A/N - If you thought I'd forgotten about this story.. well, you'd be right. I won't bore you with the details but it's just been one of those years. Anyway, thank you to Ann of Hesse for reminding me. This chapter is rougher than usual (I haven't wrote anything in months) and is incredibly short so think of it as a bridge and I shall attempt to update more frequently.

Mid- September 1914

"I am very happy for you Edith" Mary smiled at her sister, the engagement had just been announced earlier that night. Though Edith had been radiantly happy since she'd come back from seeing Sir Anthony, so Mary had expected nothing less, it was nice to see it become official.

"Yes! Oh Edith I am so glad to see you so happy" Sybil said excitedly, she had claimed the chair by the fireplace so Edith and Mary sat together on Edith's bed.

"Thank you both" Edith beamed "Sir Anthony really is wonderful" she said softly.

Sybil wrinkled her nose "I don't know him well enough to say, but I suppose he is rather nice, and he has excellent taste in books" she said as though that decided everything for her.

"Yes, I heard him offer to lend you one of his novels" Mary said "isn't that the novel Papa said you weren't to read?".

Sybil ducked her head guiltily "yes, but we were talking about some of the books we had both read and he was surprised I hadn't read it, I didn't tell him why I hadn't".

Before Mary could say anything more they heard a knock at the door and Cora peeped in.

"May I speak to my newly-engaged daughter alone for a moment?" she asked.

Mary and Sybil nodded.

"I suppose we should get some rest anyway" Sybil said, hugging Edith quickly before she practically skipped out of the room.

"Goodnight Edith, Mama" Mary said, kissing them both on the cheek and following her sister, albeit at a more dignified pace.

Cora waited until the door was firmly closed before going to sit on Edith's bed with her.

"My dear, your papa and I are so happy for you" she smiled gently at Edith.

"Thank you Mama" Edith looked at her quizzically "but you've already congratulated me, twice if I remember correctly".

"Yes, well…" Cora hesitated "it's just that… with the war and all… I was wondering if you might like to have the wedding sooner rather than later?".

Edith nodded "yes, actually Sir Anthony and I were considering that ourselves, he plans to enlist you know".

"No I didn't know that, but your papa and I thought it was a possibility" Cora responded "Sir Anthony hinted as much when he was speaking with your papa earlier".

"Well, we were thinking perhaps the first week of January, if you think we can manage it?" Edith looked at Cora hopefully.

"I'm sure we can" Cora answered.

"And… I was wondering if, while Sir Anthony is gone, I could stay here" Edith asked "he doesn't want me to be alone and I quite agree that I would be happier here".

"Of course you can" Cora assured her "in fact, I rather think your papa might insist on it, as would I".

"Thank you Mama" Edith smiled happily at her and Cora internally sighed in relief, here was one daughter happily taken care of… as long as Sir Anthony survived the war, that is.

Late September 1914

Training was every bit as hard as Matthew had thought it would be. He did take comfort in his lucky charms and in Mary's letter but he was so busy that writing to her or anyone else seemed impossible. There were bright spots though, the men that he trained with took every opportunity to let off steam; jokes and claps on the back were common occurrences in between training exercises, and there were a few that Matthew would gladly call friend such as John "Epsy" Epsworth, Samuel Steinfeld, and Reid Halsey.

The one problem with calling Epsy a friend was that the tall brown-haired man was a practical joker and he liked to pull his friends into trouble with him. Reid enjoyed it as much as Epsy did. And Samuel, despite being one of the biggest men that Matthew had ever seen, was quick enough on his feet to stay out of the way when he had to. Matthew did his best to follow Samuel's lead at first, he'd never been much of a practical joker, but Epsy could be relentless. And anyway, the harmless jokes made the other men laugh, that seemed worth a bit of trouble. Although Matthew quickly realized that Epsy wasn't much of a planner, in fact most of the time he could have avoided getting caught if he just took some time to plan out his escapades, but Epsy had disagreed. Matthew may have decided to take that as a bit of a challenge. Turns out that he was pretty good at planning his friends' mischief and even Epsy would eventually admit that he'd kept them from getting into trouble more than once.

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"You got it?" the shorter man whispered out of the corner of his mouth as he and Matthew stood, leaning up against a wall and taking a short break.

"Reid, you are being ridiculous" Matthew replied, but he played along and turned slightly so he could slip his latest plan into Reid's hand behind their backs.

"Can't be too careful" Reid answered, apparently perfectly serious. Matthew shook his head but he couldn't quite bite back a grin. At least with friends like these he'd never be bored again.

"I'm serious" Reid said "I heard there was a special visitor today, who knows what that means, but we don't want to cause too much trouble today".

Matthew shook his head "you could try not causing any trouble, if there is a special visitor of any kind and you get caught? I think it's safe to say we don't want that".

"Agreed. But if your plan here works the way it should then no one will know we did it" Reid raised an eyebrow at Matthew "unless you don't think your plan is good enough?" he challenged.

Matthew huffed "I can assure you that it is a very good plan. It'll definitely take Smith down a peg or two".

"Good. No one upsets Samuel and gets away with it" Reid strolled away and Matthew leaned back against the wall. Normally Matthew wouldn't get involved in a prank (no matter how harmless it really was) against a superior but Captain Smith-Fraites was likely the meanest man that he had ever met. The man enjoyed humiliating the very men he was supposed to train. They'd all endured the man's anger and ridicule, but the final straw for the trio of mischief makers (as Epsy liked to call them) was when Smith had targeted Samuel. Matthew hadn't actually been there but Reid had told him about it, and it had made his blood boil. Still, Matthew's conscience twinged a bit.

Anthony raised his eyebrows questioningly at Captain Smith-Fraites, the man had really been testing Anthony's patience since the baronet had arrived in his office that morning.

"I'm sorry Sir Anthony, I just don't think you'll find what you're looking for here, these men aren't good for much of anything, they just haven't had the training yet" the captain looked annoyed but Anthony doubted he was half annoyed as Anthony himself was.

'Maybe if you built them up instead of tearing them down' Anthony thought, but he knew better than to say that.

"Perhaps I can just see for myself" he offered instead with a polite, but icy, smile.

"Yes Sir" the captain nodded.

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Captain Smith-Fraites hadn't been wrong about one thing, the men needed more training, but that was to be expected, most had come here less than three weeks before. Anthony wasn't looking for perfection, he was looking for honest men that could learn what he had to teach them. His gaze was caught by movement over by the building to his left. He quirked an eyebrow when he realized it was a handoff, not a bad one either, though it was obvious the blond man wasn't taking it as seriously as the dark haired man. Anthony made note of their appearance, he might want to talk to them later, they might be what he was looking for.