AN: And for this chapter, we leave London, Anthony and Edith momentarily and take a short trip 'up north'...
"Good God!" Robert Crawley was not often stunned, but it was clear that this was one of those times. He set down his paper almost blindly, face white with shock.
His family looked up from their respective pursuits, anxious and confused all at once.
"Papa?" asked Lady Mary, half-rising from her seat. Matthew reached for the paper that his father-in-law had abandoned, eyes scanning the white pages for any clue to Robert's current distress.
"Robert? Darling, what is it?" Cora was at her husband's side, face creased with concern.
Matthew had found the lines. "The engagement is announced between Edith Margaret Crawley, lately of Bloomsbury, and…" He stopped, eyes widening, and glanced up at the rest of the family, unsure.
"Matthew?" asked Mary.
He met his wife's eyes, sighed and then finished, "…and Sir Anthony Strallan, of Locksley, in Yorkshire."
The room exploded in a flurry of movement and voices. Mary seized the paper from her husband's unresisting hands, wanting to see for herself that what he had said was true. Cora clutched involuntarily at her husband's arm, a surprised exclamation escaping her. It was the first time Edith's name had been mentioned in the house since she had thrown her lot in with Gregson seven years ago.
"Strallan? Whatever happened to Gregson?" asked Cora.
Matthew coughed quietly. "He left Edith when her daughter was a year old."
Robert's face sharpened and he glared at Matthew. "How did you know this? Did you know about - him - too?"
Mary took her husband's hand, squeezing it gently in the face of her father's ire. "Papa, be reasonable. Matthew didn't want to see your middle daughter sink into poverty - he hasn't been spying on her!"
"How could she be so irresponsible?" he snapped irascibly. "You'd think after the Gregson business, she'd know to keep her head down!"
Cora had retrieved the newspaper from Mary, and scanned the notice sadly. "She isn't using her title. And there's no mention of us, either."
"Can you blame her?" Mary asked her dryly.
Robert got up and stalked to the library window. "No, I don't. Let her marry Strallan if she chooses - we all know that it'll be a disaster from start to finish. No doubt he felt guilty about her situation and Edith manipulated him into making amends."
"Robert…" Cora cautioned.
"I would prefer it if we didn't discuss it any further."
"We may not be able to avoid it," replied Matthew sensibly.
"What do you mean?" Mary asked.
"When she marries Sir Anthony, they'll surely come back to Locksley."
"She wouldn't dare," Robert interjected. "She'd have more shame than that, surely." But his voice was uncertain. After all, if he had learnt anything in the past seven years, it was that his middle daughter was as unpredictable as it were possible to be. Edith had grown tired of playing nicely, of being the good girl, the quiet, dutiful one. Now, every time his mind settled on her - which it did more frequently and even perhaps more kindly than Edith herself would have believed - Robert felt a vague unsettling in his heart. He barely knew her any more; her intelligence and her bravery positively terrified him. And when people are terrified, they have a nasty habit of lashing out at what scares them. This is the kind explanation, in any case.
Cora looked up at him, eyes filling with tears. "Robert… if they come back here, if our granddaughter is here - then I won't be kept from her. Not again, Robert."
Matthew murmured something in his wife's ear, she nodded and they stood together. "We'll leave you to talk," Mary said.
When the door had closed behind the young couple, Robert returned to his wife's side, dropping an almost impatient kiss onto her forehead. "My dearest, I cannot allow Edith to return to this family. The shame and dishonour it would bring - "
"Shame and dishonour greater than that occasioned by a father disowning his daughter?" she asked. Her mouth tightened. "When you made this decision, I stood by you, Robert. I stood by you because that is what a wife does - but I cannot and will not promise to do the same a second time. Anthony Strallan will give her respectability and security and a position in society. Perhaps it's time to be gracious and admit defeat."
Her husband opened his mouth to interrupt, but Cora raised a hand, cutting him off. "No, Robert. I want my granddaughters back. Both of them." The meaning was not lost on him. Tom rarely visited Downton now - they were lucky if they saw Sybbie at Christmas and Easter; doubtless, Robert thought irritably, he would see each visit north as a betrayal of Edith. He had, after all, packed his and Sybbie's bags the same night Edith had been disowned. Robert could still remember the look of cool, set determination on his son-in-law's face as he had entered the library that night to announce his decision. "I take my cue from Sybil - and she'd have never given her blessing to this."
He bowed his head. "You must do as you see fit," he forced out at last.
Cora touched his cheek, making him look at her. "That isn't an answer, Robert."