Second Star to the Right

by YouAreAllStardust

A mysterious young man sweeps Sybil off of her feet during her coming out ball, but when he reappears in the strangest of ways during her first season no one could have known what was to come, but the only certain thing is that the Crawley family will never be the same again. Peter Pan meets Downton Abbey AU! ;)

Hello! I've had this idea floating around in my head for a long time now (Since just after 3x05 aired here in the UK/Ireland) but I've struggled to actually get it sorted and get to a place where I could start to write it. My exams are finally out of the way now though so I'm gonna give this a wee go ;) I'm sorry for how crappy this prologue is, I've rushed through it a bit but I promise to have the first chapter up soon! I'd love some feedback and anyways that you think I can improve, so please review! And if you feel like it, come say hi on tumblr, I'm OneForThePages :) Enjoy!

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The stars had always been a source of comfort for Sybil. Her earliest memory was being curled up in her eldest sister's arms, both of them tucked behind a curtain in the nursery and leaning against the window, trying to count the endless lights stretching across the sky. Thinking back on it, she assumes she must have fallen asleep before long and Mary was never able to recall any of it when she asked, sometimes making her wonder if maybe she had made the whole thing up. After the events of the last few weeks however, although she found herself tucked up behind the curtain once again, this time on her own in her own bedroom, she couldn't shake the sadness that hung over her.

She had retired to her bedroom not long after dinner, feigning a headache but in truth, she simply couldn't stand to be in the drawing room a moment longer. They had announced their engagement at dinner, and the gaudy ring he had presented her with a few days earlier felt like a dead weight on her finger. Everyone was delighted of course, except for the bride-to-be, and she couldn't ignore the cautious glances her family exchanged when they thought she wasn't looking.

Pressing her face to the glass, she searched one last time for him. She knew by now that if he was going to come back for her then he'd have been here long ago. She could feel the tears starting to well up behind her eyes as her last bit of hope slipped away. By lifting her hands to her eyes however, she missed the tiniest star in the sky as it winked at her and didn't see the figure that was now swooping towards her window.