The first thing that caught Edith's attention when she and Helen entered Locksley the following evening was Elinor's clattering, bare footsteps on the stairs as she plummeted down them, clad in her dressing gown.

"Mummy! Auntie Helen! Mummy!" Elinor threw herself at both of them at the same time; Edith caught her and swung her up, with some effort, to kiss her. The smell of salt-water lingered around Elinor, and her hair was damp, almost as if she had just got back from a swimming pool. But… Elinor couldn't swim. Edith had just never got around to teaching her.

"Hello, my little whirlwind," Edith smiled. "And what have you been up to?"

"I fell in the pond and Daddy had to pull me out and then he took me swimming at the baths in Ripon and - "

"Daddy?"

"That's what I said, Mummy, and - "

"Hold on," her mother interrupted suddenly, the rest of Elinor's extraordinary speech having caught up with her. "You fell in the pond? And Daddy pulled you out?"

"Yes," Elinor insisted with the long-suffering air of speaking to someone very slow indeed.

A cold fist of fear clenched around Edith's heart. Michael was here? And Anthony had actually allowed him to take Elinor out? And why hadn't he been the one to be pulling her out of the pond?

"What do you mean, 'Daddy' pulled you out of the pond?" asked Edith sharply. "That's not possible."

"Of course it is!" Elinor protested. Looking over Edith's shoulder, her whole face brightened and she asked, "Didn't you pull me out of the pond, Daddy?"

Edith whirled around, clutching Elinor tighter but saw only -

"Anthony?"

He smiled, a little reservedly. "Ah. You're home. Hello." Looking past Edith and Elinor, he nodded warmly to Helen. "Hello, Helen. Good journey?"

"Hello, Anthony. Very long, I'm afraid." Quickly, she stepped forwards and relieved Edith of Elinor. "Ellie, why don't you come and help me unpack? Tell me more about this pond?"

She headed for the stairs before either Anthony or Edith could protest. There was a long silence and then Edith asked, in a voice tight with suppressed fury, "What in God's name happened?"

Anthony sighed. "Forgive me. I was hoping to get to you before Elinor did. Just… didn't hear the car arrive."

"As if that makes any difference!"

Tucking an arm around her before she could protest, Anthony led her towards the library. "Elinor took an impromptu dip in the pond," he explained, ignoring Edith's sudden gasp of horror. "It's… deep enough that a little one can get into trouble. I heard Horatio barking, and ran out to see what was happening and - "

"Pulled her out," Edith finished for him.

"Yes. Well, dived in and sort of… collected her, really. Clarkson came and checked her over - there's absolutely no harm done, I promise. But as a precaution, I took her over to Ripon baths today and… started teaching her to swim."

Wordlessly, Edith sank into the fireside armchair. She did not say anything.

Eventually, Anthony asked, "Edith? What are you thinking, sweetheart?"

"You jumped into the pond?"

Anthony nodded, not entirely sure where all this was going.

Edith frowned out of the window for a moment. "It can't have been more than seven degrees in there, if that. You must have been - " She stopped, biting her lip hard, chest heaving with emotion. "You don't like the cold."

"Edie…"

Edith looked up at him, eyes ready to spill over with tears. "She could have - "

Anthony knelt beside her and hugged her tight against him, cutting her off. "Don't even say the word - don't even think it. I know. I know." He hissed impatiently. "God, I'm sorry. It was so irresponsible of me - I thought she'd be safe enough on the terrace, but she just - "

Edith lifted a reassuring hand to his cheek. "Oh, I know what happened there all right," she sniffed wetly. "Elinor hasn't been able to stay put since she learnt to crawl. You need eyes in the back of your head most of the time, with her." She buried her head in his shoulder. "I'm just glad that you were there."

After a moment, she lifted her head and asked, "And… 'Daddy'?"

Anthony would have replied, but at that moment, the door creaked open and Elinor slipped inside. "Hello," she murmured, a little sheepishly.

"Hello, sweet one," Anthony smiled reassuringly. "Where's Aunt Helen?"

"Having a nap," Elinor explained. "She said I should tell Mummy that she'd be down for dinner but she wanted to rest first."

Anthony looked towards Edith. Elinor was scuffing one slippered foot against the other, still standing in the doorway. At last, she asked, quietly, "Mummy?"

Edith sat up in the chair, swiping at the tears running down her cheeks, and opened her arms.

Elinor flew into them, a blur of golden hair and tears.

"Are you very cross with us?" Elinor murmured after a long moment. "Mrs Dale was."

Edith let out a noise that was half-laugh and half-sob, and smoothed down Elinor's hair with a shaking hand. "I'm absolutely furious, my darling," she told Elinor. "And so glad that you're safe."


Never had Edith been more thankful for the simple pleasure of putting her daughter to bed than she was that night. "Goodnight, my sweet one." She kissed her cheek gently.

"Goodnight, Mummy," Elinor murmured sleepily into her pillow, tugging Edward Teddington closer under the quilt. "Goodnight, Daddy."

