Chapter 4

A short while later Mary and Tom were stood in the entrance hall of Henry's law firm, waiting for him to get there, having asked the receptionist to call him down. After a wait of just a minute or two he came out of a door that led to a flight of stairs.

"Ah Henry, there you are, how are you?"

"Mary, how splendid to see you, and who's this?" he asked.

"This is Mr Thomas Branson, my brother-in-law"

"Please, call me Tom"

"I shall, so what can I do for the two of you?"

"Have you heard from Edith, she left Downton and has not left a forwarding address, do you know where she is?"

"No, I'm afraid I don't, I do hope she's ok though"

"Do not lie to me Henry, it doesn't become you and you're terrible at it, tell me, where is she?"

"Fine, first of all, she and the child are ok, they are and second, she asked me not to tell you if you were to come calling"

"Please, we wish to see her with our own eyes, so we can see for ourselves that she is ok" pleads Tom.

"You can find her at The Sketch, she runs it now"

"Thank you Henry, I won't forget this, come on Tom, I need to have words with my sister"

Twenty minutes later Mary and Tom walked into the offices and up to the reception desk and are about to ask where Edith is, when she walks out of the office and sees them.

"Mary, Tom, what are you doing here?!"

"We came to London on important business and thought we'd come over and say hello"

"Ok, I was just about to head home, would you care to join me for lunch?"

"We would be delighted dear sister"

A few short minutes later the three of them were stood outside, when Mary stopped Edith in her tracks and said "How could you leave like that without even saying goodbye, especially to mama and papa?"

"If you don't mind, I would rather not air my dirty laundry out here, let's go back to the house and you can meet Marigold"

"We'll go in the car, it's parked just up here" says Tom.

Fifteen minutes later they are walking through the door of the house that Edith has set up home in.

"Before you meet her, let me say this, she's very shy, so don't make sudden movements"

"Ok, deal"

"Ada, where are you?" called out Edith.

"We are in the main living room Miss Edith" came the reply.

Moments later Edith led Mary and Tom into the living room, where they saw a young 20 or something woman playing with Marigold, who, upon seeing her mother, immediately crawled over to her, wanting to be picked up.

"Hello darling, did you have a good day with Ada? I trust that she's behaved well"

"Oh yes, she's a lovely child"

"Good, oh and may I introduce my sister Lady Mary Crawley and brother-in-law Mr Thomas Branson, this is Ada Price, she is Marigold's nanny"

"'Tis a pleasure to meet the both of you"

"Thank you Ada, your wages for today on the table in the hall, I shall see you tomorrow, same time"

"Of course, goodbye"

"Goodbye"

Ada then left the room and Edith sat down with Marigold on her lap and invited Mary and Tom to sit opposite her on a second couch.

"Mary, Tom, I would like you to meet my daughter Marigold, Marigold, this is your Aunt Mary and Uncle Tom, can you say hello?"

"Eyo"

"Hello Marigold, oh Edith she looks like you"

"I think she is a perfect mix of me and Michael".

"Come home" says Mary.

"I can't, I'd bring shame with me, here, everything is perfectly fine"

"Do not worry, we will think of something, but you are missed, George asked about you before we left"

"As did Sybbie, surely Marigold should be brought up with her own relations, we could simply say that you adopted her because you'd grown fond of her, that way your virtue and your honour would remain intact".

"Ok and I'm sorry".

"We know"

End of Chapter