Little bit of John playing Mr. Mom in this one. Enjoy!
Chapter Thirteen
Elizabeth thrived over the next week and Anna slowly recovered. When Elizabeth was seven days old, Dr. Cooke released her from the hospital, though Dr. Clarkson would not release Anna.
Anna was livid. She battled like a lioness to be released the same time as her daughter would be. Still, she had not met the criteria that Dr. Clarkson set out for her to achieve before he felt safe letting her go home.
"What if I stay at the abbey?" she asked Mary. "There are lots of people there and Mr. Bates wouldn't have to leave to come home to tend me. I'll stay in bed, I promise."
It broke Mary's heart to see Anna distressed almost as much as it broke John's, but they both knew that she had to stay put.
"Anna, dear Anna," Mary sighed as she sat on the bed and held her hand. "You have to think. If you rush to go home and you open your wound or over tax yourself, you'll be in bed much longer."
"Lady Mary is right," Mrs. Hughes confirmed. "Think of the children, all three of them. They want and need their Mum to be strong and well. You won't get that being in haste and rushing from the sick bed."
Anna looked at her lap. "But I hardly know my baby. When she cries, I don't know what she wants. I always did with Johnny and Maggie, always. I was always able to comfort them right off. Elizabeth only settles in with Mr. Bates."
"At least she settles down with Mr. Bates and not a strange nurse or worse no one at all," Mrs. Hughes offered but Anna didn't find comfort in that.
"But I am her Mummy, that's supposed to be me. I'm so glad Mr. Bates is a comfort and I am so lucky he is such a wonderful and loving father, but I'm her Mummy."
The tears started to flow. Mary put her arms around Anna as Mrs. Hughes gently rubbed her back. "What if I…" Anna kept trying to negotiate, not giving up even as she rapidly tired.
Anna's tears had just stopped when John entered the room with Elizabeth in his arms. "There she is, your beautiful Mummy," John cooed to the baby. John moved closer to Anna's bedside. "I know it's going to be so hard to have Elizabeth leaving while you have to stay. I can only promise to bring them if I can, and soon you will be strong enough and we can start a new life as a family of 5."
Anna relented, she knew she had no real choice, but it felt wrong to simply lie back and take it when her baby was being taken away, even if it was only by her darling John. Anna knew all three of her little ones would have the best care under the watchful eye of their Daddy.
The hospital, even with Robert and Cora's intervention, did not permit young children to visit. The opportunity to meet Elizabeth and see Anna that once had taken a herculean effort on Cora's part as hospital president to make that happen.
Anna wasn't short on visitors, though. So many people came to see her and wish her well. The Moseleys dropped by with flowers from old Mr. Moseley's garden and a gift for the baby. Mrs. Patmore brought goodies and sandwiches to "get the blood up". Mary and Cora alternated visits, even Daisy had come when Andy was able to keep an eye on their children for a bit. It felt nice to be so loved, though Anna's heart ached.
John was only able to get away from his own childcare duties twice a day for shorter times than either he or Anna liked, usually for tea time and then after the children went to sleep. Mrs. Hughes and Carson would mind them and see to them if they woke before John returned home. It was hard for John to leave either place. When he left home, Maggie and Johnny wanted to go and see Anna, they would be upset when he had to tell them no. Elizabeth would often cry for longer periods when John wasn't the one to respond to her demands.
When it was time to leave the hospital and go home, John's heart broke each time. He would be alright until he turned at the door and saw Anna, shrouded in a sea of white; white night dress, white sheets, white walls. It made her already pale skin look even lighter, especially since she hadn't regained all her color. John felt like a failure, nothing he did was right, he could please no one.
John's own body was rebelling against the demanding schedule he was keeping. His knee ached all the time, it was as it had been when he first came to Downton. Certain movements would cause sharp, sudden pain to radiate up and down his leg and lifting was becoming a chore. Before Anna got pregnant with Elizabeth, he had been able to pluck her off the floor like a dandelion weed from a garden with little protest from his skeletal system. Now, scooping Johnny up was a mixed bag of aches and pain from his back to his knee. That didn't help much with John's moods.
Robert dropped by one afternoon with some paperwork John was planning to tend to. When John opened the door to let Robert into the cottage, Robert was shocked at the state of things.
Johnny was quietly playing on the floor with his farm and animals, not bothering anyone, but Maggie was running up and down the stairs in just her undergarments with a soiled dress in her hands. John had Elizabeth in his arms, the baby was crying at the top of her lungs. John was only in his undershirt and trousers, braces off his shoulders. He had a towel draped over his left shoulder that looked to be stained. He hadn't even put the pomade in his hair.
Then there was the mess. It seemed like all of Elizabeth's baby things were in the sitting room. If Anna saw the house in this state...if Carson saw it in this state..."How can I help?" Robert asked as he set down the pile of paperwork. "Does she need a bottle?"
"No, she needs a nappy," John replied. "I only have two clean, I have to wash the other ones out. I can do that if you can try to catch Maggie. If I climb those stairs one more time..."
"Alright," Robert replied as John turned to gather the items he'd need to change Elizabeth's nappy. Robert got a hold of Maggie after three attempts, "What are you doing running around half dressed, young lady?" Robert asked as he carried the squirming child to John to deal with.
John had finished Elizabeth's nappy by the time Robert arrived with Maggie in tow. The two men switched girls as John took the squirming little girl and her dress into his arms. "Now, young lady," John said firmly. "You will get your dress on please and stop this naughty behavior." John opened the back of the dress and held it so Maggie could step into it.
