A/N: Here is another chapter - with more to come. I'm only not that fast in typing. Hope I'll publish the next one tomorrow.

"Well, we didn't use our car every day, but it's quite a practical item, don't you agree?" The young men, who sat next to Edith at dinner, bored her for the last twenty minutes with some talk about his family's vehicle. She didn't know what to reply without being impolite. Obviously she knew much more about cars then he did.

"We employ a chauffeur, of course, but I think I will learn how to drive soon. It might be an exciting experience."

"What about your sister Elisabeth?" Cousin Isobel asked. "Will she take driving lessons too?"

"No" was the indignantly sounding answer. "Women should not drive cars. It's quite too dangerous..."

And this person granny wants me to marry, Edith thought. What future prospects! Aloud she said: "Oh, really? I learnt driving a car at the beginning of the war and later I even drove a tractor to assist a local farmer."

Her neighbour coughed slightly and the immediate glance of Lady Cora wasn't a nice one, but Edith couldn't bear these silly words any longer.

Meanwhile she caught a light smile from Anthony Strallan across the table. He was seated quite opposite between Lady Violet and Cousin Isobel.

Edith answered this smile shyly.

"That's impressive, Lady Edith." Her other neighbour disturbed her flirt attempts.

He was a little, red faced guy, but well read and somehow entertaining. Lady Cora had chosen him as her candidate. But in fact, Edith was both by both young men, but she smiled and talked just for being a good daughter.

Later when her father and the male guests joined the ladies she was lucky to catch Sir Anthony for a talk.

"It's nice of you to find some minutes for me" he said. ""You're rather busy tonight."

"Yes" Edith replied. "But I'm glad to talk now to someone, who hasn't been forced to attend tonight's dinner for matchmaking."

"But the two gentlemen seem to be quite interesting."

"Indeed?" The smile she sent towards him looked rather unpleased.

Sir Anthony felt it would be welcome, if he would say something diverting. "I'd love to get the opportunity to talk to you during dinner. There is this book I recently read..."

"Sir Anthony." Mary Crawley's voice suddenly interrupted him. "It's so nice to see you again. It has been quite a while."

Edith looked at her sister with anger, which was ignored by Mary completely. The younger one had been the focus of attention the whole evening. Mary had decided that it had now been enough of this. The good Edith could now go back to her other boring admirers.

"You have to tell me about this book. What is it about?"

Sir Anthony couldn't very well hide that he felt very uncomfortable. Lady Mary most often made a very aggressive impression, but he put these thoughts away and answered politely. "Thank you for your words, Lady Mary. As I was just about to tell your sister, the book is a very interesting one."

"So, is it a novel, a crime novel maybe?"

"No, not at all." He smiled. "It is about new farming technologies. Some of them are really revolutionary."

"Oh, I see." Mary forced herself to smile. "Then you both will have to discuss a lot. Edith has always been keen on... such stuff."

The eldest Crawley daughter excused herself and rushed away. Edith's eyes followed her until she started to talk to Matthew, who stood at the other end of the room.

"You read about modern farming techniques?" Edith started the conversation again.

"Actually not." Sir Anthony smiled. "But I was aware that your sister isn't very interested in such things."

Edith was surprised. Did he really invent a story just for getting rid of Mary?

"So, what is the book about?" she asked.

"It is a novel about the future, a future far away" he explained.

"You mean like the stories by H. G. Wells and so on?"

"Yes. The author tells about things like flying cars and travel to other planets. All these things are absolutely interesting, but in fact, I was fascinated about his ideas of society in a hundred years."

"Would you mind to lend me this book for a while? I'd love to..."

"Edith, dear, I hate to interrupt you, but Peter Finnegan is longing to talk to you, I suppose" Lady Cora's voice said.

