Dear Aunt Lucy,

So much has happened since I last wrote to you, I hardly know where to begin!

I think I told you that Sir Anthony, Mr Stewart, and I were going to return to London to prepare for my meeting with Their Majesties. The Earl and Countess of Grantham brought Lady Edith and the rest of their family to stay in London as well, just to 'be there for me' as we say in English, which was so kind, and very much appreciated. I made friends with a tailor called Mr Gruber who is also a refugee, and who made me a wonderful tailcoat, just like the one the humans wear, but made to fit my bear figure! I will try to get a photograph taken to send to you.

Buckingham Palace is so very grand. It is everywhere decorated with gold leaf, fine paintings, and sculpture. His Majesty King George is not as stern as he looks in his portraits. He was very kind to me. Queen Mary was just as nice, and insisted that I eat lots of orange cake! Her Bear-in-Waiting, Lady Victoria is so very beautiful, with a charming and gentle personality. I also met the Prime Minister, Mr Lloyd George, who is quite a forceful character, but not without his softer, more perceptive side.

I asked Lady Victoria to tea. Well, it just seemed polite to return the invitation and I couldn't ask the King and Queen! That would have been most improper! Lady Victoria arrived precisely on time. She was wearing a blue laced dress that matched her eyes. She has such nice, kind eyes. And she always wears a ribbon bow behind her ear, which I think is very fetching and feminine, without taking away from her bearhood.

She too came to England from Peru, in circumstances as tragic as my own. Her parents were hunted, I'm afraid to say, and she was caught and brought to London. Her captors intended to sell her to a zoo for profit, but their misdemeanours were uncovered and they were sent to jail. She was in a cage on Victoria Station about to be taken out to Bristol Zoo when Queen Mary saw her, Their Majesties having arrived at that station on the Royal Train from some engagement or other. Immediately fond of each other, Queen Mary instead took Victoria to the Palace and made her a member of her household, where she has resided ever since, learning English, and all the accomplishments of a gentlebear.

Can you believe it? Lady Victoria had never eaten marmalade sandwiches! I was shocked! But also very proud that it was me who introduced her to them. She loved them instantly, and she says that I have changed her life.

I have asked her to the theatre with Sir Anthony and the Crawleys at the end of the week. We're going to see Shakespeare's 'A Winter's Tale'.

With lots of love,

Paddington

…

"Anthony?"

"Yes, my love?"

"What's the bear age of consent?"

"I haven't the faintest...good grief! Do you think…?"

"Yes, I do" she replied seriously. "I think Paddington's going to propose to Lady Victoria."

They were both lost in thought for a moment.

"It's only natural, I suppose" Anthony sighed, "but I've come to regard Paddington almost like a son. I'll feel almost bereft when he leaves."

Edith rubbed his arm affectionately.

"He's only marrying, not leaving the country. I wonder how bears go about getting married? I shouldn't think he's Church of England."

Anthony saw another campaign looming, this time to get the Anglican Church to accept and minister to bears, and he went pale at the thought. No, he would let someone else take on that challenge...if it were needed.

"Let's see if Lady Victoria accepts him first."

.

"It's not a very happy story, is it?"

Paddington looked up from his programme at Victoria.

"But the language and the poetry is some of his best" she smiled. "I do hope you enjoy it."

"Oh so do I. It's the first time I've seen a play on stage."

Paddington looked along the line of Crawleys (plus one Strallan) in his party at the Old Vic Theatre. He expected to find them chatting away much as he and his lady bear companion had been, but instead he found them all looking at him and Victoria with great interest. All but two, because Lady Mary and Mr Matthew were deep in conversation at the end of the row, but not, thought Paddington, discussing Shakespeare. When the family saw him looking at them looking at him and Victoria, and that he was beginning to blush under his fur, with a tinge of pink on his nose, they all looked away again, even the Dowager. He dared a glance at Victoria. Whatever would she think? But she seemed preoccupied with something else and hadn't noticed the fascination their friendship had aroused. With a shock, he realised that she was focussed on him! As the lights were dimmed and the curtain rose, his blush deepened to a full scarlet, and his heart pounded.

And it continued pounding. All through the first act, when he kept glancing to his side to stare surreptitiously at Victoria's beautiful ears which made him feel quite giddy. His stomach kept doing acrobatics during Act II, when he sometimes caught her looking at him!

But everything changed in the third act. Antigonus entered carrying the baby Perdita, leaving her in a deserted place to die, moaning all the while that he'd been ordered to do it by the unreasonable king, and wondering how he might be able to save her. THEN a man dressed as a bear entered and chased Antigonus around the stage.

Paddington was dumbstruck, and then appalled, and then angry.

"It's all right, Paddington. This is meant to happen. It's part of the play. People treated bears differently in Shakespeare's time" Victoria assured him, gently putting her paw on his.

