Two Weeks Later

"So I've decided what we're going to do today," Sybil said, standing up and putting her finished book back in the bookshelf. Tom glanced up from the newspaper he was reading and raised an eyebrow.

"Really? Have we?"

"And tomorrow, too!"

"Give me the lowdown, then," Tom said. He wasn't quite sure what would happen after the whole shootout at the speakeasy. Sybil seemed upset about it, but she didn't let that show the next day. Instead, she took him out to a place that, in her own words, 'serves up a mean brunch.' It really did, and he had some great pancakes with his eggs, sausage, and toast.

"I was kidding about today, but I do know what we're doing tomorrow- seeing an Indians game!"

"A game with Indians in it?"

"I mean the baseball team. You know what baseball is, right?"

"No."

"You hit a ball that's thrown at you with a bat,"

"Oh, so kind of like cricket."

"Yes! It's more exciting though. You get to eat ice cream and yell at the players the whole time. It's loads of fun,"

The door opened and Cora walked in, smiling at the two. Tom sat back in his chair and Sybil sat up straighter. Whenever someone else came in, they had to act what she called 'professional': unless it was something that needed to be conveyed, they didn't talk. Tom just had to blend into the background. Sitting down on the chair next to Sybil, Cora turned to her daughter.

"Sybil, you won't believe what I was able to set up for you tonight. You're going to go to dinner with Larry!"

"What?"

"Exciting, isn't it? He's going to come pick you up tonight. You'll go out to dinner somewhere, I'm not sure where, but it-"

"Mamma, I don't want to go out to dinner with Larry."

"He's a perfectly nice boy, and his father happens to be a-"

"I don't really care about what his father is in England, it's just a title, which amounts to nothing here!"

"Just listen to me for a moment!" Cora said. Tom's eyebrows shot up, as did Sybil's, and her eyes were wide, surprised. Cora took a deep breath and smiled again.

"You're going to go out to dinner with Larry tonight. Tom," she said, addressing him for the first time, "you will not need to go. I trust Larry enough to protect Sybil." A snort came from the mentioned.

"Thank you," Tom said, bowing his head in deference. Cora was gone a moment later and Sybil sighed.

"Normally she's a wonderful mother but this is insufferable! I truly detest him,"

"I'm sorry you have to do it," Tom said. He wished he could be the one taking Sybil out for dinner. They had so much fun together and sometimes Tom thought he might like her- not that he'd admit either fact.

"I'd rather have you go, honestly. The only things Larry can manage to talk about are himself or complain about things. He's so insensitive," Sybil wished that Tom was the one she'd be going to dinner with more than he did. According to Mary, she had a 'wonderful relationship' with him- but Sybil had told her it was a different boy so there wouldn't be any suspicion.

"Learn anything else?" Aidan asked, leaning back in his chair, a cigar hanging out of his mouth. Tom always hated tobacco, especially the smell.

"Not really, but she tells me little bits here and there. They've got relatives in Italy who are powerful, but not as much power as they have here. The Maroni gang is trying to infiltrate, but we knew that. They're losing some territory, but it's being gained back quite easily,"

"Anything of importance?"

"Well, she went to go take a bath one day so I tried to find possible entrances into the home that nobody would notice. There's a verandah with a door they leave unlocked for Mary to come in and out of. I asked Sybil about it when she came out, claiming it had blown open."

"So they just leave it unlocked all the time?"

"If they're going away they lock it, but otherwise, yes, it's unlocked all the time. Apparently Mary comes and goes during the night a lot- with Richard Carlisle- and they don't want her to bother the rest of the family so they told her to use that door,"

"What parts of the house is it near?"

"Not any rooms of importance. I mean, Mary's bedroom is right there, but besides that it's just a long hall leading to the foyer."

"I think we might be able to get someone in Mary's bedroom to mess things up a bit for the family,"

"I don't understand what you mean."

"We make sure this Carlisle man is out of town. Then, I send in a boy to her room. It's simple,"

"Carlisle is out of town on business tonight," Tom said, remembering what the girls had been talking about at breakfast. Mary said she wasn't feeling well and was going to have an early night, but had to go out to dinner to make an appearance in place of Robert, who was visiting an analyst in Chicago.

"I have a friend named Kemal Pamuk who surely will be able to help us," Aidan pulled the receiver from the telephone and asked for the operator.

Tom realized exactly what Aidan was planning and got a sick feeling in his stomach.

"Aren't you Mary Crawleo?" the handsome man asked. He was standing over Mary's table, and she glanced up as if she hadn't noticed him, smiled.

"That would be me," Mary said. She had shooed Carson off when she saw the man and made sure to look very… feminine, attractive.

"Even more stunning in person! I'm Kemal Pamuk. My father is the mayor of Mayville," Kemal reached out and took her hand, kissing the back of it. Mary grinned- she liked charming boys.

"What are you doing so far from home, Mr. Pamuk?"

"I have a friend who needed me for some business planning. Boring things, the like. Are you eating dinner alone?"

"Yes, yes I am."

"Might I join you?"

