Chapter Twenty Five
A Forbidden Love
With his arms folded across his chest, standing there in the doorway to her compartment, bathed in the warm, soft glow of lamp light, Tom smiled gently at Edith.
"You know you really do have the most wonderful gift for story telling, Edith! Just look at all their faces. Why, they're absolutely entranced by what you've been saying. As indeed am I!" Tom laughed, his eyes sparkling in the lamp light.
At his words, Edith raised her head and smiled happily across at her brother-in-law, then back at the glowing, excited faces of her own son, of her four nephews, and of her eldest niece. One brief look at their happy faces merely served to confirm the truth of what Tom had said. Seeing the manifest pleasure etched so clearly across their features, the children hanging on her every word, Edith smiled happily, then ducked her head, but not before Tom saw her face flush with pleasure at what he had just said and the compliment which he had paid to her.
"Darling Tom. You really are too kind! I'm nowhere as good as you, I'm afraid. After all, you're the journalist in the family. Not me!"
"Well if ever you find yourself needing employment, there's a job waiting for you at the Independent!" Tom laughed.
"Oh Tom! Don't be so silly!" Edith grinned broadly.
"I'm not. To be sure. Really, I'm being serious".
Edith shook her head in disbelief.
Tom smiled again.
"No, really, Edith, I am. With your wonderful descriptions of both people and places, why, you bring them so alive. Forget what I just said about the Independent, but being truthful, you've the makings of a very fine travel writer. That apart, you really ought to think about writing a book, tell everyone about your adventures out there in the Near East".
"Oh, Tom. I couldn't possibly. I wouldn't know even where to begin!"
"Well, I'll happily give you some advice about that and there are some contacts I have which might prove very beneficial. What do you say? And, as for a title..." Here Tom paused, then smiled his endearing lop-sided grin. "Crawley of Mesopotamia! That has a definite ring to it, don't you think?"
Edith laughed.
"Tom! You mean like Lawrence of Arabia ?"
Tom nodded his head.
"Just so. By the way, I never knew that you actually knew him".
"Knew who?"
"T.E. Lawrence".
"Oh yes, although, I wouldn't go so far as to say that I knew him. In fact, I suspect very few people can claim the privilege of doing that. From what I recall of him, despite all that was written about him in the newspapers at the time and after, he was a very private sort of a person and very disinclined to talk about his time spent in Arabia during the war. At least to begin with. In the end, I think he felt he had let the Arabs down, that for all they claimed to the contrary, the British and the French were only out for themselves in Arabia, concerned with safeguarding the Suez Canal, and not at all interested in the rights and the wishes of the Arabs. I first met him back in '21, in Transjordan, after the Cairo Conference was over. It was he who taught me how to ride a camel, not very far from the Pyramids at Giza, actually" said Edith without any trace of conceit.
"And I expect you picked the knack of it up very quickly indeed. Just as you did when you learnt to drive. But then, of course, in me, you had a very good teacher!" Tom chuckled with amusement.
"Actually, I fell off several times. Learning how to ride a camel can be rather hard on one's dignity! Let alone one's backside" Edith laughed ruefully.
"Then I suppose we'd better not suggest it to Mary!"
At the image that conjured up, both Edith and Tom burst out laughing: the very thought of the aristocratic, haughty Mary lost somewhere in the wilds of Arabia, perched precariously atop the hump of a camel, bouncing along and clinging on for dear life, only to find herself unceremoniously dumped in the nearest sand dune was too funny for words. Tom quickly shot a cautious glance at Robert, and was relieved to see the boy hadn't overheard what he had just said; was instead intent upon whispering something in Danny's ear. For his part, on hearing his aunt tell his Da that she knew how to ride a camel, at this latest startling revelation, Danny was absolutely thunderstruck.
"You know how to ride a camel too?" he asked, unable to mask his utter amazement at his aunt's seemingly limitless capabilities.
"But of course, darling!" laughed Edith. "Learning how to ride a camel, learning how to fly an aeroplane, both are very useful, out there in the desert".
"So who was it who taught you how to drive? This chap, Lawrence of Arabia" asked Robert having somewhat misunderstood part of that which his uncle and aunt were now so avidly discussing.
Amused, Edith shook her head.
"No, not Colonel Lawrence. Who do you think?" Edith shot an equally amused look at Tom while Robert looked nonplussed.
"Branson of Downton!"
Seeing Robert's continuing confusion, Edith smiled and then set about explaining things somewhat more fully.
"Your Uncle Tom of course. It all happened a long time ago, Robert, back before the Flood, before any of you were born. Actually, it was during the war. At the time your uncle here was then still the chauffeur at Downton".
Robert nodded. That, at least, made some kind of sense. After all, he knew that Uncle Tom had once been in service at Downton; that occasionally his mother still referred to him as "the ruddy chauffeur". Well, at least that was what Robert thought Mama had said. But, on reflection, and the more he thought about it, Robert would readily have conceded that what Mama had actually said was something else entirely.
"So you really taught Aunt Edith how to drive, Da?" asked Saiorse excitedly.
