Chapter 35
In the field hospital, the Earl of Grantham came face to face with the man who had once driven him to Ripon and all over London during the season. He had been in the garden with him that day when he had announced to his house hold that there was a war.
And he had been the one who had all but stolen his daughter from him.
He had thought if he and Tom Branson had ever been in the same room again, then he would want to kill him.
As it was, Branson had saved his life. All he wanted to do was to thank him.
He owed Tom Branson everything. He owed him the next sight of his wife's face. He owed him the next time he got to hold one of his beautiful daughters in his arms. It was to him he owed the fact he was going to get to bring up his baby boy when he got back to Yorkshire.
He had to thank him.
But that might not be possible. Branson might die, that was what they were saying. The bullet which had gone into his right sidehad been removed but there was still a chance he could die from his wounds.
"Where will he go?"
"To London, sir."
"No - no, I want him sent to my village, Downton. He saved my life, and there is one there who would want to tend him through this," he said as he looked down on the body.
To think, that he would be the one who sent Tom back to Sybil. The only thing he was able to think was it was beyond a joke.
But he had to do this. For if he did not and Sybil ever discovered that - well, he full well knew he would lose the love of his youngest daughter forever, and that was something he was not able to bear.
"Can it be arranged?"
Robert nodded. If it was the last thing he ever did he would arrange it.
X x x
"Robbie, Rosie, stop running! One of you is going to have an accident," said Edith as she watched her brother and her daughter run out into the garden together.
At her side, her husband chuckled.
"Oh to be young again, my dear," he said as he put his hands on shoulders.
"I am young, darling," she turned with a smiled. He put his arms about her. "Do you ever wonder what the future is going to hold for the two of them?"
"Happiness. As long as there is happiness for our girl, I do not care what else there is," she said as the door opened and Mary came through.
The eldest Crawley daughter looked tired and held a letter in her hands.
"Is everything ok?" Edith asked.
Marry nodded. "Just a letter from Matthew to say he is going to be home from London for the weekend," she told them. "He has been put under a great deal of stress lately and he is going to be glad to rest. He'll catch the four o'clock train on Friday."
"There have been more trials of late, from what the papers have been saying," Anthony nodded.
"It has rather been taking it out of him."
Still, when he got back to her, she was going to be able to make it right for him - maybe. If nothing else, she was going to be able to distract him.
"Shall I ring for a little tea or do you have to get back to the hospital?"
"No, I can stay for a while," she said as she went over to the desk and pulled out some paper to write straight back to the man she loved.
Halfway through tea they were joined by Cora, who was in a white dress that day. Summer was in full swing and it was rather humid. She greeted her family with a smile.
"Are the children out side?" she asked as she sat down.
"Yes, the little monsters ran out about twenty minutes ago," Anthony told her.
"And Robbie seemed well?"
"Should he not?" Edith asked.
"He is just missing his papa," sighed Cora as she sat down. The night before had been a trying one for her. Her son had come into her bedroom around two o'clock, sobbing he had had a bad dream and asking for his father.
"It is not going to be too long before he comes home for another visit."
Cora could only pray it was going to be so. She felt more like a pen friend than a wife from time to time. She had let him go on the understanding he was not going to be away as long as he had been.
It went hard with her.
X x x
"So what am I going to have to do to get you to agree to come out with me?"
"Nothing. I agree."
Sybil swallowed back the dirty taste in her mouth. The last week had been one of a struggle for her. She had mulled over what Edith had said to her again and again and tried to find a reason why she was so very wrong. But as more days without a letter, without any sign of Tom's once fervent devotion to her, she was running out of them.
If a note had come then Isobel would have given it to her. She or Matthew always had in the past. And every day when she was waiting she was able to feel her faith in Tom wan. Four years was a long time. More than enough time for a heart to change.
What was to say he had not lost interest in coming back for her at last? Perhaps he had never really forgiving her for turning back in the first place.
Either way, Edith was right.
She could not live like a nun on what was the very slim chance he was going to come back for her...
