Matthew slowed down and let go of the rowing machine's handles. He had adjusted the flywheel's resistance to give him the best workout for cardio and strength training. His breathing was only a little laboured. But his back twinged like mad. And his hands hurt. The spasm was sharp when he put his legs down on either side of the machine.

What caused it? Matthew rubbed the spot awkwardly with his right hand. And then he remembered, an amused smile traced on his lips.

The mucking out of the stables with Sybil. They had done all the stalls both Christmas day and the day after. As well as New Year's Eve and New Year's Day as Mary had also given the small staff the days off. Mary had joined them in the livery yard eventually, not doing the actual work but catching up on paperwork and calling each of the owners of the horses boarded to ensure them of the good health of their animals.

The snow had let up during the week between but it was still difficult to get around, the drifts piled high in and out of Downton. Edith and Bertie returned to Northumberland to their home. Isobel had decided to call her own visit a miss and remained in Manchester. Matthew had been more than a little relieved. His mother would have entered a hostile atmosphere. The days since Robert and his confessions had been disturbingly quiet. Cora kept to her rooms. Robert looked like a ghost.

They all walked on eggshells when either entered the dining room for a meal. Always at different times. No looks. No glances. They ate and left.

Matthew had been restless with inaction so gladly took to the physical work in the horse stables. Something he thought he'd never say, but it was true. The first time was awful. The reek of the horse manure. Sybil's mockery of his sensitivity. He had wrinkled his nose in disgust as he made a few hesitant scrapes to rake the straw away from the side of the stall. "Not like that" Sybil had sniffed while grabbing another rake and making swift work of the pile. She turned and grinned playfully, "City boy. You have pretty eyes and pretty hair Jon Snow. You know nothing."

Matthew laughed and got the hint. He made swift work of the next stall. They had worked in quiet concentration. Moving the horses from the mucky stall to a clean one and then returning the beast to be bedded and fed according to Mary's instructions. She watched from the video chat on Matthew's iPad with a critical eye as he measured the mix of oats and barley pellets that Jerry kept in a mix in a barrel for easy scooping. And replaced the bales of hay in each stall.

"That's good Matthew. That's enough." She said, as he moved the iPad to the final stall. Jellybean snorted in a friendly manner as Matthew approached. He clicked his tongue slowly and said, "Good boy." The horse nickered in response to Matthew's hand patting and rubbing his mane.

"He likes you." Mary smiled as she watched her husband with her favorite new mount.

"Of course he does." Matthew reached for his bridle to move the horse out of the stall. "We get along just fine."

Sybil looked askance over at Matthew from across the adjacent stall where Mr. Bean was housed. "He'll do."

Matthew grunted in mock gratitude of Sybil's grudging compliment. And got back to work.

It was hard. Smelly. Rewarding in the way his arms ached and the sweat poured off his forehead. But it was also something he really didn't want to do every day.

Mary lived for this. She reveled in the details of taking care of each animal. He saw it in the way she looked critically at his every movement, questioning whether he had properly replaced the tack in the correct location. In the way her eyes scrutinized each horse as the camera moved over each animal's body. She missed nothing.

He really just wanted a hot shower and some dinner.

But it made him feel that much closer to Mary.

And that was good.

He understood her passion that much better. This was who she was. A horsewoman. He'd never quite have identified had he not done this.

Even if it was only a little. He understood.

He'd never take it away from her. He had looked around with more than a little pride in how he helped create this business. So many of his deals were on paper. Or in starkly decorated boardrooms about properties he cared nothing about. This was real. It breathed.

Something to be proud of, Matthew thought as he continued to row. The rest of the time at Downton was not much of an idyll, he thought with all the tense atmosphere surrounding Robert and Cora.

Mary had rewarded him.

Surprised him really. After he returned to Downton after that first time mucking out the stable. She had met him back in their bedroom, her finger pointing towards the en suite bath when he walked inside. He was exhausted and sore.

Matthew thought she wanted him out of her sight as he looked a right mess with his shirt stained and jeans soiled. His feet bare as he took off the Wellington boots downstairs and threw the socks inside. His cheeks grubby and his hair disheveled. He thought he stunk enough to raise the dead.

All he had wanted was to take a hot shower and clean up.

"I won't be long…" He started to say.

And then he saw she intended to help him shower.

Mary stepped inside the door frame of the bathroom. She motioned for him to take off his shirt with her long arms extended over her head, her tongue licking the top of her mouth slowly as his gaze took in her hungry look.

He did so in one swift motion. Mary arched an expressive eyebrow in absorbed appreciation as his lean and ripped chest was revealed. Her throat produced a guttural moan when the jeans were next.

"I'll meet you inside." Mary spoke the words a she wriggled out of the bottoms of her yoga pants, leaving her dressed only in the clingy tank top. Matthew watched as she slowly leaned down to slip each of the leggings off her feet, giving him a view of her rear that made his breath grow ragged and hard.

He came up behind her and slipped his hands inside her top and pulled it off over her head. She leaned into his body, felt his arousal between her thighs. His arms came around and cupped each of her breasts with his hands. He kissed her neckline, feeling her high cheekbones against his own. Wisps of his hair tickled her skin.

A slow smile crossing Mary's lips.

And then he remembered…

"I reek something awful." He apologized and pushed himself aside to avoid touching her again.

