The Wedding from Hell
Summary : Mary and Matthew's wedding brings all branches of the Crawley family together. But when Robert clashes with Tom, Violet clashes with Martha and Rosamund clashes with everyone, Mary and Matthew will certainly have a day to remember!
Disclaimer : Nothing belongs to me (except plot lol!)
Chapter One
The day had finally come. The day they'd all been waiting for for just about eight years. The wedding had brought excitement and joy to the entire of Downton village. This was also the day that the entire Crawley family would come together for the first time since before Sybil was born. Somehow, Mary Josephine Crawley did not think that that would be a good thing. She looked across her room. There hung three dresses. Two were lilac with white lace trimmings and purple and white lace hair ribbons. These dresses were for the bridesmaids, Mary's younger sisters, Edith and Sybil. For some reason, Cora had asked her to make Sybil's dress a little larger than her normal size. I wonder why, thought Mary. Her thoughts were, however, interupted, when she caught sight of the white lace dress hanging in between the lilac. My wedding dress, thought Mary. After staring at these dresses for the best part of half an hour, Mary decided it was time to rise. After all, there was plenty to do.
Mary walked down the stairs, holding onto the banisters and stroking the lilac flowers that were entwined on white lace ribbon around the banisters. She couldn't help but think of the time when similar flowers had been entwined around the banisters for Matthew's wedding to Lavinia. But of course, fate snatched that from them and gave her another chance, for which she was eternally grateful.
As she entered the dining room, she was almost pounced upon by Cora, Violet, Edith and Rosamund, who had just arrived from London the previous evening.
"Mary!" exclaimed Cora, pulling her daughter into an embrace. "Are you ready for your big day?"
"Yes, Mama, I wouldn't be marrying him otherwise! Is Sybil here yet?"
"No, but she just telephoned to say that she and Tom..."
Cora paused and gave Robert a chilling look, as he had winced at the sound of the former chauffeur's first name being used in the same sentence as his youngest daughter's.
"...have just come from the boat and should be here in about an hour or two."
"Good. Is anyone else coming from the family."
"No, just Sybil and Tom left. Your grandmother and Rosamund are already here and Isobel's coming down with Matthew."
"But what about..." Mary trailed off, when she caught sight of the look Edith was giving her. The look that she knew, from her childhood, to mean 'stop talking or the remainder of your life will not be worth living'. She was busy trying to make up an excuse, when she found one provided for her, when Edith ran back from the window.
"Look, a car. It's Sybil and...good lord, Mary, you should see this!"