For my first Downton Abbey story, I've written a version of how I would have liked the story to have progressed between Matthew and Mary – in my opinion the ending was contrived to allow a second series, rather than let the story come to its own natural, romantic ending.

I own none of the characters of Downton Abbey.

Pride and Prejudice at Downton Abbey

Chapter one

She'd intrigued him from the very first time he'd seen her. How embarrassing that had been too. He would never forget. If only he'd known that she was there, he would never have uttered those words.

"Well they're clearly going to push one of the daughters at me. They'll have fixed on that when they heard I was a bachelor."

And then Mary had appeared, so beautiful, and so elegantly attired in her grey riding outfit with the burgundy cravat at her neck. For some reason he remembered her little horseshoe pin that she'd been wearing. It was strange the little details that stuck in his mind from that day.

"Mama has sent me down you to welcome you and to ask you to dine with us tonight," she'd told them frostily.

His mother had accepted the invitation.

"We'd be delighted," she'd replied in a friendly manner, and had then invited Mary to stay for some tea with them.

Mary had looked at Matthew with complete disdain as she'd replied,

"Oh no, you're far too busy and I wouldn't want to push in," she'd said, before she'd swept out of the room.

For a moment he'd stood there dumbstruck and mortified, before he'd quickly gathered his wits and followed after her.

As she mounted her horse and looked down at him, he'd tried to apologise,

"Lady Mary, I hope you didn't misunderstand me, I was only joking."

"Of course," she'd said. "And I agree. The whole thing is a complete joke."

And then she was gone.

xXx

Of course he couldn't really blame her for being so horrid to him. He understood how galling and unfair it must seem to her that a complete stranger, by some stupid quirk of the law, was going to inherit everything – the title, the estate – and the fortune that her American heiress mother Cora had brought into her marriage to Lord Grantham. Matthew didn't think it was fair either, but as his mother pointed out, because of the entail, it was going to happen whether he liked it or not – that was just the way things were.

That evening, when for the first time Matthew and his mother went to dinner up at the house, and were introduced to everyone, his mother had been adamant that he was to behave appropriately – why give them any more cause to look down on them than they already had, she'd argued with him.

As they sat down to eat their meal, Mary had looked on, amused as Matthew had rejected Thomas's none too subtle advice on how to proceed as he served the food.

"You'll soon get used to the way things are done here," she'd told him condescendingly as her family looked on in discomfort. Matthew was determined not to be made to feel inferior, and so was not at all embarrassed in talking about his job as a solicitor in Ripon, fully aware that 'gentlemen' were not expected to have a job, to work to earn a living, and he rather enjoyed seeing their discomfort.

He'd already decided that they were not going to change him with all their snobby, class ridden expectations just because he had become the heir to the estate through no choice of his own. He couldn't however, help himself from admiring Lady Mary's spirit as well as her undoubted beauty – and after all it was jolly unfair on her, he had to agree.

The second time that they went up to dinner at the big house, Matthew had found it even harder hard to take his eyes off of Mary – once again she looked so elegant, so beautiful, but also …haughty was how he could best describe it.

Once again, Mary set about making it obvious that she didn't consider Matthew 'once of us'. As far as she was concerned, he was someone that could barely hold his knife like a gentleman, as she had told Mama just before dinner, horrified at the suggestion that she should consider marrying Matthew, because it would secure her future and give her a position. She was even more horrified to discover that it was her Granny, the Dowager Lady Violet Grantham, who had suggested the marriage, having assumed that she would be just as horrified at the thought as Mary was herself.

Mary took great delight in scoffing at the suggestion that Matthew rode, and was surprised when he corrected her that he did ride, but then admitted that he did not hunt, confirming her disdain of him.

As her rather bewildered family looked on, there then followed some banter between them on the subject of reading books, an occupation which she said pointedly was 'unusual, among our kind of people'.

But rather than be offended, Matthew found it all rather amusing, and couldn't help himself, he managed to get his own back when Mary tried to be too clever, and told a story about King Cepheus having to sacrifice his daughter Andromeda to a hideous sea creature in order to appease the gods, not expecting Matthew to be familiar with it. But he was, and then proceeded to steal her thunder by finishing off the story for her by telling them about the rescue by Perseus. When Mary declared that Perseus rescuing the princess was rather more fitting than her being sacrificed to the sea monster, Matthew replied that it rather depended on the Princess and sea monster in question, as he looked rather pointedly at her, and Mary struggled to maintain her haughty air at his rather spoiling her story.

Maybe it was at this point that Mary's interest began to be piqued just a little – Matthew was actually rather witty and intelligent, and he certainly wasn't going to be intimidated by her or by anybody else. He wasn't apologising for not being from the same background or for having a job and working for a living. In spite of herself she found she rather admired him for it. He stood up to her, and it intrigued her. And he did have the most piercing blue eyes that she had ever seen, she couldn't help but notice.

Most men fawned over Mary because she was so beautiful – much to her sister Edith's displeasure. It didn't seem fair to her, Mary was such a bitch, she hadn't cared for poor cousin Patrick at all. When Edith had challenged her about not being very upset over the loss of her fiancé, she had declared that she had only been going to marry him if nothing better had come along in any case. Edith had really cared for Patrick, but of course he had had eyes only for Mary, who now wasn't even grieving for him as a fiancée should. She may be considered the beautiful one, but she was shallow and selfish, Edith had long ago decided about her sister Mary, and one day she would get her comeuppance.

to be continued...