I originally posted this on Tumblr. Again, I want to thank the Yankee Countess for reading this fic when I was struggling with it. I went through four versions of this story before I felt comfortable showing it to anyone. Her encouragement has been wonderful.
In a Moment
Lavinia's funeral had just ended. Lord Grantham was talking to Dr. Clarkson, Rev. Travis and his own mother when he glanced to the right and saw Tom Branson with Sybil. He walked toward the rebellious pair, displeased that the man who seduced his youngest daughter was there.
"Why are you here?"
Tom answered without hesitation. "To pay my respects to Miss Swire. And to see Sybil."
"Lady Sybil," Lord Grantham gruffly replied.
"Oh papa, what's the point in all that nonsense?"
Robert only had a moment to respond. He could ignore his youngest daughter's remark about her title being nonsense. He could swallow his pride and give his blessing. Or he could let his pride win over his love for Sybil. He could let his anger at the situation, or rather his lack of control over the situation, overtake him. He only had a moment to decide.
Robert Crawley, 5th Earl of Grantham, would come to regret his decision for the rest of his life.
He glowered at Sybil and the chauffeur, barely concealing his rage. "Nonsense. The life I've given you is nonsense." He paused, trying to regain some composure and not wanting to make a scene in the cemetery. "We will discuss this after everyone leaves. Just walk back to the house at once. Without him."
The steely edge to his voice and the withering glare he gave her and Tom startled Sybil. However, she remained undaunted. "We'll walk back. Together."
They then turned, clasped each other's hands, and walked out of the cemetery.
He didn't know it then, but that would be the last time he would speak to his youngest daughter.
Instead of walking straight back to Downton Abbey, Sybil and Tom stopped at the Grantham Arms for a cider. She wanted to calm down before returning to the house and she desperately wanted to spend some time with her fiancée. Unfortunately, it would be where Sybil would learn of her father's unforgivable actions five days earlier.
Robert did not see Sybil (or the chauffeur) when he arrived back at the house. He would not see her until the following morning. It had been a trying day. The funeral for someone so young, followed by a confrontation with Sybil and Branson, and ending with the arrest of Bates. Robert had called Murray as soon as he heard of Bates' arrest. Now, as he sat in the library and drank a snifter of scotch, he was glad that the mourners had left and he could sit in peace. It wasn't to last.
The silence was disrupted by raised voices upstairs. Robert couldn't hear what was being said, but he could tell Sybil and Cora were arguing. He wasn't sure whether to go up and look into what was going on, but decided his presence would only make the situation worse. After several minutes, the voices ceased and a door slammed shut.
Cora slipped into the library five minutes later, grim faced and tense. Robert did not like that look.
"What happened upstairs between you and Sybil?"
His wife sighed. "I went in to check on her as I hadn't seen her since the funeral. She was packing her suitcase in a hurry. When I asked her what she was doing, she said that she was leaving and taking a room at the Grantham Arms for the night."
Robert was shocked. "Whatever for? This is all that damn chauffeur's fault."
Cora tensed up even more. Her reply was harsh. "No, this is all of your doing."
"What?"
"Sybil explained that words were exchanged at the cemetery between you and her. She decided she wanted to calm down before she returned home. At her request, Branson took her to the Grantham Arms. It was there that Mr. Baxter revealed that you went to see Branson several days ago. Do I need to further elaborate what happened?"
He looked down, knowing what Sybil learned from the chauffeur.
Cora asked in a voice filled with astonishment, "Did you really offer him money to leave Sybil?"
Robert's head shot up, completely stunned by his wife's tone of voice. "Of course I did. That's how these things are handled."
His wife rubbed her temples. "I wish you had told me before you went. We wouldn't have a 23 year old upstairs furious that her father thinks she's a piece of chattel."
He groaned, fully realizing the mistake he made in offering the chauffeur money. "He shouldn't have told her! He did it just to alienate her from us."
"He had no choice. Mr. Baxter mentioned something about you coming to the inn and Sybil pried it out of him. Branson walked her back here and alerted Mrs. Hughes as to what happened. She, in turn, came to me. Thankfully, I calmed Sybil down and talked her out of leaving tonight. But I wouldn't be surprised if she leaves tomorrow."
"She'll sleep off her anger."
However, Cora was right. Sybil did leave the next morning. She ate a quick breakfast, refusing to utter a word to him. Mary and Edith worked together to ease the tension, but it was futile. As soon as she finished eating, Sybil excused herself. His elder daughters followed fifteen minutes later. The last words he heard from Sybil were to Carson, "Goodbye, Carson."
She didn't even say goodbye to him.
After Sybil left, things were never the same again, especially between Cora and him. Cora cried for days after Sybil's departure and he was banished to his dressing room for a week.
Angered by Sybil's decision to marry the chauffeur and not even saying goodbye to her own father, Robert forbade Cora, Violet, and his daughters from attending the wedding. Violet disobeyed him, paying for Mary and Edith to travel to Dublin, and even giving Mary the Crawley family wedding tiara for Sybil to wear.
She didn't wear it. Sybil declared herself a Branson and opted for a crown of flowers instead. His wife was devastated at missing her daughter's wedding. She banished him to his dressing room for a month after the wedding.
Sybil did write to Cora, Mary, and Edith, but never to him. They never returned to England again. She and her husband sent their wishes to Mary when she and Matthew married, and to Edith when she married Sir Anthony.
Cora left for a visit to America in 1926. She never returned. Sybil, Branson, and their children had left Ireland for New York the previous year. When she wrote to tell him she wasn't returning, Cora said she couldn't bear to part from Sybil and her grandchildren.
The last he heard from Cora, Sybil and Tom (Tom) had another child, bringing their total to five. A picture was enclosed of the family. Sybil and her husband sitting next to each other, beaming at the camera. Baby Saoirse Kathleen was in his daughter's arms. Their second youngest, Margaret Grace, was on Tom's lap. Standing next to him, was their oldest child, Constance Rose, and sitting on the floor, were the twins Francis Thomas and Michael James.
As Robert looked at the photo, he wept for the moment he made the worst choice of his life.