AN: As today is the 12th and last day of Christmas, so I managed to post this just in time :)
It is a fluffy one-shot about Violet and Patrick (and a hint of Robert and Cora) set in the Son of Mine universe.
In case you haven't read that story, Matthew grows up with Robert (and then later on Cora) and Violet and Patrick slowly come to terms with their own marriage which was unhappy for a long time. I think this is all you need to know to understand this story.
So, for the last time until December,
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all!
Kat
Christmas 1890
Violet
It is Christmas Eve and for the first time since her children were very small she looks forward to the evening and the next day. After more than 25 years of marriage this is the first time that she thinks that Patrick may have gotten her a sentimental present. Not just a set of earrings or a necklace chosen by Rosamund or worse his mother. Something he has chosen himself.
She bought a watch for him, one that he mentioned he liked a few weeks ago. She traces the engraving she had put on the back and smiles. She is sure that she found the right words.
She is happy now, happier than she ever was. Patrick and she have found a way to make themselves reasonably happy, to come to terms with what they have, to not fight it anymore, to concentrate on what they like about each other instead of what they dislike.
It had all been triggered by Robert's accidental love match. Their son had to marry a rich woman quickly and with the added burden of little Matthew whom Robert loves like a son and refused to hide or give up it looked very bleak. Most women turned away once they found out about Matthew, all except for Cora. A second class American, new money even by the standards of the New World with a gossiping mother and a Jewish father. But her fortune was huge, Matthew did not put her off and so Robert married her two days after Valentine's day. Cora is seven months pregnant now and the child is a child made out of love. Robert and Cora fell for each other shortly after they were married and have since then shown Patrick and her what it truly means to be happily married. And they have shown Patrick and her what to do to have a small chance at happiness.
To talk to each other, to listen to each other, to spend time together, to be mindful of each other, to share a bed. At that thought she looks around herself and finds two of Patrick's discarded books, a framed picture that used to be on the mantel piece of his own room that shows him with Robert and Rosamund, all of them their horses , his dressing gown that she is sure his valet is looking for frantically. It makes her smile. Patrick's things in her room are a sign of how far they have come within the past few months.
"Violet? Are you ready to go down?" She smiles at Patrick who peers around the door that connects their rooms. It remained closed for years after Robert's birth, there were decades of them hardly talking to each other but so many things have changed.
"Yes. Yes I am." Patrick smiles a genuine smile, enters her room and offers her his arm. They walk past the great tree in the hall and into the drawing room where they are alone for the moment.
"The children are still upstairs then," Patrick says and lets go of her but doesn't step away.
"I suppose so. Where else would they be if they aren't here?" Patrick chuckles at this.
"Why are we never late?" Patrick asks and she replies "Because we can control ourselves."
This makes Patrick laugh out loud and as he has started to do when she makes him laugh and they are alone he gives her a kiss on the cheek. "Do you really think that is why they are late?" She wants to say something but then the door opens and Robert and Cora walk in laughing, talking about when exactly Matthew was bound to wake them the next morning.
"You are late," she says and sees the twinkle in Patrick's eyes.
"Yes. But try to get a four year old to sleep on Christmas Eve," Robert replies and Patrick throws her a look as if he was to say 'I told you so'.
"He is very excited," Cora goes on. "He kept pestering us about when exactly Father Christmas would finally arrive and whether he would be allowed to see him and talk to him and share a plate of cookies with him. I told him that if Father Christmas saw him he wouldn't get any presents at all. I hope it makes him stay in bed but in hindsight I think it'll just make him be more careful to no be seen." Robert shakes his head at Cora and mumbles something to her that makes Cora smile a brilliant smile.
Rosamund and Marmaduke enter the room then and it is obvious that she was right concerning their reason for tardiness but as dinner is announced just then, she does not comment on it.
Dinner is a wonderful affair and for the first time since she has gotten married, there are no fights during dinner on Christmas Eve. The same is true for the time spend in the drawing room although that is rather short. She supposes that the children are eager to go upstairs to have their private gift exchange and so is she.
Once she has been changed into her nightclothes and her maid has left, she puts Patrick's present on his bed and eagerly waits for him. The knock on the door comes only minutes later and Patrick enters, carrying a small present of his own. He joins her on the bed, hands it to her and whispers "Happy Christmas," into her ear.
It obviously isn't jewelry, it is in fact a book. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. For a moment she is disappointed because Patrick should know that she isn't an Austen fan, maybe this present would have been better for Cora who must have read this particular book at least ten times considering the details she knows about it.
"It is a very early edition," Patrick says and she nods. "And there is a note in it. I thought about writing it into the book but that would have ruined it in case you wanted to return it. So I put it on the paper." She finds the little piece of paper with Patrick's signature handwriting on it only a second later.
"To remind you that love and happiness can be found in the most unexpected places. Patrick"
"I certainly do not want to return this book," she says because that is the only thing that comes to her mind. It is the most thoughtful, most meaningful gift she has ever received.
"You'll get the usual jewelry too. Tomorrow."
"Yes," she says and then leans forward to kiss Patrick on the lips. "Thank you. This is a wonderful gift." She tucks the note back inside the book, her words lingering on the word love for a moment before handing Patrick his present.
"Violet, that is the watch I mentioned to you weeks ago. I didn't think you had noticed."
"Why?"
"Because I did not see you sneaking back to the shop."
"I sneaked back when you weren't looking. Look at the back." Patrick does as she asks and grins.
"'Time changes everything.' How true." He leans forward and she wonders if he has understood what she means by it or whether he is disappointed because he wrote something about love and happiness when she only implied it but then Patrick stops in his movement, looks into her eyes and says "God Violet, how much time have we wasted?"
"Too much to waste any more," she replies and it almost makes her cry. She wishes they had taken this approach to their marriage decades ago, they could have spared themselves so much unhappiness.
"Yes," Patrick says and then finishes the movement that he halted and kisses her. Briefly at first but his kisses become more passionate by the second and of course she gives in because it is what she wants.
"Do you really love me?" she asks a while later when they have both lain down again, facing each other.
Patrick seems to look for the right words and she is afraid that he will just say 'no' but then he begins to speak.
"I think I do. Not in that romantic, head-over-heels way that accompanies love at first or maybe second sight. But I've grown very fond of you, I miss you when I am not around you. I don't feel the need to see my mistress anymore, I don't want to see her anymore because I just don't want to do this with anyone but you. And I think this is a form of love. So the answer to your question is probably yes."
"If that is how you define love, then the feeling is probably mutual."
"Is it?" Patrick asks her and even in the candle light can she see him playfully raising his eyebrows at her.
"Yes." She needs to swallow to say the words but she thinks that Patrick deserves them. He put as much effort into this as she. "By your definition of love, I probably… I probably…" she wants to stop, it is so hard for her to go on but Patrick smiles and encouraging smile, one that clearly says that he won't laugh, and so she swallows again and says "By your definition of love, I probably love you too."
Patrick leans towards her, pushes her on her back, then hovers over her and says
"This is a very happy Christmas indeed."
"Happy Christmas," she says and begins to understand why some people say that doing one's marital duty and making love are two very different things.
AN: Thank you so much for all the reviews I received on the last chapter for Son of Mine. They really made me smile and all the more motivated to continue with Downton fanfiction even if the show itself has come to an end.
Please drop a line as a review and tell me how you liked this little one shot! Thank you!