"To be sure darlin'" said Tom slipping into a deep Irish brogue. "Mind you, I don't think the inhabitants of Downton ever got used to seeing your aunt roaring down the High Street in your grandfather's Renault to be sure".
"I didn't roar down the High Street, Tom. I pottered!" Edith laughed at the memory his words had evoked.
Tom grinned.
"Either way, your aunt was a very good pupil, did as she was told. Unlike your Ma!" Tom chuckled.
As Saiorse and her elder brother Danny both knew only too well, their Da's patient attempts to try to teach Ma how to drive, of which, over the years, there had been several, had all ended in abject failure, with Tom losing his temper and Sybil in tears; had thereafter passed into the annals of Branson family history.
"Will you teach me too Da?" asked Saiorse, well aware that, last year, unbeknown to Ma, her father had already begun teaching Danny how to drive the family motor up at Uncle Ciaran's farm. Of course, if Ma ever got to hear of it, and no doubt she would, then she would have something to say about it. She usually did.
Tom smiled.
"To be sure, darlin' But when you're a mite older. Perhaps in a couple of years' time".
"Well you started teaching Danny last year and he was only the age I am..." began Saiorse
"Was there something you wanted, Tom?" broke in Edith, her voice taking on an unintentionally husky tone.
She kept her head lowered, ruffled Max's sandy hair, looked absent-mindedly out of the window, anywhere in fact rather than dare to meet Tom's eyes for fear that her face would betray her innermost feelings, lay bare her very soul before him. But if Tom sensed her embarrassment he gave no sign of it.
"Only that Mary has kindly offered both you and Sybil the use of the second of her and Matthew's two compartments in which to change for dinner. Matthew and I have to shift for ourselves and make use of Sybil's and mine!" he said affably and then laughed.
"I'll be along directly". Somewhere in the distance a whistle sounded and moments later another brightly lit train thundered past their own heading in the opposite direction bound, presumably, for Paris. As the passing train rattled away, Edith clapped her hands. "Now that's all for tonight children, but if you're all really that interested, then I'll tell you more about my adventures tomorrow".
"You promise?" asked little Bobby, who of them all had been most captivated by his aunt's description of the legendary Arab chieftain Auda ibu Tayi, just as Danny, Robert and Simon had been by what their aunt had to tell them about the exploits of Colonel Lawrence blowing up Turkish trains and railway lines in the Arabian desert during the war.
"I promise, Button" said Edith solemnly, ruffling the little boy's hair. Looking at Bobby, Edith felt her heart suddenly lurch. He looked so like darling Tom.
"Come along now, Saiorse. You too, boys. Your aunt has to get dressed for dinner. She's told you she'll tell you some more about her adventures tomorrow" Tom grinned, looked questioningly at Edith, and saw her nod her head. "Now all of you say thank you to your aunt".
Shortly thereafter, having duly voiced their thanks, slowly, with much shuffling of feet, Saiorse, her two brothers and her cousins quitted their aunt's compartment and made their way up the corridor in search of their own accommodation. Behind them, Tom remained where he was, leaning against the frame of the door, his arms folded across his chest. He half heard Edith say something in German to Max, presumably by way of explanation as to where it was she was going. A moment later, she stood up and began to gather up various things from around the compartment, then opened and rummaged about in one of her suitcases.
"Well then, I'll see you later at dinner" he said.
"Yes I suppose you will" said Edith, her head bowed, continuing to search in one of her suitcases for what Tom knew not. In fact Edith already had to hand everything she needed to change for dinner, but she still dared not meet his eyes for fear of revealing her innermost feelings. Rather than hearing, she sensed that Tom had turned on his heel. A moment later and she heard the door close firmly behind him.
Further along the corridor, some happily, some less so, the other children began settling into their accommodation for the forthcoming night. For her part, Saiorse was not at all pleased to find herself to be having to share a sleeping compartment with her young cousin Rebecca, but as Ma had so succinctly pointed out, it was only for one night, and Saiorse was much more likely to manage to get at least some sleep sharing with Rebecca, something which Sybil thought would be in extremely short supply in the adjoining two compartments shared by the four boys.
Although, of course, the other children had not understood what it was he had been asking of her, while they had been en route to Paris, young Max had pleaded with his mother to be allowed to share with Danny and the other three boys, even saying he could sleep on a mattress on the floor of one of their compartments. He seemed thoroughly unconvinced when his mother told him there simply wasn't enough room, even if the steward could have been prevailed upon to do as Max had suggested. In any event, for all her son's tearful entreaties and promises of good behaviour, given what had so nearly happened to Max back there on the platform at the Gare Maritime in Calais, Edith was simply not prepared to take the risk of what might occur were her son to share sleeping compartments with his four decidedly exuberant, high-spirited and rambunctious male cousins.
For their part, the other four boys were absolutely delighted with their own overnight accommodation, Danny and Robert bagging, as they termed it, each of the two upper berths for themselves, as and when they were lowered into place and made up by the steward later in the evening.
