The sequel to this story is called The Mastermind. I am putting it under a separate heading as it is told from the point of view of the servants. It will have a Thomas Barrow and John Bates tag. It is based on S3 script anomalies. It still has lots of Tom, Kieran and Lord G plus bits of tie in from this story. TY for reading. I did change the baby name in this story. I had a note Georgiana is a monarchist name. So made a switch.

Chapter 26 – Epilogue

Tom looked at his wife and smiled. They would be back in Downton in another twenty minutes. Between them their three children and a nanny along they took up an entire coach in the first class section. It was late summer 1926. The twins were now one and a half years old and Sybil was just past her sixth birthday. In a few weeks the tutor they had hired would be starting. It seemed like the time had shot by since the twins were born. Rose was kept busy these days managing the stables, showing horses, helping out with the estate books and being a mother. She still loved to dance and try new things but she was drastically different from the spoiled, impetuous girl Tom had known when she first came to live at Downton Abbey.

They had been to Ireland to visit Tom's mother and family. It had been an eye-opening trip for Tom. It hadn't felt like home anymore. His mother was the same as always. She steadfastly refused to move or change a thing in her home despite the money her sons had sent her over the years. She had every cent put away in the bank for a rainy day. Tom had offered to buy her a house so she could move out of her tiny flat. His mother had informed him he was being a fool with his money.

His family hadn't known what to make of Rose. They had been able to understand his first wife working as a nurse but here was a woman who traveled with a nanny for her children and made no bones about the fact she showed and trained horses as a business venture or that she worked side by side with her husband as an equal. She thought it was great fun to take the children swimming and dance every dance at family get togethers or when a group had gone out to a pub one evening. When Rose had announced she was going to a horse show and thinking of buying one or two horses to have shipped back to England and that she was taking the children along with her on her buying excursion, Tom had thought his collection of Aunts and Uncles were going to faint.

If in the distant future they ever did consider moving back to Ireland it wouldn't be Dublin. It would be a place in the country that would allow Rose to pursue her interests and them to live a life together that suited their own needs. Tom had found himself actually looking forward to getting back to the Abbey and Cora's endless dance parties, Edith and Mary's weekend visits with their husbands, the Dowager's discussions of the latest happenings in the county and his desk in the morning room that would be piled with letters and papers for his attention.

His experiences managing an estate had changed his views radically from the young idealistic hot head he had been. It was a lot more difficult to be fair to the staff and maintain sufficient capital to keep the estate running than he would have ever imagined. He admired Lord Flintshire's ability to lead. The man had stepped up when need be without the need for accolades. Now that Tom knew him he realized the man was a natural born leader whether he had been born to wealth or as a common man. Tom still didn't believe in the monarchy and a man's God given right to rule over others by right of birth or the ridiculous nonsense that went with the season in London. He'd found his life at the Abbey difficult at first. He didn't always agree with Lord Grantham or the Dowager Countesses viewpoint and they still had their disagreements, but the Abbey was home and the estate was where he and his family belonged.

The chauffeur met them at the station with the town car. The children were tired and fractious from the train ride and Sybil had been motion sick on the ferry and then on the train. When they arrived at the Abbey it struck Tom how much the staff and the general workings at the house had changed in the thirteen years since he had first come there. Mr. Barrow, Mrs. Hughes and Mrs. Patmore were still there but the faces of the maids and footmen seemed like a revolving door of comings and goings. People were restless. Spending their entire lives as a servant was no longer something people wanted to do. Change was on the horizon again. There was no way to know when it would come or what would cause it but it hung in the air. Almost every year something was updated or a new method was used on the estate. Nothing stayed the same.

Once the children were settled, Rose decided to go down and check on the happenings at the stables. Tom took one look at the pile of paperwork waiting for him and closed the door on it. Tomorrow would be soon enough. He called Isis and set off on foot to his brother's to catch him up on the goings on in Ireland. Kieran was just closing up for the day when Tom arrived.

"How was Ireland?" Kieran asked.

"Mam was the same as always, just with a few more grey hairs," Tom replied. "The aunts, uncles and cousins all said to say hello."

"Let's go to the pub," Kieran said. "Ivy's gone to visit her Mum. She won't be back until later."

"No boys?" Tom asked once they were seated with their drinks. After the kidnapping the boys had moved in with Kieran and Ivy full time. They saw their mother at church and went out to the farm one or two times a week when they took a notion, as long as they let Kieran or Ivy where they were going.

"They informed their stepfather that if he wanted them to work for him for the summer on the farm he would have to pay them wages," Kieran laughed and shook his head. "He agreed. They're out there for the summer. I think he might have been too scared of what they might do if he didn't."

"They are a pair," Tom said with a chuckle. "Are they still talking about becoming policemen?"

"They've got a bug in their ear that is what they want to do. If it keeps the pair of them in school and on the straight and narrow, it's a good thing," Kieran replied. "So you still think you'd like to go back to Ireland to live?"

"Maybe to the country someday, but I've lost my taste for Dublin," Tom replied. "I was just a visitor this time."

"I've no taste for it," Kieran said. "I do well here. Besides I have an English wife. What would she do with her time over there? We've got the two boys to raise, she can drive herself over to visit her Mum when she likes and we're going to have one of our own in another seven months or so."

"Congratulations," Tom said toasting his brother. "It's odd isn't it? I came here to work years ago and all I could think about was going back. Then when I couldn't go back I wanted it even more, now I have the money and the freedom to do it and I've lost the desire."

"It's all about knowing your place in the world and where you belong," Kieran said as he drained his glass and ordered another round.