Mary, Matthew, Bates, and Anna gathered together at breakfast. Despite the nominal social positions they presented to the outside world, behind closed doors they all lived as equals, and that included taking their meals together. Mary had privately balked at the situation at first, but with Matthew's encouragement she gave it a try, and now she found a whole new sense of camaraderie with her supposed staff, seeing them as true friends.
"Edmond Dantes has four enemies, who each have their own weakness," she said, and turned to Matthew. "I think we can agree that Patrick and Edith are the most like Danglars, and the way to get to them is through their money."
Bates chuckled. "A method I'm quite familiar with, though never on quite a scale as those two would involve. So what do you propose."
Matthew took over. "In the book, Dantes sends fake telegrams to get Danglars to make bad investments. Then there's a whole business with kidnapping him and starving him, but I think that would be a bit baroque for the real world."
"Oh, I wouldn't count it out completely," said Anna, as she finishing spreading jam on her bread. But she didn't put her silverware down, and instead started stroking her knife against her fork in a manner reminiscent of sharpening it. The others all ignored it, having by now long accepted it as her way of keeping herself relaxed.
Mary quickly butted in. "Well, unfortunately things have gotten a bit more complex since Dumas' time, and we can't just take over a telegraph station with no one noticing. Besides, there's the little matter that their money is also our money. The family needs to go on once we've taken it back."
Anna stopped her fussing with the knife. "What about the Dowager Countess? She always struck me as someone who wouldn't stand for what was done to you, and she must have some connections that could help us."
Mary shook her head. "She could help, but not just yet. I want to keep our group as small as possible for now in case we can't actually get anything going. They've all suffered enough from this, and I won't add conspiracy charges on top of it."
Bates, who'd so far been silent, gave an uncomfortable cough. "If you really are thinking of doing something along these lines, I may know a way to get started."
Matthew clapped his hands. "Now that's the spirit! Why didn't you speak up sooner?"
Bates' eyes dropped from them all. "Well, we haven't spoken about it much, and I appreciate your consideration, but the fact is I'm a figure of the criminal class. And I'm sure you know people like me are all about territory in the end. The fact is, there's someone who's been trying to make inroads on my territory, and they're more powerful than me. My people are exceptionally loyal, though, so we've been at a stalemate. But one of their rackets involves the financial sector, and part of that is knowing what people to press for a desired result. And since I have something to offer…"
Mary hoped her shock wasn't showing too much. "And you'd do this for us?"
He shrugged. "Like I said when we first met, your father and I have a bond closer than most. I won't lie, I'd hoped it wouldn't come to this, but I always knew it was a chance, and I've been trying to prepare myself as best I can."
Matthew reached across the table and took Bates' hand. "I won't pretend to understand everything about this, but know you have my greatest thanks, and Mary's too."
Bates nodded. "And I appreciate it. Although there is one more thing you should probably know."
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"Hello, Vera," said Bates as his former wife answered the door.
That hateful smirk that had become so familiar crossed her face. "There have been some rumors you've been playing butler on some big estate. I suppose it was too much to hope you'd decided to leave for good."
An invitation inside didn't seem to be coming, so he launched into business from the front step. "I admit it, you've been better at this game than me. Even though we both know you only got into it because you wanted to beat me at it."
"What can I say, it just seems to come naturally. Stealing some silver seems rather beneath me now, doesn't it?"
She was trying to rile him up by bringing up the prison time he'd done for her. He refused to rise to the bait. "I'm prepared to give you a portion of my territory, in exchange for some information."
Bates was pleased to see her briefly taken off guard by this. "I won't ask what brought this on, because I honestly don't care. But it seems the advantage is mine, so why don't we just make it everything you have?"
That got through all his efforts to control his temper. "Vera, you know I can't agree to that."
She chuckled. "And yet, it's all I'll agree to. So you need to ask yourself, just how important is this information to you? I'll even give it to you first, because I know you'll keep your word."
Bates couldn't tell just how long he stood there staring at her. But no matter how he approached it, there was no way to deny that Vera had him. Either give up his hard-won status on the streets to the woman who'd become his most hated enemy, or betray the deepest trust he'd ever known. He came close to laughing at fate for putting him in this position, but ended up holding it in and just saying, "All right, all of it."
That actually surprised her again. "That was much easier than I was expecting; you really must be desperate. Well, let's go find some witnesses for this."
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It felt like so little in exchange for everything he'd built, but here he was, outside the office of the man who would enable Mary and Matthew to get their plans off the ground. Tomorrow he would tell his lieutenants that they would now answer to Vera, and likely never see them again. Well, at least it would give him more time to focus on helping the Crawleys.
His knock was answered. "Michael Gregson?" He only got a curt nod and a step back inviting him in. "My name is John Bates. I assume you recognize the surname."
Gregson's face simply looks resigned. "So you're with her. That woman's had me on a leash for years, forcing me to make erroneous reports with no idea why. I suppose it's too much to hope you're here to tell me it's over."
