Cora had joined Tom's vigil at Mary's bedside. She knew exactly how her daughter was feeling.

They had stayed by her side for two days straight before Mary finally sent them to the Abbey to get some rest.

"Go, I'm just lying here anyway." She implored them.

"I'll be back this evening." Tom promised, stifling a yawn.

▫️

Roughly an hour following their departure, there was a knock on the door.

"Tom," Mary chastised. "I told you to get some rest."

"I'm sorry to disappoint." Came an unwelcome voice.

It was Henry.

He made his way to the chair frequented by Tom. It made her skin crawl to see her husband, and not her friend in that seat.

"Are you not happy to see me?" He asked when she turned away from his kiss.

"Happy? How could I possibly be happy?"

"Darling, there'll be more babies. Don't mind this hiccough."

His words repulsed her, she physically recoiled as he made to move closer to her.

"There'll be no more babies for me." She told him disdainfully.

"What does that mean?" Henry's voice conveyed panic and anger while her knuckles were white as she clutched the bed sheet.

"It wouldn't do to have a child out of wedlock."

He stood at that and began to began to pace.

"I won't give you a divorce Mary."

She looked at her husband with an expression of sheer defiance.

"But it's not yours to give, it's mine to take. You abandoned me during one of the lowest periods of my life."

Henry rushed over to her and grabbed her hands, and began to spout off an apology that was so obviously rehearsed it sickened her.

"We can do this quietly or we can ruin one another. I have the power and the motive to destroy you, Henry."

He looked up at her, shocked etched upon his face.

"Do you think I'd miss an article about my husband in the paper?"

"It's just gossip!" Came a high pitched voice.

"Go quietly, Henry, and there will be money in it for you."

Mary knew that he was broke and how much it would take to buy her freedom.

Smoothing the sheet on her bed, the floral pattern so familiar to her now, she added: "We were never going to work."

Henry stood and made to leave, his shoulders sagging.

"I loved you, Mary." He whispered. "More than you know, and certainly more than you ever loved me."

"That seems to be the universal parting phrase." She muttered, remembering Richard Carlisle.

"Goodbye Henry. My solicitor will be in touch."

▫️

Tom returned as Mary's dinner tray was delivered. It still pained her to sit up, or to move much, but she felt weightless.

Mary Crawley was free.

"You look much better!" A relieved Tom beamed as her took his rightful seat.

"I had an eventful afternoon." She smiled at his jovial expression. "How does this sound? Lady Mary Crawley, the first Crawley to divorce."

Tom was dumbfounded and let his jaw drop.

"Henry was here?"

She nodded.

"You asked him for a divorce?"

She grinned as he laughed before she finally joined him. It felt good to laugh, but she felt profound guilt too and so stopped almost instantly.

A few seconds later, Tom grew sombre.

"I could have spared you all of this if I hadn't pushed to towards-"

"Nonsense." She cut across his apology. "You thought I loved him and acted in my best interests, as a friend should."

He took her hand and squeezed it reassuringly, happy to note that it no longer hung limp.

"I'll always be your friend, Mary."

"Good, because I'll need someone to lean on when everyone abandons me."

Tom rolled his eyes an stole a carrot from Mary's plate.

"Who's everyone going to side with, Mary? The driver or the eldest daughter of an Earl?"

"I suppose you're right. Now that's my dinner." She playfully slapped his hand away as he made to carry out another theft.