Part 2
Draining the last of the lemonade from her glass, Anna sighed. The summer of 1920 had just begun and promised to be a hot one.
Her glass tapped as it was set down upon the table and she looked at the pile of letters she had written that afternoon. Every person who was in Vera's address book would get one. For one of them had to know something… at least, that was what she hoped.
"And if one of them do, then perhaps that will be the key to bringing daddy home," she said as she looked over to the corner of the room where Evie's play pen sat.
Her seven month old baby girl looked up at her. "Da?"
"Yes. Daddy."
It was a credit to how much Anna spoke about John that 'Da' had still been among the first sounds their daughter had learned, along with Ma.
Getting up, Anna walked over to Evie with a smile on her face.
"Up Ma!" she babbled stretching for her.
"Come here then, sunshine," she said, bending down to pick her lass up and then settled her daughter on her hip. Burying her face in her whispers of hair, Anna was surprised again that she still smelt like a new born to her.
Stroking Evie's chubby cheek, she gave thanks for her child once more. If there was one thing that had got her through what was turning into the long years of husband's absence, it was Evie. While she had her hope, there was it seemed little end in sight to this confinement of her husbands and their separation.
Lord and Lady Grantham had been good to them. She had been allowed to stay on at the house as a maid. Had she not had her daughter then perhaps she would have been able to progress further, maybe become a Lady Maid's … but as it was, she knew she wouldn't go much further. Lady Mary was a young woman and she was a young wife and she needed someone who was going to be able to drop everything to be there for her. That was not Anna.
There were only two people she would drop everything for… and she did not crave advancement in service. Not really… not now. She wanted to be a proper mother. A proper wife.
And she would not trade her daughter for anything.
Evie had grown in to a robust, healthy and somehow generally happy girl, despite the uncertainty she had been born into. Her dark curls had stayed as black as the day she had been born, though her eyes had changed to match her mothers, her baby blues long gone. In temperament she was cheerful but quiet and occasionally, when she sensed her mother's sadness, solemn. The two of them had not spent a moment together in her whole life, but Evie was entirely, it seemed to Anna, her father's daughter.
Anna's only sorrow when it came to Evie was that the baby spent so much of the week with her grandmother while she worked. But one day it would change. It would have too.
What, unfortunately would not change, was the rate Evie had developed at. Even though she was just nearly eight months old, she came on leaps and bounds every day. She was speaking a handful of words and though was yet to walking, her preference for standing rather than sitting signalled to her mother the day she was toddling around was not going to be long in coming.
So many firsts, so many mile stones already reached. And John was not the only one who was forced to miss them…
"One day when daddy is home, I am going to be able to stay here and look after you all the time… and daddy will come home at night and we'll curl up together," Anna promised as she took her daughter over to the mantel pierce where a picture of John sat.
Even when in prison, he was never far from his girls view.
"Da," Evie repeated as her mother looked at the photograph.
"Yes, that is daddy!" Anna repeated as she kissed her daughters cheek.
Really the two of them did not have time to waste. She was working tomorrow which meant she had to drop her daughter off at her mother's that evening. Her next afternoon off was not for three days…
And without her little ray of sunshine, what a long three days they promised to be.
X x x
"How was France, milady?" said Anna as she walked down the hall to see Lady Mary walking the other way the next day.
The two of them did not spend as much time together as they once did, much to both of their sadness. Once Mary had got married, the first daughter of the house had needed her own maid. A lady of forty had been drafted in from London and Miss Brown had proved herself competent, yet still, she was not Anna. Mary had made it clear that in her eyes she was never going to be.
Their friendship was far from over.
"It was lovely," said the newly wedded Mrs Crawley. "I enjoyed myself."
"I'm glad to hear it."
"How is my goddaughter?"
When the time to christen Evie had come, Lady Mary, Elsie Hughes and Lord Grantham had all agreed to be to help Anna in her Christian duty to raise her.
"Growing bigger every day." Anna smiled.
"Glad to hear it. If she needs anything, you will tell me."
"Yes, milady. Thank you."
"And Bates? How he is?"
"Bearing up. We have a new lead we think… so perhaps it won't be too long now."
"I pray every day that is so."
"So do I."
X x x
Life had dragged for so long. Then everything changed in an instant.
The day they had been waiting for arrived at the end of summer of 1920.
Anna's visit to Mrs Bartlett had been useful and thrown up the evidence which they had been waiting for. The evidence which brought John home. Murray believed it to be true. Anna dare to believe it was true. John prayed to a God he did not believe in that it was true.
Then it was confirmed that it was enough… and the verdict was overturned.
