"Daddy?"

"Yes sweetheart...?"

"Why doesn't Mummy love me anymore?"

The question stopped John dead in his tracks. They'd been at the farm for a week now and Anna was gaining in strength at last, but still needing to eat little and often. Moving brought about waves of nausea and she was often tired, but her spirits had rallied since the thoughtful visit from Mrs Clarkson. However, this was the first suggestion that anything had been wrong in his daughter's world. Crouching down to look at Josie's face, caring little about the discomfort in his knee and only about his daughter's distress, John took her little hands in his.

"My darling Josie, Mummy loves you very much!"

"But you take me away from her... And she doesn't read stories..."

Josie bit her lip, struggling to put her little feelings into words.

"And she never puts me to bed or tucks me in. And she doesn't have breakfast with us anymore..."

Tears were welling up in her large blue eyes. The sight of his baby in tears was almost more than John could bear.

"Oh darling... Mummy isn't very well. We told you this, remember?"

"But Unca Bill said she was getting better."

"A little bit better. But she's still very poorly."

"But why can't I be with her?"

Josie's voice reached wailing pitch.

"Come here, my love..."

John scooped her into his big strong arms while she cried for a bit, comforting and shushing her softly. Josie's question was unanswerable. The truth was that Bill, John, Daisy and even Mrs Patmore had done their best to keep Josie occupied in order to give Anna a rest. To allow her to sleep, eat her snacks and to save the little girl from seeing how sick her mother was at times. They had formed the unspoken pact that it might be upsetting for both of them, mother and daughter, and John began to realise how much of an error this had been.

"There now, Mummy loves you darling, I promise. She's having a sleep now, but we'll go and see her later on."

"Promise?"

"I promise. Now shall we go give this bread to the ducks? They'll be hungry if we don't."

"Alright."

On the walk back, John spied Bill on his way out of the kitchen, headed towards the sheds.

"Hullo!" Bill waved with one hand, carrying a large bucket in the other.

"Hullo Unca Bill!"

"And how's my Josie today?"

"We went to feed the ducks!"

"Did you indeed! They'll be getting fat on all those breadcrumbs you give them."

Bill met John's eyes and sensed a problem in half a second.

"Now, would you like to come and see the horses with me? It's time for their tea, I'm taking all these lovely carrots out to them."

John nodded imperceptibly above Josie's head. He needed a moment to talk to Anna before Josie came back into the house. Josie chewed her bottom lip, obviously wanting to see her beloved ponies, but still remembering Daddy's promise to go see Mummy. John smiled, touched to see her childish loyalty.

"You go with Uncle Bill sweetheart and I'll go see if Mummy's awake. Then maybe we can have tea together."

Josie's face brightened instantly, and her little hand was soon tucked into Bill's on her way across the yard to the stables. Kicking the mud off his boots at the door, John went inside and wondered how on earth to explain the conversation he'd just had with his daughter to his wife.

"I can't believe she thought that..."

Anna was distraught. Although John had done his best to explain, minimise the damage and rationalise everything, the idea that her little girl had for even a second doubted her love was overwhelming for Anna. Their baby, the much longed for and cherished child, had thought her mother had stopped loving her.

"We thought she was distracted, but the truth is she misses you. I think the novelty is wearing off, being here, and she wants her Mummy back."

"Then she shall have me," said Anna, resolutely.

"I don't want you getting too tired darling..."

"I'm out of bed for part of every day now. I might not move very far, stories are a nice still thing to do. I can't believe I didn't think of this before, have I been neglecting her after all?"

"Dear one, please don't think that. You've been ill, you needed to rest and find your strength again."

"It's coming back now. I don't feel as sick any more. And I can eat more every day."

This was in fact true. At somewhere between five and six months pregnant, Anna was beginning to regain some of her bloom. Dr Clarkson had suggested that the worst of the sickness would pass after the twenty second week, and his prognosis appeared to be correct. Just this morning, Anna had managed to eat tomatoes on thick buttery toast for her breakfast, instead of the usual dry toast with thin porridge. Sausages and bacon were still beyond her, but she was improving and the doctor was pleased with her progress.

