John woke up when the alarm clock rang. Dazed, he opened his eyes and turned him off. He needed a moment to get his bearings. Then he felt his wife lying behind him. Her hand still on his upper body.
A smile crept onto his lips.
Then he realized that he hadn't been woken up by her screams that night.
Slowly he pushed the blanket aside and wanted to get up.
"Don't sneak out John," he heard Anna behind him.
He paused: "I didn't want you to be uncomfortable when you woke up and noticed how we were lying."
"Turn around, please."
John followed her request and looked at her.
His wife looked at him apologetically: "I lay down like this tonight because you had the whole blanket. And it was... beautiful. But I should have asked you if it's okay for you. I'm sorry."
John grabbed her hand: "You don't have to ask me if you can touch me."
She was silent and carefully ran her other hand over his cheek: "I love you so much John Bates."
"And I love you so much Anna Bates," he slowly leaned forward and gave her a kiss: "And I'd love to stay here with you and just look at you. But then I'd fall asleep again at some point and you probably would too, but we have to go to the abbey."
Anna nodded, leaned over to her husband and gave him a kiss as well. Then they stood up.
John was about to go to the bathroom to shave when he stopped in the door and turned back to Anna: "I didn't hear you tonight. Was everything okay?"
A smile appeared on her face: "I didn't have a nightmare tonight."
He also smiled: "That's a good start." Then he went to the bathroom.
Anna looked after him.
He was everything she had always wanted.
None of those immature Hall Boys or Butlers. Not the youngster who worked in the shop in the village.
Again and again there had been flirting with her.
But she never cared and she never takend it seriuously.
She was always friendly, always polite, always helpful.
But no more.
She wanted a man.
One she could lean on.
One with whom she could talk.
One that made her laugh.
They had always been wishes, because she knew that women don't have much say in a relationship. Not in the upper class and even less in the lower class. And yet she had never given up hope of finding the right one.
She had been very fortunate to have a position in the abbey.
There they did not wait for women to marry quickly and have children.
If she had worked outside the abbey, she would have been married long ago and would have a stable full of children.
And then John had suddenly appeared at some point.
Unexpected and surprising.
And she had quickly realized that he was the one she had always been waiting for.
Smiling, she began to comb her hair and put it up.
When the sun was just rising, they were on their way to the abbey. The hill in front of them was bathed in reddish light.
They both loved to walk this path, to see how nature changed, to see animals in the fields and meadows. It was the half hour of rest before work in the morning and the half hour of rest in the evening to go home. Unless it rained, stormed or snowed. Then it wasn't nice anymore. Then they had to start earlier because the way was more difficult, and often they were soaked, so that they had to change again directly in the abbey. But they were happy to accept all that. They had their cottage, their home. The place where they were safe and secure. Where they were not Mr. Bates the valet and Anna the Ladysmaid, but John and Anna. A couple who loved each other and enjoyed the time together.
Anna loved her cottage. It wasn't big, the furniture was all used, but it was their home. They had made themselves comfortable with the few belongings they owned. Over time, they bought one or the other. It was their home. The small garden adjoining the house had room for a small bench, a table and a chair. Hollyhocks grew on the wall of the house in summer and there was some space to hang up the laundry to dry. The whole garden was fenced in by bush roses. Everything bloomed wonderfully and in summer you could hear the buzzing of the bees and they could watch butterflies.
Anna loved everything about it and she knew that John was also very happy in the house.
She wanted this happiness to come again. It could not have been used up yet. They had had to fight for so many years, renounced. They were hard-working, honest, humble, people. They attended church on Sundays, kept the commandments. They deserved to be happy. Not just for a short time, but for the rest of their lives.
Anna was fine today. John could tell. Among other things, by her gait. It was no longer as creeping and sluggish as in recent weeks. He was more buoyant. She smiled in between and they had been having a relatively normal conversation for weeks, not just an exchange of a few sentences, but a real conversation. It was all about the fields they passed, but it was a conversation.