Barrow's Boy - A Downton Abbey Fanfiction

What We're Worth

      It had been the worst day for Teddy's train to be delayed. Having gotten a phone call from Thomas that Mr. Wilson was in the hospital, all Teddy could do was wait at Hartford's until it was closer to the time that the next train should arrive.

     He was supposed to leave that morning, yet the time was creeping into the afternoon. People came and went, and Teddy waited, sitting silently at the booth and staring out the window. He had been disinterested until familiar faces walked into the building. 

     He would never have expected this to be a restaurant of choice for Lady Edith, Lady Grantham, and Lady Rosamund. 

     A corner blocked their table of choice from his view, but he could still hear them quietly discussing a topic that he felt he shouldn't hear. He truly hadn't wanted to eavesdrop, but, well, he was a Barrow. It wasn't in his blood, but it was in his culture.

     "I was toying for a while with the idea of going to America," Lady Edith was saying. Teddy silently stirred the third cup of tea that had been placed in front of him. It seemed that Diana was eager to keep him hydrated. 

     "Oh, don't be ridiculous," her aunt replied but was quickly stopped by Lady Grantham.

     "Why is that ridiculous? She's half-American, isn't she?" 

     Teddy had to admit he did have some respect for the countess. At least she had overcome something in her life. Unlike some of the toffs, he had met last night.

     "I thought I'd drop my title and invent a dead husband. And I'd be Mrs. Thing in Detroit or Chicago, where I wouldn't run into anyone I knew."

     "So, is that your plan?" Lady Rosamund asked. Teddy was still trying to figure out why Edith even needed this plan at all. Why would someone need a fake husband? Even his own mother hadn't invented one when- oh. Was that it, then?

     "I don't want the magazine business to fall into ruin." Yes, Teddy would also appreciate that. "How could I keep an eye on it overseas? And I would like Marigold to grow up English."

     Marigold? Teddy knew that name. Why did he know it?

    "And what is the alternative? An invented dead husband here?" 

     "I'd never get away with it in London. I thought I'd make her my orphaned godchild. Like Barrow and Theodore are." 

     "I dare say Barrow and Theodore are a different situation," Lady Grantham replied. Teddy wholeheartedly agreed. "Besides, I have a different plan. I'd like you to bring her home."

     "No. I won't be the county failure. Poor demented Lady Edith who lost her virtue and her reason."

     Ouch. Teddy knew his mother would have hated that.

     Then, as Lady Grantham began her plan, Teddy finally realized how he knew Marigold. The Drewe family. He had been tutoring there, seeing the girl weekly as he worked with Peter, and hadn't even known it. 

     "No one has to know who doesn't know already," Lady Grantham was saying once Teddy had wrapped his head around this. "Your grandmother, Rosamund, you and me."

     "And me, your ladyship," Teddy said, standing from his seat and looking around the corner. Lady Edith's eyes widened as she saw him. "But I won't speak a word of it; I can promise that. And I, of all people, can hardly judge."

     "How long have you been there?" Lady Rosamund asked though Teddy had a feeling that she had no idea who he was. 

     "Longer than all of you, milady. I'm just waiting until my train home arrives. I wasn't meaning to overhear."