As soon as she got the letter, Anna had run to Lady Mary and Lady Edith and told them her joyous news. Then together, they had gone to tell Lord Grantham. They all needed good news. Especially in the wake of Lady Sybil's death.
It seemed so selfish to be so happy when there had been such sadness in the Abbey. But the happiness of the Bates' had been a long time coming and there was none who would deny that.
"My Lord, can I go over to my mother's? I know I am meant to be working, but I need to be with my baby right now," Anna asked.
She had to hold Evie and tell her the good news… She could not be with her husband and she was not going to fool herself that he was going to be home by Tuesday. But suddenly they were on a count down. They had waited so long to be at this point and now they were. Even if her baby would not understand, she had to tell her.
"Of course," Lord Grantham smiled. "Bring my lovely god daughter home. Take some time with her."
"Why don't I drive you?" Edith said and Mary nodded.
The two of them had had such little joy in their life of late that to share in Anna's would be more than welcomed.
"If you would, milady, I could not tell you how grateful I would be," It was fastest way to Evie. She would never turn an offer like that down.
X x x
"Oh, I cannot believe he is coming home at last. Darling, I am so happy for you," said Mrs Smith as she made tea for her daughter and the two young ladies who she had the honour of entertaining to tea.
She had at first been shocked when she saw them arrive but when she learnt the reason her heart was over joyed. She had to admit she was not like her daughter… she had doubted her son in law. She could not help but wish at times her Anna had fallen in love with a simpler man. However, she was glad she found out she was wrong to do so.
If it had been another day, then she would have lavished her attention their ladies. Of course, she did not think they were any better than her and her daughter but Anna worked at the Abbey and a little stroke of a Lady or a Lords ego never hurt. But it had been so long since she had seen her daughter have such a huge smile on her face that she could not take her eyes off Anna.
Currently, the house maid was sitting at the table with her daughter, beaming at the equally smiley child in her lap. Evie, of course, had been delighted when she saw her mother come for her early. As much as loved her grandmother, she was her mother's girl.
"Are you excited for daddy coming home, precious? Are you?" asked Anna, as she bounced her daughter.
"Da!" she smiled her gummy smile.
Anna nodded, kissing her daughters forehead.
"He is going to come back to us soon, very soon now, my love…" she smiled. "We are going to be together… all of us."
The gravity of what was to happened hit her as her daughter flung herself forward into her arms. Anna held her tight… just as her husband would be able to in a few weeks' time. Blinking, she looked around the other women in the room.
"I am so sorry for being a little emotional…. I just can't believe it's never all over."
"I do not think any of us are going to blame you for that," Mary said as she picked up her tea.
"What are you going to do when Bates gets back?" Edith asked.
"Just as soon as he gets back, we are going to shut the door in the cottage and keep the world outside for a while," she said. That was her plan anyway and she did not think John would argue with it. She turned to Evie. "We have got to get you and daddy used to one another, haven't we? Shall we have your daddy all to ourselves for a little while? I think he'd like that."
"The two of them are going to love one another," Anna's mother said.
"Of course they are! We just cannot wait to get him back."
She blushed, knowing in her excitement she was doing nothing but finding a million different ways to express the very same sentiment… but Anna was not so sure she wasn't dreaming. She had prayed they were all going to get to be together for so long that now they were going to get to be… It felt unreal. So she had to keep saying the words until it did.
X x x
If she wanted to be at the prison when John stepped out into the free world, Anna knew she had to get going.
"Are you sure you do not mind having her this morning, milady?" she asked as she stood in the entrance hall of the Abbey with Lady Mary and Matthew at an ungodly hour.
For the first time since she had been a very new-born baby, her daughter had slept at the Abbey the night before. She herself had slept there regularly since Mr Bates had been in jail. On nights when her mother had Evie, it was thought safer for her to be in the big house. She did not know what her husband thought was going to happen to her when she was tucked up safe in there little cottage but he had said he was going to sleep easier knowing she was not on her own. When she had her daughter with her on days off, however, they had stayed in their own home (for Evie's routine more than anything).
Yet knowing that she had to be up so early to go and get Bates from the prison, the Crawley's had insisted that she take the car. And as she was taking the car, she might as well sleep where she was going to get easy access to it.
"Of course, I am sure I am happy to take her! I hardly think I would be a very good godmother if I was not," she teased as she took Evie from her mother's arms. True enough she had expected her role to be far more setting up a trust fund than babysitting, but when needs must…
Matthew, who had got up early with his wife, beamed at the sight of the little girl in the arms of his wife. Mary had visited enough so that she was familiar to Evie and as soon as she had taken from her mother, the baby had begun playing with the string of beads she was wearing that day. They did make an adorable sight. It was his most fervent hope that she was going to make only the most natural of mothers when the time came for the two of them.
