A/N: Thank you all so much for reviewing (please don't stop!), I am so happy you are enjoying these snippets! We're halfway and today it's John Bates in the early morning.
It's easier to ignore his aching leg in summer, after they've returned from London. When he sleeps in his own bed with his wife curled around him. When the air is soft and light and not bogged down with soot and noise. He is finding his way to a tentative happiness here in the cottage. Anna is calmer, happier than she was before. She is putting on a bit of weight; the sun is putting roses in her cheeks. Her quick footsteps don't sound so skittish anymore.
His footsteps are starting to sound more and more uneven.
There are mornings he can hardly face the stairs in their cottage and more days that the stairs of Downton are too much. But he manages. He knows how to take the strain off his bad leg and he knows the routine of the house so well now, he makes it work for him.
He wonders if that seaside inn they once dreamed about would still be the right decision. He worries he might be more of a burden than a help to Anna. Like her he sometimes wakes in the middle of the night, drenched in sweat, his throat raw. Images from his dreams still flashing before him.
A bajonet to clean and mount.
Tripping over the dead body of a black child.
Sawdust on a pub floor and a broken glass in his hand.
Fleas on a dark blue woolen blanket.
Bruises on his wife's face.
She calls from downstairs. She's been up and about for a while, he must hurry now. His clothes are ready on the chair in the corner of the bedroom; she neatly presses his trousers and irons his shirts. He washes quickly by the jug and bowl, dries himself. Dresses with care. Combs his hair. Makes himself as presentable as is possible with this old carcass he has at his disposal.
He slowly gets down the stairs to the hall where Anna waits for him, smiling. Tonight he'll have to gently broach the subject of the inn to her.
He hopes she'll still be smiling then.