Sorry this took me so long. Finals happened! I hope to be finished with this by the New Year, but who knows!
I own NOTHING!
/
Dr. Clarkson went over Mary with a fine-toothed comb. It took nearly an hour, but in the end he was able to give them a good report.
"Other than a few cuts and bruises and a bump in the head, she's perfectly fine." He told Matthew, who was hovering at the foot of the bed wringing his hands. "Just keep resting, and change the bandages on that foot in a couple of hours."
Matthew nodded gratefully and shook the doctor's hand. "Thank you so much." He said quietly. Clarkson nodded and patted Mary's arm before heading towards the door.
"Is there any word on Mrs. Bates?" He asked nervously. He had always respected the Crawleys and all of their staff, he would have hated for anything to happen to any of them.
"No, not yet." Matthew spared Mary a sad glance. "But if it's not too much trouble, could you stay here until she's found? I have a feeling she'll need immediate medical attention."
"Of course sir."
"I'll ring Carson and have him bring you some tea." Matthew said as the doctor stepped out of the room. He waited for a moment before going over to the edge of the bed and sitting down next to his wife. "How are you feeling darling?" He asked gently, running the backs of his fingers along her cheek.
"Better." Mary sighed leaning back against the pillows sleepily. "I'll feel a lot better when they find Anna." She smiled forlornly as she played with the ribbons on her nightgown.
"They'll find her, I know they will." Matthew stroked her hair, silently willing her to sleep. "Bates isn't prepared to rest until he brings her home with him."
/
After an insurmountable amount of time, Anna finally decided it was time to get out of that room. She had to find a way to rescue Lady Mary. She can't remember when and why the men had separated them again, but she had to get to her. She would never forgive herself if something happened to her.
Pulling herself to her feet she winced when she felt her ribs pull and her world spin. Dugan had kicked her repeatedly in the side and she had collapsed a couple of times resulting in hitting her head against the hard ground. She was sure that she would need at least a day off to recover from this ordeal.
She laughed torpidly at the thought of what Ms. O'Brien would say when Ms. Hughes would tell her that she would need to resume Anna's duties. That woman could be absolutely infuriating.
Slowly but surely, Anna finally approached the old wooden door. She took a deep breath—resulting in a few sharp coughs—before reaching out and grasping the old rusty door latch. And to her surprise, it turned in her hand with ease and the door swung inward.
/
"I told you, I don't know what you're talking about!" The burly man growled as John and Robert flung him back to lean against a large boulder.
"Tell us where she is!" Bates roared, holding his man across the man's throat.
"Where who is?"
"We know you took those women. We have a witness!" Robert informed him, pulling Bates back slightly before he killed the large man. "We just need to know where Anna is, and then maybe we can arrange something less harsh regarding your prison sentence."
John snorted as he made intense eye contact with his victim. Prison was too good for this bastard. "Where is my wife?" He snarled.
"I don't know!"
"Milord!" Alfred's voice startled them. They turned to see the Footman dragging another large man along with the help of Jimmy. "We found another one! Just down the road!"
"His car had a flat." James added as he held up a small white shoe, "He had this in the backseat. It looks like Lady Mary's!"
"Dugan, you idiot!" The man Bates had trapped choked.
"Now are you going to play dumb?" Robert glowered at him.
/
Her imprisonment didn't stop at the small damp room she had been in for the past few hours. There was a long winding hallway full of doors that led to more empty rooms. At one point she had to lean against a wall and take a few deep breaths. She was still feeling blinding pain and it was getting more and more difficult to see straight.
After a moment of rest she continued her frantic search. "Lady Mary!" She called with a hoarse voice, "Lady Mary!"
She stumbled over some loose rocks, but caught herself on the wall. She whimpered and pulled herself along, looking around desperately. Her vision began to tunnel, but she was still seeing the path ahead of her clearly. When she began to lose hope of ever finding Lady Mary, she started to turn around. She stopped in her tracks when she saw a small flight of stairs just ahead of her.
Swallowing, Anna stepped towards them and fell to her knees at the foot step. Looking up, she saw a trapdoor, and on the other side she could hear voices…women's voices.
/
Edith and Cora decided to look around the area while the men played interrogators. "It's hopeless Mama." Edith sighed, kicking at some leaves. "What if they don't even have her out here? What if she's being kept somewhere back in town?"
"We still need to look everywhere that we can!" Cora's face was set with determination. "If that man is out here, then Anna is alone and possibly very injured. We need to get to her as soon as possible!"
