The part in italics is a longish flashback. More at the bottom :)
July 1914
.
Cora
.
She thinks that Mary looks rather forlorn. It is of course very nice of her eldest daughter to come and sit with her but she knows that Mary feels very uncomfortable because her eldest daughter doesn't know what to say. She knows that Mary has cried again, she can still see the tear tracks on her cheeks and she isn't sure whether it was just at the loss of her baby brother or whether there is something else. She wonders if she should ask Mary about it. Although Mary would probably tell her 'not to worry' and to 'concentrate on getting better'. She supposes that that is what Robert told their girls and his mother to say to her because none of them have really tried to distract her yet except of course for Sybil who often does not listen to her father.
Sybil brought her flowers and a little blanket she had apparently crocheted herself. 'I was only halfway finished the day before yesterday,' her youngest daughter had said, 'but I finished it last night. I wanted to give it to my little brother or sister but I thought that now you might like it. Just as a keepsake.' It had made her cry but Sybil had just taken her hand and let her cry.
'Was it very painful?' her daughter had asked then and she told her how it had felt. That it had been almost as painful as a normal birth but what had hurt the most was that the baby had never drawn a single breath. Sybil nodded at that and said 'It must be so very hard for you and Papa and I am so very sorry. I would have liked to have a younger brother.' It made her cry again and again Sybil had just let her, but eventually she began to tell her something about a friend who had written to her and they talked about trifles for over two hours and it made her feel so much better.
Mary however is different. She does not know how to act around sick or sad people or people who are both. So because she feels that she has to say something she asks
"Who was on the telephone? I heard it ring." Mary looks rather distracted, then looks down at her lap and subconsciously begins to play with her necklace.
"Matthew," she says and Cora can't help but smile at that.
"What did he want?" she asks and without looking up Mary says "He asked how you were. I told him you were better than expected."
"Thank you," she says. Robert telephoned Matthew a few hours after the miscarriage and the man they still think of as their son had been very downcast. He has now telephoned nine times within three days and she wonders if he will be in trouble with his employer because he uses the telephone there so often as he does not yet have one at home.
Matthew moved to Manchester in June 1912. He said that he needed some time away from the estate and the responsibility that would be his one day. He said that he needed to find his roots before he could start to prepare for a future amongst the aristocracy and they had let him go. He had promised to return home after a few years and to always come home for Christmas. Robert and she felt they had to let him go, of course they did, they love him and they understand why he needed to go.
Both Robert and she had been afraid of his reaction to them having another child, so they had asked him to come home for a few days in which they gently told him about it. Matthew's eyes had lit up the moment they did tell him and his heartfelt joy was obvious. When Robert asked him whether he was afraid of the baby being a boy Matthew had laughed and said that he had never expected to be the Earl of Grantham, that he enjoyed being a lawyer and that he would be overjoyed at having a little brother. Or another little sister.
"He is coming home tomorrow. He said he took a few days off." This makes her happy. It does not let her forget that she just lost a baby, a baby she had felt kicking her, but it eases the pain.
"I am very glad to hear that."
Mary nods and then tears start rolling down her face again.
"Mary?" she asks, leans forward and takes her daughters hand in hers. Mary only shakes her head, pulls her hand away and then says "Mama, you should lie down. It is nothing to bother you with".
She takes a look at her daughter and the sadness and fear in her eyes tell her that she should be bothered very much. So instead of lying back down, she moves herself into a sitting position and then turns on her bed so that she only sits on the edge, directly opposite of Mary. She takes both of Mary's hands in hers now and then says to Mary
"I think I should be bothered with it. Whatever it is."
"But you've just lost a baby."
She sighs. It wasn't the first time, she lost two babies between Edith and Sybil, although hardly anyone is aware of this. Robert of course knows about both incidents and his mother about one. She hadn't been as far along then, but it isn't a completely new sensation to her.
"Yes, I lost a baby," she said. "But that does not mean that I don't worry about the wonderful living children that I have."
