A/N: sorry I was so late with this. Holidays can get in the way!
Matthew sat down, looking at his typical morning breakfast with his famished eyes. His plan when he finished was to head up to Downton, for he had to talk to Robert before they left for church. He was sure the Earl would be quite upset with him for waiting, but Matthew was certain it had been better to take care of Mary first. He realized now that she had already been through enough, but forcing her to accuse Pamuk in her condition would have been too much. Hopefully she would agree with him this morning.
He was about to find out as Mary walked into the dining room. Matthew was so surprised, he nearly spoke with his mouth full. Standing up, he nodded to her. She didn't come down for breakfast hardly at all. She had told him her mother ate breakfast in bed, so she would too.
"Good morning," she said, smiling a little shyly. Obviously the night before had done wonders for their relationship and Matthew almost changed his mind about leaving at all.
"Good morning," he returned. "I didn't expect to see you down here."
She sat down beside him, and Matthew didn't bother to hide his smile. She glanced at Moseley by the door, who asked what she wanted.
"Yes, I suppose that's yet another apology I owe you. I never took my breakfast in bed at ho-...I mean back at Downton. I just was trying to avoid you." She looked sad at her admission.
Matthew decided to take the opportunity while he could, and slid his hand out to carefully grasp hers. Squeezing it, he said, "It's alright. I'm glad you're here now."
They held each other's gaze until they were interrupted by Moseley with Mary's food. He tried not to show disappointment when he had to let go of her hand.
After a few minutes, Matthew knew he had to bring it up. "How are you feeling? Are you...I mean..."
"I'm much better. In fact, I'm fine. It's past now and we can forget it." While she was looking at him the way he always longed for, he didn't like what he was hearing.
"Forget about it? You were very shaken last night and had every reason to be..."
She interrupted, "Yes, I am. I do think it's more to do with my rescuer than myself, but whichever, I'm glad it's over."
Matthew searched her eyes and she looked like she meant it. He could hardly believe her, but Mary probably wasn't the type to dwell. Still, he knew it wasn't over just because she said so. "Well, he's still at the house."
Now she stopped looking at him. He could see by her body language she wasn't thrilled by their subject of conversation. "He'll be gone soon enough. Then things can get back to normal."
Matthew stared ahead at the table for a long time, torn between wishing he could be like her and let it go or possibly hurt her by being insistent. But the truth was Pamuk did attack her and he needed to be punished.
"What are your plans for today after church?" Mary asked, obviously trying to change the subject. "It looks to be a sunny day, we could go for a walk."
This was going to kill him. Mary was looking at him and saw he was upset by her words. "What is it?" she asked. "Do you have to work? It's Sunday."
"Actually, I hadn't planned on going to church."
She smiled at him. "Why Matthew, are you suggesting we skip? What will the neighbors think?"
He blushed at this, wishing more than ever he could spend a morning alone with Mary. She giggled at his reaction and he couldn't take his guilt anymore. He blurted out, "I'm going to tell your father what happened."
He said it so fast, it took her a moment to react. When she did, her face fell and the mask she'd been wearing since he met her was back, perfectly in place. Sitting up straight, she only said, "I see."
He waited for her to say more but she didn't. She was eating calmly and for one brief moment, he hoped she would understand. "I wasn't sure if you would come down before I would have to leave to talk to him..."
"You said last night you weren't going to tell," she said with enough ice in her voice that Matthew shivered.
"It was either tell them or let you fall apart in the house, and you needed me..."
"I needed you?" Mary was now glaring at him. "I needed to get away from him, which was accomplished. Now he can leave forever and there is no reason to bring it up again."
Matthew shook his head. "Mary, you cannot be serious. He can't get away..."
"Oh, we are on that again. You keep saying that like he did get away with it. You stopped him!"
"My God, Mary, just because he didn't finish doesn't mean he has the right to even try!"
"I know that!" she yelled back.
Their voices were loud at this point and Matthew knew the staff must be hearing them. Trying to lower his, he said, "I can't believe you would let your pride stop you from..."
