So Edith started to tell Anthony the whole story about Michael Gregson and Alice.
She started from the letter she had received from Gregson asking her to write a column for the Sketch. She didn't leave out any details, not even the sordid ones, the things she was most ashamed of. Except that she didn't dwell too long on her night with Michael, she was sure Anthony wouldn't want her to get into any details there. Besides, it wasn't very clear in her memory any longer either. But she did tell him that it was the last time she saw Michael, he left for Germany the day after.
She told Anthony about how she had gradually realised that she was pregnant. First she had denied it even to herself, but it had started to get more and more obvious. She told him how scared she had got when it was finally confirmed.
Then she told him about that dreadful place in London that she had gone to in her despair. That had been her main reason to stop him from proposing. Because if he knew about that, he probably wouldn't be able to love her any more. How could he forgive her for that when she couldn't forgive herself?
She also told him how thankful she was that she hadn't been able to get through with that.
Then she told him about Switzerland. How she had abandoned Alice there and gone back to England.
She told him that she hadn't been able to live without her little daughter. How she had gone back to Switzerland and brought Alice back with her. How happy that had made her.
"Well, you can see what a bad mother I am. Wanting to get rid of my child at any cost. You wouldn't want to have me as the mother of your children", Edith concluded. There were new tears in her eyes now.
Anthony had listened to Edith's story in silence all the way through, feeling very much ashamed of himself.
Here he had sat all those last years in his library, feeling miserable for himself but proud of letting Edith live her own life. He had read her columns, certain that she was happy.
This was what she had gone through during that same time! He felt dreadful that she had been driven to such measures of despair.
Well, life wasn't fair, and it was more unfair to women than to men, he realised.
And when she came to the part about becoming the mother of his children his heart started to beat faster.
...
"I don't think you are a bad mother, Edith, not at all", he said, very softly, when he was sure that she had finished. "I think you are a wonderful mother. You did that because you were desperate, because of the way society looks down on unmarried mothers, and their children. Especially among our class of people, I'm afraid. I can see how much you love Alice."
Then he got down on one knee again, and this time she let him do it. He knew it all now, he knew things that she had never dared to tell anyone else. He knew it all and he didn't look down on her because of it. Perhaps she would even be able to forgive herself?
She was so happy that he had said she was a wonderful mother. So if he still wanted her...
"My darling Edith", he said then. "Please be my wife. You would make me the happiest man on earth. I love you so much."
Edith didn't hesitate one second.
"Yes, Anthony!" she exclaimed. "Yes, of course! I have agreed to marry you long ago! I wasn't the one to break that..."
"Good!" Anthony said, getting up from the floor and sitting down on the sofa beside her again. "Now we will just sort out the details."
..
Alice had been awaken by her mother's happy outburst, but this time she wasn't crying.
Mummy was happy. The big man was happy. Everyone was nice and smiling, so Alice was happy too.
The big man started playing peek-a-boo with her - putting his big hand over his face and then removing it - and Alice laughed. He was so funny. He was nice, it was probably not his fault that Mummy had been upset.
...
Edith sat there with a huge smile on her face, watching her future husband and her little daughter playing together. This was so wonderful.
She had looked forward to the outing with Tim Drewe for almost two weeks, happy about being able to spend the whole day together with Alice.
She had known it would be good.
But she could never have anticipated that it would be as good as this. Getting back to Anthony. Finding out he still loved her, in spite of all the things she and he had done. Getting back to Locksley. Getting a home that really felt like home since such a long time. Being allowed to share it all with her little daughter.
...
"You told the café-owner that a gentleman can't go back on his word", Edith said softly after a while.
Anthony looked at her, wondering what she was going to say next.
"Did you really mean that? Can I trust you this time?" Edith was tilting her head and looking straight into Anthony's eyes.
The little baby in her arms took after her mother. She was sitting in Edith's lap, looking at Anthony with the same tilted head and the same brown eyes. And the same expression of mirth.
In that moment Anthony saw his future life together with these two lovely creatures lined out before him. He knew that he had never been able to say no to anything Edith asked him for. He realised that once little Alice started to speak, she would be able to wrap him around her little finger as well.
And he was happy.
AN: This is the end of my story.
I want to leave them there in Locksley's library - the most important place in the show - all three of them together and happy. And I trust it to Anthony and Edith to 'sort out the details' together.
...
Thank you all for reading! Thank you so very much for all the lovely reviews to every chapter of this story! You are all so very kind and generous!
...
Now I'm returning to Sir Brumble and the other pigs in A Sudden Interest in Pigs. And later, perhaps, to Jonathan and Elizabeth, Anthony's parents, in The Tangled Web of Life.
