As seven o'clock came, the evening sky had conquered the afternoon and Edith decided she may as well go down for dinner.
Nobody expected her at the table, they all attempted to camouflage their sympathy for her with casual conversation, none directed towards Edith as she took a seat. Everyone except Mary and Cora. Cora couldn't contain her worry for her daughter, and Mary had no concern to hide.
"My dear, are you alright?"
"Wonderful, Mamma."
Cora continued to examine her daughter with concern and pity for a few moments as Edith busied herself with her salmon.
The atmosphere in the room had a sort of confining humidity. "Edith my dear, when you are succeeded emotionally, comfort yourself with the facts. Celibacy is indeed a virtue in the eyes of any future onlooker with matrimonial interest," the Dowager stated rationally from the other side of the table, returning to her plate with her fork.
"Thank you, Granny." Edith said dryly and Robert gave his mother a look of disbelief.
Mary spat humoured glances and the rest of the family looked quite uncomfortable. But Edith's state of affairs were often ignored with ease, the family had practice enough, and the rest of the meal continued with a jovial conversation at the prospects of the spring. Only half an hour later nobody would have recognised the atmosphere in the room.
But all was not lost. Edith had plans, she would have Anthony again, it was only a matter of time.
An hour on, and the family got up to exit the dining room. Carson came over in the grand hall and approached Edith with a letter, "This came for you, M'lady. Just now."
"Thank you, Carson." This was odd, the magazine only sent in the morning and afternoon. Edith's eyes lit up. It was a letter from Anthony.
...
She unfolded it in a blink and read.
"Edith
I have attempted beyond nauseam to tell you I am not interested in you, and I am afraid my civility might have allowed your needful eyes denial. So if you please, I will forget my manners because I just want out.
I am not interested in you romantically, sexually or platonically. Forgive me if I have somehow beguiled you into thinking I find you attractive, perhaps it was the times I spent with the Crawley's before the war that had you think I was interested in you in particular. I wasn't my dear, though your family were good society, I was looking for nothing further in you. And let's be frank, how could I possibly?
The time we spent alone I regret was to persuade your sister Mary that I could be desired, but Lady Mary is not one to be persuaded when she makes a decision or when she never desired me in the first place. After time I may have felt obliged to honour your invitations and reply to your letters, but I did all for the sake of gentlemanliness.
It is no matter now as I have found all the things I ever wanted in a Lady that I have come to love dearly. Intimacy, companionship and true beauty. I cannot fathom my fortune. The joy we share together in all things is singular in every way. And my age does not dwarf her, we are of the same maturity and she does not bring embarrassment to conversations with infantile remarks that leave people to wonder at her vast lack knowledge in subjects.
I only feel the need to state the fact that I have moved on with somebody else so that it is clear - there is no space for you in my life, and I was never making you any. My Lady fills every part of it with a satisfying capacity. All the headroom all the legroom, she satisfies without leaving an inch to spare. I never thought I would have anything more than what I had with the late Mrs Strallen, but I do. I didn't even look for it and it turned up in the shape of a beautiful woman who filled me with surprises. And she has marked her territory in more ways than one.
Also, you might notice that this relationship I have is requited. She has affections for me and I dare say I am quite in love.
You could have spared yourself so much humiliation by getting the message like the next woman who can read.
Do not write to me again. I've told Jones to throws your letters in the fire.
Anthony."
