Epilogue: St. Valentine's Day
Anna smiled at Mary. "It's time"
It was about time Mary thought. Just shy of six years since a slightly priggish middle class solicitor from Manchester had pushed his way into ... into the life of a slightly supercilious lady at Downton Abbey. Oh how she loved him. And now her love was going to be made whole.
Mary smiled back at Anna. "Yes, I suppose it is. Shall we go down". Her father was waiting downstairs to take them to the church.
Just then one of the new maids, who was not going to the ceremony, knocked on the door. "Lady Mary, a man delivered this package. He was most insistent that it be given to you before you left for the church."
For an awful second Mary thought Richard had thought of some bizarre way to disrupt the wedding but then she heard the maid telling Anna that "he was a little old man with a ginger cat and a black and white dog..."
Mary held out her hand "Give me the package."
Mary looked at it. The package was a small rectangular box wrapped in a green grey paper that looked like granite.
She unwrapped the package. There was a card and a jeweller's box. She opened the box. Inside was a medal. A heart made of lapis lazuli hung from a royal blue ribbon. Two interlocked 'Ms' in gold were inlaid on the heart. The words 'For Love' were inscribed in the clasp of the ribbon.
Mary looked at the card. On the card was a picture of a ginger tabby sitting inside a shop window looking out. Inside the card was written:
Something blue
Small Lake
Mary smiled. Thank you she thought. She held the medal to her left breast. "Anna would you please pin this on"
"It doesn't really go with the dress"
"Yes it does" Mary smiled at her "Yes it does"
The End
Gentle Reader thank you for taking time from your holidays to read this trifle. I hope to meet with you in the 1920s. Until then adieu.