And so she would say yes to Larry.
She had no reason not to.
Seeing that she had at last stunned him into silence, she took advantage.
"I have just been told that you are going to be moving up to the house tomorrow. So as soon as you are well perhaps the two of us can go for a walk about the grounds," Sybil told him.
"I would like that very much," he told her.
She nodded and took her leave not understanding why she felt so guilty for what she had done. Knowing she had to take a moment to compose herself she went to the staff room to take five minutes.
She was sorry to find it was not empty.
Isobel was in there with a couple of tea. She knew Matthew's mother had been at the hospital long before she had arrived that day and she looked exhausted. But then they all were. And the only way they were going to stop being so tired all the time was if this damn war came to an end.
She looked up at her as she came into the room and gave her a smile, but somehow Sybil found she was unable to return it.
She felt as if she had proved all the others right. That the truth was she and Tom had been nothing at all. That the two of them had not ever been in love.
And that was an unbearable thought.
And to think she was letting him down.
That was even worse.
"Sybil my dear, what is it?" asked Isobel as she got up from where she had been sitting.
She arrived at the side of the young girl just in time to take her into her arms.
"I miss him so much it hurts... its hurts, Cousin Isobel."
Isobel was a great comfort to her that day. She was not like any of the others. She did not pretend she did not know who was she was referring to or where it hurt. She knew she missed Tom and that it was her heart which she was breaking all over again.
Instead, she begun to rock her back and forth and held her till her eyes were dry.
X x x
Robert sat at his desk and sighed. He had been discharged from the hospital already. Thanks to Tom Branson, he had been able to get back to his duties soon enough with just a couple of cracked ribs to show for that god forsaken battle.
In his hand, his pen was silent, even though there was a piece of paper on front of him.
He did not know how he was ever going to write this letter. Who was he even to write to? Was it best to write to Sybil or to Cora?
He did not know.
There were so many situations he knew how he would handle but this was not one of them.
If he wrote to Cora, then he did not know how she was going to react. When Branson had last been at Downton he had made it quite clear he was no longer welcome. No doubt Cora would be hesitant about letting Sybil know without the two of them speaking.
If he wrote to Sybil then she was going to be upset, with no one to talk to. His wife and her sisters would support her but -
It did not feel enough.
When he had been at the hospital that day, he had said he was well enough to go straight back to the front line. As he had looked at the faces of all the young men, all but dying in their beds, he had felt rather a fraud to be there with a couple of broken ribs.
But he had rather changed his mind. The only way he was going to be able to convey this new was by face. He had a bit of leave owing to him.
It may be time to take it, he thought to himself.
X x x
"You will sleep in here. Talk to Edith if you have any pastoral needs, letters posting, or books to read," said Sybil as she helped Larry into bed.
She felt for him when he held his side. He was still in quite a bit of pain and had a rough day being moved up to Downton. She found that the move often tired the patients, even if they seemed quite well when they had been at the hospital.
"And you will continue to care for my medical needs?" he asked as he lay down.
"I care for those at the hospital, not here. But I am sure something can be arranged," she said as he sighed and shut his eyes.
"You need to rest now you are here. You may not be at the hospital but you are still not altogether well," she reminded him, not that she thought he was like to forget.
He nodded and seemed to relax.
"I'll let you sleep," she turned her heals and took the opportunity to escape.
She had just got out the room as she put her head in her hands. She was not either of her sisters and she did not like to go against the voice of her heart. She had been told once that the voice of your heart, the voice of your conscience, was the voice of God.
She did not know if it was the truth. She did not know if she believed it. But if it was the truth then she was not pleasing her God at that moment.
He was railing against her.
She had been about to go and take a break for a moment when she saw Cousin Isobel looking at her.
"How are you, my dear? Not too tired?" it was clear she was in a rush.
"No - not at all. Is there something I can do for you?
"Well, if you are up for it, I wondered if you wanted to try your hand at midwifery now you have got nursing under your belt."