She knows Mary's resolve is failing and she squeezes her hands again. Mary then looks at her and says
"I am afraid."
"Of what?" she asks and hopes this won't lead to a discussion about pregnancy and miscarriages. Mary is hardly ever afraid and if she is she usually tries to hide it.
"There will be a war, won't there? Papa and Sybil are sure about it and you think so too. I heard you talking about it to Granny."
"Yes," she says and a cold shiver runs down her spine.
"Matthew will go. And Papa will go too. What will become of us if they die?"
She is too weak to get up and so she asks Mary to sit next to her and the she puts both her arms around her eldest daughter's shoulders and says
"Your Papa will offer his services the day war is declared, there is no doubt about that, he will want to fight for his king and his country. But his king and country probably won't want him to fight for them. He is too old. Had he stayed in the army after South Africa they'd probably ask him to go, but he left the army, he left as a captain. And while he certainly did his bit, much more so than I would have liked, he hasn't really distinguished himself in the eyes of the generals. They won't want him back, they don't need him. Matthew will volunteer and his services will be accepted, I don't doubt it. And all we can do is pray for his safe and sound return."
Mary's tears start flowing again now and she leans her head on her shoulder and feels as it felt when Mary was still a little girl and afraid that her father wouldn't return from South Africa.
While Mary cries the door opens and Robert enters the room with a look of concern on his face.
"I heard," he says but she shakes her head and motions for him to leave again. She thinks that there is more to Mary's crying than just the fear of losing Matthew. Mary likes Matthew, she misses Matthew, but she does not think of him as a brother, not the way that Edith and Sybil do.
"Do you remember the night Kamal Pamuk died?" Mary suddenly asks and she wonders if Mary wants to make her laugh just as Sybil did. Because how could she forget a night like that?
.
Even before O'Brien has left, Robert opens the door without knocking. She thinks that there is a disapproving look on O'Brien's face for a fleeting second but she has been her maid for three years now, she should know that Robert spends every night in her room. She finds him there in the mornings from time to time after all. He doesn't say anything until O'Brien has left and then he says
"You look lovely, darling," as he walks up behind her and puts his hands on her shoulders. They look at each other in her mirror and smile at the same time.
"Thank you," she says and turns around. "Your hair is a little mussed. I like that," she mumbles against him and then kisses his stomach.
"Good," he says, takes her hands from his hips but holds them in his own as he steps away from her a little. "Come to bed."
It is more of a plea than a command and she follows it more than willingly. Robert is gentle and forceful at the same time and she loves it and enjoys it to the fullest.
She puts her hands in his hair and says "God Robert, that was good," and he chuckles and kisses her so deeply that it makes her dizzy.
"I am glad you enjoyed as much as I did."
"I always enjoy it," she says and then adds as an afterthought "I think we are very good at this."
Robert who was just about to roll of her stops in his movements and looks deeply into her eyes. "We are Cora. And I am so very glad about it."
"So am I," she whispers and she really is. It means so much to her that Robert has never considered having a mistress, that their marriage is so happy that straying from it has never entered Robert's or her mind.
"I love you," he says and it almost makes her cry. He hardly ever says it. She knows he does, he shows it to her every day, by smiling at her, by calling her 'his darling', by touching her hand, by asking her to join him on his walks, by talking to her about matters he would never mention to anyone else, by kissing her, by sleeping in her bed every night without fault and by a million other things. But it is very rare that he actually says it and every time he does it almost tears her up.
Robert now lies down next to her and she puts a hand on his chest. "I love you too," she whispers and he puts an arm around her and pulls her close to him.
"I wish Pamuk could see us now," he says after a while and quite out of the blue.
"What?" she asks laughingly.
"He flirted with you all day long and you liked it. He thought he could sleep with you. But he can't. That privilege is mine and mine alone."
"That it certainly is," she says and feels Robert relax a little. She cannot believe that he seriously thought that she would ever let another man into her bed and he probably didn't. But he can be a bit jealous and has always been very protective of her.