Meanwhile, Robert turned his attention to Johnny as he held Elizabeth in his arms. At least, he would have done had Johnny still been where he'd been playing. The toys were abandoned and the little boy wasn't there.
Robert turned and saw John had victoriously gotten Maggie to get dressed. "Johnny!" John called out. "Come help me straighten up the sitting room. It's tidying time."
Robert's eye darted around the room, but he didn't see his little namesake popping up. John turned to where Johnny had been sitting. "Johnny? This is not time to play hide and go seek. Come here."
Johnny didn't turn up. "Where's Johnny hiding, Daddy?" Maggie asked innocently.
Robert shifted Elizabeth to his shoulder and started to look up and down the rooms of the cottage.
"John Robert Bates!" John's voice could be heard all through the house.
Robert heard John's ambling gait climb the stairs, both men calling for the boy with growing urgency.
"He's not up here," John said with a mixture of panic and surprise. He had found Johnny in the bedroom closet the other day sitting among Anna's dresses. The jury was still out on Elizabeth, but of the two older children, Johnny was more Anna's than his and Maggie was about down the middle. It depended on her mood which parent she preferred. It was hard on Johnny to have Anna gone from home for so long and not to be able to be with her. When John had fished him out of the small closet, the little one had confessed, "It smells like Mummy in here."
Robert rushed up the stairs to check in case, in his worry, John had missed something. After a minute, they determined the boy was nowhere inside the small home. "Margaret Mary, you stay with Uncle Lord Robert and your sister. Do not move, do you understand?"
Maggie knew better than to argue with John most times, especially when she had just been scolded not long ago so she stood still next to Robert as Elizabeth began to cry in her honorary uncle's arms.
Jonn returned, breathless and pale, a few moments later. "He's not at the Carsons. You think he'd have gone up to the abbey?"
"I suppose we should ring them and tell them to be on a look out," Robert replied. "Tom can bring the car."
John nodded and turned to go back outside. "Where are you going?" Robert asked. "You already looked out there."
"I'm going next door to call the abbey!" John snapped as Elizabeth's cries grew louder. Maggie flinched.
It dawned on Robert then that his friend, loyal servant, and private assistant didn't have a telephone in his own cottage. That was something to remedy quickly. "I'll go, I think she's tired of me..."
John moved to take Elizabeth from Robert, his heart pounding in his chest. "Where could he be, Robert?" John asked, eerily calm for a moment as he tried to slow down his pounding heart.
Before Robert could answer, the back door to the cottage opened to reveal Johnny. He was wiping his hands on his knee pants as he came in like Anna had just sent him outside to fetch a water can.
"John Robert!" John heard the edge in his voice and bit his cheek. He shut his eyes and took a deep breath. He was shaking head to foot at the thought of his baby boy gone missing and here he was strolling in like he'd been down to the fair.
Johnny flinched at the sharp tone of John's voice. John turned a moment to compose himself, placing Elizabeth, still fussing into her pram. When John turned again, he had control. "John, where were you, son? You know better than to run off that way."
"But I didn't, Daddy," Johnny defended, though John wasn't interested in explanations.
"You did!" John insisted. "One moment you were playing animals and the next moment I call you to tidy up for your tea and you're gone? That is not proper behavior, do you understand?"
"But Daddy!" Johnny insisted he be heard.
Here's where Anna would come in. When John was about to lose his patience, it seemed she always had a little extra. Howver, that never applied to the children. John prided himslf on never losing his temper with his young ones. He bit his cheek again, tasting blood as he tried to calm himself and let Johnny speak.
"I had to go..." Johnny looked at Robert, a little embarrassed to speak of such things in the presence of his lordship. Then he looked down and it clicked in place for John, though not Robert. He listened with rapt attention to see what would come of this silent exchange between father and son.
"We have a loo right upstairs," John replied.
"Yes, but Maggie was running around and Uncle Lord Robert was chasing her up and...I went to the privy down by the road instead."
John moved painfully to the settee and took Elizabeth out of her pram. He dropped into the seat and called both older children closer. Robert felt like he should go, but he couldn't.
"Johnny, Uncle Lord Robert and I were properly scared when we couldn't find you. We talked about you going off a few times before, did we not?" John asked, his tone now even and calm, perhaps even kind. "It is very scary for Mummy, Daddy, Nanny, any adult that loves you not to know where you are. You are not to do this again."
"But I..." Johnny began but John shook his head.
"Not again, Johnny. Even if that means you wet your pants, get sick on the floor, bleed on the sofa. There will never be a single circumstance I can think of that will make it permissible for you to leave the care of an adult without telling them. Now, I think you need to go up to your room and think about this. I'll speak to Granny Elsie too, there will be no pudding tonight."
Maggie started to giggle at her brother's chastisment until John turned his stern brown gaze on her. "Nor for you, Margaret Mary. If you had obeyed Daddy in the first place and done as you were told this wouldn't have happened. Everything you do affects others, not only yourself. Your poor choice led to Johnny's and that led to Daddy, Uncle Lord Robert, and Elizabeth getting very upset and nervous. You go sit and think as well."
Both children turned to go up to their small room and think as John told them to do. Johnny turned as he got to the foot of the stairs. "Will you tell Mummy, Daddy?"
Johnny hated to disappoint either of his parents, but least of all, Anna. "I'll have to think about that, Johnny," was all John would say.