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Loving

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"Sir, my lady, your visitors are here. They arrived yesterday evening."

Before either of them could speak, Michael and the Countess appeared from inside the doorway, with a toddler holding on to his mother's hand.

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Anthony recovered first, walking purposefully over to the couple and extending a hand to the Countess and then to Michael with polished manners.

"I'm so glad you got here. Welcome to Locksley."

His words knocked Edith out of her paralysis. She too shook hands with Gisela.

"And who's this?" she asked the shy young boy.

"This is Max. We deliberately chose a name that was common in both England and Germany" answered Michael.

Edith, still feeling rather uncertain, nodded her head in understanding agreement.

"We're so sorry we weren't here to meet you yesterday. We didn't know when you would make it."

"Please don't apologise. We…we had to travel when we could. There was no time for messages."

Anthony looked at Michael gravely.

"Come in and tell us about it. Mrs Brandon, everything in hand? Good, good. Could we have some tea in the library as soon as you can sort it out, please, Stewart?"

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"We were lucky, really. We managed to sell the majority of our possessions that could be moved: furniture, jewellery, things like that. The house will be taken but at least it is empty. So we have some cash, but we will have to build a new life here now."

With Michael translating for Gisela and Anthony translating for Edith, they had now heard how the little family had made it out of Germany. They had offered to take their servants with them but only the nanny had accepted, since she had no relations left in her home country. Everyone else had stayed. The whole process sounded unbearably painful.

Jones and Mrs Brandon had made Michael, Gisela, and Max as comfortable as possible when they had turned up on Locksley's doorstep the previous evening, but had waited for Anthony and Edith to return before revealing anything about Eliza, although Gisela thought she had heard another child's voice earlier that morning.

Edith was grateful for the women's discretion. This was something she felt she had to do herself. She went up to fetch Eliza from the nursery and brought her down Locksley's long staircase.

"You are going to meet your…" She stopped. What should she call Michael? He wasn't her Papa. That was unquestionably Anthony. Eliza was not paying any attention anyway. Whatever happened next, and despite her nerves, Edith knew she could bear it with Anthony by her side.

She carried Eliza into the library and approached Michael who stood, his mouth open in shock and surprise.

"Eliza, this is Michael, your Daddy."

"Oh, Edith, she's beautiful." Michael held out his hand to the little girl who played with his fingers idly for a moment before asking to be put down so she could investigate the strange phenomenon that was Max. The two toddlers played together sweetly.

"They look much of an age. Does that mean…when I visited you…?" Anthony stuttered in German to Gisela.

"Yes, I was pregnant with Max at the time, and I didn't know whether Michael would ever recover. Then you told me Michael had another child on the way and I…anyway, it is all over now and everything turned out for the best…for all of us, did it not?"

"Yes" Anthony nodded politely, but he looked back to Michael's face utterly entranced with his daughter, and Edith standing next to him, much the same age, and wondered.

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After lunch Anthony offered to look through his contacts with Gisela in the hope of making the future easier for the couple. Edith took Eliza out to the orchard, expecting Michael to want to stay and listen to Anthony, but she soon found he had followed her out into the summer sunshine.

"You named her Eliza. Was that after my first wife by any chance?" he asked.

"No, I'm afraid not. She's named after Anthony's mother."

"Of course, of course. Anthony's a good man, I realise that, but when it became apparent that you had married the man who jilted you, I worried that you had had to accept some horrid arrangement cooked up by your father."

Edith shook her head.

"No, it wasn't like that. When Anthony discovered what had actually happened to you, it was he who offered me a way of keeping Eliza."

"So it is an arranged marriage?" Michael looked pained.

"It was at the beginning, but we found that it was really an excuse we both gave ourselves to be with the other. It took a lot for us to get over what had happened, but we are so much stronger for it."

"Good. I'm glad. I did love you, you know, Edith. I didn't lie, except to myself."

"I realise that. Please don't blame yourself. Are you happy with Gisela?"

"I owe her everything: my recovery at the hospital, my recovery after I returned to Germany…it was she who found someone to treat me in Vienna…and, of course, for giving me Max. Yes, I love her very much."

"I'm happy for you, really."

"Might I hold Eliza?"

"Yes, of course. We call Anthony 'Papa', so I thought we could call you 'Daddy'. That will help her keep the two of you separate until she's old enough to understand."

"Are you truly planning on telling her?" Michael asked astounded.