She wakes up in the middle of the night because she feels very cold. She realizes that Robert has stolen all the blankets and that she isn't wearing any night clothes. Or clothes of any kind. So she gets up and puts her nightshirt on and when she wants to go back to bed, the door to her room opens and Mary motions for her to come into the hallway. While leaving the room, she sees that it is obvious that Robert isn't wearing any clothes, his bare left arm and equally bare right leg are visible and she hopes that Mary hasn't noticed anything.
When Mary however shows her why she asked her to come along she thinks that Robert being naked under the covers is the least of her worries now.
When she asks Mary if Pamuk had forced himself on her and her eldest daughter shakes her head she feels the place in her heart that belongs to Mary turn to ice. She has never been so disappointed in anyone in her life. And yet she agrees to help carry the corpse of a man, a man who Mary let take her virtue across the house to save her reputation. They lift the body of the bed but before they leave the room the door opens and Matthew enters saying "I heard a commotion and oh dear god," looking at what they are doing, understanding dawning on his face. She curses herself. She should have remembered that Matthew was home for the weekend and sleeping across the hall.
"What happened?" he asks and she scoffs.
"Isn't it obvious?" she asks him and Matthew raises his eyebrows just for a second. He reminds of her Robert very much in that moment.
"No," Matthew says and then adds "put the body back onto the bed". She doesn't know why but Mary and Anna and she do as Matthew says.
"Did he force you?" Matthew asks Mary and again she shakes her head.
"So you invited him here?" Matthew has obviously woken up the lawyer inside of him.
Mary shakes her head again.
"So he came here of his own accord?" Mary nods and Matthew starts to walk up and down the length of the room.
"How did he know where to find you?" Mary shrugs her shoulders and she wonders why her daughter doesn't speak.
"Could he have bribed a servant?" Matthew now asks the room at large and Anna says "probably yes".
"Did you ask him inside?" Mary shakes her head again.
"Did you ask him to leave?"
"Several times," he daughter whispers.
"And he didn't leave?"
"No."
"Why didn't you call for help?"
"He said my reputation would be ruined and that nobody would believe me." She hears the quiver in her daughter's voice and thinks that that icy place in her heart is already beginning to thaw. Of course she would have believed her. As would Robert have.
"And you believed him."
"He came closer and kissed me again," Mary says and the pictures that she now sees in her mind make her want to vomit.
"Again?" Matthew asks. Mary seems to ease up a bit under Matthew's determined questions that he still delivers in a very soft voice.
"He kissed me during the party. In the library."
"What happened?"
"I told him that if he wasn't the friend of a dear friend I'd tell Papa and that he would make him leave the house immediately." That he certainly would have Cora thinks.
"Why didn't you want him to leave?"
"I thought he was important for the peace talks."
"So you made it abundantly clear to him that you did not want his attentions. Not that way."
"I thought so," Mary says and Cora's heart breaks for her innocent little girl. She decides to have very serious talks with all of her daughters as soon as possible.
"Did you feel that you had any chance of avoiding him when he was in here?"
Mary shakes her head again.
"So you just gave in."
Mary nods again and then her tears begin to flow. Seeing her daughter's tears is what makes the ice melt completely and she immediately feels guilty for not having thought along Matthew's lines, for having assumed that Mary implying that Pamuk did not force himself on her had meant that she had participated voluntarily.
"Mary, I" she says and walks towards her daughter who freezes in her movements and looks scared for her life. For a moment she thinks that her daughter is afraid of her but then she hears Robert's voice.
"What is going on here?" she tries to give Mary a reassuring smile and then turns around and wants to say something, try to cushion the blow but Matthew gets there faster than her and without any cushioning and in a very authoritarian voice that leaves no room for questions or doubts, he says
"Mr. Pamuk raped Mary."
"I'll kill him," Robert says and moves towards the bed.
"He is already dead," Anna replies.