But now, and without seeking assistance from the steward, with his interest in all things mechanical well to the fore, Danny promptly set about finding out how it was the sleeping berths were brought down into position for the night. By dint of experimentation, this was duly achieved, and, watched by both Simon and Bobby, between them, Danny and Robert together lowered one of the top berths, to prove to their younger brothers just how the mechanism itself worked. With the bed now let down and apparently locked securely into position, on the perfectly believable pretext of showing their younger brothers just how firm and safe the berth actually was, Danny and Robert now easily persuaded both Simon and Bobby to climb up and sit cross-legged on it. Then, without further ado, grabbing an end each, before either of the two younger boys realised what was happening, their elder brothers promptly raised the bed, pushing it shut as far as it would go up against the wall of the compartment, thus trapping both Simon and Bobby inside.
Next door, having seen Miss Saiorse and Miss Rebecca settled in, and presently occupied unpacking her own suitcase, Nanny Bridges was alerted to the fact that something was amiss by the sound of repeated bangs, cries for help and thumps coming from the other side of the wall of her own compartment. Espying His Lordship and Mr. Branson in the corridor, Nanny Bridges duly alerted the both of them to the fact that something unspeakable, she dreaded to think what it might be, was going on in the boys' compartment next door.
Telling Nanny not to worry, and promising to investigate the matter immediately upon her behalf, having knocked on one of the doors to their sons' two compartment to see what all the noise was about, and, unsurprisingly, receiving no reply, Matthew and Tom promptly opened the door, to find Danny and Robert in stitches of laughter and muffled cries coming from behind one of the raised beds.
"Just what the devil are you two up to?" asked Matthew with a grin.
"And where are your two brothers?" asked Tom, playing along, the whereabouts of Simon and Bobby being only all too obvious, betrayed both by the sight of one of Oscar the teddy bear's paws sticking out from behind the raised bed as well as the muffled shouts and yells of the younger boys coming from beneath its mattress.
Having intervened to release both Simon and Bobby from beneath their mattress shrouded cell, then prevented the angry, tearful, younger two boys from physically launching themselves in revenge down upon their elder brothers, and having duly extracted promises of good behaviour from their errant elder sons, Matthew and Tom left the boys to their own devices. As they closed the door and came out into the lamp lit corridor, unwittingly re-iterating Sybil's earlier words to Saiorse, with a broad grin, Matthew remarked ruefully to Tom that he doubted if any of their sons would get much sleep that night.
"To be sure" said Tom.
"Well, I suppose we'd better see about changing for dinner. Unless of course you propose sticking to your Socialist principles and don't intend doing so" observed Matthew wryly as studiously the two of them made their way along the swaying corridor of the train.
"Sybil would never forgive me if I didn't. And I don't suppose Mary would be any too pleased either!" chuckled Tom.
"And I expect Edith might have something to say on the subject too!" laughed Matthew.
"Perhaps" said Tom evenly.
Further back down the sleeping car, with Max, at least for the moment, thoroughly absorbed in a book on aeroplanes which his father had bought for him in Vienna, Edith still made no move to go and join her two sisters. Instead, she continued to stand where she was, in the very centre of the compartment. Glancing through the lamp lit window, she saw that the evening sky had darkened from smoky blue, to violet, to the velvet blackness of night. The sprawling suburbs on the south side of the French capital had all but vanished from view, their very existence now only discernible by a myriad of twinkling lights on the far distant horizon, which, as the heavy train now rapidly picked up speed and sped steadily southwards, gradually dwindled, faded, and finally disappeared out of sight.
There was no question that Edith loved darling Friedrich desperately, wanted to marry him. With their shared outlook on life and their many, mutual interests, they were ideally suited. She was also the mother of his child, their son: darling young Max whom they both adored and for whom they would do absolutely anything. While there are always exceptions to every rule, the maternal bond between a mother and her child is usually always strong, and especially so between a mother and her son. In Edith's case the attachment was even stronger than usual, because, as she knew only too well, it was she who had passed on to him the awful disease from which Max himself now suffered. And seeing him bleed was like a knife through Edith's heart, knowing that she herself was the sole cause of all his pain and suffering.
But none of this stopped Edith from wondering how Tom's lips would feel against her skin. Now, here in the privacy of her compartment, momentarily, she had only to close her eyes, to imagine those self-same lips brushing, feather light, against her eye lashes, caressing a trail of kisses across her skin, soft as the graze of the wings of a butterfly, until at the last Tom's mouth closed upon her own.
"I love you, Tom" she whispered silently. "God forgive me, but I do".
Author's note:
Held at the Semiramis Hotel in Cairo, the Cairo Conference of 1921, and which T.E. Lawrence attended, was called to establish a unified British policy towards what is now the Middle East.
Auda ibu Tayi (c.1874-1924) was the leader of part of the Howeitat, a tribe of Bedouin Arabs who fought alongside T. E. Lawrence in the Arab Revolt against the Turks during the Great War. His tribesmen were reputedly the finest fighters in all Arabia and their support was essential to the success of the Arab Revolt. The late Anthony Quinn played the part of Auda in David Lean's film Lawrence of Arabia.