Bates shook his head slowly, a technique he'd found worked wonders on getting people to take him seriously. "We actually don't talk much, but we've just made a deal that led me to you. I know all about your wife, and I have access to the proof needed to make your arrangement public." Gregson started to speak, but Bates put up a hand to silence him. "I know, it's not illegal, but the simple fact that you've kept it a secret means you have some other reason for that. I'm guessing just your reputation, but it doesn't really matter, does it?"
Gregson hung his head. "All right, so what do you want me to do?"
"Oh, nothing just yet. This visit is just to let you know you'll be serving two masters from now on. You see, I'm not what you'd call my own boss either, and I'll be back once I have orders. For now, just keep well. I wouldn't want my new investment to not be in a position to help me, after all."
After he left the office, Gregson collapsed into his chair and started weeping.
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Bates was warmly greeted by Matthew and Mary once he arrived back at Haxby Park. "Was it so horrible as you thought?" Matthew asked, full of sympathy.
"I gave her everything. It was surprisingly easy, actually. I'll always be loyal to the true Lord Grantham, and today I suppose I proved to myself just how much I mean that."
Mary gave him a warm hug. "I'll never forget this, and I assure you Papa won't either once I tell him."
Bates smiled at her. "All part of the job, and I knew that going in. Now, where's Anna?"
They looked confused. "She followed you to the station, and never came back. We assumed you'd met up and decided to go together," said Mary.
Bates was just as puzzled. "I assure you, I haven't seen her all day. What could she be up to?"
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Anna was sure Bates had spotted her several times. But he had never approached her, and she supposed the prospect of seeing his hated ex-wife again, while she was in such a position of power over him, had taken up all his thoughts for a while. Whatever the reason, she had even been able to get close enough to their conversation to hear every word.
She'd only gone because she wanted to see what kind of woman had previously captured Bates' heart. Those months she'd spent with him waiting for the heat to die down had let her see his inner kindness that had been buried under the tough exterior he had to put on for his criminal work, and her love had only grown since. But hearing just how much Vera now hated him, and what she wanted to take from him, a whole new idea began to come together.
Vera didn't look impressed by her at all. It was no more than Anna had expected. "Well, what do you want knocking on my door this late?"
Anna had made sure to wait until everyone else was in their homes, and there was no one else walking around, so she wouldn't have to use any kind of pretense. "I'm a friend of your former husband, and I don't appreciate what you did to him today."
She laughed loudly enough that Anna briefly worried it would bring someone looking. "And I suppose you're going to beg and plead for him, because we're both women and I'll listen to you?"
For the first time in a long time, Anna gave a genuine smile. "Not exactly. You see, Mr. Bates is going to stand by the deal you made, because that's just the kind of person he is. It's what drew me to him in the first place, that he's a good person. He's not like me."
Before Vera had any time to react to that, Anna whipped out the kitchen knife she'd taken to hiding in her sleeve and stabbed it forward. Vera quickly dodged back, and Anna followed her into the flat and slammed the door. But her opponent was much larger, and unlike last time she was wide awake and ready to defend herself.
Anna made several more slashes, but Vera eventually charged forward and took one full on the forearm, barely showing any sign of pain as she grabbed Anna's wrist with her other hand and squeezed until she was forced to let go. She was then pushed to the floor, and the other woman was suddenly on top of her with a flurry of blows that left her no time to think.
In a last desperate move, she swiped at Vera's face, and was rewarded with a cry of pain and the end of the punishment as the woman stumbled back. As her vision started to return, Anna could see her fingernails had ripped deep gouges down Vera's cheek, and a look at her hand showed that one of the nails had even torn off itself, though she didn't feel anything for the moment.
Anna knew she couldn't lose this chance, and she quickly found her knife on the floor, then raced forward and plunged it upward under Vera's jaw. As the woman was still gagging wide-eyed from this likely fatal injury, Anna decided not to take any chances and pulled it back out, then pushed her to the floor and slashed her throat. It was only as she was sprayed with blood that a sharp throbbing from her finger came to her, and with it a cold realization of just what she'd done.
She stumbled around the unfamiliar place until she found the kitchen, and quickly set to washing off her victim's blood. She couldn't find any bandages, so she simply wrapped her finger in a dish towel and squeezed until she felt the bleeding slow. Her clothes were the bigger problem, as the blood stubbornly refused to leave them completely. She considered swapping them for Vera's own clothes but soon found their different sizes would make it impossible to get far this way. She settled for a heavy overcoat, and just had to hope it wouldn't draw much attention.
She was almost out the door before she remembered the biggest piece of evidence pointing toward her, the fingernail. Luckily, there wasn't much of an area to search and she quickly found it. She also took the time to ransack the place a bit more, hoping any police that found the body would think it was a robbery.
She caught a late train back to Haxby Park. Now all that was left to worry about was explaining herself to her friends.