Anthony tucked the quilt in around her more firmly in response and switched out the bedside lamp. "The best of dreams, my darling."

Outside Elinor's room, Edith asked Anthony quietly, "When did that start?"

"I'm sorry?" Anthony's voice was equally quiet, but it seemed to have regained its usual confidence, which had been so lacking since the previous Monday.

"Elinor… calling you 'Daddy.'"

Anthony shrugged wryly. "At roughly the moment I reached her in the lake." He opened their bedroom door and stood back to her let her pass inside. "Do you mind? Because I find that I… rather like it." The understatement of the millennium, there, old man.

Switching on the bedside lamp, Edith looked over her shoulder, bathed in soft light, and told him, quite seriously, "I couldn't mind less if I tried."

Anthony behaved as if he had not heard her. He shut the door and spoke again as if making a case in front of a jury. "Yes, well, I'm afraid I'm going to be damned selfish about it all, Edith. I'm tired of all this 'stepfather' nonsense. It's distant and cold and - " He stopped, swallowed, and started again: "Look here, I want Elinor to know that she has a man in her life who will fight for her, unquestioningly and unconditionally, whenever, wherever - " He paused once more, voice cracking, and when Edith looked at him, she could see that his eyes were full of tears. "She's my daughter," he whispered, "and I - I know I'm not putting in a terribly good showing at the moment, but - I love her. I want to be her father. It's as simple as that." He swallowed. "Edith, I swear faithfully, you won't regret it."

"Anthony - " she whispered.

He tensed. "And don't even think of mentioning Gregson - "

"Anthony - " Edith tried again.

" - because he had his chance and he threw it away, so - "

"Anthony!" Edith insisted, taking hold of his elbows and shaking him slightly.

"Y-yes?" he stuttered, looking down at her with no little anxiety.

"If this is what you want," Edith said slowly, emphasising every word, "then you'll hear absolutely no objections from me."

He blinked as if he could not believe what she had just said. "Truly?"

"None whatsoever." She ran her hands up to his shoulders and then down his chest. "I - I can't think of a father more perfect than you."

"Even with… the shell-shock?" It was the first time he had said the words aloud and named the beast that had laid him so low, for so long.

"Did that stop you from throwing yourself into a freezing pond to save her life?" Edith asked sensibly.

"Edith…"

"She could have drowned," his wife reminded him, her voice trembling.

Anthony tugged her into a loose hug. "But she didn't."

"But she could have," Edith repeated insistently. "And the only reason she didn't was because you were there." She let out a slightly hysterical little laugh. "I wasn't. I was half the length of the country away - "

"Edith," Anthony interrupted firmly. "You can't have eyes everywhere, my darling. It's impossible. It wasn't your fault, and there was no harm done. She's learnt a valuable lesson and so have we. That's all."

"In any case… you saved her life." Solemnly, Edith looked up at him from beneath her lashes. "And your reward will be to have anything you should care to ask of me, at any time, without question or complaint."

If you were utterly selfish, you could hold her to that, Anthony reminded himself sadly. Make her promise to stay with you always and let you take care of her.

Decency was the very devil sometimes.

Instead of replying, Anthony pulled her closer, his thumb rubbing soothing circles just under her breast. Edith inhaled sharply and he stopped immediately, his hand freezing. "Sweet one?" he asked, tilting his head back to peer concernedly down at her. "Did I hurt you?"

Tightly, Edith shook her head, teeth digging almost painfully into her bottom lip. "N-no." The word escaped her on a sharp, breathy sigh. "It was so far away from hurting - "

"Oh?" Then understanding struck. What with one thing and another, they hadn't been together like that since before the house party. "Oh. I see." He buried his face in her neck, peppering the place under her ear with kisses. "Come here, my darling…"

Edith blushed. After all, before Anthony, she had gone five years without sex, and it embarrassed her now to be so suddenly and helplessly overwhelmed by this frantic neediness. "Anthony… I'm all right. You don't have to - "

"Oh, but I think that I do." Anthony's voice was filled with warm, rich amusement as he reeled her impossibly close, until she was pressed flush against him, every inch of their bodies in contact. Edith's eyelashes fluttered closed and she let out a breathy whimper, her knees suddenly threatening to give out on her.

"I'll be all right," she whispered bravely, swallowing back a moan as his mouth traced the outline of her clavicle. "If you don't want to - " Lord, she thought she might howl in agony if he didn't -

"Now, that isn't likely, is it, my dearest one?" he chuckled against her skin. He was backing her towards the bed, sliding down the straps of her evening gown and slip together as Edith fumbled almost frantically with his tie. "Whyever didn't you say something?" he panted as they landed in a messy tangle on top of the sheets, Edith pushing back his shirt from his shoulders as he busied himself removing her knickers. Edith arched against him as his fingers brushed the inside of her thigh and her reply came out in a choked, garbled rush:

"It seemed… oh! - so selfish when y-you were - Anthony! - feeling so r-rotten - oh, yes! P-please!"

There were no disturbances that night.