She let Stewart lead her back to the Rolls. It felt wrong to be in this car without Anthony. Stewart was at his most discreet ignoring the quiet sounds of weeping behind him as he drove to Downton. When they arrived at the door of the house, Stewart opened the door and helped her down. She was composed again, he noticed with admiration. She held his hand just a little longer than necessary.
"Thank you, Stewart. I am deeply grateful to you" she said earnestly, and he knew she didn't mean for the lift.
"I couldn't bear to see you and Sir Anthony suffering like that, my lady. No matter what, neither of you deserved to be hurt so."
…
As Edith shut the front door behind her Cora was coming down the stairs with Mary trailing behind her.
"Did I see Sir Anthony dropping you off, Edith? Is he all right? He left so suddenly yesterday." Edith inwardly sighed at her mother's polite enquiries.
"You saw his car, Mama, but not him. I…I saw Sir Anthony off on the train to London. His man gave me a lift home." Any hopes that that would satisfy her mother were soon dashed.
"London? He's not going to the Continent again is he?"
"He couldn't tell me exactly where he was going, Mama, but, yes, he is going to the Continent. He's rejoined his old regiment." This was torture, having to discuss it as though there hadn't been other heart-wrenching things happening to them apart from the war.
"Don't tell me. He's in the Army Service Corps supplying turnips to the troops!" Mary's voice dripped with derision behind Edith. She turned to face her elder sister, but instead of some sharp retort as both Mary and Cora expected, she was silent for a long few moments, just looking at them both with sad, weary eyes.
"Edith. I'm sorry nothing came of…well, you know…but there'll be other gentlemen, you'll see" commiserated Cora, breaking the awkward quiet.
"Not for me, there won't be. No one else but him" Edith murmured, although they both heard it.
"Well, that's a dreadful pity" declared Mary, "because I got the impression he considered you such a silly little girl. Even boring Farmer Strallan was bored stiff, running away yesterday just to escape you."
Cora gave Mary a disapproving look but said nothing.
Again, Edith was quiet and reserved when she responded.
"I know exactly why he ran from the party yesterday, Mary. I apologised to him before he went away…for both of us."
"Both of you?" Cora looked at her two eldest daughters with narrowed eyes. "What's been going on?"
Edith waited for Mary to speak, watching her intently.
"I…I may have misled Sir Anthony…about something Edith said." Unusually for her, Mary looked a little ashamed behind her haughty attitude.
"Is that why he didn't propose?" Cora demanded.
"Perhaps."
"Mary!"
"She deserved it! She wrote that tawdry little letter to the Ambassador!"
"No! This must stop! Now! Do you hear? Both of you!"
"Yes, Mama" Edith answered immediately, contritely.
"Yes, Mama" conceded Mary.
"But don't worry. As I said, I apologised for us both, before he left."
Edith walked upstairs to her room, with Cora gaping after her, wondering which of these two girls was the older now.
…
But that was nothing compared to the ordeal that awaited Edith at dinner. The conversation was dominated by thoughts of war.
"No, I'm sorry, but it is my duty to offer my services to the Army" Robert argued.
"Your duty is here, Robert. You are the Earl" Violet retorted, as though her point was so utterly clear no one could argue against it.
"And as such I should show leadership, and re-enlist" said Robert helping himself to a third roast potato.
"Poppycock!" exclaimed his mother.
An easy lull settled on the table.
"Sir Anthony Strallan's re-enlisted, Granny." Mary 'innocently' dropped the remark into the centre of the hush like a stone into a well.
"Well then, there you go. If he's done it, I jolly well should" Robert nodded. Then, trying to smooth the ruffled feathers, Matthew asked "What regiment, Mary?"
Mary opened her mouth, hesitated, and then conceded "I'm afraid I don't know. But I think Edith does."
Edith sat up straighter, and looked around the table until she was sure she had everyone's attention.
"He's a Major in the Intelligence Corps. That was one reason why he was sent to try to talk sense into the Kaiser's head. But Solomon himself couldn't have convinced Wilhelm to stop this madness. Anthony did his very best, but the Kaiser would not listen, to him, to the other emissaries, or to his own ministers."
Then she continued eating.
"Anthony Strallan? Was sent over to negotiate with Kaiser Bill?" Robert was shocked, not because he couldn't believe it, but because he had never stopped to work out what his old friend did on his jaunts to other countries.
"Still waters…" murmured Matthew, while the Dowager quietly observed her middle granddaughter deep in thought.
…
The argument between Robert on one side, and his wife and mother on the other, about whether or not he should re-enlist continued in spurts until the ladies departed for the drawing room, leaving Robert and Matthew discussing their plans alone.
Conversation in the drawing room was less harmonious.
"Of course I don't want Robert to go" Cora protested.
"Then tell him definitively not to!" ordered Violet.
"You know it's not that simple, especially not with Robert. He can be very stubborn."
"That, in itself, is not such a bad thing."
"And I wonder where he got that from?" Cora smiled sweetly, earning herself a steely look from her mother-in-law.
"I don't know why you are all arguing about it. Papa's over the age limit" stated Sybil.
"So is Sir Anthony…" Mary pointed out, looking at Edith, who didn't reply.
…
Violet arrived for tea the next day, to find that everyone was ducking out of it.
"I appear to have stumbled on board the Marie Celeste, Carson. Where is everybody?"
"His Lordship is visiting Mr Drewe at Yew Tree Farm, her Ladyship is taking tea with Mrs Crawley at Crawley House, Lady Mary and Lady Sybil are calling on Lady Marmaduke, and Mr Crawley…"
"All right, all right! I understand that I am all that's left holding up Crawley tradition. Where's Lady Edith?"
"In her sitting room, I believe, my Lady. She considered it inappropriate that we serve tea just for her."
"Well, blow that! Bring tea for two here, Carson, and tell my granddaughter I wish to take it with her in the drawing room. I'm not walking up all those stairs for a scone."
"Very good, my Lady." Carson wondered why Mr Asquith had sent Sir Anthony to talk to the Kaiser when Violet, Dowager Countess of Grantham would have been much more effective…although possibly she might have started the war earlier, and won it just as quickly if he knew her. Wilhelm wouldn't have stood a chance.
…
"Hello Granny. Were we expecting you for tea?" Edith hadn't lived in this house for nearly twenty years without learning how to cast polite doubt on someone turning up unannounced.
"Don't try to be clever with me, Edith. This was my house for thirty-two years, and I usually come to tea. Besides, at the Dower House Agnes' scones are like stones from the walls of Jericho."
Edith took the Dowager's scorn as a compliment that she had done the 'polite doubt' thing correctly, and stored the experience up for the future.
"Have you thought what you might do for the war effort, Granny?" Edith asked biting into a scone as light as a feather. God bless Mrs Patmore!
"Keep the home fires burning, I suppose." She sighed. "It was dreadful in the last South African War, with Robert away and not knowing…" She dragged herself away from her memories and back to scrutinising Edith.
"It will be difficult for you, dear girl, especially if he's not posted with one regiment or in one place. He's obviously a clever, discreet, and brave man; a great asset to his country. But you can always talk to me."
Edith understood with gratitude that the older woman had realised everything; she squeezed Violet's hand.
"Thank you Granny."