A/N Thank you to everyone who reviewed, alerted, favourited and read my previous chapter. I'm so pleased that it seems to have been well received. With a little luck and a fair wind, hopefully this second chapter will not disappoint. I will respond to all reviews as soon as possible but as you understand, I have been away in Downton for most of the day. Thank you again for reading.


"So Cousin Matthew has given you a second chance then?"

Mary stopped. She was on the upstairs landing having just left her mother's room, where she had been smothered in affection.

She smoothed an imagined stray hair before turning to face her sister.

"Yes." Lady Mary said brusquely, before adding in a kinder tone, "Would you like to see the ring?"

Edith walked slowly towards her sister, keeping her voice low.

"Yet another ring?" She said, not bothering to hide her sarcasm.

Lady Mary raised an eyebrow.

"Well let's be honest Mary, you do seem to change fiancés more often than the rest of us change our shoes. What is it, three now, or four? I wonder how long this engagement will last."

Mary could to some extent understand her sister's bitterness, and today of all days she could afford to be benevolent. After all, she could see how Edith would feel. Mary had no sooner extricated herself from one engagement than she was once again betrothed, this time to someone she truly loved, whereas Edith… She inwardly winced that she had been the one to put Sir Anthony Strallon off. However, that aside, there was no way she was allowing her sister's jealousy to cast a shadow over her happiness.

"Honestly Edith. Do try not to be so dramatic."

"Dramatic? You act like you deserve all of this, you always have. You didn't even like most of them."

"At least I had the option to like or dislike them!" Mary hadn't meant to be cruel, but her sister had pushed her beyond her limit of endurance.

Edith sniffed before pushing past and disappearing down the stairs.

"Edith!" Mary called after her in exasperation, but her sister had gone.


Mary sighed as she returned to the library, her heart fluttering as Matthew abandoned the book he'd been reading and got to his feet.

"Are you all right?" He asked, a slight frown on his face. "You look a little pale?"

"Perfectly." She replied with practiced brightness. "It's all too much excitement for my tastes I'm afraid."

Placing her arms around his waist she lay her head on his shoulder, a comforting embrace which he gladly returned.

"It's not over with yet I'm afraid. There is still Mother and Cousin Violet to tell."

Her eyes met his. "Do you think they are going to crow terribly?"

Matthew nodded seriously. "Yes, I think they probably are."


"But I don't understand. I thought Lady Mary was going to marry Sir Richard?" Daisy asked, a look of utter confusion on her face.

The servants had been discussing the morning's events over a well deserved cup of tea. At one end of the table, Thomas sat smoking a cigarette, O'Brian to his right. Anna sat alone working on some mending.

"She was," Anna said patiently, "and now she is going to marry Mr Crawley."

"But… but I don't see how she could love Sir Richard last week and Mr Crawley this week?" Daisy continued naively.

"I doubt very much love comes into it." O'Brian said coldly. "One had money, the other will have this place one day, and it comes down to which she wanted more."

"I don't think that anyone could deny how Lady Mary feels about Mr Crawley," Anna said pointedly, "and I definitely don't think it is for us to question her choice of husband."

"God forbid that anyone's choice of husband should be questioned." Thomas sniped.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Anna snapped. She stared at the new valet, daring him to meet her eye, but he was looking at the wall and blowing smoke rings.

"It didn't mean anything, did it?" O'Brian said, elbowing Thomas hard in the ribs.

He leant forward and ground his cigarette out in the ashtray. "No, nothing." He said, lazily getting to his feet and straightening his waistcoat. "All I'm saying is, she threw over Sir Richard after all he'd done and no-one seems to think there is anything wrong with that." With a final snide glance at the maid, he left. O'Brian gave Anna an almost sympathetic look before following in his wake. Her conscience was still suffering at the hand she'd played in Bates' fate.

"So she loved both of them?" Daisy said doggedly.