"I am grateful for this, my lady. I do don't want her to become over wrought before the three of us are home together," Anna explained again why she had chosen not to take Evie to the prison gates.
"Of course," Mary nodded. "And it is going to be much nicer for the two of them to meet here rather than –" she broke off.
"Than outside a prison? Yes I think I have to agree with that," laughed Anna. She could laugh now, for the first time in a long time. Moving close to her lady, she ran a hand through her daughter's dark curly locks.
"I am going to see you soon, my darling."
"Mama… "
"Mama and daddy are going to be home very soon. I promise you. Just a couple of hours now. Be a very good girl this morning, ok, my love? Best behaviour for Aunt Mary please."
"She'll be a darling. She always is. We are going to see you soon," said Mary as she nodded to the door.
Anna sighed and turned with a spring in her step. It was time to bring her husband home and she was not going to delay a moment longer.
X x x
It felt to Anna as if the moment she stepped out of the car was the moment they finally stepped into the future.
For so long all three of them had lived under such a shadow. Now it had passed.
There stood her John outside of the prison walls, in his own clothes. His own coat and his own hat…
And the smile on his face broke her heart in the very best way. Because at the same time as breaking it, it also mended it. He was a free man – but, of course, belonged to her entirely.
She ran to him and she put his arms about him and she was not told to step back. Rather, he held her tight and kissed her and there was no one to reprimand them. There never would be again.
"Thank god," she said as she looked in to that beautiful face of his.
"Yes, thank god," he agreed, looking at her as one looked at a miracle. "And you."
It felt as if it was a kind of dream to her even then. She never wanted to awake from it.
For a while they stood there together simply relishing one another, before he sighed.
"Thank you, darling Anna, thank you," he said over again as they held one another.
"You are more than welcome."
It was only when she drew back his thoughts were able to wonder from her. "Where is she?"
Who he was referring to did not need specifying.
"I thought it better if the two of you met when you were back at home. She can't wait though. All she has done is babble of her daddy for days…" she said as she turned, taking his hand as they headed towards the car.
He nodded. As eager as he was to have his little girl in his arms, he had waited this long and he was more than capable of waiting a little longer. He would not have wanted her brought to this place any way. Anna had mentioned it once, but neither of them had wanted her to bring Evie there. Not really… his desire to keep her away and safe from that wretched building outweighed even his need to see and hold her.
In his pocket, he had the two pictures of their child Anna had given to him whilst he was there. One had been taken when his daughter was a month old, the second when she had been six months. Along with his wife's visits, they had kept him sane with insanity had beckoned.
"You don't mind, do you?" Anna asked and he shook his head.
"No," he sighed, the smile not leaving his face. He trusted her judgement without question… "I am never going to be sorry to have you to myself for a while. Now least of all," he said as he ran a loving thumb across her cheek.
For so long the tears she had cried had been ones of fear and misery. But now they were of joy.
X x x
That September morning was bright and not too cold, but autumn was in the air.
"Darling, keep your cardigan on please. I do not think your parents are going to thank me if you take a cold just as your father gets home," said Mary as she sat on her and Matthew's favourite bench, watching Evie.
Little Miss Bates had clearly been thinking of removing her woolly cardigan but thought better of it after her god mothers words, returning to play and leaving the buttons she had been fiddling with alone.
Matthew smiled at Mary's side as they kept an eye on the determined little girl who turned her attention to the bench and proceeded to pull herself up. That morning, however, Evie Bates was not their only charge.
After eating breakfast together they had gone to the nursery to pick up Sybbie. The little girl was just a few months old and yet her uncle and aunt were regular visitors to the nursery. When they had arrived with Mary's other goddaughter for the morning, it had been to find the baby in the arms of her father. Tom had declined to come out with them for some fresh air. He had simply not been the same man since he had lost Sybil and all his life seemed to be shrouded in grief. He had left the nursery soon after they had entered.
What he had gone through was too terrible for words… if she ever lost Matthew… it did not bare thing about.
And so they had decided to relieve nanny for a while and took both little girls for fresh air.
Now as Evie Bates played around them, seeing how long she could stand for, Sybbie Branson lay in the arms of her aunt…
"No, I dare say they would not thank us for that," Matthew said. "It is going to be such a big adjustment for them all, when Bates comes back."
"But I do not think the change could be more welcomed," Mary reassured him as she looked at her niece.
Her eyes turned back to her goddaughter as she watched the little now nine month old girl try again to get up on her little unsteady feet.
Mary was struck by the fact that it was such a miracle to see a child find her feet and grow.
