Secrets Revealed- part 2
A/N: I own nothing. Forgot this for the last chapter- SPOILERS!
Isis had been gone a week now. Robert had been absolutely heartbroken when he and Cora had woken up to find that the old yellow Labrador had passed peacefully in the night. Cora held his hand as the dog was buried under an old tree where she and Robert liked to walk.
As one inhabitant of the abbey left, another had arrived. Edith's charge, Marigold, arrived two days after the dog's death. Robert had only seen her the once since she arrived; he had taken to spending his afternoons walking the estate by himself, mostly so he could grieve for his beloved dog in private, without his darling Sybbie and George to see.
Cora had finally convinced him to stay for tea and spend some time with the children. He reluctantly agreed; he missed the children as well and can now talk about the passing of the dog without tears, should one of the children ask about her.
Nanny appears at 4 o'clock on the dot with all three children in tow. He greets Sybbie and George as usual. Edith makes a bee line for Marigold and once she's in her arms, it hits him like a tonne of bricks. Edith and Marigold. Edith and Marigold. EdithandMarigold. EdithandMarigold. The shock of it makes his knees weak and he quickly sits down.
'Why has no one told me?' he wonders. 'How could Cora not tell me?' His eyes are fixed on his middle daughter and his granddaughter. He doesn't know how, but the little girl on his daughter's lap is the image of his mother when she was a child.
Marigold squirms down and toddles over to him and looks at him with the same big eyes; not the same color as his mother's and not Edith's either, perhaps a legacy of her father. But the face, that sweet little face, is his mother in miniature.
"Hello Marigold. Would you like to sit on my knee?" he asks before picking up the little girl.
"Donk!" the little girl exclaims before wrapping her arms around Robert's neck. "Like Donk."
"Donk quite likes you too my darling," he says as he gently kisses her head.
Later that night, after dinner Robert dismissed Bates for the evening and joined Cora in their room.
"Marigold seems quite taken with you," Cora smiled as she pulled back the blankets on his side of the bed.
"She's quite like her grandmother as a child," he said as he calmly crawled into bed.
"Whatever do you mean?" Cora asked innocently.
"She was born when Edith went to Switzerland, wasn't she?" he asked.
Cora let out the breath she'd been unknowingly holding. "Yes."
"How long have you known?"
"Since the day before Isis died. Mrs. Drewe, the wife of the pig farmer came to tell me."
"How…?" Robert started.
"It's Edith's story to tell, my darling."
"Why didn't she tell us?"
"She hasn't said; I don't know."
"Would you care for a walk, my dear?"
"Can't it wait until morning?"
"No; I'd like to know why."
"Alright. Put on your slippers, it's chilly tonight."
Cora and Robert walked down the hall to Edith's room and softly knocked on the door.
"Come in," she called.
Robert and Cora walked in.
"Your father knows," Cora stated. "He guessed."
"How…?" Edith asked, tears brewing in her eyes.
"Little Marigold looks quite like your Grannie when she was a child," Robert said simply. "I don't think you've ever seen a picture of when she was small."
"I haven't. Papa, I'm ever so sorry."
"Don't ever apologize for your child. Never," he said as he sat down on the bed. "Now, I want the whole story, starting at the beginning. Her father is Michael Gregson, isn't he?"
"Yes. I was so stupid; in love but stupid. It was only once but it was so special and I loved him so much," she started to cry. "He went to Germany for me, so he could get a divorce so we could be together."
"He was married?" Robert said, closing his eyes and looking upwards. "Oh Edith."
"She's quite mad; in an asylum and everything. But he couldn't divorce her under British law so he went to Germany; their divorce laws are different. He went so we could be together and now he's dead," she cried.
Robert pulled her into his arms and held his daughter.
"My darling girl; how you've suffered." He kissed her head and gently rubbed her back.
"When I found out I was pregnant, I thought about not having her but I couldn't do that. I went to Aunt Rosemund and she made the arrangements for us to go to Switzerland and for the baby to be adopted but I couldn't do that either so I left her with a family and when I came back to England I felt so lost without her that I bought her back and she stayed with the Drewes but that was even harder so when I learned that Michael was dead I knew I needed her to be with me," Edith rambled. "And now…"
"And now she's back with her family, where she belongs," Robert affirmed.
"You won't send her away, will you Papa?" Edith pleaded.
"First off, she isn't my child and you are of age. Secondly, your mother and I lost a child once; I could never condemn you to that. Marigold will have a home at Downton until she marries and that's final."
"Thank you Papa!"