I don't own anything related to Downton Abbey

"Lord Gillingham has written to invite himself for a weekend next month," Lady Mary said one evening as Anna brushed her hair. "I can't think why –with no other guests staying and no parties going on, I'm afraid he'll find it all dreadfully dull."

"I'm sure he's only coming to see you, my Lady," Anna said, but the hand holding the brush had begun to shake. If Lord Gillingham were coming to stay, he'd bring his staff, surely? That meant she'd have to see him again. It had never crossed her mind that Mr. Green's attack had been anything but an isolated event, but at the thought of him staying in the house again, terror began to creep through her. What if he managed to corner her again, what if he found her alone in one of the laundry rooms or an attic? And with Green in close proximity, would John be able to keep his promise to her?

"Anna?" The pause in her brushing and the sudden pallor of her face had not gone unnoticed by Lady Mary. "Is everything all right?"

"Yes, of course, my Lady," Anna answered weakly. "Will that be all?"

"I suppose so," Mary said, still wondering what it was about her mention of Lord Gillingham that suddenly had Anna so flustered. The last time Anthony had stayed over it had been for the house –

Mary gasped as realisation dawned on her.

"Anna," she began quietly before Anna had reached the door of the room. Anna turned, looking resigned to a bout of questioning.

"Did Lord Gillingham have anything to do with the –with the attack the night of the house party?"

"It wasn't Lord Gillingham, my Lady, if that's what you're asking."

"His valet?" Mary asked, although she was certain that was it. Hadn't Carson told her it was a visiting servant?

A slight flush appeared in Anna's cheeks as she nodded, unable to meet Mary's eyes.

"Yes, my Lady, it was." Anna bit her lip to keep from crying at the thought of Green back in the house.

"You must let me tell Papa," Lady Mary urged. "He can write to Lord Gillingham and strongly discourage him from bringing his valet –Thomas can dress him instead, surely?" But Anna refused to allow Lord Grantham to be told.

"I don't want any fuss made," she said. If truth be told, she was also afraid that other members of the household would take their guest's side if word got out, and believe that she had led him on.

xXx

As soon as she left Lady Mary's room, Anna shot straight down the back stairs where, as luck would have it, the first person she came across was Thomas on his way out of the boot room.

"Have you seen Mr. Bates?" she asked him, fear evident in her tone.

"With his Lordship," Thomas answered. "Is something wrong?"

"Or Mrs. Hughes?" Anna continued, not heeding Thomas' question.

"She's with Mrs. Patmore. Anna, what's wrong?" Anna had slumped with her back against the wall and her hands went up to her face in a vain attempt to hide her tears from Thomas.

"He's coming back," she began, and as soon as she admitted it out loud, she began to shake, unable to stem the flow of tears. "What do I do?"

Thomas cautiously reached out to take Anna's wrist, hoping she wouldn't pull away but trusting that the better relationship they were slowly building would make it easier for Anna to let him help her. Trustingly, Anna let him lead her to a seat at the table, where the two hall boys sitting there took one look at the scowl Thomas gave them and hot-footed it out of there.

When Bates and Mrs. Hughes entered the servants' hall a few minutes later, they found Anna crying into her hands with Thomas sitting next to her with a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"Anna! Whatever's the matter?"

"Green's coming back," Thomas spat out. "Lady Mary just told her."

"We won't let him hurt you again," Bates said, sitting down on Anna's other side, but Anna's panic was too far gone for her to listen to his platitudes. Mrs. Hughes' mind was racing: how long would Lord Gillingham and his valet be staying, and could she come up with some pretext for giving Anna some time off while Green was at the house?

When Mr. Carson walked through the hall, he was met with a sight he never thought he'd see: Thomas and Mr. Bates were sitting one on either side of Anna trying to comfort her.

"Who knew our Mr. Barrow had a heart?" he asked Mrs. Hughes.

"Well, about the only person who could make him show that he has a heart is Anna," Mrs. Hughes answered.

"We won't leave you alone for a minute," Bates promised, not thinking through the logistics of it. He knew better than to mention any revenge schemes to Anna, although inwardly he was wondering what he could do while Green was on his own turf to make him pay.

"And we'll keep an eye on him too," Thomas added. And if Bates doesn't give him a good roughing-up, I will.

xXx

The change in Anna was sudden and heart-breaking to watch. In the space of a week, she became withdrawn, stopped laughing again and her nightmares increased despite nightly doses of sedatives.

"Three separate nightmares in six hours!" Bates complained to Thomas the morning before Lord Gillingham and his valet were due to arrive. "That animal is going to pay for what he did to her, just wait and see."

"Thought you promised Anna you wouldn't get yourself thrown back in prison?" Thomas looked round cautiously to be sure no one could overhear them before speaking. Bates was a man of his word, but he had a feeling this was one promise Bates couldn't bear to keep.