"He is lucky then," Robert says and then turns to Mary and asks "Why didn't you scream?" Sobs wrack through her daughter's body then and she pulls her into her arms.
"I will tell you the whole story Robert, but not now. Mary has already relived it once, I think that was enough," she says and looks at Robert in a manner she hopes tells him that it would not be good for Mary if he ever accused her of it all being her fault because she didn't scream. It must have worked because Robert's features soften immediately, he walks over to Mary and her, puts a hand Mary's shoulder and says "I am sorry Mary. For asking such a useless question and much much more so for what happened to you."
"We have to move the body if we want to avoid a scandal," Matthew says. "It is unbelievable that that is the way it is, we should call the police and tell them what happened but we all know what will be made of the story."
Robert nods and asks "Can you and I lift him?"
"I'll help," Anna says and Matthew nods at her gratefully.
They leave the room carrying the body and she is left with Mary.
"Oh Mary," is all she says before Mary has a crying fit like a four year old child. She has never felt so sorry for any of her children.
Robert, Matthew and Anna return faster than she expected and Matthew sits down on Mary's bed immediately.
"What are we going to say if someone saw us?" Robert asks and Matthew shrugs his shoulders.
"We'll have to tell the truth then. We'll say we moved the body to spare Mary the embarrassment. That is not a lie."
"The Turkish embassy will try to twist the story."
"The Turkish embassy will do no such thing if they don't want to be tainted by doubt. Even if they found out about this, they probably won't do anything."
Robert nods and then asks the question that has been playing in her mind for quite some time now.
"What if there is a baby?" Mary again freezes and Cora knows that Mary hasn't even realized that she could be pregnant yet.
"Then Mary and I will marry," Matthew says so quickly that she is sure that he thought about it while they carried Pamuk back to his room.
"Matthew," Robert says.
"We wouldn't be unhappy. And I know that it is possible to love another man's child after all."
Mary now turns to Matthew and says "Thank you," to which Matthew nods and smiles.
"I can't sleep in those sheets," she adds.
"I am afraid I can't change them before morning. Someone would notice," Anna says and Robert immediately replies
"Lady Mary can sleep in my dressing room." As if on cue they all leave and Mary walks between Robert and her, looking very pale and frail, almost like a ghost. They enter Robert's room and Robert walks through to her room and closes the door to give Mary and her some privacy. They sit down on Robert's bed and don't say anything for a while.
"Papa never sleeps in here," Mary says and moves her hand over the covers of the unused bed.
"No," she says carefully.
"He always sleeps in your room."
"Yes."
"In your bed."
"Yes."
"Does it bother you? I won't tell him, I promise." She looks at her daughter and doesn't see the cold-hearted 22 year old that she has become but an insecure and yet curious little girl.
"No. It does not bother me. I like it. I miss your father when he stays in London for the night."
Mary nods and puts her ice queen mask on again. She knows that Mary will now block any sort of personal conversation so she makes to leave but feels her daughter's hand close around her wrist. She turns around and sees the ice queen mask slip again, but Mary does not turn into a curious little girl this time. She turns into a young woman who has to deal with a horrible incident she doesn't really know how to deal with.
"Could I ask you a few questions?" Mary asks and she nods and sits back down again.
"You say you like it when Papa sleeps in your room. But he doesn't just sleep does he?" She almost says 'no, he talks to me and sometimes reads before sleeping,' but that is not what Mary wants to know and she knows that it is hard for Mary to ask about these things even without her mother giving stupid answers.
"No. Not all the time."
"How often does he?" It strikes her as odd that Mary just asks about her father and she thinks that she knows why but hopes that Mary will get there on her own.
"It varies. On average I would say maybe two or three times a week. Sometimes more, sometimes less when one of us has a lot of work to do."
"That is a lot."
"I don't know. I have never talked to anyone else about it." Mary nods and she takes her hand to encourage her.
"How long does it take?"
"That varies too. It is not just the main act. There are other things that take time."