Larry and any pangs of conscience forgotten, Sybil smiled widely.
"Anna - has her time come?"
"Yes, it has and Doctor Clarkson is caught up at the hospital so he has sent me to go down to her. I have delivered one or two in my time and as long as it all goes smoothly, then we are going to be fine. Would you like to come with me?"
She nodded. Yes, she would very much like that. Suddenly she was not so tired anymore.
X x x
"Breathe through it, Anna!" said Elsie Hughes as she sat by the side of her bed.
Poor Mr Bates had not lasted five minutes after Mrs Hughes had arrived. There were plenty of places in Downton when men ruled, but the birthing chamber of any woman was no place for any man.
Thus, as long as his wife was in labour, John was not allowed in his own bedroom.
"More hot water," said Sybil as she came carrying a bucket, to smile at the blonde. "How is it going?"
"It is going wonderfully," said Isobel as she looked at Anna. "As well as it can, anyway."
"She is being very brave," Elsie praised her.
The blonde nodded. "I am still not going to want John to go near me for another year or so though," she said as she felt another contraction come on.
Isobel nodded. She remembered that feeling.
"You say that now, my dear, but wait until he is sitting by your side and you have a brand new child in your arms," she said, comforting her.
The coming child was the first one born on the estate since Rosie had come along. Of course, the hope had been for Edith that she was going to be able to deliver at Loxley with her husband pacing up and down outside but that had not been to be.
And she had needed to be with someone.
Her mother had been her partner of choice. Cora alone had been in the room with Edith when she had her own daughter.
Sybil and Mary had been the one doing the pacing in the corridor.
Anna's face became distorted in pain as another contraction came on, a rather stronger one than before it if she was any judge.
Sybil crossed to the top of the bed and took her hand in her own.
"Just breathe through it, Anna, breathe through it," she said as she rubbed her arm.
"Oh my lady," Anna moaned as she shut her eyes.
X x x
All in all, Anna was thrilled to have Mrs Hughes and Sybil with her when she was giving birth. She was closer in age to Mary and Edith but the two of them had grown up together. If all she had was Mrs Crawley and Doctor Clarkson, she did not think she would have been half as comfortable as she had been.
The birth over all went well. Though she was exhausted by the end of the nine hours (as was Sybil) she was delighted. Her baby girl had arrived.
And she was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen.
"We said we were going to call her Emily, if she was a girl. I think she looks like an Emily," Anna sighed as Sybil got her cleaned up. Said child lay in basinet which had been ready and waiting for a week or so.
"Well then, Emily it is," Mrs Crawley told her. "Do you want me to go and get Mr Bates?"
Anna nodded as she lay back in bed.
"You know, there was a time I did not think I was ever going to finally get to marry Mr Bates, let alone have his child. And now I have done both."
"It must be a wonderful feeling." Sybil nodded.
Anna could not even put it into words.
"I am married to the man I love with all my soul and mother to a baby we made. I have all the riches in the world," the housemaid told her mistress.
Sybil nodded. But it felt as if it stabbed by what Anna said. She had no idea if she was ever going to get to feel like that. If she had Tom with her still, then she knew she could look forward to that in her future - but she was not so sure any more. She wanted that. It might just not be possible for though .
It was then that John came into the room. He looked as if he had not slept for a week, his hair was swept over to one side of his face and he had bigger bags than his young wife did.
Sybil did not think she had ever seen her father's valet such. She did not think she was ever going to again. He had this look on his face which was not so very different to the one on Anna's. He did not even notice her.
Yet it seemed to Sybil as if their world was over flowing and neither of them ever wanted it to stop.
"Anna, are you ok?" he said as he almost collapsed by her side. He did not need to say how worried he had been.
"I am. We are," she nodded as she looked into the face of her daughter. "Emily. It was Emily, not William inside of me for all these months," she said as she leant over to kiss him.
"Emily... our daughter," he sighed as he put one of his fingers into her little hand which had been left unwrapped for fear she was going to overheat.