Mary glared at him "My pride? He did more than hurt my pride."
"And that's precisely my point!" Matthew was so frustrated. Why could she not see this was better?
Mary's face was flustered and she rubbed her head. "I thought you understood me last night. I thought you understood why we shouldn't say anything."
"Mary, I would move heaven and earth to protect you, but I will be damned if I'm going to let a man who assaulted my wife walk away just because she might be embarrassed."
She slammed her hand down at the table. Tears were starting to pick up in her eyes but she blinked them away. Tears or no tears, he wasn't going to be talked down from this.
A cough at the door got their attention. Both glanced at Moseley and then looked back at each other. No one said anything. Moseley finally walked closer to the table, speaking so softly Matthew had to strain to hear him. "Sir, we've just gotten word..."
"What?" Matthew snapped, wishing the man would just get on with it.
"Sir, we've gotten word from Downton, there's been... a death."
Now he had both sets of eyes on him, but it gave him little confidence. Matthew blinked for a second, grasping what he just said. "A death? Who?"
Moseley looked back and forth between his master and mistress, then cleared his throat again. "It was that Turkish gent, Kemal Pamock?"
Matthew couldn't have been more shocked at the news. "Pamuk? He's dead?"
"Y-yes sir."
Mary followed with the obvious questions. "How? When?"
"I don't know, I guess sometime in the night. They wanted to let us know."
"You didn't have to come," Mary said, angrily. She wished Matthew had stayed home or gone to church. After the shocking news from Moseley, Mary wanted to go up to the house. Matthew had insisted she eat more first, which made her even angrier at him.
"No, I need to head to the family and see them. See if I can help." He had been thankfully quiet on the walk there.
"I'm sure there isn't anything you can do, unless you plan on announcing to the household what transpired last night." She wouldn't be surprised if he did.
Matthew increased his pace so he was even with her. They were almost to the house now. "No, given the circumstances, that's unnecessary."
As they got to the door, Mary said snidely, "Of course."
"Mary, please... I can't go back on my principles."
She glared at him. He looked apologetic, but what did it matter? "Even if it comes at the expense of your wife?"
"Mary, it won't be like that... I wouldn't let it..."
She laughed at that. Was he that arrogant to think he could even control gossip? Of course he was.
Once inside, she asked Carson where everyone was. He answered, "His Lordship is in the study with the police and the rest are in the..."
"The police?" Mary asked, now looking at Matthew who also was surprised.
"Yes, m'lady. They've been here since the early hours of the morning."
Matthew asked, "Why have they come? Did something happen?"
Carson looked uncomfortable with the question. Mary knew then that Pamuk must have continued his behavior. Putting aside her own fears, Mary turned to Matthew, "Maybe you should go in there and find out what's going on."
He was surprised at her recommendation but she didn't have time to wonder why. Turning back to Carson, she asked, "Did you say where Mama and my sisters were?"
"They are in the drawing room with Lady Grantham."
Nodding, Mary went straight there, not bothering to look back at Matthew, whom she hoped would do as she suggested.
Inside the room, she found her mother and grandmother sitting on the settee. Edith was standing by the fireplace and Sybil sat in the chair, covering her face like she had a headache.
"Mary, when did you get here?" her mother asked.
"Only just now. What happened?"
Granny answered, "There seems to be an investigation. Our word is not good enough apparently."
"Granny," Sybil said, her voice hoarse, "you weren't even there."
Looking at her youngest sister, Mary saw she had bags under her eyes. Glancing around the room, everyone was looking at Sybil with sadness and Mary felt fear grip her heart as she began to suspect last night's events. "What happened?"
Sybil still didn't look up and Edith also seemed withdrawn. Glancing over at her mother, Cora took a breath before explaining. "Last night, Pamuk thought he would go visit your sister."
"Wh-what?" Mary felt her strength leave her, so she sat down in the chair next to Sybil's.
"When he made his intentions known to her," Cora went on, "your sister screamed. We came running. We all came running. I will never forget the rest of my life that feeling of running towards my daughter's room hearing her scream."