Her daughter cursed in silence. She wasn't glowing to speak to Peter Finnegan again, but the insisting tone in her mother's voice didn't let her any choice. Therefore she excused herself to Sir Anthony and went to the other side of the room, where Peter Finnegan was waiting. Later, when she got the next opportunity to make her own choice whom to talk to, Sir Anthony had already left.

A few days later Sir Anthony was just about to write a letter to a business partner, when his butler came into the library. "Lady Edith Crawley" he said.

"Yes, please" his employer replied surprised and welcomed the young lady, who entered the room.

"Lady Edith, what a surprise! I thought you still rather busy."

She smiled. "I was indeed, but now our guests went finally back to London."

"And were these visits a success in the way your parents might expect it?" Sir Anthony knew that he actually had no right to ask her this, but he wanted to know. To see her with these young men during the dinner had made him feel in some way miserable. He knew that she did, what he had told her to do, but some devil inside him let him think that it couldn't be right.

Edith shook her head. "No, but I don't think that they will give up in this matter. I'll be sent to London at the end of the month... to visit my aunt Rosamund."

She looked sad with a slight trace of desperation, but he felt that he hadn't the right to offer her some comfort. It would only cause further entanglements

They remained silence for a while.

"The reason of my visit is the book you told me about" Edith finally said. "I'd love to read it."

"Well, of course." Sir Anthony looked at the book shelf in front of them. "Unfortunately it is stored up there and with my arm I can't climb the ladder. I'll ring for assistance."

"No, no" Edith said. "Let me do it." She cautiously hurried up.

"Which one is it?"

"The second on the left. But please be careful."

Edith took the book, read the title and climbed down. Accidently she missed the second last step and lost her balance. Sir Anthony catched her with his unhurt arm and stopped her fall with his body.

"I told you to tread warily."

"I know." It felt so right to stay there with his arm around her. Edith wished she could lean her head against his shoulder for being even closer to him, to feel his heartbeat.

Sir Anthony wasn't sure what to do. It was highly unfitting to embrace Lady Edith with only a book between them, but he was also unwilling to let her go. It was confusing - especially because she wasn't moving a single step away from him.

"I..." he started, but he was interrupted by a knock on the door.

They stepped away from each other in unison.

"Doctor Clarkson has arrived" the butler said after opening the door.

"Please show him to the drawing room. I'll come upstairs at once."

"I better go" Edith said, when the butler had left. "Thank you for the book."

"You're welcome" Sir Anthony answered.

The magic they both felt only moments ago hadn't disappeared completely. A bit of it was still between them.

"Goodbye then." Edith tried a shy smile.

Please come back soon, Sir Anthony thought. He took her hand and placed an old fashioned kiss on it. "I better not let the doctor wait."

"Better not."

When Edith returned home that day she still felt where Sir Anthony's lips had touched the back of her hand. They had been close before the war, but it was different now. Of course, she had been a child back then and it had taken a while before her interest in Sir Anthony became more than a competition with Mary. Edith had been sure in these days that she would like to spend her life with him, but now there was something more.

"Ah, Edith." Her father just left the library. "Have you been out?"

"Yes, I was, papa. I did a walk and lent me a book from... a neighbour."

Sir Robert smiled at his daughter. He was sure that she had run away for a while. Cora as well as his mother treated her with the idea of a soon wedding. He knew that his girls had to be married and he'd preferred a suitable husband for Edith instead of getting another chauffeur or even a footman into the family, but on the other hand he was somehow sorry for her. Edith wasn't the type to fight her mother's or her grandmother's ideas. She was in danger to end up with a husband, but without the companionship he shared with his wife.

"Are you looking forward to going to London?" he finally asked her.

"Yes and no" she replied. "Sybil will be there. I've missed her so much. But the other things..." Edith looked at her father. She decided to say something to cheer him and also herself up a bit. After this she would go to her room to think about what she still felt inside.

"I think I'll meet a lot of our friends there and aunt Rosamund promised to invite me to the latest opera production."

"Very well, then" the Earl answered. "It will be a busy and exciting time for you in London."