Bertie tried to look as if he didn't care as he walked away from Edith towards Downton Abbey.
In reality he was in a turmoil of emotions. He loved Edith so much. And he was so disappointed in her.
And he had told her that it was over, although it broke his own heart to say those words.
Marigold was Edith's own daughter. And Edith hadn't had enough trust in him to tell him that in person. What kind of man did she think he was, really? Why didn't she trust him?
Instead he had had to hear it from someone else. The shock of that had made it impossible for him to pretend that he already knew.
He had felt so humiliated.
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Bertie had told Edith that he was just going to get his car and drive out of her life, but when he got inside the house he realised there was one other thing he had to do first. So instead of just walking through the great hall and out through the front door he walked up the stairs to the nursery.
He wanted to see little Marigold again. Because he knew that he would see her with different eyes now that he knew that she was Edith's daughter. He wanted to try to see if he had been blind, if he really ought to have seen Edith in her daughter long ago.
...
"I just wanted to say Good-bye to Miss Marigold", he told the Nanny, whom he had luckily already met.
"Hello, Marigold", he then said with a smile to the little girl. She looked up at him with a very shy smile.
There was nothing of Edith in the little girl's looks, Bertie thought. Except, perhaps, that shy smile.
Instead there was something else he noticed in her, something very familiar, though he really didn't manage to put his finger on exactly what it was.
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Bertie stared at the little girl in consternation. This little girl, known as the ward among the regular grand-children of the house. What would her life be like, especially if the truth about her parentage became generally known? People could be so cruel to children born out of wed-lock, although they couldn't help at all what their parents had done.
Bertie realised he couldn't really blame Edith for trying to keep it a secret. And he himself had actually reacted just the way she had feared.
Told her it was over.
...
Then, suddenly, he realised why Marigold looked so familiar. There was a photo of himself from the time he was three, and the little girl looked almost the same as he himself had done at the time, her hair was just a little bit longer.
There weren't many photos of him as a child.
The poor relative in the fine house, pitied all his life.
His heart skipped a beat when he realised the likeness.
He smiled at the little girl again.
"Good bye, little Marigold", he said then. "Hope to see you soon again!"
Now he only had to go and find Edith again, to tell her that it wasn't over at all. At least not for him.
Not if she could find it in her heart to forgive him.
AN: Thank you for reading! Please leave a comment!
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This was inspired by two things. One is the last scene in the promo for 6:8 where Bertie walks away from Edith, the other the picture where Bertie and Tom are playing with the puppet theatre to amuse the children. I noticed on that picture that Marigold looks a lot more like Bertie than she looks like either Gregson or Edith. Just the same nose, for instance.
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I hope it works out for Bertie and Edith in canon. Otherwise - there is always fanfiction!