"Kissing," Mary says and she nods. "Yes. Among other things. Undressing, just being nice to each other." She is glad that Mary does not ask for more details because she hasn't yet thought about how to tell Mary about the finer parts of married life.
"Does Papa enjoy it?" Mary asks and she is very glad that the room is almost dark. She would not like to look into her daughter's eyes right now.
"Yes."
"And you?"
"I do too. Very much so. We both do." She takes a deep breath then because she thinks that she needs to take the burden of asking uncomfortable questions about her parents' love life of her daughter's shoulder. "Mary, your father and I trust and love each other very much. That is the key to our marriage, both outside and inside the bedroom. If you love the person you are with, then the more private aspects of marriage are terrific fun."
"Oh Mama," Mary says and puts her head on her shoulder.
.
"Yes, I remember that night," she says and waits for Mary to continue.
"Matthew and I have been writing to each other," Mary continues and Cora wonders what she means.
"You have always written to each other. Even when Matthew was at Eton."
"Not like that. About private matters. Very private matters. Ever since he saved me from my own and your disappointment and offered to marry me if I was pregnant, we've become…closer."
"Closer?"
"Very close. Matthew has turned into my closest friend. I trust him very much. More than I have ever trusted anyone."
"Why did you never mention that?" she asks and wonders if Robert knows this.
"Because we said we wouldn't. We were afraid that we'd be pushed in a certain direction."
"You thought we'd push you towards marriage." Mary nods. "Why are you talking about it now?"
"When Matthew was here a few weeks ago and you told him about the pregnancy, he kissed me." She can't help but smile at this.
"Oh Mary," she says and her daughter smiles too.
"I think he is going to propose and if he does I will accept him. But he will go to war then and I will be so much more afraid and worried than I usually would be."
"It will be very hard. But focus on what may make you happy soon. Don't look beyond that point, not yet. Focus on the present."
"That is very American, Mama." There is a smile playing around Mary's lips however and she takes it like a compliment.
"And there is an American inside of you my darling girl."
"And a middle class lawyer inside of Matthew. What a pair we'll make." It makes her laugh, much more than Sybil's bubbly stories about her friends did yesterday. And it feels good to laugh. She will mourn her baby but he never lived, it was a miscarriage even if a rather late one and as she just said to Mary, it is better to focus on the happy things. And the three daughters they have and Matthew certainly make her very happy.
"I think I should leave now Mama. But thank you." Mary doesn't say what for but she knows Mary well enough to know exactly what she is thankful for. That she listened and that she understood.
"You are welcome," she says and tries to lie back down.
"Does it hurt?" Mary asks and she nods. She is in as much pain now as she was after the births of her living children and it reminds her that she was much farther along this time than the previous two times she miscarried. But she holds back her tears for Mary's sake.
"I'll help you," Mary says in a gentle voice that is quite uncharacteristic of her eldest daughter and when she holds her and supports her, her hands are much gentler than she expected as well.
"I think Matthew does you good," she says and Mary nods.
"I'll sit with you again later if you like," Mary replies.
"I would like that very much."
The moment Mary starts to leave Robert enters the room. When Mary walks past him she gives him a kiss on the cheek without comment and the utterly dumbstruck look on Robert's face makes her laugh again.
"Miracles do happen," he says.
"Yes," she says.
"How are you?" he asks and sits down next to her.
"Considering what happened, I am very well."
"I heard you laugh."
"I won't tell you what about. You have to ask Mary." She won't tell Robert that Matthew might propose to Mary, she does not want to get his hopes up.
"I think I need to lie down. I am so tired. Do you mind?"
"Of course not," she replies and watches Robert take off and fold most of his clothes.
"Bates will be proud of you," she can't help saying and Robert chuckles.
"Bates would be mad at me if my clothes were all wrinkled. He'd give me an earful." She very much doubts that but does not say anything.
Robert has now lain down on the other side of her bed and opens his arms for her. She scoots over to him and when she feels his arms close around him she realizes how tired she is and falls asleep in the comfort of her husband's embrace as soon as she has closed her eyes.