"Although you must still take care to rest, after that procedure you had," he'd warned her sternly on his last visit. "I'm amazed you got away with working at Downton after you had the first one done. You can't take that risk this time. You will need to stay off your feet as much as you can."

Bill, Daisy and Mrs Patmore, along with John, had conspired to make sure Anna obeyed the doctor's orders.

"Besides... I should tell Josie that she's going to have a brother or sister. We've not even mentioned it to her yet, and in a few months it will all happen. If she's feeling like this, I don't want her to think she's going to be replaced."

"No that's true." This was a complication John hadn't considered, which definitely needed to be tackled now. "How do you think we should..."

But there was no time for anything else. The back door opened and Bill and Josie had returned, red cheeked from the cold with big smiles. Josie chattered away about how Merrylegs had eaten the carrot right out of her hand.

Anna nodded to John, who went to collect her.

"Why don't you come and tell Mummy all about Merrylegs? She had a ride on him once..."

Within a few seconds, Josie's little feet came running into the snug, her face lighting up to see Anna sat on the sofa, her feet raised on the pouffe.

"Mummy!"

"Hello darling!"

Anna stretched out her arms and gathered up her little girl into a cuddle on the sofa, marvelling at how soft and dear her little blonde curls and her sweet skin were. She inhaled deeply, relishing the precious scent of her daughter, compounded of Johnson's baby powder, clean wool and the indefinable baby smell of her skin. She had missed this and was ashamed that she had not realised how big a hole it had left in her life.

"Are you better Mummy?"

"I'm getting better darling, I will be all better soon."

"What's wrong with you Mummy?"

Anna's eyes met John's, as he came to sit on the other side of Josie on the sofa. Perhaps this was going to be easy after all.

"Well darling... Daddy and I have got a big surprise that we want to tell you about."

"Oh?"

"Mummy is going to have another baby. A little sister or brother, and we hope that now you're a big girl that you'll help us to look after the baby when it arrives."

"A sister? Like Mary-Alice has a sister?"

Anna laughed, recalling the little girls who lived down the street from the Gull's Nest.

"Yes, it might be, or a brother, a little boy."

"Oh."

Sitting and thinking for a minute, Josie chewed at the end of her curly hair. John tried very hard not to laugh at the serious expression on her face.

"Will I still be your baby too?"

Anna's heart swelled with love.

"Oh darling, you will always be my little girl, but you're growing up to be a bigger girl every day. And won't it be nice to have someone else in our family to love, who will love you too?"

"I think so."

Anna breathed a sigh of relief, as John took over for a while.

"Mummy has been poorly and she needs to rest a lot, because the baby is growing in her tummy."

"Is that what makes you sick, Mummy?"

"Yes darling, but I'm feeling a lot better now. And soon, the baby will come out and we'll be able to see it."

"How does it come out?"

"Doctor Clarkson will help Mummy take it out."

"Oh... How did it get in?"

John stared at Anna in a panic.

"Magic," said Anna firmly. "Grown up magic. Which I will tell you all about when you're older."

Josie accepted this without question. Mummy never told lies and always kept her promises.

"Oh ok."

"Who's ready for a biscuit and a nice mug of milk?"

Mrs Patmore called from the kitchen, with immaculate timing.

"Me!" yelled Josie, clambering off the sofa and running into the kitchen.

"That was nicely averted dear," whispered John. "I'm glad we don't have to tackle that for a few years. How did you come up with that idea?"

"It was what my Mum told me, when my brother was on the way. And in a way, it's the truth. What we did to make the baby was magic. Very grown up magic."

John couldn't argue with that logic. He could only return Anna's warm smile, with the comfortable sensation that his family had been reunited and were stronger than ever.