"That would be wonderful!"

"By the way, you aren't dating that Carlisle fellow, correct?"

"No, we're… on a break."

"Good. I wouldn't want to be having dinner with another man's lady," the two smiled at each other and Kemal motioned the waiter over.

Carson did not like this man.

"The service here is despicable! We have been waiting ten minutes since the order and still haven't gotten our food. Do they know who are parents are?" Larry's accent was bothering Sybil. On their many trips to England, specifically Yorkshire and London, Cora had taught her how to distinguish different accents. According to her mother, Larry's accent would be more of a London accent, a Southern one, if Sybil could recall. To her, they sounded similar, besides those from Ireland, Scotland, and Wales.

"They know, Larry," Sybil groaned. He had threatened the poor waiter when he arrived, asking why he hadn't come straight to the table after they had been seated.

"Do they? Good. You know, my father could have you accompany me to London when I go for Christmas. It's very nice,"

"Thank you, but Christmas is a family holiday,"

"I'm sure your family could come as well. Your grandmother does live in Yorkshire, right?"

"Yes, she does," Sybil traced the rim of her wine glass, which was damp, and caused it to make the ringing noise she did to annoy people at dinner sometimes.

"Could you stop that?"

"What?"

"That ringing noise. It's bothering me."

Sybil traced the rim faster now, trying to suppress her grin. Larry rolled his eyes and reached out, pulling her wine glass away.

"Hey! I was going to drink that!"

"No, you weren't. You're just trying to annoy me so I'll take you home." Sybil was surprised he had caught on to her plan that easily. Then again, she was being a bit obvious.

"Just admit it, Larry, it's not going to work out," she sighed, and he did as well.

"Once we're done eating we can go," he said.

After the relatively quiet meal, and an awkward debate over who got to eat which dessert, ending in Sybil getting the cheesecake and Larry getting the mixed berry pie.

When he pulled up to the entrance to Downton Mansion, Sybil pulled her purse from down by her feet.

"Thanks for being understanding, Larry," Sybil said, turning to say goodbye, when suddenly Larry was pressing his lips against hers. Pulling away, her face contorted with disgust at him and she slapped him.

"You disgust me." she hissed, opening the door and getting out of the car, walking away as fast as she could. Larry merely smirked as he drove away, knowing she'd come around eventually.

"So then I'm going to get out of the car- I turned to say goodbye and he just kissed me!" Sybil said, recalling the moment, thinking of how gross it was. Not how she wanted her first kiss to happen.

"You're kidding!" Edith exclaimed, eyes wide.

"I've always disliked him, and you've given me another reason to," Mary said, folding her arms and sitting back. The three were sitting on Mary's bed in her bedroom, talking about their days- all three had had some sort of incident with a man. Mary had already told her story about Kemal, who after charming his way through dinner and paying for it, gave her his telephone number and told her to call him next time she wanted to go out.

"It's not like I can do it without Richard finding out, but I'll say it's for 'business.' He'll understand," Mary had told them. Now it was Edith's turn.

"I was taking a drive through the town with Anthony, it was absolutely wonderful…" she said, trailing off, a dazed yet happy expression on her face.

"That's very climactic, Edith," Mary said, rolling her eyes.

"I haven't told you the best part! He… he proposed!" Edith reached over and pulled a ring out of the folds of her robe, which was lying haphazardly on a chair. Sybil and Mary's eyes grew wide.

"You're kidding!" Mary yelled.

"Let me see it!" Sybil held out her hand and Edith dropped the ring into it. It was a beautiful diamond, with a gold band encrusted with smaller gems of different colors.

"That is a beautiful ring," Mary said. The younger sisters could tell by her tone of voice that she was being genuine, and Edith beamed.

"Papa didn't tell me, even though Anthony asked for his blessing weeks ago… he told me he was waiting for when we could take a drive to the park, because he wanted the right weather. Isn't that just wonderful?" the other two 'aww'-ed and hugged Edith, glad for their sister. She slipped her ring on her finger and the three admired how it looked on her finger.

There was a light knock on the door and Cora popped her head in.

"I know you three are talking about boys and Anthony's proposal, but it's almost eleven. You three should get your sleep. And Mary, I thought you weren't feeling well!"

"This news has made me feel much better," Mary said, letting herself fall back onto her pillows. Sybil laughed and got off the bed, tying her robe around her waist as Edith did the same, also putting her slippers on.

"Sybil, dear, why are you not wearing slippers? You're going to catch a cold."

"I don't need them. You're lucky I'm even wearing my robe!" she replied, standing up a little straighter. Cora just smiled and opened the door wider so the younger two could leave.

"Get your sleep. We can't have you getting sick," Cora said to Mary, then closed the door.

Sybil was walking through the hall to her room when she heard something. She stood and listened, hearing it again- it sounded kind of like the 'psst' sound you would make when trying to tell a secret. Turning her head, Sybil saw someone outside the window. It looked like… Tom? She rushed over and opened the window, making sure there was nobody else around.

"What are you doing here?"

"Stay in your room tonight."

"Excuse me?"

