A/N: So here's chapter twenty-one.

There isn't much to say, other than thank you for your continued support! This would not be possible with readers such as yourselves and I am very glad that you guys are enjoying it.

Disclaimer: I do not own Downton Abbey

It had been a good idea to come, Mairead decided as she exited the church, moving at her usual brisk pace so Kieran couldn't make good on his good-natured threat to make her walk back to Aunt Moira's home if she didn't hurry up.

She paused to shake hands with Father Francis (a necessary formality) and say hello to Mr. Levy (How on Earth is that man still alive? she thought as she greeted him and his granddaughter before hurrying on her way. He's been old since I was little...He's got to be at least ninety-five.), and then broke into a sprint. In her experience, Kieran had never left her behind, but that wasn't exactly a risk she was willing to take, not with a fair walking distance between the church and Aunt Moira's. Besides, she had volunteered to help lay the table outside for the small lunch that was to follow, and it wouldn't do to be doing that as the other guests were arriving.

It was to be a small lunch, Tom and Sybil, of course, Tom's parents and siblings, Mairead, Isibéal, Isibéal's children, Lady Mary and Lady Edith, and a couple of the Bransons' friends from the village. There was nothing to worry about as far as planning, the menu having been outlined and all the necessary foodstuffs procured as far in advance as necessary, everyone's date-books marked for at least two hours after the wedding as belonging to the new Mr. and Mrs. Branson. The only anxiety, it seemed, would be the presence of Sybil's sisters and the effect it might have on the atmosphere of the meal, but at worst, the aristocrats' being there would only cause a few minutes too long of awkwardness amongst them.

"Well come on, 'fore I decide t'leave you," Kieran teased, opening the passenger door so Mairead could climb in.

"You'd never leave me," came Mairead's reply, and she flashed him an impish grin, the kind befitting a nine-year-old, not a nineteen-year-old. "Never 'ave, I don't think."

"That's 'cause you're your mam's daughter, that's why," he said, glancing over at her before starting the motor and turning his attention to the road.

"Surprisingly," she muttered, unable to do anything but wonder why this seemed the explanation for everything.

"Y'look like 'er enough, I'm surprised you haven't been called by her name once or twice, and you've got the same way of goin' 'bout things, all strict and proper."

Mairead couldn't help but laugh. "I can't be strict when I haven't anyone t'be strict to, or nothing t'be strict 'bout, now can I?" Propriety she wouldn't question, as she always took care to be on her best behavior, to follow every rule and pay respect where respect was due, no matter what.

Kieran remained silent as they rounded a tight bend in the road, his lips pressed so tightly together in concentration that his moustache brushed the bottom of his lower lip, and he leaned forward in his seat, like a jockey about to start a race. "Not yet, though Tommy told me you gave him quite the talkin' to when he 'loped with Sybil," he said as the road straightened out. "That true?"

She shook her head. "He was exaggerating. I just told him it wasn't smart, that he should know better than t'think they'd get anywhere far before someone found out."

"By your sayin' that I'd wager they were found out?" Kieran shook his head and laughed. "Love makes fools of us all, I s'pose. Promise me y'won't do anything foolish like that when you finally find someone who'll marry a lass like yourself, alright?"

"I promise, Kieran."

"And don't change when you're married either, not like the girl did in that one play Sam used to read you, one of Shakespeare's. The Taming of the Something-or-Other."

"The Taming of the Shrew?"

His eyes lit up. "Yeah, that's the one. Knew it was some sort of rodent." He broke his concentration on the road, slowing the car to an ambling pace, and looked Mairead in the eyes, his features set in a look of complete sincerity. "I'm serious, Mairead. Don't change for love, even if it's t'please that grouch, Mr. Walsh, or someone like that Lord Grantham, though Lord Stiff Collar's more like it, or Lord—"

"I promise Kieran, don't worry. I don't see marriage anywhere in the future as it is," she said, cutting her cousin off before he could give Lord Grantham anymore unsavory epithets.

As indifferent as she was to the feelings of her employer, Mairead didn't want her cousin thinking she disliked the earl enough to remain silent. His Lordship wasn't a bad person, but it was the idea of his class, the aristocrats who didn't have to work a moment of their life, who made their living sitting in a warm study and drinking expensive French wines, being corrupt from top to bottom that what stirred Kieran's dislike, and Mairead knew it would be difficult to bring him to see that Lord Grantham was actually a fair, intelligent man. The aristocrats would never be the paragons they were thought to be, because they were human, capable of sin just as much as their servants and tenants were.

"A'least promise me you'll marry 'fore either Tom or I die," he said, turning his attention back on the road.

"All these promises you want me t'make! Why?"

"Well, you're a lovely young lass, Mairead. You could pro'ly marry a man of Miss Sybil's stock- you're intelligent and pretty enough to pass for one of them- could maybe even do better than Tommy did, but don't let me pressure you into it. You marry who y'want, maybe settle down, have a child or two. Don't do like your mam and fly off like that."

"Must it always come back to my mam?" Mairead asked, exasperated by the sudden return to the topic. "I'm not as foolish as she was, thinking she could balance children and work a'the same time."

"Which is why y'won't do that. Promise me that much, for your ol' cousin Kieran?"

Damn you, Mairead thought, catching sight of Aunt Moira's cottage only a few meters down the road. "Fine. I promise. I won't do what Mam did...I think Aunt Moira would try an' throttle me if I did, take m'babes from me too."

"And you say Tommy exaggerates," Kieran scoffed as they pulled into the shed that was currently passing as the garage. "Now off with ya. I'd like to see what your work in those fancy houses has taught you 'bout laying a table. Horace Walsh and I have got a bet going, but I won't tell ya where my money is, jus' t'be fair."

A/N: Thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoyed this chapter!

I definitely plan to spend some more time covering the details of the wedding and the after party and those things, and next chapter we're going to meet a certain gentleman, as well as Mairead's sister-in-law and her children.

Please review as you are able, so I can know what you like and what you don't and things like that because that makes this a learning experience for me, and I want nothing more than to get better at writing these.

Thank you!