Epilogue

September 24, 1922

Edith remarried in 1920 and now had a ten month old daughter with her husband Bertie. He was a lovely stepfather for David and supportive of Edith's dreams and ambitions as a magazine columnist. They split their time between Crawley House in London, where Edith's work was located, and Brancaster Castle, where Bertie worked as the agent. However, she was back at Downton today, enjoying the small fair that had been set up on Downton's property with her family. Matthew and Lavina were also there with the son they had welcomed some sixteen months ago, securing the line as Downton's next heir. Mary was glad to see her family growing and thriving in so many ways. She watched as Sybil and Tom strode hand-in-hand with two-year-old Sybbie on Tom's hip and Sybil's free hand caressing her seven month baby bump.

Mary looked away from the rest of her family with a smile, her eyes wandering to spot Ellie in the crowd. Finding her eleven year old and seeing she was safely and happily engaging in one of the carnival games, she let out a satisfied breath and then made her way over to her wife. Anna was discreetly hidden in a shady spot doing the same thing Mary had done, keeping an eye out on Ellie from a distance. "She seems to be having an amazing time," Mary remarked.

"Yes, she does," Anna agreed. "Are you?"

"I am. It's nice to see everyone so happy and to see so many little children, new lives after all those lives lost in the war. It's a breath of fresh air, really."

"That it is."

After a moment of comfortable silence, Mary's whispers broke through. "Do you ever wish you'd gone another way? Married a man and had a big family?"

"No," Anna answered confidently, "While I'd have loved to have more children, Ellie is amazing and very precious to me. I honestly can't imagine my life without her, and without you, and I can't thank you enough for bringing her into this world."

"And I can't thank you enough for being there for me when I did it." Mary smiled tenderly at her wife before chuckling slightly as she reflected on her labor. "I honestly had no idea what I was signing up for."

"No, you really didn't." Anna chuckled with her wife.

"But in the end, it was so incredibly worth it," Mary said sincerely. "And I'd do it all again. It was the best day of my life."

"The best day of mine, too," Anna agreed.

"I thought that was my proposal to you?" Mary teased.

"Well, that was amazing, too, of course," Anna conceded and tapped on her chin as she pretended to think for a second, "Alright, maybe they're tied."

Mary laughed at that before quickly covering her mouth to ensure she wasn't drawing too much attention to herself. Taking a quick glance around and seeing no one was within earshot, she looked at her wife with utmost adoration and whispered, "I love you so much."

"I love you too," Anna affirmed. "More than you will ever know."

A/N: Well, the fic has come to a close. I want to thank you all so much for reading and going on this journey with me. I hope you all enjoyed it. I wanted to quickly note that I took out Edith's flings with the farmer and Gregson but kept her driven personality and the experience of working during the war on farms and as a writer. I felt it was better for her to have two solid marriages rather than just a bunch of random flings before eventually settling down. Also, I feel after Bertie became Marquess in 1925, they would go on to have a son, Peter, named after Bertie's cousin, the former Marquess. Obviously this story stops in 1922, so we don't see that. But just know it happens.

Also, sorry for any language that sounds too 2022 or too American. I am not British and have very little knowledge of 1920s vocabulary and slang, let alone 1920s British slang. Hopefully I did them justice. I did my best working with what I have, which is a 2022 Gen Z in the American South vocabulary.