Mary closed her eyes. She didn't need to hear the rest. "So, Papa killed him."
Cora shook her head, "No, actually he was so shocked himself, Mr. Pamuk clutched his chest and fell down dead right then."
Granny grimaced, "Just like a foreigner! Doesn't have the decency to wait until after he's been thrown out."
"Oh," Mary didn't know what to say. Looking back to Sybil, her heart went out to her. Her sister had started to cry and Cora walked over to her, trying to comfort her. Mary looked around the room, realizing she could have prevented this.
"My God, I can't believe.." was all she could say. She looked around the room and the only person looking at her was Edith.
"So Mary," she said, "You seemed quite fond of him yesterday. Sorry he couldn't break into your room?"
"Edith!" Cora hissed, cutting Mary off from being able to retort. But she didn't want to defend herself, she didn't have the right. If she had done just what Matthew suggested, Pamuk would have been dealt with and her sister could have escaped this indignation.
"What will happen now?" Sybil asked her mother. "Do you think the police will think we are lying?"
"We aren't lying, dear," Cora said. "We shouldn't lie about it. Remember, when in doubt you should tell the truth."
"Oh God," Mary covered her mouth, feeling like she could be sick. Standing up, she went over to the window. Outside was a car she didn't recognize. She hadn't noticed it as she had walked up, her anger so great at Matthew that was all she could see. It must have belonged to the police.
She flinched, remembering her husband. Was he in the library telling them Pamuk's behavior the night before? Looking back into the room, Mary knew she had to say something now. She should never have let it go.
"I'm...I guess I should say, he tried something last night with me, too."
"What?" came several replies and one gasp whom she thought was her grandmother.
"Kemal tried to kiss me last night, and more."
"When?" her mother demanded, fury on her face.
"It was...late last night. He followed me into the hallway and he pushed me into one of the rooms, the music room I think."
"Why didn't you say anything?" Edith asked.
Her mother followed up with a bigger question. "Did he manage to..."
Mary shook her head. "No, no, Matthew stopped him before he could really do anything."
"Matthew! Is that why you two went home so quickly? Dear Lord, why didn't he say anything, he should have told your father and I..."
Mary rushed towards her mother. "No! No, it was me. I asked him not to. I had to beg him, actually. He wanted to say something, in fact, he'd already planned to say something this morning."
Cora's face showed no sign of compassion. "This morning would have been too late!"
"Mama! It's all right!" Sybil said, standing up. She never could stand for the family to fight. "He didn't touch me! He was stopped. It's all right."
Before she knew it, Mary had placed her arms around her sister. Her dear, sweet sister. She would never have forgiven herself if Pamuk had succeeded. "I'm so glad you were braver than I was! My darling, I'm so sorry that he even tried."
Cora didn't seem very moved. Glaring at Mary, she said, "You should have said something. Had Matthew taken your father out discreetly and we would have..."
"Done what exactly?" Violet asked. "Thrown him out of the house? He's hardly the first diplomat to abuse the hosts with whom he's staying, and it would have been her word against his."
"What are you saying? We should look the other way when he tries to attack our daughters?" Cora said, icily.
"I'm saying he did try to attack two of your daughters, and they both reacted in different ways. Let's remember it was he who was in the wrong, and not ourselves. Though there will be a scandal, I believe it's in our best interests that he's dead and can't make up his own version."
Cora looked like she wanted to reply to Violet, but seemed to change her mind. Her eyes traveled back to Mary, who couldn't meet her gaze, but then back to Sybil who was still standing beside her. Eventually, she held out her hands for both to take. "Your grandmother is right. Though I wish you had said something last night, I put the blame more on Matthew."
"But..." Mary tried to defend him.
"No, buts. It really doesn't matter now. We just need to stand together as we are questioned. What's happened, happened. And the truth is, he's dead because of an apparent heart condition. That's very good, because I do believe your Papa would have killed him last night and today would be a total different situation."
Mary nodded, but didn't feel any better. What if Papa had killed him? He would possibly be going to jail because of her! Shaking her head, she thought of Matthew and wondered if things would ever be normal between them?