter."
"Marigold? No, I suppose I wouldn't." Edith frowned unhappy at the idea, but soon managed to appease herself with another idea. "But I would have had other children."
"You forget, Edith. Sir Anthony was married before for many years with no children."
"You can't know it was his fault." Edith defended him.
Granny didn't try to argue the point in words, but her expression said otherwise.
"That was what frightened me the most. I've been a widow now for longer than I was married, but I at least had my children and my grandchildren. I feared you would be left with nothing."
Having had enough of what ifs and might-have-beens, allowing herself to sink back into her chair, Edith lapsed back into her grief and silence.
Finis
A/N Reviews are greatly appreciated.