A/N: I'm glad people are continuing to enjoy this story, even if it makes some of you nervous. As we begin to see more twists and turns, I would love to get more thoughts and feedback.

Anna's eagerness in their engagement surprised him. The first time around, they'd had Vera to contend with and a messy divorce to keep them separated and sap their joy. But now, Anna was free to smile and flirt and revel in their engagement, which she did now that he had quelled her reservations about the woman who'd come before her.

They told Mrs. Hughes and Mr. Carson about their understanding, of course, and while the latter was only calmed by the acknowledgment of having his Lordship's permission, the former treated them to a smile and hearty congratulations. But Bates thought he detected a note of reservation in the housekeeper's eyes, and it was confirmed a few days later as he was walking in from polishing boots in the courtyard. Pausing for a moment outside Mrs. Hughes' sitting room, he overheard a conversation between her and Anna through the cracked door.

"And will you keep working?"

"I will until... well, I'll work as long as I can," Anna answered, pausing as she sidestepped the discussion of children. Anna obviously could not share with Mrs. Hughes the misgivings he had about her becoming with child even if she had wanted to give the woman such private details. But at the same time, Anna could not pretend it was not a possibility, at least not to the housekeeper.

"With Mister Bates continuing to serve his Lordship, things shouldn't alter very much, at least not for a time," Mrs. Hughes said with a sigh of relief. "Thank heavens for small favors."

"We have only to wait for a cottage near the house," Anna added. "Although I think Lord Grantham will find us one soon."

The older woman queried cautiously, "Is there a reason for haste?"

Taking her meaning, Anna quickly answered, "No, no reason. Just that I am anxious to go forward."

"And you're sure you want to... go forward?" the housekeeper asked, sounding pensive. "We all like Mister Bates very much, but he is quite a bit older than you, and divorced besides. Not to mention... well, the other matters."

Bates understood the misgivings Mrs. Hughes mentioned and did not fault her for being protective of Anna. He was a self confessed thief and a drunkard, although his sobriety reassured them and his innocence dispelled his guilt in their eyes. The age difference was something he rarely considered, not with both he and Anna in service and of such like minds. And even if she considered it, Mrs. Hughes knew better than to mention his lameness.

"Yes, I'm quite sure."

The certainty in Anna's voice was reassuring, but Bates felt trepidation creeping into the edges of his consciousness. Was he doing the right thing? Would it be better to leave now and allow Anna to make a life without him? But it seemed that option was no longer available.

Anna loved him as desperately as he loved her. He could hear it in her tone as she told the housekeeper, "I'm meant to be his wife, Mrs. Hughes. I've never felt so certain about anything in my entire life."

The silence between them drew out and Bates knew he should take leave before being caught eavesdropping. He hadn't meant to stop and listen, but his doubts made every decision a dilemma and every grasp at happiness a possibility for regret.

In the end, he and Anna were forced to put off the wedding until a cottage could be arranged for them. Bates disliked how the practicality of it dictated what should have been a romantic and spiritual affair, at least for Anna, but she seemed not to mind. Besides, with the war on and things so strained at Downton, waiting seemed like the best idea for the moment.

Mister Carson felt the loss of his last footman keenly and after attempting to do double duty in the house and the dining room, nearly had a heart attack from the strain of it all.

"He needs rest," the doctor told Mrs. Hughes as he exited the butler's room upstairs in the men's quarters.

"I'm afraid you're preaching to the choir on that point, doctor," she remarked with more than a little irritation apparent in her tone.

"Perhaps Mister Bates could help serve?" Clarkson suggested.

The housekeeper looked around at the valet as though she had never even considered the possibility before. But even as her eyes reacquainted themselves with Bates' cane, she shook her head. "No, I don't think that would suit Mister Carson. He really must let the maids help in the dining room."

"What about Mister Branson?" Bates asked.

Having not been at Downton before during this time period, his information was sketchy and incomplete. He did not know if Carson's near heart attack was a new development or an old one. But the chauffeur was able bodied. Even the stout butler could not deny that. And while the man's heart murmur might keep him from fighting at the front, he could still manage a tray as well as he could the wheel of a vehicle.

Flashing him a silent smile of thanks for not pressing the matter to the point of embarrassment, Mrs. Hughes said, "I'll mention it to him."

Her voice carried up the stairs and he recognized it even as he made his way down from the landing, Ethel having gone down ahead of him. The maid had found him in the attic, obviously annoyed at having been sent on such an errand and equally loathed to miss any of the drama which she knew instinctively was about to take place. But Bates had no mind for Ethel, only for the women who were waiting for him in the servants' hall: his ex-wife, straight backed and sharp-eyed, and standing in front of her with an enigmatic expression, Anna.

"Vera," he said as she turned in his direction. "This is a surprise."

"I imagine it is," she responded coolly.

She glared daggers at him, and he noticed at a glance that she was not wearing a ring on her left hand. A sick premonition crept across his mind and send ice cold chills down his spine. The scene was all too familiar, like a moving picture plucked from his memory and put to life.

