Epilogue
August 28, 1926
Downton Abbey
"I do not know why they had to walk from the train station. Their train arrived an hour and a half ago and they still are not here."
Cora gripped Robert's arm. "You know Mary wanted it that way. They were going to have a little picnic by the mill pond and then come here."
"Sausage rolls and gingerbread men! Mrs. Mason can put on a better spread than that"
"That is not the point. Come sit down. Carson has a footman in the big tower with binoculars who will let us know when they are close."
Robert went into the drawing room and sat down beside his mother. He refused an offer of tea. He drummed his fingers on the table. He could hear the Strallen and Branson children shrieking and carrying on outside on the lawn. Six of them was bad enough; now there were five Crawley children coming. The place was going to be a mad house. Cora and Carson were already worrying about the potential damage. He smiled to himself. His yelling days were over. If one of them were to break something he would protect him or her, probably a him, from the wrath of Grannie. He never would have thought that Cora would have proved to be a more formidable grandmother than his mother, but then his mother had not been required to deal with three rambunctious grandsons. Soon to be joined by three more. He smiled again. Yes life was good..
He looked at his mother, Great Grannie was hard of hearing and confined to a wheelchair but she still had that fierce look in her eyes. And although she was in the wheelchair she still kept her cane, or whacking stick as the little boys called it, handy.
Rosamund and Sir Richard were sitting across the room. Robert could not understand the exact nature of their relationship. When he had asked Cora if they were lovers she had just snorted. Still Sir Richard had been a good friend to the family; he had given Tom a job with his quality newspaper in London when Sybil and Tom had had to flee Dublin during the civil war.
Carson came into the room. "James has spotted them by the ruin."
Robert stood and took the handles of his mother's wheelchair. He wheeled her to the main door and then down the small ramp he had had installed. He parked her in the shade by the wall of the house. Cora came and stood beside him. She took his arm.
While he waited for Mary and Matthew and the rest he watched Sybil and Tom and Edith watch their children play.
Perhaps this was the end of Edith's bereavement. He hoped so. Everyone had expected that she would spend her middle years caring for Sir Anthony in his dotage but he had been carried away suddenly, killed by that scourge of modernity, a drunken driver, just after the twins were born. Edith had surprised everyone with how she successfully ran Strallen Farm while raising her brood but there was an emptiness about her, a part that was missing. Then last year, when he had decided on going to Alberta to talk Matthew and Mary to coming back to Downton, Cora had insisted on taking Edith and the children. He shuddered inside at the memory of crossing the Atlantic and Canada, there and back, with those hellions of hers; never again would he travel anywhere with little children. Edith had hit it off with Bert Hastings, one of Matthew's friends, and they had been corresponding since her return. Now Bert was coming to Downton with Matthew and Mary.
He could see them now in the distance although he could not yet recognize them. He really should get glasses. There would be Mary and Matthew, Matthew's mother Isobel and his friend Bert, Marie Claire, almost 13 and a young lady; Patrica, 9, and the three boys Robert, 7, Reginald, 5, and Charles 3. He could see that the four youngest had broken away and were racing towards the house.
He felt a tug on his pant leg. He looked down.
"Grandpa can we go meet them?"
He looked over at Sybil. She nodded. "Yes Seamus you can"
The little boy ran back to the other children and then they all ran towards the newcomers. The two groups stopped about ten yards apart, sizing up those opposite.
"Edith, Sybil, Tom. Why don't you go out there and help negotiate some introductions" Cora suggested.
Edith and Sybil and Tom headed onto to the lawn after their offspring.
The two groups of children and the two groups of grandchildren merged. There was much hugging and hand shaking and ruffling of little ones' heads and laughter. Edith walked slowly up to the tall man standing next to Matthew. Suddenly Bert swept Edith up in his arms and whirled her around. Robert smiled. He felt his eyes start to water. Blasted hay fever. Beside him it looked like Cora was tearing up as well.
In her now small voice Violet announced "I want them to come to me"
Robert asked "Would someone whistle at them?"
Carson put his fingers to his mouth and let loose a piercing whistle.
The mob on the lawn all turned and looked at the house.
Robert waved at them to come.
And they did.
The Crawley posterity was coming home to Downton Abbey.
The End
Gentle Reader it is that bittersweet time when we must part. We have come to that fork in the trail when you must continue on the main way and I will take the way less travelled. Before we part I would be remiss in not thanking those companions whose kind words have made the trip a memorable one. To golden12, Kavan, circa1910, metrokid1981 and all the rest; know this: long after your memory of this storey has faded your reviews will lighten the journey of a lone traveller. Now I must go lest I grow too maudlin. In the words of the King of Cowboys:
'Happy trails to you, until we meet again'