AN: As always I am posting the first two chapters in one go to give you an idea of the story. It is a lot less angsty then it seems at the beginning, so don't worry.
Let me know what you think!
Kat
Chapter 1
Violet
"Your wife is a horrible person."
"I know."
"She hates me."
"I know."
"She disrespects your father."
"I know."
"She cheats on you."
"I know."
"She is the reason Mary won't talk to anyone besides you."
"I know."
"You hate her."
"You made me marry her."
"I know."
Violet looks at her son and sees the defeat in his eyes. Never in her life has she regretted anything nearly as much as making him marry Lady Philippa, second daughter of the Earl Withersom. But that woman had an incredibly large dowry and she was from the English aristocracy. Violet thought Lady Philippa would be perfect for her son. How wrong she was. Her son's life is miserable and her granddaughter's life is miserable too. The girl is three years old and her father is the only person in the world who has ever heard her speak. Because little Mary only ever speaks to her father and only if there is no one else in the room. The girl is horribly afraid of her mother who only yells at her and calls her retarded.
"Robert, I'm sorry. For all of it. I shouldn't have made you marry that woman."
"No, you shouldn't have."
"I should have let you pursue that American girl. Clara Wilkinson."
"Cora Levinson, Mama."
"What happened to her?"
"She married the Duke of Suffolk, which of course means that she is now a Dowager Duchess."
"Oh, didn't she have a boy seven months after her husband's death?"
"Yes."
"We will meet her again then."
"Where?"
"Here. Your wife invited her here for that house party. She explicitly asked her to bring her son. We both know why she did that."
"That boy can't be older than three months and Mary is three years old. She can't be matchmaking now."
"Robert, I am telling you, she is. That little boy is a duke. I wouldn't put anything past Philippa."
"Neither would I."
"Robert, I" But he cuts her off. "Don't. Just don't" he says and leaves the room.
She has ruined her son's life. He is so unhappy in his marriage. She wishes she could turn back time. If that American girl had been good enough for a duke, she would have been good enough for her son.
"Mama." Violet hates that voice. "Don't call me that", she says to her daughter-in-law.
"Why ever not?" She hates her.
"Because I have caught you in bed with three different men over the course of the last three years. Not one of them was my son. You have no right to call me anything but Lady Grantham." Her daughter-in-law completely ignores this statement.
"I need your help with some arrangements for the house party. The Dowager Duchess of Suffolk has made the oddest request. She wants her son to stay in a room next to hers. I wonder why that is."
"Maybe she loves her child." Violet has to leave the room or she will kill that horrible woman.