"I love all my children equally", Lord Grantham had once told Edith. That was what a Father ought to do, of course, but perhaps it hadn't always been true, just as Edith had said.
Maybe it had started out badly. That Edith hadn't been a boy had been a much greater disappointment than that Mary wasn't one. Mary was their first child and that time it had been enough to have a healthy child. But Edith had really been expected by everyone to be an Edward.
By the time Sybil had arrived Robert had grown used to the fact that they would only have girls.
He hoped by now that he loved his two remaining daughters equally, as it should be. He really tried to.
But he saw so much more of Mary, so the time he spent with Edith was usually more precious to him.
...
Lord Grantham knew very well that a man ought to love his children equally.
But did the same apply to children-in-law? He wasn't sure of that.
He hoped not, because it was even harder.
Lord Grantham had three sons-in-law now, although he only had two daughters left.
He knew that all three of them made their wives happy, although for Tom and Sybil it was a thing of the past.
...
Tom was Robert's first son-in-law and in the beginning he was the least wanted one.
Robert remembered with shame how he had tried to bribe Tom into leaving Sybil and also how he had refused to go to his daughter's wedding.
Well - it was many years ago and he hoped he had become a better man since then. Tom felt like a son to Robert by now.
Robert wasn't happy when Tom sold his part of the garage, moved to London with Sybbie and married Laura Edmonds two years earlier. Tom was helping Laura to manage Edith's magazine now, until he could find some other journalistic work. Now they were expecting a baby that would become Sybbie's brother or sister but not Robert's grandchild, which was somewhat confusing.
Robert missed Tom. But he missed little Sybbie even more. Cora and Robert found themselves visiting London far more often than they had ever done before.
...
Then there was Henry Talbot.
Henry had given Mary a new little boy to dote on, and that was a good thing. It had mellowed her rough edges down a bit.
But apart from that Henry hadn't much going for him. He could give very good advice concerning cars, but that was really the only thing the man had in his head.
Robert found Henry extremely boring. Almost to an Olympic degree.
Robert and Henry were the only two men left at Downton now, after Tom had moved away, so Robert was forced to have an after-dinner-talk with him almost every evening.
About cars.
Henry was very popular among the ladies, though. But looks aren't everything, Robert thought. Especially not for a man.
...
Then there was Bertie Pelham, who was the Marquess of Hexham.
A man who owned a castle with 100 000 acres of land, twenty times as much as Downton had. A man who had accepted Edith's daughter with another man and was raising her with as much love and care as his own children.
A man who obviously loved Edith to distraction. A man who still made her beam with happiness more than five years after their fairy-tale wedding.
Bertie was by far Robert's favourite son-in-law. There was no way he could deny that. He was extremely fond of the man.
...
Especially during the grouse shooting season.
AN: Thank you for reading! Please leave a comment!
...
I felt I needed to write something light-hearted, so I came up with this.