"It's complicated Daisy." Anna said wearily. "They," She indicated upwards, "don't always get the opportunity to marry someone they love. Lady Mary has been very lucky."

"But Lady Sybil got to marry Mr Branson?"

"I will not have that name mentioned in this house Daisy; I thought I made that abundantly clear!" Mr Carson boomed, making the kitchen maid jump. "Don't you have something you should be doing?"

Daisy almost bobbed in the imposing presence of the butler. "Yes Mr Carson." She said meekly before scurrying back to the kitchen.


"I suppose we really should think about visiting Granny and Cousin Isobel?" Mary said eventually. They had stood for the longest time just enjoying the comfort of the others arms.

"Best to get it over with." Matthew agreed.

Still neither of them moved.

"Obviously Granny will believe she is solely responsible."

"When of course Mother will be equally certain that it was down to her."

Mary looked thoughtful. "What was it that made you change your mind?" She asked.

He smiled wistfully. "I don't know, any manner of things. You trusting me enough to tell me your secret, some things Mother said, your Father said, but mostly the fact that you were threatening to go away and I didn't know when I would see you again. That was something I apparently couldn't bear. I couldn't stop thinking about it you see, us being so far apart, I may have never seen you again. Does that make any sense?"

Mary smiled. "You wouldn't believe how much."

Matthew looked quizzical.

"When we thought… when you were missing." Mary paused as if considering what she was saying. "We… I imagined…Well you know what we imagined."

"The worst."

"Something like that."

"I'm sorry Mary. I didn't even know that we were expected."

Mary laid a hand upon his cheek, gazing up earnestly into his face. "Then when you arrived while we were singing that awful song."

"I actually quite liked it."

"You would." She grimaced before her smile returned. "It was all I could do to stop myself running down that aisle and throwing myself into your arms."

"That would have caused quite the stir."

"Probably. But I had never been so thankful for anything in my life. Despite our… relationship at the time, I still could not imagine a life without you in it."

"Nor I you. I'm not sure that I've mentioned it Mary, but I do love you."

"I should jolly well think so." She teased, before her expression softened. "And for the record, I love you."

They shared a chaste kiss.

"This however, is not addressing the matter of Mother and Cousin Violet." Matthew said eventually.

"You had to remind me. I don't suppose we could get them together and tell them?"

The look of horror on her fiancés face was all the answer she needed.


In his modern office Sir Richard Carlisle glared out of the window at the city of London as if it had personally affronted him.

'Damn her.' He thought. 'Damn all of them.'

And yet he had not published her story. Something in him prevented it. He had loved her in his own way. By God, there was nothing else he could have done, everything was to please her. But it was never enough. It would never be enough while Matthew Crawley held her in his thrall. A solicitor, that's all he was, a provincial solicitor who might one day inherit Downton, but Sir Richard did not believe that was her only motivation. There was nothing that Sir Richard did not know about Matthew Crawley. The moment he suspected Lady Mary's affections lay with her cousin, he had made it his business to find out everything he could about the man. To his irritation, Matthew Crawley seemed to have lived the life of a saint. Sir Richard had always believed there was dirt somewhere if you dug far enough, but still he had failed to come up with anything. If honour had a face it would be of that… that… villain.

'Damn her.' He thought again.

If only it had just been a business arrangement, a partnership, he could have walked away without giving it a second thought. He had allowed himself to care for her and that had been his mistake. He was not a man used to being thwarted in what he wanted. Matthew Crawley didn't want her, he, Sir Richard did, but still she would prefer to be alone and scandalised. Yet why could he not be the means to her undoing? Was it that he hoped she would see the error of her ways and come back to him? Did he wish that she would realise her bravado in getting rid of him was foolish, and the fact that he had kept her secret make him the hero? Would the sainted Matthew Crawley have stood by her as he had? He doubted it. That would be the only way, oh he would stand by the family, a man of honour could do no less, but if Mary could somehow see how dear Cousin Matthew would despise her if only he knew. Sir Richard clenched his fists, there had to be a way.