Many, many apologies for the delay. As some of you will know, The Baroness had an operation about a month ago which went well but she then went down with a hospital-caught infection which took nearly two weeks to clear up. She's okay again, thank you to everyone who sent me good wishes.
This chapter is dedication to Lady Loveedith, for prodding me gently by pointing out how long the poor bear had spent in pawcuffs.
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Mrs Bird made Paddington's favourite cake, wrapping it up as if it were as valuable as gold and as fragile as glass. She had joked about putting a file in it, but she had immediately burst into tears, declaring that she would only be upset if she came down to the kennels with Anthony and Stewart, which would in turn distress Paddington. So she stayed at Strallan House.
The two men were silent on the short walk. Stewart had known his master for nearly twenty years. Ever since the first Lady Strallan had died, Sir Anthony had had little but grief in his life. True, there was the golden summer when he had first got to know Lady Edith, when Stewart and all the staff fully expected her to make Sir Anthony a very happy man. Their hopes and his had been dashed then, just as they had been again in the past week.
Stewart thought that Sir Anthony had given up on ever being happy himself, and this had led him to take Paddington under his wing. Stewart dared not think how his master would be affected by the failure of Paddington's case, should that come to pass.
The council official took them to the kennel block and pointed out where Paddington was lying listlessly in his kennel, but he sat up and tried to smile when he saw them.
"Hello Paddington. How are you coping?" Anthony greeted him.
"As well as can be expected, Sir Anthony, thank you."
"Did you manage to get some sleep, Master Paddington?"
"A little, thank you Mr Stewart. I do miss that lovely bed with the canopy. Here I have to lie down on the floor, although they've kindly given me a dog bed." Anthony and Stewart expressed horror at this, so Paddington explained "It's all they had. They've never had to deal with anybody other than stray dogs here before."
They all looked at the kennels around them. Their residents seemed unusually attentive and quiet.
"I believe they think I am their leader, their 'Top Dog', just because I'm a bear and different from them. I've managed to talk with one or two of the braver dogs. Dog and Bear are actually quite similar languages, it turns out. I must say it is shocking that cruelty such as they have suffered at the hands of Men should still exist in such a civilised age and in such a civilised country."
Paddington looked very sad rather than angry, despite his words.
"I am very sorry that there are such people, Paddington. But we are not all like that" said Anthony.
"That's very true" agreed Paddington.
"And to prove it, we've brought you a present from Mrs Bird" exclaimed Stewart, handing him the cake.
"Oh! Oh, that's so kind! Please thank her for me."
So Paddington shared the cake between himself and his friends, human and canine.
...
"Oh, good God!"
Tom and Edith were shocked from buttering their toast by the Earl's outburst at his breakfast newspaper.
"What is it, Robert?" asked Tom tentatively.
Lord Grantham quickly adjusted his expression from 'outraged peer' to 'completely nonchalant, I-am-not-hiding-anything-honest'.
"Erm...the cricket score...disgraceful...England all out for seventy! Excuse me."
He went to see Cora to discuss what their reaction should be, and what they should tell Edith. Robert convinced Cora that what they had read proved that whatever stress was from which Sir Anthony had been suffering causing him to jilt their middle daughter had pushed him over the edge into outright insanity. It would be easier on Edith if they kept her from learning of her erstwhile fiancé's descent into madness.
And so it might have been, if Edith hadn't been in a heightened state of alertness for any news about Anthony and guessed that her father's exclamation must have involved him. She waited patiently until Robert was walking Isis then snatched the paper from his library desk, ran to her room for privacy and read, on the front page, about Anthony's association with one Mr Paddington Bear, and the legal challenge they had mounted to prove his rights in law. She interpreted the story very differently from her parents.
It's just like Anthony to see someone in distress and to go to their assistance, no matter how much pain he himself is suffering. Oh Anthony, I know you didn't jilt me out of heartlessness or deceit. I don't think you're capable of hurting anyone deliberately and this just proves it. I want to see you again, no matter what they all say. I want to help in your crusade for Paddington, and to convince you that if you have the courage and vigour to take on the British legal system, you cannot be either old nor helpless.
