Edith gulped before beginning.
"Well that night I packed my things and bought two train tickets. Marigold and I traveled for several days before we finally got to Wales. At that point I was broke so I went to an alley and camped out there for a few days. Then Ellis walked by and asked who we were before taking me to his parent's diner. He got us a place to stay and gave me a job. We became very close and I got pregnant. We got married a few months after he was born." she said. She didn't go into any details as she wasn't comfortable with sharing everything.
Cora raised an eyebrow. "You had another child out of wedlock?" she asked. She didn't like the idea that her daughter had once again slept with a man she wasn't married to.
Edith sighed. "Yes mama. I did. Then we got married after Andreas was born."
Robert gave Ellis a stern look. "You slept with my daughter even though she had a child and you were not her husband?" he asked. He couldn't believe a second man had taken advantage of his little girl.
Ellis nodded. "It was not my intention to sleep with her. But at the time we lived together and one thing led to another. I am so very sorry I slept with her before we were married. But I wouldn't trade my son or my wife for anything in the world." he said with conviction.
Edith smiled at him and gave him a peck on the cheek.
Mary gave Ellis a stern look. "And what of Marigold? Is she some bastard you deal with?" she asked coldly. She hadn't meant to be so rude but her ex husband's new wife treated her daughters as if they were less than her children. She didn't want that for her niece.
Ellis looked straight at Mary offended that she would assume he didn't love Marigold. "Marigold is my beautiful little girl. I would do anything for that sweet child. In all truth I fell in love with her before falling in love with your sister. I love her as much as I love each of my children. She's my red headed angel and I wouldn't trade her for all the riches of the world." he said honestly. Maybe it had been the way that child had enjoyed throwing porridge at him or the way her grin lit up the room but he truly had fallen for that little baby before falling for her mother.
Mary smiled. She could tell he was telling the truth. Not that she wouldn't watch him closely of course.
Robert spoke up then. "Edith why were you living with him?" he asked her.
Edith sighed. "I was homeless. I had nowhere else to go so he gave me and Marigold a place to live. Although Marigold was often found cuddling with him in the mornings." she said with a fond smile. It had always cheered her up when she saw her daughter having a cuddle with Ellis.
Robert nodded and looked at the two little ones on the floor. He smiled fondly at them. Henri had Gweneth in his lap while he sang a song with her and clapped her hands together. He had missed so much of his daughter and grandchildren's lives. It saddened him that he had missed out on so much. He didn't even know she had gotten married. Did she have on a white dress? Who walked her down the aisle? Who all went? Those were all questions he didn't know the answer to.
Cora looked at her daughter and sighed. "Why didn't you come home with us that day?" she asked.
Edith sighed. "Marigold would have been taken from me. I know your plan would have had her with me but I never would have been able to claim her as my own. I wouldn't have been a mother to her. Not like how I wanted to be."
Cora sighed and nodded. She understood what her daughter was saying but she couldn't stand to lose her daughter all over again.
Mary walked over to Edith and hugged her. "I'm glad you're back Edith. I've missed you." she said honestly. She may not have been close to her sister but she had truly missed her. When Edith had left she became an only child and she had hated it.
Edith stiffened slightly before smiling and hugged her back. "I've missed you as well Mary." she pulled away and looked at her family seriously. "But I'm not staying here. I live in Soho and I will not go to the Abbey or here and live with you."
Robert stood up. "You're leaving us? Again!"
(This is AU from the point where Cora and Rosamund went to London to retrieve Edith and Marigold. All recognizable characters, places, and events belong to Julienne Fellows. Please Read and Review!)