"That's bad enough" answered Paddington through gritted teeth, "but look at his hat!" The actor in the bear suit was wearing a battered, red hat, just like Paddington's. It was so obvious that the actors had noticed who was in the audience that night and decided to liven up the performance with a reference to him. Some members of the audience had made the connection and were beginning to laugh. The chase on stage stopped while the man in the bear costume stepped towards the orchestra pit and bowed, lifting his hat, just as Paddington usually did. The crowd erupted into guffaws.

"That does it!" declared Paddington, and he leapt from his seat, taking a running jump over the pit landing on the stage and immediately chased the man in the bear suit, who fled panicked into the wings.

The curtain came down, to uproarious hilarity.

.

The papers the next day all carried as their leading headline a variation on the same theme:

EXIT PURSUED BY A BEAR…AND ANOTHER BEAR

BEAR EXITS PURSUED BY A BEAR

UN-BEAR-ABLE SCENES AT OLD VIC

BEAR-FACED CHEEK

SHAKESBEARE REWRITTEN

They were laid out on the desk in the library at Strallan House. The baronet looked at the small bear standing on the other side of the desk with a mixture of disappointment and hurt.

"I'm so sorry, Sir Anthony. I was just so…so angry."

"You have every right to be angry, Paddington. Nowadays, that scene does feel quite distasteful. To an extent I blame myself: I should have warned you. But you really must learn to moderate your actions now that you are a citizen with full rights and responsibilities. The theatre management would have been quite justified if they had decided to press the matter further."

Paddington, a picture of misery, kept silent.

"As it happened, they realised that you had provided them with more publicity than they could possibly imagine. You may not be so fortunate another time, young bear. So there must never be another time. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes, sir."

"Very well. Off you go."

Paddington turned and left the library with his ears very firmly flat against his head. In a moment of enraged madness he had brought himself and his kind protector into public ridicule. For that he was extremely sorry, and ashamed. What stung even more was how he had let down Lady Victoria. Their Majesties would never let him see her again, even if she herself wished to, which she probably didn't.

A few minutes later, Edith put her head around the library door.

"All done?" she enquired.

"Yes." He gave a humourless laugh. "That's the first time I've had to tell my son off. And he isn't even my son."

"You look after him as though he were. He appreciates it, I'm sure. Or at least, he will do one day." She rubbed his good arm comfortingly.

"Mmm. I wonder what your family are going to make of this?"

She could see it in his eyes. That lingering sadness was back. He was almost resigned to being chased off once more.

"I don't care what they think."

"But with Paddington around…"

"…with Paddington around Life becomes so much more interesting, doesn't it?"

"Edith! If you wanted to call it all off, I would understand."

"Just because a bear got righteously carried away at The Old Vic? In the words of Eliza Doolittle "Not bloody likely!" "

Her mouth was dry and the panic was rising, despite her trying to distract Anthony with silly jokes. He spoke with the same strangled, pain-laden voice as he had used in the church that day.

"No, not just because of that. He's so prone to this sort of thing. Scandal is never far away. I must put up with it: I took Paddington in. I have a duty to him. But you don't have to. You can walk away right now and save yourself years of being associated with this."

"You want to be rid of me. Again."

"Of course I don't" he whispered, his eyes damp. "I…I adore you, my love, my sweet one. You are my life. I'm not sure how I would cope if you walked away. But I have to be sure!"

"Sure of what?" she asked through her tears.

"That you are not staying just because you feel you have to, as though you owe it to me, or to Paddington, or to prove something to your parents and your family. There's only one reason I would accept as a good one for you to go through with it now, and that is…"

"I love you Anthony."

He looked up at her, lips parted in shock and hope.

"How did you know I was going to say that?"

"I know you like I know myself. I've loved you for over six years, and I will love you until my dying breath. And a fortnight Saturday, I am going to walk down the aisle, either by myself or with my father, I don't care which, and I am going to marry you. And that's all there is to it!"

Anthony laughed, much more normally this time, despite the tears. "Thank you, my sweet one. I love you too, more than this silly, crippled old codger thought possible."

As he leaned in for a kiss to prove what he had said, Stewart entered.

"Lady Grantham, sir."

"Oh dear" he said under his breath.

"The Dowager Lady Grantham, sir" Stewart clarified.

"Where's the bear?" Violet growled as she entered.

Many thanks to everyone who has taken the time to read and review. It's so amazing to hear what you think of my silly take on Andith and Paddington!

And many, many thanks to everyone who wrote to me over Christmas: Spotted Horse, Kmby, Tarlea, WeeRedFrenchie, and others. It's glorious that the Andith Secret Santa Exchange is still continuing. Andith: the gift that keeps on giving.

PS (very late) Happy New Year to you all!