What happens after John Bates leaves Anna at the end of ep1, series 2. How does he try to reconcile back with Anna and more importantly, can he escape from the clutches of Vera permanently. This is my take on what could have happened. More chapters imminent. please review. thanks

It had been a couple of months since I had started working at The Forsythe Arms in Kirby Moorside. I could not wait to get away from Vera. After all these years of being apart, her mere voice or presence was enough to make me feel as though I was being violated. My main motivation however for returning to Yorkshire was to be closer to Anna, at least geographically if not literally. I could not bear to wait a single moment before trying to see her again. To say that I was apprehensive to meet up with her after our parting is very much understating the case. I often had nightmarish visions of the night I deserted her so abruptly and decisively. She bravely continued to beseech me, yet I turned my heart to stone and and abandoned her. Having left her in such a state of devastation, I feared for her current sanguinity and her regard for me.

I knew that she had Wednesday afternoons off, when she visited the village and the village shops. I lay in wait for her, hidden behind a tree trunk awaiting her arrival with a sense of excitement and also gloom. Presently, I saw her making her way back towards Downton Abbey. To any casual observer, she looked her usual self. But knowing her as I did, I knew she was miserable, her eyes had lost their sparkle. Her entire body and gait betrayed a kind of melancholy and loss, but then she tried to physically pull herself together to try and seem unaffected and assured. She went past the tree I was skulking behind and sat down on a bench a mere ten metres from where I stood. She had her back to me and I unashamedly continued to gaze at her as she opened a book from her bag.

There was a letter inside, which she read and reread a few times. Was it one of my letters she was reading, I wondered. She made to turn around and I darted back behind the tree. She seemed to sense something amiss but then turned her back to me again. She shut the letter and the book with a resigned sigh and picked her things up and left leaving me gazing at her.

Every week since then for the next five weeks, I would watch her as she went about her walks and felt a measure of happiness at seeing her face. As much relief as I felt in seeing her, I was also filled with indescribable self loathing at acting in an underhand manner. I had sullied her life by leaving her with a heartache the likes of which I was experiencing now. Me, I probably deserved it, but she was an untainted creature and her suffering was so unjust. However, a small part of me did feel some gratitude that she still seemed to miss me and had not completely discarded me from her heart.

I must have gotten a bit reckless and one Wednesday and she caught a glimpse of me. I quickly ducked behind the tree and made my escape through the network of tiny lanes before she could catch up with me. The ridiculousness of the situation was too absurd for me to contemplate. On the one hand, I was dying to see her, yet here I was running, nay escaping from her. This mirrored the inner turmoil in my mind. I was pining to be with her yet the sensible part of me was urging me to stay away from her to protect her and keep her away from a life of notoriety and dishonour. I continued to watch her every Wednesday but something had changed and she was always looking out for me. Oh my dearest Anna, you fill this wretched man with such joy and longing by your mere sight and your unshakable faith.