"You heard me. No matter what, you need to stay in your room tonight."

"Is something going to happen?" a cold breeze blew through the window and Sybil shivered, pulling her robe tighter around herself. She was wishing she had brought slippers now.

"I… uh, I don't know, I don't think so. I just have a bad feeling tonight. Stay in, okay?"

"Alright. You shouldn't even be seeing me like this, it's inappropriate!"

"How was dinner with Larry?"

"Absolutely horrible. He kissed me and I slapped him," Tom felt jealousy bubbling up inside of him, but was glad Sybil had slapped him. She complained about him every time he called on her, though, so he couldn't blame her.

"Nice job. Now close this window and stop being so inappropriate. You'll catch a cold," he teased.

"Oh, don't be my mother! She said the same thing earlier about my not wearing slippers," Sybil quietly laughed and closed the window, latching it shut, then waving to Tom. As she entered her room, she could have sworn she could have heard the squeaky door to the verandah opening.

Their love was rampant, everywhere. Jeremiah pulled Elizabeth to his breast and kissed her passionately, running a hand through her curly mass of auburn hair. She pulled away to say-

Mary heard her door open and glanced up to see who was coming in. Nobody appeared, and she got an uneasy feeling.

"Alright, Sybil, you got me, come on out," she said, putting her book down. She had taken off her dressing robe since she was a bit hot and was lying under the covers, trying to burn off her fever if she had one.

Sybil didn't walk around the door with a mischievous grin, but Kemal Pamuk did. Startled, Mary jumped out of her bed, pulling the blanket with her and holding it up so he wouldn't be able to see her indecently.

"What the hell are you doing in here?"

"Seeing a beautiful lady, of course," Kemal shut the door and walked over to Mary, running a hand over her hair like Jeremiah and Elizabeth in her book. She took a step back and glared intensely at him.

"I'll scream." She threatened, but he merely took the step towards Mary.

"What would they say if they found a man they don't know but you know in your bedroom, seeing you dressed indecently?" Kemal took the blanket and took it from her, throwing it onto the ground. He pushed Mary against the wall, kissing her, her neck, her collarbone.

"Get off of me!" she pushed him away, panting. "I was intrigued by you at first but after this I'll never be able to look at you the same!"

"I do believe I have the upper hand in this situation," Kemal pulled Mary to the bed and threw her down, putting himself on top of her and continuing what he had started. Mary knew what he was going to do and told herself to keep calm.

"Does it hurt?" she asked, trying to distract him.

"What, you've never had amorous congress? I know you and Carlisle go out every night!"

"But we don't do that."

The conversation ended as things went where Mary hoped they would not. Kemal's tongue was in her mouth and she no longer knew what was happening.

"He's… dead?" Mary nodded, in tears.

"Did he force himself onto you?" Mary nodded again.

"Did you stop him?" a shrug.

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"I tried!" Mary wailed, putting her face in her hands. "Mamma, I'm ruined! The Italian family won't talk to me because I haven't committed to monogamy and the English family will think I've caused a disgrace to our family!"

Cora stared at the corpse in front of her.

"We'll have to carry him outside. This isn't going to look very realistic."

"He's already dead, Mamma, you don't need to make it look more realistic!"

"Right. O'Brien, go open the verandah door." O'Brien left, closing the door behind herself.

"I am very disappointed. I will not tell your father because the shock would most likely kill him and he'd estrange you from the family. Being your mother I feel it would not only be a disgrace to us, but you are my daughter so I morally cannot let this happen."

Over the next hour the three carried Kemal's body far enough away from the mansion that it wouldn't look suspicious. Then again, the police stopped thinking too much about deaths in the Crawleo and Maroni parts of town. It happened far too often to waste the time.

"Found him dead in Mary's bed. Lord, it was a sight to see." O'Brien said, blowing smoke from her mouth. She was bumming some much-needed cigarettes from Thomas, who always had them and liked to have the latest dirt on anyone, be it his employer's family or just news about people back at home.

"Did they boff?"

"He forced himself on her and she tried to stop him, but yes, they did. You're not much better from what I hear, still out cottaging despite my telling you not to,"

"That doesn't matter. What matters is that this is very serious!" Thomas tried to suppress his grin, but couldn't.

"Stop being facetious. It is serious."

"What? You're the one who brought up my endeavors."

"Don't spread this around, Thomas. I heard their conversation and Cora said this would disgrace the family. If it does, I'm going to knock you upside the head,"

"You can count on me, O'Brien," Thomas said with a sly grin.

A/N: I've been able to update THREE times in the past week. Yay! I've had more time on my hands due to situations in my city and got some inspiration for this chapter. Darcy! I fixed that chapter for you. Sorry I didn't notice it earlier- we Americans tend to generalize British accents! Also put in the whole bit about Larry's accent for you (the Borough of Merton is in southwest London so I had to put that it, as well) :) Also, I was on Mental Floss and saw this article about terms they used to describe sex in the 1800s... and the 'amorous congress' one made me laugh, so I just had to use it. Hope you enjoyed!