Chapter 10:

Mary:

Mary replaced the telephone receiver with more of a bang than was strictly necessary. God, Richard made her so angry sometimes!

The news that Lavinia Swire had thrown over Matthew Crawley, the future Earl of Grantham, had hit London and had clearly sent Richard into a jealous rage. He'd taken to calling her two or three times a day and demanding to know what she'd been doing and whether she'd seen Matthew at all. Truth be told she'd not seen him since that awkward conversation about Lavinia and she was beginning to wonder if he was avoiding her; he seemed to have finally moved back to Crawley House, or was at least hiding out there.

Richard was coming up to Downton at the weekend to discuss their wedding date with Rev Travis. She'd tried to protest that they couldn't go ahead with her Papa as he was, but Richard had been insistent and nothing she could say would change his mind.

Mary bit back tears of frustration and despair knowing that she was on a trajectory to marrying Richard in just a few months. He'd made it abundantly clear a number of times in the last few days that he would not hesitate to publish the details of her liaison with Pamuk if she delayed any longer, and she knew that would kill her Papa in his current state. She was utterly trapped in a hell of her own making.

As she made her way back towards the sitting room she noticed Mr. Murray, her father's solicitor, waiting awkwardly in the hall.

"Mr. Murray, are you alright? Can I help?"

"I do beg your pardon my lady" Murray said, more than a hint of embarrassment obvious in his voice. "Only I'm meant to be seeing Lord Grantham. Carson went to fetch him, but there must be some sort of problem as he's been gone for some time. I don't want to bother him, or any of you, but it is quite an urgent matter, to do with your mother."

Mary's frustration at Richard was suddenly redirected towards her father and she let out an involuntary sigh in exasperation. It suddenly felt very unfair that her Papa was allowed to lock himself away and refuse to face what had happened and instead leave her to deal with everything. And why oh why had Carson not shown Murray into the study or the drawing room?

"I'm so sorry Mr. Murray. Come and wait in the study and I'll go and see what's taking so long."

She ushered Murray into the study and rang for tea, her resolve hardening within her. She might not be able to change the situation with Richard but she was damn well going to try and sort out whatever was ailing Papa.

Matthew:

Matthew and Carson were standing in Lord Grantham's bedroom. The latter feeling helpless and the former exasperated. Murray was downstairs having arrived for his prearranged meeting with Robert who was now flatly refusing to go down and see him.

Matthew could see Carson twitching at the thought of having left a guest stranded in the hall, but had refused to allow him to go downstairs and make Robert's apologies. Matthew had spoken with Murray on several occasions in the months since Cora's death and he'd been increasingly insistent that he needed to speak privately with Robert and then with the whole family in regards to Cora's will. Matthew had expressed some surprise that Cora had a will given her fortune was tied up in Downton but Murray had said she wanted to bequeath some of her personal jewellery and, more cryptically, that there were some letters that needed delivering. Whatever it was it was clearly important but Robert continued to refuse to engage with anything to do with Cora, or the estate or the family.

Just as Matthew was about to give up and send Carson downstairs to dispatch Murray, the bedroom door was flung open and Mary marched in. There was a steely grey determination in her eyes that Matthew hadn't seen for a long time. She caught his eye briefly and, despite himself, he felt his insides turn over.

"Papa!" she said sharply, "It is time. We need you. I need you."

Her voice caught as she finished and Matthew thought she might cry, but the steely determination of old won out and she held Robert's eye, both sides pleading silently with each other.

Robert looked away first and, to Matthew's amazement, turned to Carson.

"I think I might need to get dressed, Carson."