She packed a bag. She read the article repeatedly and then wrote a letter to The Times making sure that it went with the first post. She attended dinner as normal, and went up to bed. Then, to allow herself the maximum time before she was found missing, she escaped down the backstairs, took a car, drove fiendishly fast to York station just in time to catch the overnight train to London.
...
"Oh, good God!"
Tom looked up from his breakfast for the second time in as many days.
"Is it that you are becoming less tolerant in your old age, Robert, or has the world really gone to the dogs?" he asked less tentatively than the previous morning.
"Not the dogs...the bears!" he replied. He began reading aloud.
"Earl's Daughter Speaks Out For Bear Rights. Lady Edith Crawley makes the case for compassion in ursine legislation."
He looked up from the paper and addressed Carson.
"Where is she? This time she's gone too far!"
"I'll just ask Anna, my Lord."
Tom didn't dare break the silence while they waited to the butler to return, which he did very quickly.
"I regret to say that Lady Edith cannot be found, my lord. Her bed has not been slept in."
"She's gone chasing off after him, hasn't she? Dear God, the two of them will make a laughing stock of the Crawley name!"
"Perhaps you should have let them marry after all. At least then they..." started Tom.
"Hold your tongue, Branson. What do you know of reputation?"
"I think that's unfair, my lord." He paused to regain his composure. "Is there anything I can do to help?"
Robert deflated a little at Tom's offer.
"No, thank you, Tom. Keep looking for her, Carson. I'll be in the Library if anyone needs me."
In fact, Lord Grantham was worried sick. If Edith really had hared off to London, where was she now? Was she all right? What could he tell Cora when she found out? He put a call through to Mr Murray.
...
At the same time, Sir Anthony put a call through to Mr Crawley.
"Our first piece of good news, Matthew. Paddington's rabies test results are back and they are negative, of course."
"Good, good. Now, shall I continue with the plan? The piece in this morning's Times will help and I think we should try to strike while the iron is hot."
"What article?" asked Anthony. Suddenly Matthew remembered what Stewart had told him.
"Oh...an editorial in our favour. Well, I'd better get on to the Council. I'll report back if and when I have news" and he put the receiver down before Sir Anthony could ask any more questions. He's going to find out sooner or later, he reasoned to himself. But he still felt like a coward for not being completely honest.
Anthony put the phone down and looked thoughtfully at the pile of newspapers that he had neglected in favour of visiting Paddington. Matthew had sounded pleased but also...was he spooked...by the paper's item? He flicked through the pile until he found The Times, and his heart stopped.
Edith? Oh Edith!
That sweet, lovely girl. He knew her well enough to realise that this was a message to him, although she would approve of what he was doing for Paddington very much as well. She was saying that she hadn't given up on him, publicly, to all the world.
He broke down and wept.
...
Mr Crawley stood in the empty court before His Honour Judge Grant.
What a stroke of luck! The old boy is so far past it, I doubt he's heard anything about Paddington.
"You wish to apply for bail for your client, Mr Crawley?"
"Yes, your honour. Mr Bear's test results have been returned negative, proving that he is not suffering from, or contagious with, any illness and I put it to the court that the state has no reason to keep Mr Bear incarcerated prior to his hearing concerning his refugee status."
"Mmm. Your client does not have a history of violence, Mr Crawley?"
"No, your honour, certainly not. He is a very mild-mannered, polite bea...individual."
Judge Grant was not as past it as Matthew had hoped. In fact he could be quite sharp when needed.
"Mr Crawley...you were calling your client 'a polite...' what?"
"Bear, your honour" he mumbled.
"This client of yours...he wouldn't be that Peruvian immigrant about whom I hear so much at my club?"
"Probably, your honour."
"Application denied."
Matthew remained standing while the old man retreated into his chambers, and then he permitted himself a smile.
"That's just what I wanted, your honour, thank you. Next stop: the Court of Appeal."