And she hoped she was going to see her own grow up as beautifully as Evie had.
"And it looks is going to be welcomed right now," Matthew nodded to the drive, where the car was pulling up.
X x x
John had kept hold of Anna's hand the entire way home. He had no intention of letting go. Not for a long time yet.
Yet the nearer the two of them got to home the less the hold was a grasp. It became comfortable and warm…. Safe. Bringing her hand to his lips, he looked at her.
After months and months of separation, this was beyond his wildest dreams. To be going home, to be side by side with his wife and minutes away from meeting his child… She had said they were going to bring him home.
And now they had.
As they begun to roll down the drive, it was there it become real for her too. They were safe.
He desired nothing more than to have her in his arms… and he did not think there was anything that could shake that thought from his mind.
But that was when he looked out of the car. Just for a moment... But that was enough.
"Oh my god… is that – Anna is that?" he asked as he looked out to where Lady Mary and Matthew were sitting with…
"Yes," his wife nodded.
There was a brief silence before he spoke again, his voice breaking a little with the emotion of the day, "She is such a big girl already," sighed John as he swallowed. He knew he could not cry in front of his child the first time he met her. That wasn't fair.
But there was Evie. And she was every bit as wonderful as his wife had said she was.
His first born… his daughter…
"Not really. She is still very much our baby, I promise you that."
Anna held on to his arm tight, kissing his cheek as they watched their child play.
"Mr Pratt, can you stop the car please?" asked Anna. She had a feeling that John was going to be more than happy to walk the rest of the way.
The chauffeur nodded and slowed down. Anna and John got out the car and holding hands and begun the last leg of their journey.
X x x
Mary and Matthew had got up as soon as they saw Mr and Mrs Bates coming towards them. It was not yet ten – and they were going to have the whole day with their daughter, which was just what Anna had planned. Mary was thrilled to see it had come together so wonderful. As glad she was to see the valet return to them though, she saw the closer he got to them, the more nervous he appeared. He did not seem to register her and Matthew at all.
"Evie, my darling, look who it is." She said as she looked down at the little girl, cooing the words over her.
However, it was another voice which attracted the little girl's attention.
X x x
"Evie Tilly," Anna called gently once they were close enough.
Holding on to John's arm to steady him, she beamed. This was it… after everything.
Their little girl turned towards them, already grinning at the sound of her mother's voice.
"Oh Anna…" sighed John. He had had his pictures of his baby girl but it was not until she saw her she realised how beautiful she was.
"Ma!" she cried and let go of the bench when she saw her. For the first time since they had been reunited, Anna's attention was utterly diverted from him as Evie put one determined foot in front of the other…
And then again.
"Evie," her mother said as she let go of John for the first time.
"Has she ever?" John spluttered.
"Walked before? No – No, they were her first... Her first steps." They had been taken straight towards her father.
In the time it had taken the two of them to exchange those few words, Evie had stumbled and landed on her bottom with a little giggle. The grass was soft and caused her no harm though to see her fall just that little was a wound to her father's heart. He'd have been protective of her no matter what, but for nearly nine months he had been denied the chance to keep her safe. He would not be denied again.
Evie looked up to Anna, clearly delighted by her achievement and knowing that was precisely what it had been. But when her eyes crossed to her father, they became fixated.
He had not expected any recognition of her face. Maybe he was just imaging it – maybe he wanted it to be there.
But it seemed to him that there was some hint of…
She looked to her mother as if to ask… "Da?"
John had said to himself he was not going to cry… but that one syllable brought tears to his eyes.
Passing Anna his stick, he all but forgot the three of them were not on his own as he bent down. Ignoring his screaming knee, he smiled. "Hello Evie, my little love."
"Da."
"Yes, sweetheart, I've come home… this strange daddy your lovely mummy has been telling you about."
Evie looked at Anna for confirmation and her mother nodded, looking away only to wipe the tears which had begun to cascaded down her cheeks.
"Why don't you give daddy a hug, darling?" Anna asked. "I am sure he'd love a cuddle."
The baby looked between her parents as John dared to move forward to lift her. He dreaded Evie squirming and crying to get away from him, but the fear was unfounded. She did not cuddle in to him, far too interested in his face but suddenly John had his little girl in his arms.
And that was enough.
Mary nodded to Matthew and they headed back to the house leaving the Bates there together. They had to get Sybbie back to the nursery and somehow felt they had intruded on a very private moment enough. It took Anna no time at all to join her husband and her daughter and then John had his arms about the two of them, Evie nestled between them…
And the world was, for the first time in a long time, a wonderful, wonderful place in the eyes of Mrs Anna Bates.
End of Part 2
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