.
Mary
.
Edith and Sybil are going on her nerves with their bickering. It is usually she and Edith who bicker but she isn't in the mood for it and apparently Edith cannot let a single day pass without having fought with at least one of her sisters. So she has now criticized Sybil for wanting women to gain the right to vote. She does not understand how Edith could be against it and she doubts that Edith really is against it, she is just in the mood to fight.
Mary does not want to be by herself but can't stand being around Edith and so she goes to her mother's room. There are a few questions she has about marriage, rather delicate questions that she thinks only her mother or her aunt would be able to answer. But as her aunt is London, her mother remains her only choice. She softly knocks on her mother's door and when there is a muffled mumbling she carefully opens the door, walks into the room and remains standing at the foot of the bed.
Her mother and father are both deeply asleep in each other's arms. She knows this is nothing very indecent and so she watches them for a few minutes before she leaves, hoping that she will find the same kind of love with Matthew. Should he propose.
.
Matthew arrives a day later and she picks him up the train station. Her father thought it strange that she wanted to do that but apparently her mother interfered and her father eventually let her go. She is determined not to let Matthew know how excited she is about his returning, she does not want him to think that she is desperate. When he leaves the train it is difficult for her not run and she can't stop from smiling when he walks towards her.
"Lady Mary Crawley," he says and grins at her. "Picking up a distant cousin at the train station."
"The distant cousin also is my father's heir, so I think that I should be nice to him," she replies and Matthew's grin becomes even wider.
"I am glad I am welcome."
"Very welcome. It made Mama very happy when I told her that you were coming."
Matthew face clouds over with concern the moment she mentioned her mother.
"How is she really? I wasn't sure whether Robert told me the truth when he said that she was coping rather well."
"She is coping rather well. I thought she was putting on a show for Papa but I don't think that is what she is doing. She is very strong. Much stronger than I thought."
Matthew now takes her hand and she can't stop a shiver from running down her spine. "That is where your own strength comes from."
"Sybil's the strong one," she says because that is what she believes. Sybil would not have let Pamuk overpower her, Sybil would have kicked him somewhere it hurt. And she'd have screamed.
"I think there can be more than one strong child per family." There is a question she needs to know the answer to if she wants to marry Matthew and so she asks it without any sugar coating. Sometimes it is best to just be direct.
"Matthew, would you really have been happy if Mama had had a living boy?"
"Yes. It would have taken some getting used to, I was rather shocked when Cora told me she was pregnant, but in the end I would have been happy. I wasn't born to be the Earl of Grantham. I was born to be a doctor's son."
"So you believe in divine rights?"
"Not as such. But I think that your brother would have made a much better earl than me. He would have been raised to be an Earl from the first day on."
"So were you. Almost."
"I was raised to be the land agent and it was your grandfather's idea."
"But it was the same upbringing you'd have had had you been raised to be the Earl. Or almost the same."
"Only almost. And Mary, your parents may love me like a son, in fact I know they do and your grandmother may see the grandson she never had in me but that is just about it. Look at you. You never looked at me as a brother. Look at the servants. I was Master Matthew to them and now I am Mr. Crawley to most of them and to some of them Mister Matthew. Whenever I go somewhere, I am Mr. Crawley. But your brother would have been Lord Downton and that is a difference. I am not saying that I want to be called Lord Downton. I shudder to imagine being called Lord Grantham and not just because it would mean the death of Robert whom I'd prefer to live forever. I don't want to be anyone's 'lord'. I am not saying your father wants to be that either but he just is. Just as your brother would have been."
"My mother wasn't born to be anyone's 'lady'."
"No. But I think it is different for her because the title came with her marriage. And she was raised to marry the right kind of man."
"So was I. But I might still marry a land agent. Or a lawyer."
"Or a lawyer who is the heir to an earldom."
