A/N: I'm sorry that this update took so long, but first I struggled with the heat and then I had to reactivate my (school) knowledge about farming. But finally here it is: chapter 4. Enjoy reading! :-))
"You're really tired, aren't you, Milady?" Megan smirked to Lady Edith's image in the mirror. It was obviously time to finish the preparations for the night. Otherwise her mistress would fall a sleep in the dressing room.
"I'm sorry," Edith replied. "The last days exhausted me a bit..." She yawned for the third time during the last five minutes.
"I guess." Megan chuckled. "But not long and you can relax for some days. I've never been in Scotland before. I wonder how it will be there."
"My family spent some time in Scotland twice, but I was a small girl back then. I hardly can remember," Edith told her. "The only thing I still know is that it rained permanently."
"Not the worst thing for newly-weds." Megan bit her tongue. She caught her mistress' bemused glance through the mirror. Lady Edith's cheeks had gotten a slightly red colouring. Without further remarks the maid finished the hair brushing.
As she looked up the next time, Lady Edith surprised her with a light smile. Her lips were pursed a little bit only, but she definitely smiled.
"Thank you, Megan. I bid you good night." With those words Edith finally released the young woman for this evening.
Edith left the dressing room through the second door, which led to the bed room. Anthony and she hardly discussed this question. It was clear in their minds that they wouldn't have separated bed rooms. Edith knew that her parents might pretend to sleep separately, but she had also noted that this wasn't true. She wanted to go to sleep with her husband at her side and she wanted to be close to him every morning.
Shortly after their engagement Anthony had guided her through the house. He had wanted her to make decisions about their home. Edith was still touched by his attempts to make her the move from Downton easier.
All his efforts to discuss colours and furniture, paintings and cushions had made him more and more lovable for his fiancé. It was so obvious that he was completely clueless about such things, but he had tried so hard to assist her in these matters.
Edith had early recognized the traces left by the first Lady Strallan, but she didn't care much. Maud had been so important for Anthony. She would never disappear completely. Edith knew about her state as second wife. She knew that the servants, who had known Maud, would always compare both women. They would compare her with her predecessor, would judge her. She was sensible of this, but it was more important for her, what her husband thought. He hadn't talked much about her anymore, but there was still a picture of her on his desk and a bunch of her favourite flowers in the library.
Deep in thoughts Edith crossed the bedroom and crawled under the duvets.
"Obviously you're not longer interested in me," Anthony's voice suddenly said. "I was afraid that this might happen sooner or later, but I never expected this to be happened in our second night…"
Edith met his look of reproach surprised. "I'm sorry," she finally said. "I was lost in mind."
"Indeed," he answered and looked at her with a serious look on his face. At last his eyes revealed him. Edith caught the amused sparkle in them. She leaned over.
"I'm terribly, terribly tired tonight," she whispered.
"Not tired enough, I would say." Anthony chuckled pleased and tried to kiss her.
"Maybe not."
XXX
The next day passed as quickly as the one before. Edith visited some more of the estate after the breakfast. She met the groom in the stables and chatted with him about his charge. Edith had never been as keen on horses as Mary always had been. She was able to ride a horse and did it on several occasions, but she never felt the passion. Her husband's horses were beautiful creatures, but hardly riding horses.
"Yeah," said Carlton, the groom. "Lady Maud loved horses very much. She was good and passionate rider. But when she had left this world, Sir Anthony gave all her horses away. And after the… when he returned from the war he sold the last riding horses, the two he had went on for the fox hunts."
Edith nodded. "I see." It was a shame to hear that Anthony had given up even the fox hunting, but she knew that there wasn't any way to convince him to go for the hunt, not now at least. Absorbed in these thought Edith petted the nostrils of one of the coach horses. Doing so, she missed Carlton's next sentence.
"… Do you like horse riding?"
"Pardon?" Edith asked confused.
"I said" Carlton started again, "Sir Anthony is more interested in all this new technical stuff. Do you like horse riding?"
Edith laughed. "No, actually I'm also more interested in all this new technical stuff. But I haven't seen such beautiful coach horses for a very long time. "
XXX
After her visit in the stables Edith inspected her clothes for the journey together with Megan. The dresses had recently been unpacked from the luggage Edith had brought from Downton and now she had to decide, which ones would be packed again. She tried to leave the choice to Megan, but in the end she couldn't escape the decision.
The afternoon Edith spent in the library. She was sitting on the chaise longue, her legs drawn at her body, reading a novel by Honoré de Balzac, while Anthony was working at his desk.
After five pages read, her eyes wandered from the book to her husband. It had always been such a scene playing in her mind since they had met again some months ago: only the two of them in silent harmony, from time to time a word or a glance. There had been moments, when Edith had lost all hope that her dream would become true, but in the end everything had gone pretty well.
Despite his arm injury Anthony managed his life and his work very good. He determined to prove that he could handle everything on his own. Edith was afraid that he tried to prove in this way that he was worth to be loved by her. Such performance was unnecessary. She loved him anyway, but on the other hand Edith knew that he would feel inefficient, if she would convince to stop it.
"Tea?" Edith asked when Anthony stopped writing for a moment. She was aware how hard it was for him to write left-handed, but in her view he did well.
"Lovely idea," he answered still concentrated on his papers.
Edith smiled. "I call Harryson." She quickly slipped on her shoes and rang the bell.
The tea was served ten minutes later, but Anthony was still lost in his work. "Shall I?" Harryson asked, but Edith shook her head. She would offer her husband a cup later.
