AN: This is, or eventually will be, a series of one shots that are companion pieces to my story That American Girl. To fully understand these one shots it is probably necessary to read That American Girl (TAG) first, but in case you don't have time / find that story boring or whatever else comes to mind, here is a very short summary.

TAG is based on the idea that Violet got her will and that Robert did not marry Cora, but someone else instead. Consequently she married someone else as well, namely the Duke of Suffolk and they have a son named Sam. However, Sam has never met his father because the father died before Sam was born, which of course means that Sam himself has been a duke all his life. Cora was never really happy with the Duke.

Robert and his wife have a horrible marriage and do not get along at all, but they have daughter, Mary (yes, THE Mary). Robert and Cora meet again and fall in love and eventually Robert divorces his first wife and marries Cora instead.

The actual story is much better than the summary.

Should I ever have the time, I might merge these one shots and the original story into one story, but right now there are way too many gaps, so it'll stay this way for the time being.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy this. Let me know what you think!

Kat

P.S.: These one shots are not in chronological order.

Due to the story of TAG, the years in which Cora and Robert's children were born have been changed, so here they are:

Mary, b. Jan 28, 1890

Sam, b. Sept 2, 1893 (actual name William Samuel)

Edith, b. February 12, 1895

Sybil, b. January 29, 1896

Downton 1912

Robert

A lawyer. His new heir is a lawyer from Manchester. When he told Cora that it was certain that both Patrick and James had died on the Titanic, her first reaction had been the same as his first reaction. 'Isn't there any way to make Sam your heir?' she asked him. He wishes there was, but there isn't. Apart from the fact that Sam is a Duke and he is only Earl, Sam isn't his son, not really. He certainly thinks of Sam as his son and he loves him just as much as he loves his three daughters and he knows that Sam thinks of him as his father, but the fact remains that Sam is the offspring of Cora's marriage to the Duke of Suffolk, no matter how ill-fated that marriage was and regardless of the fact that Sam's father died before Sam himself had been born.

He tried to make Sam his heir for the first time a few months after Sybil's birth. Several doctors had told them that Cora having another child was highly unlikely, which meant that he would never have a son who could also be his heir. He even considered going before parliament to make his stepson his heir, but every lawyer he asked had told him that it was hopeless case. He tried again in 1900 when he had to go to war in South Africa. By that time he and Cora had been certain that they wouldn't have any more children, because Cora hadn't been pregnant in over four years. His cousin James had a son roughly Mary's age and so there had been an heir and while Patrick had still been a young boy, Robert never really liked James and hadn't been sure that James wouldn't ask Cora and the children to leave Downton should anything happen to him. Of course, they could have and would have moved to Sam's estate, but he didn't feel comfortable with that solution. But again, his attempts to make his stepson his heir had come to naught. He tried again in 1905, when Sam had insisted he'd be registered as and called Sam Crawley at Eaton and not William Suffolk, as he should have been.

Sam is almost 19 now and still insists on being referred to as Sam Crawley, which has led to half of London society actually referring to him as Lord Downton, a title that belongs to the eldest son and heir of the Earl of Grantham. Sam and Mary continually laugh themselves silly when people find out that Sam actually is a Duke and not a Viscount. During the two months that it took his lawyer to find his new heir, Robert tried everything he could think of to change the entail to benefit Sam. He had even talked to the Lord Chancellor, and while the Lord Chancellor had understood why Robert wanted to make Sam his heir, there was nothing that could be done. Neither could anything be done to break the entail and make Mary the heiress of Downton. While he still muses over his failed attempts to make his son his heir, the door of the library opens without him noticing it.

"Papa?" He is startled out of his thoughts.

"Sam," he says and he knows that his face has broken into a smile. It always does when he sees one of his children or his wife, especially when it is unexpected.

"Do you have a minute?"

"Of course."

"There is just something I need to tell you. Mama told me about your failed attempts to make me your heir and I appealed to the Lord Chancellor myself. I asked what would happen if I renounced my title, if that would make it possible for me to be your heir."

"Sam, no, you can't do something like that."

"I would have done it in a heartbeat, if it were helpful. But it isn't, so I won't do it and we do not have to fight about this Papa."

He sometimes thinks that Sam knows he too well. He was just about to argue that renouncing his title would have been a very stupid thing to do, but of course, Sam is right. He isn't going to do it anyway, so they don't have to fight about it. Although it touches him that Sam would have been prepared to do it.

"You are probably right."

"I am. Anyway, after I found out that there was no way for me to inherit, I sent a letter do Matthew Crawley."

"You what?"

"I am not finished, Papa. I sent a letter to Matthew and he wrote back to me and I met him in London."

"Why would you do that?"

"I wanted to meet him."

"You'll meet him here. It was more than enough that I met him in London."

"For you maybe, but not for me. I wanted to know who this stranger is and so I invited him to my house. He accepted the invitation and stayed for three days and we spent quite a lot of time together."

"What do you think of him?"

"What do you think?"

"Sam"

"No, you go first."

"I've already told you, I think we were lucky, even if Matthew certainly is not an ideal heir."

"Papa, when that Duke was here, the one who wanted to marry Mary for money she won't get, he asked you whether you were willing to give it all to a perfect stranger and you answered that you hoped but doubted that he would be perfect."

"You remember that?"

"It was a good answer. Regardless of that, I think that Matthew is perfect."

"What?"

"I think, and you can only ever mention this to Mama, that Matthew is perfect for Mary. We cannot tell either one of them that, because they'd feel pressured and once you put Mary under pressure to do something, you can be sure she won't do it. But Matthew is exactly the kind of man Mary needs. He is intelligent and he can hold his own in an argument, which, if you live in a house with Mary, is something you better be good at. And he is very kind and considerate, he didn't ask me once why I wasn't your heir."

"He might know why."

"I don't think he does. He felt it was improper to ask, which says a lot about him."

"I assume you have a plan of how to get your sister to fall in love with him."

"Not really a plan, but an idea. I will become friends with him, which will be rather easy for me to do because I like him very much, besides the fact that he will eventually be the head of my family. And then I will just see what I can do. Talk about Mary to him, talk about Matthew to her, maybe a little exasperatedly. We'll see."

"Sam, while that sounds like a good and easy plan, don't forget that he is 27 and you are 19."

"Mama says that I don't seem like a 19 year old to her."

"You don't seem like a 19 year old to me either and I think we have to thank your older sister for turning you into a grown up far too soon."

"She didn't turn me into a grown up, Papa. She just always expected me to be as intelligent as her. Which I am not, but then again who is. But I did my best to fulfill her expectations and she taught me everything she knew. She still does, I sometimes feel like a schoolboy in her presence and not like a duke. But I don't mind, I love her and I am her little brother, so it is all right for her to sometimes treat me like a schoolboy."

He has to shake his head at this and smile because what Sam says is right. Mary had decided that Sam would be her best friend for life when Sam had still been a baby and Mary herself had only been three years old, but she has never wavered from it. Sam has always been her best friend, and as his best friend, Mary expected him to be like her in many ways. Maybe Sam's plan of befriending Matthew could actually work.

"Well, it is worth a try, I think. Regardless of your plans for Matthew and Mary working out, it can't hurt him to have you as his friend."

"Good. I'll go and welcome him and his mother then."