"Maybe we should get Isis out here." Edith suggested. "That's what dogs do right? We can just have her smell one of Anna's shirt or something, and she can find her through scent."
Cora laughed somberly and shook her head. "Some dogs might be able to do that darling, but not your father's dog." She stopped when she heard a noise. "Did you hear something?"
They both stopped walking and listened for a few moments. "Hear what?" Edith asked quietly. After another moment they heard a tiny whimper. It could have been a small animal or a bird from above, but both women had a feeling as soon as they heard it.
"I think it's coming from over there!" Cora exclaimed as she dashed towards a small clearing. As they drew closer, the noise grew louder. "Anna? Anna?"
"Mama!" Edith called. Her mother ran over to see her standing over a pair of large wooden double doors partially buried by some leaves. "I hear her!"
"Anna?" Cora called, dropping to her knees by the doors and pulling at the pad lock that held them closed. "Anna, can you hear me?"
They waited and after a few minutes of silence, they heard a cry. "H-help!"
"That's her! That's Anna!" Edith exclaimed, scrambling to her feet. "I'll go get father!"
Cora nodded, "Get Bates too!" She called after her daughter as she ran back in the direction they had come from. "And tell them to bring something to cut this lock!"
/
Bates ran as fast as his feeble leg would allow. When he saw Lady Grantham on her knees next to some storm cellar doors, he picked up his pace. By that point, more men from the town had joined them in their search, so they were able to leave the criminals with them.
"I can still hear her!" Cora informed them as they approached.
"Alfred is fetching an axe from Mr. Blair's toolshed." Robert told her, pointing at the small house about a hundred yards away.
"Anna!" John called, collapsing next to Lady Grantham and pressing his hands against the splintered wood separating him from his wife.
"H-hello?" A weak voice called. John breathed a sigh of relief at the sound of his sweet Anna's voice.
"I'm here darling! I'm here!" He pressed his ear to the door and felt himself beginning to breath.
"Where is here?" The timid voice asked quietly.
"She's delirious." Cora told him at his look of confusion.
Alfred ran up with an axe in his hand. "Here you are Milord!" He presented it to Robert who motioned at Bates to his wife.
"Step aside for just a moment." Her Ladyship whispered to John, pulling him away from the trap doors. Bates nodded and climbed to his feet. He would have insisted upon breaking the lock himself, but his nerves had him shaking so much, that he didn't trust himself not to miss and accidentally hurt somebody.
"Anna!" Robert called, adjusting his hands on the handle of the axe and holding it ready above his shoulder. "I need you to move away from the door for a moment! Okay?"
There was a small pause before her weak voice, a bit further away now, called out that she was ready. Lord Grantham didn't wait another minute before swinging the axe down in one powerful motion. After two solid hits, the padlock broke open.
John rushed forward and helped his employer open the heavy doors. "Anna!" He called stumbling down the dark staircase. He stopped when he saw her huddled form on the bottom step. "Anna?"
She was in quite a state—her eyes and lips were swollen, blood was matted in her hair, and her cheeks were bruised. Everything else seemed to be covered by the torn dress that clung to her body in tatters. She was trembling as she slowly edged forward into the sunlight.
"M-Mr. Bates?" She stammered, squinting at him. John laughed a bit at her propriety and bobbed his head up and down.
"Yes, I'm here." He reached out a hand to her, but they froze when they heard footfalls behind them.
"My god!" Robert's horrified exclamation had the woman shrinking back away from the opening.
"They're here! They're here!" She whimpered pressing herself against the stone wall behind her. Her bloodied hands went up to cover her face as she repeated the mantra over and over.
"Anna," John moved to comfort her, but her terrified scream stopped him.
"NO! Please don't!" She begged holding her hands out and shaking her head. "I'm the Earl's daughter! I'm the Earl's daughter!"
"What-?" Bates started to question her rambling, but Cora's comforting hand on his arm stopped him.
"Please, Mr. Bates." She whispered, looking at Anna with a calm smile, "I'll talk to Anna, you might want to give her a little bit of breathing room alright?"
"But she's my wife-"
"I know that, but she doesn't know that she's in a safe place right now. She just knows that you're a man." Her Ladyship tried to explain. "Edith, could you come down?"
John stood and walked backwards up the stairs, all the while watching Lady Grantham place her coat around his trembling wife's shoulders and comforting her.
He understood why Anna was scared of him, but he couldn't help but feel like a monster when he thought of the look of pure terror that filled her face when he reached out to her.
/
Two more chapters to go!
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