It was a warm day outside.
The little but perfect family were so wrapped in one another that Sybil and Mrs Hughes slipped out the door unnoticed.
"She is so, so perfect, Anna," he said as he looked at her. "And so are you."
The two of them kissed one another gently as he put his arm about her.
They were not just Anna and John anymore. They were the Bates.
X x x
"Darling," said Mary as she stepped forward to greet Matthew off of the train.
She would normally wait for him up at the house but his last letters had been so miserable that she had wanted to be with him as soon as she was able to be.
He looked relieved to see her and soon had her in his arms.
The truth was after so many years of engagement, they already treated one another as man and wife in all but one way. That had been being the second daughter and second wife had worked in Edith's favour. She had been able to argue for a small wedding in a way the two of them had just not.
As the two of them embraced, the truth was he felt as if he had no right to be there. He was working for the army. He was doing a bit for his nation. But that week alone, he had helped send six meant to jail because they conscientiously objected to a war he did not know if he believed it.
"I am so glad to see this face," he said as her drew back and looked at her.
"And I am glad to see yours. I do not know if I am glad to see the anxiety on it, but I am glad to see it."
Smiling at her understanding, he kissed her. "The one good thing about all of this is it cannot go on much longer."
He had read on the train up how the German's had already been forced back to the Hindenburg line.
God only knew they were not going to be able to counter attack now. The end was nearing. It had to be.
That night, the dinner table for once felt full.
Sybil was home for the night, taking time for herself for once. Mary and Matthew were there, along with all three Strallans. Violet and Isobel had both come to big house, and next to his mother, Robbie too sat at the adult dinner table.
None of her daughters had sat with the adults for dinner when they were two and three. Both nothing was as if had been when they were young and the truth was, Cora loved being with her son and granddaughter, perhaps more than she did the others.
Her grown up daughters had their own lives and secrets now.
The babies had none of that.
"So if the war is really coming to an end, does that mean you are going to begin planning the wedding soon?" asked Anthony.
Mary and Matthew looked at one another. "I think we can begin to look at dates in spring," Mattes replied, and his bride to be nodded.
"I can't tell you how much I am looking forward to that day. It has been a long time in the coming."
No one could contradict that.
"Hasn't it just?" said Isobel. Four years throughout the war and then the time before hand as well.
"Spring weddings are the prettiest of all," Edith told Mary supportively.
The sisters shared a smile.
"And I know who is going to be the prettiest bridesmaid of them all," said Mary as she looked at her niece.
Edith reached out and touched her daughter's hair before she looked at her plate. "More greens please, Rosie."
The curly haired two year old looked imploringly at her father. When no support came, she surrendered and began to eat her broccoli, looking at it with distain all the while.
"Robbie is doing well with his tonight," Isobel praised the three year old who then nodded at his mother. Cora's looked at her darling indulgently.
"Did any one go and see Anna today?" asked the countess as she changed the subject.
Mary nodded. "I did so this morning, though I do not think that even she or Mr Bates registered the fact that I was there. The two of them are so very besotted," she sighed.
"Emily is a very lovely little thing," Sybil chipped in.
Cora had been about to reply when they heard a knock.
They all looked to the door, as Carson headed out of the dining room.
"A visitor at this time of night," wondered Violet. No one would have dared do such a thing as interrupt the family when they were at dinner when she had been countess. But even then, she was able to hear the convalescing soldiers. Things were very different now.
"Well, I am sure it is nothing of any great importance," said Cora as she turned back to her family.
"So what are we all doing tomorrow?"
"I have a shift," Sybil told her mother.
"Well, as you have taken the night off tonight I do not suppose I can complain."
Sybil smiled, and wondered if she ought to mention that she might be having more nights off in the future. But one look at Isobel and the feeling of guilt in her stomach meant she was more than happy to hold her tongue and keep her counsel.
"Well, I'm in as well, I'm afraid," Isobel sighed.
