Author's Note: Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoy!

Special thanks to namelesspanda for correcting bad grammar, missing punctuation, and giving excellent suggestions and advice!

Chapter 1: An Interview

'I'm interviewing a guy today,' Robert announced at breakfast.

Robert Crawley, head of the Downton Law Firm, was looking for somebody to take over for him when he retired. With over one hundred law firms around the world, the ideal candidate would be a young, practicing lawyer with some experience or knowledge in managing a big company.

'His name is Matthew Crawley, and he's got undergraduate and law degrees from Oxford. He's young, so he can work here until my time comes.'

'That's great, Robert. Is he a relation?' Cora asked, interested.

'Not that I know of, I'll have to check.'

Their conversation was interrupted by their eldest daughter Mary, who came into the dining room, grabbed an apple, said a quick hello and then left. She had a bachelor's degree from Cambridge, and went to the London Journalism School. She had come home that weekend for her mother's birthday, but she had to go to work that morning at the Telegraph, where she had a job with multi-millionaire Richard Carlisle.

Edith, their middle daughter, went to school at King's College where she was a junior and majored in Ancient Greek history. Sybil, the youngest, was a freshman at NYU in the USA, where she was pre-med. Mary and Edith had both come down from London for Cora's birthday, but since Sybil was in America, she hadn't been able to come.

'Have a good day,' Cora called after her eldest daughter as Edith lumbered in, wearing sweatpants with her school's crest and a hoodie—sharply contrasting with her older sister's pressed dress, blazer and Rue Blanche high heels. She sat down to breakfast after mumbling a hello, took some scrambled eggs, and ate, occasionally picking up her iPhone to text her boyfriend, Anthony Strallan.

'Well, I have to go, have a good day.' Robert said.

'You too,' said Cora, standing up to quickly peck him on the cheek before he disappeared.

'Come for another interview in a couple of weeks, my manager for our London firm will be here, and I am sure he'd like to interview you himself.' said Robert, eyeing the tall, blond, blue-eyed twenty four-year old in front of him.

'I'd be happy to, although I can only do Tuesday mornings.' Matthew replied.

'Ask my secretary about that, but I'm sure it'll work,' said Robert, smiling before they stood up and shook hands.

Robert was pleased—Matthew seemed to be a brilliant lawyer, manager, who was competent, confident and great for the job. He smiled when he got an email from his secretary John Bates telling him that Matthew Crawley had an interview the next day at 11 am. It was a good day indeed!

Established in 1920,The Downton Law Firm had one hundred and fifteen law firms around the world: seventy in the UK , thirty in the USA, and fifteen scattered around Western Europe. It was the most respected and reliable firm in the UK and one of the top in the world. Robert Crawley was the owner of all of them, but he worked at the main headquarters, Downton Offices in Yorkshire. The other main headquarters was in London, on Grantham Street. Each firm had their own manager, who was under Robert's command. For this reason, the new owner would have to be able to manage a lot of different people.

As Robert sat at his desk, he thought that if he chose him, he would put Matthew in their London firm, starting low, but climbing up in the ranks. Then maybe he could set Mary and him up... he knew that Mary had always wished to become the owner of some huge corporation, and being the girlfriend and possibly even the future wife of the owner was surely close enough. And it would be nice to have somebody from his immediate family to own DLF.

'Congratulations! We are extremely lucky to have you here. I was thinking I could put in our London firm, Grantham Street. You will start low in the rankings, but will soon climb up to the top!' Robert said, beaming at Matthew as he shook his hand along with their London manager, Murray, who nodded his head in agreement.

'Thank you, sir, I will be honored to work here.' Matthew replied.

'Won't you come to dinner Friday night? All my daughters will be here, including Sybil, who is here for spring break. Oh and also my mother will be present. I would like you to meet my whole family. Bring your mother as well, of course.'

Matthew's face broke into a smile before saying,'I would be delighted, as would Mother. Thank you.'

Mary pushed open the door to her office.

'Hey, Anna.' She greeted her boss' secretary who was also her best friend. 'How are you?'

'Good,Better hurry up, Boss is furious that you're late.'

Mary rolled her eyes the mention of her boss, Richard Carlisle, a self-made multi-millionaire who was the editor in chief of 'The Telegraph'. She sighed as she knocked and entered her head's office.

'So you finally decided to grace us with your presence today.' Richard said sarcastically as she entered.

'I told you that I would be late; I drove as fast as I could from Downton. It's only two-fifteen, I can still work for a couple of hours.' Mary countered, annoyed.

Richard frowned, she was really getting out of hand. 'Remember, that I own this place, not you. You're just a small columnist. Have some respect.' He said before continuing, 'Anyway, I told you that I wanted a column on DLF for tomorrow's paper, have you written notes? I'd like to review it before you leave, in fact,' he said, leaning towards her. 'I'd like to review it together.'

Mary shivered. 'It'll be done by four o'clock. Is there anything else you need?' She asked, desperately trying to contain the anger that was threatening to overcome her. After Richard declined, she turned to leave but his voice held her back.

'Oh! I almost forgot to mention, I heard that your father took quite an interest in the new applicant, Matthew Crawley...'

'How do you know that?'

'My spies keep me well informed,' he replied airily. It had actually been Sarah O'Brien, not Thomas Barrow, who'd come to him with that particular news. 'Goodbye! See you at four,' he said, indicating that their interview was at an end, and slammed the door behind her.

'So, how did it go?'asked Isobel expectantly as her son, Matthew, came into their small apartment.

'I got it! He said that I'll work in London, I'm glad about that, I'd rather not work in the middle of nowhere.' Matthew said with a wry grin, and leaned down to kiss her on her cheek before continuing. 'And we've been invited to dinner on Friday.'

'Congratulations!' said Isobel excitedly, before looking at him in surprise. 'Did you say 'we'?'

'Yes, I did, it's at eight.' Matthew said cheerfully. 'Sybil, their youngest daughter who goes to school in the USA, will be there for spring break, and he mentioned that even his mother will come. It will be a big event, so dress nicely!'

TBC

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