AN: So this is the promised rewrite of The Affair. As you have noticed, I gave the story a different title which I think fits this version of the story much better. I have changed quite a lot of the story, we won't get to the actual 'original' story before chapter 9. One of the first eight chapters will be a rewritten version of Till Death do Them Part but I'll change it quite a bit.
I've changed a major part of the original story line, so even if you've read The Affair already (and I know there are some of you out there who have actually read it more than once), this story contains several new developments.
There will be a few chapters that I have largely taken from The Affair, but those have (or rather will be) changed and hopefully improved as well.
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I plan to always update this story on Sundays and Thursdays, although I may have to skip a Thursday at one point or another, but I'll try to stick with two updates a week.
So anyway, I hope that you enjoy this story!
P.S.: Chapters are of varying length.
Violet
Grantham House, London – July 1889
"Mrs. Patmore, are you sure you can handle this?"
"Yes I am."
"This is a very important dinner."
"And I am very well aware of that." She should slap that assistant cook turned cook by lucky coincidence around the face but she doesn't. It is never good to upset the cook and after all, it is not poor Beryl's, 'Mrs. Patmore's' she corrects herself, fault that the old cook has suddenly become sick. The only chance they had was to make their 20 year old assistant cook the cook. At least for the upcoming dinner to which more than 20 people have been invited.
She isn't sure that this will work but to find someone new on such short notice was impossible.
"Very well then," she says and leaves. She hates being in the kitchen. Each time she has to go down there to discuss the food for the next week she swears to herself that she will stop entering the kitchen as soon as she has a daughter-in-law.
And she should have a daughter-in-law soon. The season is almost over and Robert should propose marriage to Lady Phillipa Acton, only child of the Earl of Withersome. Said Earl does not have a male heir and is apparently unable or unwilling to conceive one. Accordingly, Lady Phillipa is the heiress to a substantial fortune, a fortune so substantial that it could save Downton Abbey. And so Robert has to propose to her.
There is of course one other candidate, Miss Cora Levinson, daughter of an American self-made millionaire. Miss Levinson is the last of 'the Americans' as Violet likes to call them whom the family had considered as a future wife for Robert. But that had been before they found out about Lady Phillipa's dowry and of course an English woman is preferable to an American one. Why Robert hasn't yet severed ties with Miss Levinson is a mystery to her but it does not really matter because as soon as Miss Levinson finds out that Robert is engaged to someone else she'll stop to bat her eyelashes whenever she and Robert are in the same room.
"Papa, please." She halts her steps. She had hoped that Patrick would have finished talking to Robert now, would have finally convinced their son to propose to Lady Phillipa.
"Robert, you are behaving like a child."
"I don't want to marry her." That is of course the problem. Robert has no interest in Lady Phillipa, he does not find her beautiful and does not care for her admittedly strange sense of humor.
"Robert, you have to marry her or we'll lose the estate. Would you like to live here, in London, all year long? Like some common business man?"
"No," Robert says and she thinks that Patrick is right. Their son sounds like a child.
"Then," Robert shakes his head to interrupt his father, slams a glass down on the table with such force that she is sure that it has left a mark and then he rounds on his father.
"But I don't want to be stuck in a loveless marriage for the rest of my life either."
"Marriage isn't about love for people like us." No, it isn't she thinks. Patrick and she like each other but they don't love each other and the mere fact that they can spend an evening alone with just each other for company without wanting to jump out of a window afterwards singles them out among their peers.
"So you say. But I think that love is important."
"You have read too many of your sister's romance novels. And see where she ended up. Married to a banker when she could have had a Viscount. I ask you." It makes her chuckle. Rosamund's marriage did not make her father happy. He would have liked to see her as a duchess, or better yet queen. 'Rosamund could run the country,' he once said to her and she agreed. But as neither duke nor king had been available during Rosamund's first two seasons they settled on a Viscount. Or so they thought until Rosamund came into the drawing one evening and told them all that she had fallen in love with Marmaduke Painswick, son of a banker, and that she would marry him. Weeks and weeks of fights had followed, but in the end, as always, Rosamund got what she wanted. She still seems happy with her choice.
"She followed her heart, Papa and I admire her for it."
"You don't have the time or the money to follow your heart Robert. A marriage to an Earl's daughter is a very small price to pay to safe the estate."
"Even if it was an unhappy marriage?"
"People like us are never unhappily married," Patrick retorts and it makes her sigh. They both think so but she had hoped that Robert would find true love. However, mismanagement of the estate caused all those hopes to vanish into thin air.
"What if they are?" Robert asks.
"Then they deal with it. Robert you don't have another chance."
"What about Miss Levinson?" Robert asks and she closes her eyes. There was something in Robert's voice that gave her a cold shiver but she can't point a finger to it. Not yet.
"What about her? She is an American. New money even by their standards. She was never more than a last option."
"For you," Robert says and his voice has gone very soft. She feels her heart begin to beat faster and sweat building on her forehead. This can't be true.
"For you as well. You said so yourself. You said she had no idea how to behave amongst our kind of people."
"It was never meant as criticism." Robert now chuckles and she has a sinking feeling in her stomach.
"What?" The look on Patrick's face is priceless. After 20 years of living with Robert he still is surprised that his son doesn't always share his views and opinions.
"She is something special. Exotic."
"If you want to see something exotic, go to India. Your mother and I enjoyed it very much." 'No we didn't' she thinks. She thought it was too hot and hated every minute of it.
"I doubt that Mama," Robert starts but Patrick holds up his hand to stop him. She is quite glad about it because she once told Robert that she did not like India but Patrick does not need to know this.
"This is not about your mother. And it isn't about you or Lady Phillipa or Miss Levinson either. It is about Downton."
"If this is only about Downton then it should not matter to you whether I marry Lady Phillipa or Miss Levinson."
"It matters Robert, because Miss Levison is quite unsuitable. Unless of course you truly love her." She is not surprised by this, she is sure that Patrick would consent to marriage between Robert and Miss Levinson if there was real love. She sends a prayer to the heavens for Rober to say 'yes'. If there was love, the marriage could be justified.
"No. I don't love her. I just like her." Her heart sinks.
"Then you will propose to Lady Phillipa tomorrow." Robert sighs and nods in defeat. She wants to enter the room, wants to tell him that it is his decision but Patrick sees her and shakes his head. And he is right. It would not be a good idea. The next Countess of Grantham an American. They may have lost their money but they haven't sunken so far yet.
"Would you like to look at the rings we have got? Or would you prefer to buy a new one?"
"I am sure that Mama's frightful aunt Augusta gave her a horrible ring she hates. I'll use that one."
It makes her laugh although she thinks that she should probably cry about it. When Robert walks past her he looks so defeated that she almost reaches out to him. But only almost. She isn't that kind of mother after all.
Robert drinks himself into a stupor that night and when he returns from Withersom House the next morning, all he says is "She said yes and her father will contact you". He leaves again after that and stays at his club for the next four days.
AN: So I hope that you like this chapter. Next update will be on Thursday.
Please let me know what you think and write a review!
Thank you so much and have a great Sunday,
Kat