She had put her name down before she had known Matthew was going to come for the weekend. And she knew he was going to want to spend the day with his Mary anyhow.
"Well, we can at least all have dinner in the evening together again," Cora suggested and everyone nodded.
That, at least, was a plan.
X x x
"My lord," said Carson as he let the Earl of Grantham into his own home.
Whoever he had thought was going to be at the door he did not think it was going to be his lord.
"Is my family eating?" he said as he walked in to the hall. His eyes went toward the dining room. The thought of being with them again filled his heart with joy.
But he was not home just for pleasure.
There was no doubt going to be time for that once the following few days were done. The next morning, he was going to spend at the hospital with his daughter and Branson, who was due in at ten.
"They are, my lord. Can I get you a plate?"
"Yes, please," he said as he headed towards the room with his family in.
He paused for a moment. There was going to be as misery in this visit as there was happiness. But perhaps he could steal some time for himself.
And there might yet be a happy ending.
"I hope I am not interrupting you all too much," he said as he entered.
For a moment there was a perfect stillness in the room.
And there, lots of chairs were pushed back, and there were warm arms about him.
"Oh, Robert, another surprise visit?" asked his wife as the two of them embraced.
"I am afraid so. Do forgive me," he said as he pulled back a little. The ribs he had cracked were the only parts of him which protested against being back with his family.
He grimaced.
"You're hurt?" Sybil picked up instinctively, her trained eye understanding in a moment.
"No - no, not very much," he said as he embraced Mary and then Edith in turn.
"How is married life, sweetheart?"
"Very good."
"And Anthony looks well," he said as he nodded to his son in law. It still felt peculiar he had a son in law who was the same age as he was. But if he had made his daughter happy then he did not suppose it mattered.
"I am getting there, Robert," he nodded.
"It's good to see you," he nodded to Matthew as he looked back at his three girls. He wanted to drink all of them in.
He did not want to forget any of them for a moment.
And that was when he felt a pull on his trousers.
"Here's my boy," he sighed as he sat down on the nearest chair and pulled his son into his arms. "How I have missed you. And you," he smiled as his granddaughter climbed on to his other knee.
He shut his eyes. And he thought of the front lines in France and he thought of Tom Branson lying near death and he held his babies just a little tighter than he had before.
"Grandpapa!" Rosie protested and drew him out of his thoughts as he squashed her.
"Sorry, darling girl," he kissed her forehead.
But he looked at his little son who had not complained with pride. He did not know how one so young had understood.
But he had.
X x x
"You must not think I am not glad that you have come home," said Cora that night as she lay with her head carefully placed on her husband's chest. "But it is just the broken ribs which have brought you back to me?"
The clock has passed midnight and on any other night the two of them would have been done with their love making and already asleep.
But that night she had understood he needed rest. The two of them simply held hands, both remaining wide awake.
"No," he said with a slight chuckle. Was he that obvious or did she simply know him that well?
"Then why?"
"In the battle in which I got hurt - I should have died..."
She sat up. "Don't talk like that..."
"You don't understand. There was a bullet and it was come straight towards me," he supped her check as she shut her eyes. "But another man took it. He saved me. And now he lies near death."
She got out of bed and begun to pace. "Another wife, a widow."
"No, no, he has no wife. The woman who loves him... she doesn't have to know. She can just assume he stopped..." he shook his head and paused. He had made his choice when he had come home for it was the right choice. "The woman who loves him sleeps under our roof. A beautiful young woman wife more spirit than near any other I have ever met."
She stopped in her tracks. She could decipher what he was not saying it seemed. "Branson? Branson took a bullet for you."
Robert nodded. Reaching over the bed, he grimaced, but took her hand and kissed it. "You understand? I cannot lie to her, I cannot say nothing, I cannot keep them apart... and if it comes to it, I will not deny her... if they want to marry, I'll walk her down the aisle myself."
There was nothing else she could add to a speech like that. "You are a good man, Robert Crawley."
"I am a grateful man... and a humbled one."
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