Appearing through the door to his right, Mrs. Hughes smiled perfunctorily and stood shoulder to shoulder with Anna. She suggested with false hospitality, "Mister Bates, perhaps you and your guest would be more comfortable in my sitting room. I've had the tea placed there."

"Thank you," he told her and turned to lead his ex-wife to the more private location, knowing even as he did so that Mrs. Hughes was poised to listen in on their conversation. He had an idea why Vera had come, but he had no intention of allowing history to play out the same as it did before. This time would be different. This time, he would give the housekeeper no fodder for any sort of-

"That won't be necessary," Vera stated, standing to face him but not budging from where her feet were rooted in the center of the servants' hall.

"Whatever you have to say to me is best left to private," he warned her severely.

His ex-wife's eyes flashed with fury. "But then who would warn Miss Smith here about you?"

Her voice oozed contempt as she pronounced Anna's surname. The room was suddenly so silent that a pin could be heard dropping on the floor.

"Vera..." he began, but Anna was already stepping forward.

"There's nothing to warn," came her heated retort. "He's told me all about you and the divorce."

Vera smiled like an alley cat which had just spotted a naive country mouse in the open. "Has he now? And did he tell you that he hired a man to seduce me into adultery in order to end our marriage?"

Anna's expression faltered, but Bates could spare her only a glance. So Vera had found out what he'd done. Franklin must have told her, must have called things off or-

He heard Mrs. Hughes clear her throat and he looked at her.

She quietly reiterated, "Mister Bates, perhaps you and your guest could-"

But Vera interrupted the housekeeper with a harsh laugh reflecting no humor.

"I'm not going anywhere. All of you deserve to know what sort of a man my Batesy is - a liar and a charlatan. Did he tell you he was a criminal?"

Anna moved to defend him but to his surprise, the housekeeper swiftly stepped in front of her, taking up a position before Vera with squared shoulders and a hard expression. "We know all about Mister Bates' unfortunate history, so you'll get no satisfaction from shocking us. Best you leave now before I'm forced to have you removed."

His ex-wife grinned at her like a mad woman.

"You wouldn't dare," she shot back, emphasizing each word. "I'll make a scene upstairs. I'll tell everyone in the village what kind of man Lord Grantham employs here at his fancy estate."

Bates' vision suddenly ringed with red as his blood boiled in his veins. But his anger was not reserved for Vera; he had plenty to spare for himself. He'd been a fool to think he could be rid of her so easily. Even if he'd managed to secure the divorce, his ex-wife was a loose end, one that could not be easily snipped from the fabric of his life. Instead she would always pull and tangle and make a mess of things for the sheer pleasure of watching him suffer.

Before Bates could say anything else, Mrs. Hughes took charge. "You will do nothing of the sort," she declared with a level of command that befitted her age and station within the household. "And you will leave this instant if you do not wish to be arrested for trespassing and disturbing the peace."

Vera did not wish to give ground, he could see, but she also believed the housekeeper's threat of calling the police. Despite her occasionally criminal nature, she always had feared prison, he realized. A few seconds passed as her gaze moved from Mrs. Hughes to him, and finally to Anna. Bates watched as his ex-wife skewered the head housemaid with a look of pure hatred.

"I'll go," she said finally, not taking her eyes off of Anna, "but you'd do well to steer clear of my husband, Miss Smith, for your own sake. He's a violent, ill-tempered man who will stoop to anything. He threw me over when he tired of me, and he'll do the same to you."

"That's enough!" Bates thundered. Anna flinched at the sudden volume of his shout. In fact, all the women reacted, and Ethel took a physical step backwards, as though his forcefulness had blown her off balance. "You will leave now," he seethed at Vera.

The woman he'd married so many years earlier, the woman who in another life had killed herself just to get back at him, shot daggers in his direction. But she said nothing as she walked past Mrs. Hughes and slowly left the servant's hall. The housekeeper followed her down the corridor towards the back door and Ethel took the opportunity to escape the awkward and frightening situation, her eyes wide, leaving Bates alone in the room with Anna.

She did not look at him at first, not with her head turned in the direction Vera had gone. The set of her jaw betrayed her anger and unease at what had just occurred, although Bates could not tell if her inner turmoil was a product of what Vera had imparted or of Vera's presence itself. He did not need to wait long to find out.

"Is what she said true?" Anna asked, looking back at him.

His heart plummeted into his stomach at the sudden unease he heard in her voice, in the shadow of fear he discerned behind her eyes. She doubted him.

Anna doubted him.

That knowledge cut him to the bone more effectively than any knife ever could. Never in all the time that he had known her had Anna ever expressed doubt about him or his character. She'd once likened her belief in him to the rising of the sun, and just as surely, she'd never given him reason to question her. For all the time he'd spent reconciling himself to the belief that this Anna was the same as the woman he'd known before, he understood with aching reality that she was not the same, not quite. His Anna would never have asked such a thing.

But now things were different. Now Vera's poisonous words might drive a wedge between them, fracturing their already fragile relationship as Bates struggled to overcome his failed attempts to keep Anna at arm's length. And the worst of it was that at least some of the things Vera had said were actually true.

His silence grew too heavy and Anna pressed further, asking, "Did you pay someone to seduce her so that you could get the divorce?"

TBC