"I think she deserves it, don't you? And now you're in England she'll be able to see you, if you both want it."

"It's more than I deserve. Thank you, Edith."

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Through the windows of the library, Anthony watched his wife, and his wife's former lover, the father of her child, talking, smiling, laughing together, and felt an old wound reopen.

Gisela looked up from the papers in front of her to ask a question, but stopped when she saw the expression on Anthony's face, following his gaze to the scene outside.

"Do you not trust your wife, Sir Anthony?" she asked, in her disconcertingly forthright manner.

"Mm? Yes, of course I do. It's just…"

"You think she will be tempted?"

"Forgive me for saying so, but Michael gave her Eliza. It appears that I am not able to provide her with more children."

"So it is you that you do not trust, yes?"

"That is more true than you know, Countess."

Gisela put a hand on Anthony's sleeve.

"Sir Anthony, you have welcomed a German family into your home. That is humbling to me, when it was a German who took away your arm, no? It seems to me you are a very noble nobleman. Michael and I, we are very, very grateful. I am sure he would not abuse your hospitality so, even if I thought he would betray me, which I know he would not."

Anthony just smiled in his modest way. But Gisela continued.

"I am a woman, Sir Anthony, and I look at Lady Edith and I know that she loves you with all that she is. And you, you have been tense because of the wounds you bear. Cherish her and trust. Relax, sure in your love, and perhaps children will then follow."

Anthony put his hand on hers in thanks, and nodded. He couldn't find the words to thank her, but she didn't mind.

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Anthony found a position for Michael as an Adviser to Major Dunnington Jefferson (who needed someone with inside knowledge on developments within Germany). A week later Gisela, Michael, and Max left for London. Edith had asked Aunt Rosamund to put them in touch with an elderly friend of hers who needed reliable tenants. Stewart packed their few possessions onto the Rolls as they all said their goodbyes.

Anthony stood watching the car move gracefully down the driveway, with Edith standing by his side waving.

"You were marvellous, Anthony. I…I don't know how you manage to be so forgiving to us both. I'm just so very grateful that you are."

"My sweet one, there is nothing to thank me for. I should be thanking you."

She turned to look at him.

"What for? For not running off with him?"

"Well, there is that" he said, trying to make light of fears he knew he should have dismissed as soon as they appeared. "But I was actually thinking I should thank you for choosing me. You are still young and very beautiful, my darling. You could have any man you wanted. And yet you choose to stay with me."

"Yes, because I love you, you silly pumpkin!" she smiled.

She took his good arm and walked them back into their home.

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"Are you sure you're comfortable, Edith?" her mother asked for the third time.

"Very comfortable, thank you, Mama" she responded, smiling at Anthony. The last thing she had told him in the car before arriving at Downton for dinner was that Cora would fuss like a ewe with a lamb.

"Of course it's very out of fashion to listen to one's elders, but in my time one would not be seen after the sixth month. It was considered too grotesque!" stated Violet.

"I must take issue with you calling my gorgeous wife grotesque, Cousin Violet" said Anthony quietly but firmly.

"And as for uxorious husbands…"

"Leave him alone, Mama. I think you've had enough sport out of them for one night" said Robert firmly, but with an affectionate hand on his mother's shoulder.

Anthony looked around the drawing room at Downton and still couldn't quite believe that he was now a part of this family. Families were very strange things, he reflected.

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In another two months, Edith gave him a son: the heir he had longed for for thirty years. They called him Robert Anthony. Eliza didn't particularly like him, at least not to begin with. The year after little Violet arrived, silencing the Dowager's barbs towards Anthony for good.

Michael and Gisela remained good friends, and in time Robert, Violet, Eliza, and Max considered themselves cousins.

Anthony and Edith never revisited Appenzell, but every year they celebrated their wedding anniversary in the spring. Anthony would order enough blue crocuses to fill the library, and if the weather was good enough they would ride around the estate in an old-fashioned horse and carriage.

"My sweet Anthony" Edith breathed as they marked their twentieth year as man and wife, "I told you that I was never going to get used to being treated like this, and I never have."

"It's rather lovely being appreciated so much, my dearest darling! And I will never stop treating you like the wonderful lady you are."

And he never did.

THE END

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Well, I finally got there...thank you all so very, very much for sticking with me, and for all the kind comments, favourites, and follows. I hope you found it entertaining. It is an honour to be a part of this wonderful ship!

LONG LIVE ANDITH!