"Thank you," she said to the butler silently. He bowed and left the library.
Edith returned to her book, but she wasn't concentrate on reading. She let her mind wander back to Downton. In contrast to her parents' home Strallan Park was a very calm place in the afternoon. Of course, Mrs. Craig was surely busy with preparation for the dinner, but the house slowed literally down in the hours after luncheon. Did she miss the busy hustle? Not for a minute.
Anthony sighed without covering the frustration he obviously felt. Edith took the teapot and filled a cup with the dark, fragrant tea. She brought the cup over to Anthony and placed it on his desk.
"What is it?" she asked.
"Only the calculation for the seeds," her husband replied. "We have to decide now, on which fields we'll plant winter crop and how much seeds we'll need for this."
Edith looked at the plan on his desk. The rectangles on it seemed to be fields. Some of them were marked. On the second sheet, lying next to the plan, Anthony had written down numbers and different calculations. Some of them were crossed out, some underlined.
"Frederick Waters prepared the calculation for me, but we have to find a way to use the available area as well as to the consider crop rotation. We could sow the seeds of the same crop on a field for two or perhaps three years, but the soil would be leached out than. The amount of needed fertilizers would increase and so would the costs. Therefore a yearly rotation would be the best. In addition we have to plan the work so that we avoid unnecessary transports of our machinery. In short, Frederick and I try to balance a handful of factors. You see?"
Edith nodded. Frederick Waters was the steward of the estate. She had met him once or twice as she had visited Anthony and, of course, he had been one of the first well-wishers after her wedding.
She sat down on the right armrest of Anthony's chair. Edith realised the problem with the different factors to bear in mind, but right now she didn't know how to help. Every solution, which popped up in her mind had already been written down by Anthony.
"Maybe I should put it away and return later," Anthony interrupted her thoughts. "Let's have tea and some chat."
He looked up to, met Edith's eyes. She was still sitting close to him on the chair's armrest. It is a shame, he told himself, that I have to work on this planning now. But the decision had to be made latest on the next day.
"Let's have tea," he said aloud. He wouldn't find the solutions by further staring at the sheets of paper. Maybe it would appear, when he took his mind of these things. In addition, Edith deserved more attention than he had paid her on this day until now.
They left the desk crowded with all the papers and sat down on the chaise lounge. Edith filled the second cup and offered her husband some of Mrs. Craig's biscuits.
"How was your day so far?" Anthony asked.
"Pretty nice and interesting," Edith answered. "I went to the stables and had a chat with Carlton. After this I had to decide, which of my dresses I'll take to Scotland. A pretty normal day you see."
He looked at her thoughtfully. "Are you bored, Edith?" he finally wanted to know.
"Bored?" The glance she sent towards him uncovered her surprise. "Why should I be bored, Anthony?"
"You live in a far smaller house now and due to the work I have to finish before we leave to Scotland, I can't show you the attention, you deserve."
Edith looked at him still surprised. She had thought that he had left all of the ideas about not being good enough for her behind. She loved him dearly and since they were agreed to become husband and wife, Edith understood her little sister's perception that the smallest thing in the world could be enough, if she was only close to the man she was in love with.
"There things, which have to done," she finally told him. "And, no, I don't miss Downton. On the contrary, I deeply enjoy the calm atmosphere of our house. I'm happy in every minute here, because I'm with you now. I'm your wife."
She did mention that she loved him – not with words, but her eyes told him every spoken word, every promise spared for later.
Anthony knew how lucky he was. He had never expected to feel such deep affection once more. He loved her for being there and for letting him know again and again how much she loved him back. Without any further word he took the tea cup out of her hand and placed it on the small table.
They had kissed each other in the library before. They had kissed in this room after his proposal and he kissed her here now.
He kissed his lovely, beautiful, most adorable wife.
XXX
The dinner of this evening had a very entertaining part, maybe not for his wife, but surely for Sir Anthony. He tried very hard not to show his schadenfreude too much, but he could hide his amused smile hardly only.
Edith struggled with the main course and swore in silence that she would never try these kidneys in sour sauce again. There were no doubts about Mrs. Craig's excellent cooking skills, but Edith wasn't able to bear this dish.
"Do you give up?" Anthony joked as she drank an additional slip of water.
"Not at all," his wife replied. She would win this fight. No matter what it cost.
"Oh, I see, after all this will be your favourite dish in the future." Anthony now laughed loud. It was this true, warm laughing Edith loved so much.
Nonetheless her eyes narrowed. He had to pay for his mockery. "You said that I'm responsible for the choice of meal..."
He confirmed. "So, there will be kidneys in sour sauce every week then?" He simply couldn't stop joking about.
"Yes, maybe," Edith told him, "but only with a certain salty pudding for dessert, I would say."
Her words were followed by a short silence, but then Anthony affected a "good god" and the rest was a burst of laughter. They were still chuckling, when Harryson served the dessert and it surely didn't help that Mrs. Craig had prepared a pudding.
Finally Edith managed to calm down. "I rethought the field problem," she told Anthony. "Perhaps you should divide the fields not in two, but in four groups. Then you could rotate clockwise every year and add a further crop. Some vegetable maybe."
Anthony looked at her, thought carefully about her words and finally confirmed her idea. "That's really good, my darling. You should tell this Frederick first thing tomorrow morning. He can draw up the new plan till the evening."
Edith was proud about the positive reaction to her suggestion and she felt even more lauded when Anthony said: "Thankfully I'm married not only to a beauty, but to the smart Crawley girl."