"That is quite forward, Mr. Crawley," she says and Matthew looks taken aback for a moment. But when she smiles, he smiles back and visibly relaxes.
.
Matthew
.
As soon as they arrive at the Abbey and he has greeted Robert, he runs up the stairs to see if Cora really is alright. She is after all the woman he often thinks of as his mother, to all intents and purposes she is his mother. He is surprised when he sees her sitting upright on the settee in her room rather than lying in bed.
"Hello Cora," he says and kisses her cheek.
"Hello parrot," she says and ruffles his hair. She still sometimes calls him parrot, a nickname given to him by Robert two and a half decades ago. Apparently he used to say many things twice.
She tells him that she really is doing much better and that she wants to attend the garden party that is to be held two days later. He forgot about that blasted party. But even had he remembered, he would have come home. There are things he wants to get done before a war starts and he is sure that there will be a war. This may just as well be the last carefree summer days for quite some time. He cannot believe that a war would be over by Christmas. Wars always last longer than politicians and the media claim they will last.
.
"I'll return for good soon," he says to Robert when they are left alone in the dining room after dinner. "I think that my time in Manchester has come to its end."
"I am glad to hear. Although I am afraid 'soon', is a word that we may not rely on." Robert takes a sip of Scotch and looks him in the eyes.
"So you believe this war we are facing won't be over by Christmas."
"No. And neither do you." He wishes he could tell Robert something different but knows that he of all people will understand.
"You know I have to go."
"Of course I do. I will have to go too." He does not reply because he does not want Robert to feel old or useless in any way but doubts very much that Robert's services will be accepted. Robert left the army right after returning from South Africa and has since then done nothing to establish himself as a soldier. But he knows Robert very well and thus also knows that he would not take well to his own son telling him that he was too old. So all he does is nod.
"There is one thing I have to do before I leave," he says. He has debated with himself whether he should ask Robert's permission or not. It is Mary's decision of course and he is almost sure of her answer but he isn't sure how much her parents, in many ways their parents, know about how close they have become. In the end he decided on telling Robert before the actual proposal. "Robert, I am going to propose to Mary," he says. Robert looks at him in utter astonishment, empties his glass, refills and then stares at him.
"You are going to do what?"
"I am going to ask Mary to become my wife."
"She won't accept you. And you don't have to feel pressured to marry and try to conceive an heir before you go to fight. Don't do anything rushed."
This is an aspect he hadn't even considered. And neither has he considered marrying Mary before the end of the war.
"Robert," he says looking into his drink rather than at the man he thinks will become his father-in-law, "I am almost sure that she will accept me. Ever since the Pamuk incident we've become very close. I am pretty sure we love each other. Maybe that is why we never accepted each other as siblings. Because there has always been more to our relationship than that."
"Hm," Robert grunts and looks at him as if he was waiting for more.
"But I won't marry her before the war is over. I don't want her to be tied to a cripple should I not return home safe and sound."
Robert stares into the fire without saying anything for minutes.
"Take good care of my little girl then," he eventually says, pats him on the shoulder and leaves the room.
AN: Thank you all for reading!
I purposely did not give the Pamuk night its own chapter because I wanted to show the night from Cora's perspective and still show how Matthew interfering changed the relationship of Cora and Mary after that night.
I think that from our perspective it is pretty clear that it was non-consensual but in 1912 Mary really would have be thought to have made a grave mistake, even by her own mother, even by one as nice as Cora and I've always wondered how Cora would have felt about it had she had any concept of it not being Mary's fault.
This story will have one more chapter which will in all likelihood be posted two weeks from now as Christmas will be very busy for me. I still owe two Christmas stories, a Cobert one for the fanfic exchange which I will hopefully be able to post very late tonight and a Violet/Patrick one in this universe which I hope I'll post on Wednesday or Thursday.
Once again, thank you all for the wonderful reviews! They really keep my writing going and inspired me to keep writing this story because three weeks ago I thought about quitting it.
Please let me know what you think about this chapter!
Kat