Previously:
Lady Mary Crawley
and
Lord Matthew Crawley,
the Earl of Grantham,
are pleased to announce their engagement.
The wedding will take place later this year
Sunday, August 1, 1920
London
Painswick House
Matthew was reluctant to go to the dinner. The events of the past twenty four hours had been so bizarre, more fantastic than any of the morphia induced dreams he had had when he was laid up after his last crash. In fact he would have been prepared to swear it was all a dream were it not for the receipt he found for the rings. He was well and truly engaged. To the wild eldest daughter of the House of Grantham. And he did not know how he felt about that.
His friend Bert and Bert's sisters had decently waited a year after Lavinia's passing before they had started pushing Matthew into the stream of society, female society, single female society. They had not strewn nubile young maids in his path, but at every function there was always a very nice maiden, or young widow, friendly, but never desperate; he supposed they had all been vetted and the sad candidates discarded. But there had never been a frisson of interest on his part in any of those fine ladies.
He had accompanied Bert once to Madame Gauthier's to relieve the pressure as it were, but he had felt detached from the whole mechanical process and he had not gone back.
Before the whole business of the earldom had popped up he had been considering cashing everything in and emigrating somewhere temperate, New Zealand maybe, where he could purchase a cottage on the seashore, and live a solitary existence, drinking G n' Ts, as he watched the tide go out on his life. But the earldom caught him out. And then the garden party happened.
When he met Mary for the first time he discovered that she filled a giant void in his life, a void he hadn't even known existed, she made him whole. And on the basis of absolutely no evidence at all he knew that he meant the same for her. They were meant to be together. The feeling was so strong he was glad that he had not met her while Lavinia was still alive; the complications which that would have lead to would have been horrific. But he had met her at the opportune time. They were to be wed. They would live happily ever after. But still...at the garden party and the ball Mary had been reluctant. She was wrapped up in that stupid myth of a curse. Which was not a problem, he was confident he could free her from it. In fact to be honest with himself he had been looking forward to convincing her to love him. He anticipated the thrill of the chase. It was what happened at the jazz club after alcohol had removed all of her inhibitions ... she had been so imperious, he had been powerless before her, she had become Boudica. And that made him more than a little apprehensive. She might be beyond him.
One of the talents that had keep him alive through the war was knowing the exact limit of his aeroplanes. Not the theoretical limits the engineers had determined, not the guesstimates the mechanics gave him, the real limits. Many times he took his machines to that very limit but never over it; he never entered a dive at too steep an angle or tried to turn in too short a radius; always there was a voice screaming don't do it. And the problem was that right now was that voice was screaming at him 'maintain your airspeed you're going to stall! Stall! Stall!'
Matthew felt a touch on his elbow.
He turned, it was Bert who asked "Are you OK? You seemed to be..."
"I'm fine" and he reached out and knocked on the door of Mary's aunt's house.
As the door was opening Bert said "You'll be OK, this can't be worse than the first time you soloed."
As it happened Matthew had botched the landing of his first solo and wrecked the aeroplane, but still any crash you can walk away from...
-0-
Mary, Edith, their grandmother and aunt were waiting for them in the foyer.
There was a pause as they entered the house, like that weightless feeling Matthew had experienced at the top of a climb, before he dropped the nose to start a dive, when his machine was sorting out whether it was a rock or a raptor, and Matthew sought out Mary. How was she going to receive him?
With a large smile. And outstretched hands. "Matthew! I am so happy you made it, come meet my grandmother and aunt." and she kissed him on his cheek and he kissed her on hers. She tucked her arm in his and steered him towards the introductions. But what he seen in her eyes? Not adoration, certainly some affection, but there seemed to be a glint of something else. Appraisal? Mischief? He was not sure.
When he was being introduced to Violet he almost blurted out that there was no need, as they had already met, but stopped at a short head shake from Violet. And he could have sworn she winked at him.
The introductions having been concluded Mary indicated she and Matthew had some things to discuss before dinner and she steered him to Rosamund's breakfast room. Once inside the room and the door closed she dropped Matthew's arm and moved away from him so that the table was between them.
"There are two things we have to speak about: our engagement and the sale of the estate" she told him.
"Go on" he told her as he stared at her lips.
Mary licked her lips. "I understand from Edith that you twice gave me a chance to forget about the engagement.."
"Yes"
"..but each time I escalated the situation as it were."
"Yes"
"I would like to know if you are sincere."
Matthew looked at her puzzled. "In what sense?" he asked.
"You accepted my proposal yet you would have allowed me to forget I made it. So are you sincere in wanting to marry me?"
"Yes"
"Then why would you let me forget about the proposal? I would have forgotten you know, were it not for the ring and the announcement in the Times" they both smiled at that.
"Yes that last was a pretty big reminder. As for why, not to put too fine a point on it, you were drunk. I would not, do not, hold you to a proposal made under such circumstances notwithstanding that most of London is now aware of it. So I turn your question back on you: are you sincere in wanting to marry me?" As he spoke Matthew moved around the corner of the table. He was now within a yard of Mary.
She smiled at him. "Given the benefit of sober second thought I am inclined to remain engaged to you"
"But?"
"But?"
"A sentence like that always has a 'but' at the end."
"But I must get to know you. I know nothing of you and you know nothing of me. All I know is that we share a mysterious attraction for each other. You may have nasty habits which disqualify you from any consideration as a husband."
By this time Matthew was right in front of Mary. He put his arms around her and he drew her to him. She put her arms around his neck. "Fair enough, we will spend the next three months getting to know each other, then we'll post the banns. In the the meantime you had better tell me more about this mysterious attraction..." and he kissed her.
Her eyes bright she smiled at him. "I already knew you are a good kisser. I want to know if you are kind and considerate. Are you wise? Are you well educated? How were you raised? Can you handle cutlery properly?"
He laughed. "All in good time and way to put pressure on me right before I dine with your grandmother and aunt."
"Speaking of which we should go back out there before they come searching for us."
He did not let her go. "You also mentioned the sale of the estate."
She pulled away from him. "If this mysterious thing between us does not work out I must sell the estate; the creditors will not wait forever, the Inland Revenue wants the death duties by the end of the year. I promised my father I would offer the estate to you and I will and do. But because of this power you seem to have over me I do not..."
"I understand. We solicitors call it a conflict of interest. We will keep our business dealings at arm's length. Whom will you have represent you?"
"There I learned something about you. You are a solicitor."
"But your father knew that, didn't he tell..."
"Originally he told us nothing about you; just that you had consented to the breaking of the entail; when he was dying he told me that you were a good man and true and that he regretted the breaking of the entail."
"Well your father was a good judge of character, if a trifle tardy in coming to that judgement."
She laughed and gave him a quick kiss. "But I still must verify his opinion. In the meantime I will have Murray represent me in the sale. I will have him give you whatever information you require."
"I will have someone inspect the property and the financial records."
"Certainly" and she put her arm in his "Now let us go to dinner" And they did.