AN: I made it just on time!
November 1919
Cora and Robert
"Sybil's asking if she and Tom can come for Christmas and New Year's Eve."
"Hm."
"Please Robert. What harm can it do?"
"People will talk."
"They talk anyway. But won't inviting them here for Christmas show that there is nothing to talk about?"
"Maybe"
"I miss Sybil."
"I miss her too."
"Then let's invite them for Christmas. Have all our children here."
"Hm."
"We went there for the wedding. You walked her down the aisle. Why can't we invite them here for Christmas?"
"Because it will be uncomfortable to have Tom here when my mother and my sister will be here too."
"But that isn't our fault. Or Sybil's or Tom's. It's Mama and Rosamund who might feel uncomfortable. I'll talk Tom into wearing tails for both Christmas and New Years Eve."
"It will be uncomfortable for the servants as well. They will have to serve him but they won't like it. Especially not Carson."
"But what can we do about that? Never invite Tom here because it might make the servants uncomfortable? Tom is a member of this family. Should he ever have children, and I dearly hope so, his children will be our grandchildren. I understand and appreciate that you worry about the feelings of the servants. But it shouldn't come at the price of not inviting our son-in-law here."
"All right then."
"Thank you. I know you are doing this for me."
"There isn't much I wouldn't do for you."
"Kiss me."
Matthew and Mary
"Tom and Sybil are coming for Christmas."
"Are they?"
"Well, Tom has written that Sybil will ask your mother which amounts to the same fact."
"Yes. I am looking forward to it."
"Me too. I miss Tom."
"I should think so. You and Tom write more letters to each other than Sybil and I."
"Well, we both married Crawley sisters."
"I think you two have more in common than that."
"Yes. We are both outsiders in this family. Outsiders who have been welcomed nonetheless. Although Tom hasn't really been welcomed by your father, has he?"
"No. But Papa will come around. He's already half way there. If he wasn't he wouldn't have walked Sybil down the aisle."
"True. And if he can't do that last bit of turning by himself your mother will make him."
"Yes. She has a way of making him see things differently. It's because she is what his world revolves around. He listens to her more than to everyone else. And I think it is the other way around as well."
"It is. And it is the same for us, isn't it?"
"Kiss me."