4 months on

"You're sure you'll be alright?" Bates asked for the fourth time as he watched Anna pack her little travelling bag.

"I'm sure," Anna answered, suppressing the urge to roll her eyes. "John, I'll only be gone three days, and Lady Mary's sure it's perfectly safe."

"You'll let Lady Mary know if it doesn't feel safe?"

"Yes," she said, getting impatient now. She'd had to listen to a similar diatribe from Lady Mary, who had been uncertain about taking Anna with her on this trip, her second visit to Lord Gillingham's estate, but Anna had insisted. With Green gone, she had told them, she was sure Lord Gillingham's estate was perfectly safe –after all, hadn't Madge accompanied Lady Mary on her first visit without anything untoward happening?

"I'm sorry, I don't mean to push the issue," Bates said, reaching out to take the bag from her. "I just worry about you."

"I know you do, but there's no need to. I'm fine, truly I am," Anna reassured him. "Two weeks since the last nightmare." She smiled up at him, pleased that the nightly terrors seemed to be receding. Bates was unconviced, worried that unfamiliar surroundings might re-trigger the nightmares, but he couldn't deny that Anna did seem to be much better –ever since Green's unfortunate accident, she had taken some significant steps towards her old self: she was laughing, rarely flinching in fear, eating well, and the nightmares were indeed getting fewer and further between.

The coincidence between Anna's newfound spirit and Green's accident hadn't gone unnoticed by anyone, although no one seemed to be suspecting anything untoward about the accident. Clarkson's certainty that Green had drowned had put paid to any suspicions anyone might have had, although Thomas had overheard Mrs. Hughes and Mr. Carson refer to the incident as "the best way this whole mess could have ended," with Mrs. Hughes saying decidedly that it was a mercy Mr. Green had gone that way before Mr. Bates had a chance to take justice into his own hands.

"So we're off the hook," Thomas had grinned as he reported the conversation to Bates.

Lord Gillingham, Thomas and Bates' biggest worry, had also accepted Clarkson's verdict without question. He'd also seemed to move on from Green's loss relatively quickly, accepting Lord Grantham's offer of Thomas as a valet for the duration of his stay. Lady Mary, Anna had reported back to Bates, had taken it upon herself to ensure that Lord Gillingham found, in her words, a "safe" valet: an impoverished member of Lord Grantham's old army regiment.

"How she managed it, I have no idea –and I know you can't tell me," Bates said admiringly when Anna told him. "But I have to take my cap off to Lady Mary: she couldn't have found anyone safer than Blakely."

"Well, she could have offered him Molesely," Anna had laughed, and John had joined in wholeheartedly, loving the sound of her laugh.

"John, wait," Anna said as he moved to carry her small travelling bag downstairs. "I wanted to say goodbye to you here, not in the middle of the servants' hall."

Bates looked at her quizzically, wondering what she could mean, until her hands reached out towards him.

"I'll miss you," she said softly, reaching out to pull him into a hug. As her arms went around him, Bates buried his face in her blonde hair, inhaling her scent.

"So will I."

One thing that hadn't improved since Anna's attack, despite Green's death, was their physical relationship. They had tried to resume their old relationship twice since, but it was inevitably followed by screaming nightmares for Anna, and Bates had begun putting an end to it as soon as he sensed Anna was steeling herself for another attempt.

"I don't want you forcing yourself to do anything," he had said the last time. "Anna, you are here, you're getting better by the week, but I think this may be too much for you still," silencing her protests with a gentle kiss. They had talked about it time and again, with Bates repeatedly using the same line of reasoning to soothe Anna's worry that she was in some way failing him.

"I have you here with me –he hasn't been able to break us. Compared to that, nothing else matters. Nothing at all."