"I also need to make sure that animal never hurts another woman again," Bates answered non-commitally.

xXx

The morning of Lord Gillingham's visit dawned at last –thankfully he would only be staying for three days, although that, according to Mrs. Hughes, was plenty. She had devised a number of errands to keep Anna out of the house for one afternoon and moved Anna's half-day to the last day of Lord Gillingham's visit, but Lord Grantham had devised an elaborate dinner party for the second night of the visit which meant that on that day at least, all members of staff had to be at the house preparing for it.

Anna had woken that morning complaining of a headache, and she was as white as a sheet as the staff gathered outside the house to await Lord Gillingham's arrival. Bates kept hoping she wouldn't faint as they lined up –he would give anything to be standing next to her as they waited, but he had Thomas on one side of him and Edna on the other, with Anna standing on Edna's other side.

"She'll be fine," Thomas whispered to him just before the car drew up. "Green won't dare say or do anything with everyone around."

Even with Thomas' whispering reminders to him to stay calm and not make a scene in public, Bates trembled with rage as he watched Green scan the row of servants, his eyes lingering on Anna.

Lord Gillingham had arrived just before lunch, which meant that once the upstairs luncheon had been served and cleared away, the servants only had to get through their own lunch before Anna could leave to run Mrs. Hughes' errands in Ripon –which would also give Bates and Thomas some time to confer between them. Although neither of them had said it out loud, there seemed to be an unspoken agreement between them that they were looking out for opportunities to pay Green back. Much as Bates had considered Thomas to be a snake in the grass in the past, Bates had to admit that this time Thomas seemed genuine.

Without any prompting, the seating arrangements changed slightly at lunch to give Mr. Green the same seat he had occupied during his past visit –which happened to be the seat on Anna's right. Even with Bates on her left and Thomas opposite her, Anna sat frozen during the meal, barely daring to move her right arm for fear of accidentally brushing against Green.

"We'll swap at the next meal," Bates promised as he felt Anna trying to shift unobtrusively to the left to leave as much space as possible between herself and Green and cursing himself for not thinking of this before. Carson's rank order be damned, Anna would not sit next to that monster at another meal.

"She can swap with me too if you think Carson would take that easier," Thomas offered once Anna had left and Green had gone upstairs to see to his master.

"Thank you, Thomas, but I need to do this myself," Bates answered. Green needed to know that he knew, dammit, and somehow he had to pay. Poison in his tea would be too obvious, wouldn't it?

Anna didn't turn up for dinner at the house –neither of them had really expected that she would, and Bates had assumed that she would rather eat at the cottage than in the servants' hall that day. With near-perfect timing, she appeared minutes before Lady Mary rang for her, with just enough time to pass her purchases over to Mrs. Hughes.

"One day down," Thomas murmured encouragingly to her when she returned downstairs, having spent half an hour helping Lady Mary prepare for bed and convincing Lady Mary that she was indeed alright.

"All the upstairs folk would do is dismiss him with a bad reference," Thomas said as he sat with Anna waiting for Bates to finish with Lord Grantham. Anna had wondered aloud whether she should have agreed with Lady Mary's suggestion to speak to Lord Grantham about Green, but Thomas agreed with Bates that involving Lord Grantham would be pointless.

"That's right," Bates agreed when he appeared downstairs in the middle of their conversation. "He'll get his comeuppance another way, Anna."

The Bateses left the house soon afterwards and Thomas settled down in a chair to wait for Green –whether to chat to him or to watch for any little habits which he and Bates could use to gain an advantage over him, he wasn't yet sure.

Green didn't linger long in the hall when he returned, almost seeming uncomfortable in Thomas' presence. Although Thomas went up to his room soon afterwards –two doors along from the one assigned to Green –he was too restless to sleep, and an hour later was still sitting up in bed with a book when he heard a door swing open and footsteps going down the back staircase. It had to be Green, Thomas thought, as he heard the stairs creak –all the Abbey staff knew which steps creaked and how to avoid them.

Thomas waited a minute or two before following Green down the stairs, all the while wondering whether to shadow Green or reveal himself. Had Bates been there, he would most likely have revealed himself and beat the living pulp out of Green –but Bates wasn't there, and Thomas knew Bates would never forgive him if he robbed him of the chance to pay Green back himself. While Thomas was having this internal debate with himself, he heard another door swing open and hurried down: only to find the back door ajar and Green pacing aimlessly around outside.

Resisting the urge to lock Green out: it wouldn't do any good, and Thomas and Bates might be able to use this to their advantage another time, Thomas slipped back up to his room, although he didn't sleep until he heard the back door close and Green return to his room around half an hour later.

Well, well, our man likes midnight walks, does he? Thomas thought. How can Mr. Bates and I use this knowledge to help us?