Mary laughed and moved to turn on the hot water tap in the shower. "I'm used to it." Her low, tempting voice explained, drawing him to her again. They moved under the taps and kissed, her lips groping for his as the heat rose in plumes of steam around them. "Come here."

He willingly gave in. Their bodies became one. Her arms drew around his, gathering the soap in her hand and slowly ran the bar down the length of his arm, creating suds and cleansing away the grime and the dirt. Matthew felt her touch, soft and sensitive all over his body.

Mary would not let him participate. He was to all hers to command.

"Pull up your arms." She whispered huskily in his ear, pulling on the lobe with her teeth making him groan into her mouth as he roughly pulled her over for a kiss.

But he did as she wanted. The lather gathered in her hands and she caressed his chest, his lower torso, the v-shaped groin and lowered her mouth completely down onto his hard arousal. The sweet torment of her tongue flicking the tip making him wild with desire.

She slipped her mouth off and looked up. Matthew's head was bent back, face enflamed. His eyes closed. When she stopped he let out a renting gasp at being bereft of her fiery touch. His mind, his body never needed anything more than for her to continue. He opened his eyes, unfocused at first. His pupils dilated from arousal. Then as his senses returned, he looked down.

She openly gazed back at him, a hungry blazing look of desire on her face. She was enjoying taking him to brink of sexual frenzy and then depriving him of it.

"Fiend." His hoarse voice hissed, "How long do you intend to torture me?"

Mary's lips curled provocatively upward on one side. She flicked her tongue around her lips, then opened her mouth, pouted and kissed right where he was most sensitive.

He shuddered and emitted a guttural moan, just as her actions demanded.

She then placed her mouth back onto his engorged member. Coiling her tongue around the tip, and just brushing it. Glancing strokes designed to stoke his need. Matthew felt weak at the knees which was of course her intent. She plunged down and down until he felt the squeeze of her throat taking complete control of his hard length. His eyes closed and then opened again as he watched her.

She was wiggling her ass in the air now in concentrated effort. The steam making a halo around her naked form. It was so exquisite. So erotically charged and yet beautiful. The curve of her backside. The nodules of her spine spiking against the alabaster glisten of her skin. Matthew's last coherent thought before he succumbed to the bliss was that he needed to commit it to memory. The artist aching to draw and capture the moment of perfection before it was gone forever.

But then it was forgotten for the moment, forgotten in a blaze of hot desire that spread throughout his body. Mary seizing his buttocks with her long fingers and squeezing each cheek. Her grip on his body committed to making him explode inside her mouth. Wet slick strokes of her tongue making him spasm and buck towards her. His hands reached down, without thinking he ran his fingers into her hair and pushed her madly closer to him.

He then felt the world dissolve around him as her lips tightened their hold and she drove his arousal down her throat before letting go just to do it again, making him blind with lust.

Het let out a burst of increasingly loud staccato grunts.

He was beyond any reclamation. The peak coming in waves of ecstasy. She tortured him by placing and releasing pressure with each stroke of her lips.

And then he slumped against the wall of the shower. A spent force.

Her victory complete, Mary smiled enigmatically and slowly drew her finger down his muscular chest as he came to rest next to her.

After a moment's rest, she drew herself up to rise. Matthew had enough sense left to help his pregnant wife up to her feet. He then supported her as she moved her face under the shower to cleanse.

He shifted to join her under the hot water. The lather clung to Mary's skin. Matthew slipped his down each arm, the curvature of her waist. He leaned down and kissed her stomach.

Where their children grew within. He trembled at this gift.

Mary took him by the hand and gently lifted him back up beside her.

"You are so glorious, my love." He kissed the nape of her neck. She felt his sweet lips press down on her flesh, slip and slide down her wet skin. She gasped and cried out.

"I need you.." She spoke harshly, her demand clear.

They came back together as one. He slipped inside her, already aroused again by the touch of her breasts against his chest. She seized his buttocks and drew him towards her. She bucked and swayed in high frenzy, pushing him further and further towards her own peak. She felt it culminate as waves of crashing burning ecstasy. She gasped and clawed at his skin.

Matthew held her tight as she writhed blissfully against him. A last shattering pant and she was complete.

He held her tight, and then released his grip slightly. She shivered momentarily and he returned his arms to their tender embrace.

They had danced the slow dance of love making until both felt utterly satiated. Complete.

XX

Matthew had left shortly after New Year's Day with his in-laws still not speaking. Mary had told him it was fine to get back to his work after they had met with Dr. Walsh on the Tuesday after New Year's and she was given a complete exam and was declared in full good health. A new light exercise regime was also given to Mary under strict orders to keep away from all heavy labour in the stables.

Then the sonogram. Dr. Walsh could not say for certain that both twins were boys after close scrutiny, but she believed it be so.

Matthew had squinted at the screen. "Ah yes…" He muttered as he pointed and grinned madly back at Mary. She lifted her head to get a better look. The image was a puzzle at first. Like a Rorschach test except this moved. And then one by one the images focused. Legs. A little arm. Some fingers. A head. No two heads. Eyes close together. One baby appeared slightly larger. Dr. Walsh said that was nothing to be worried about as that was common.

They had left in a glow of wonder at the life before them.

Mary returned to work in the office at Downton Stables, promising to get right on to hiring a new full time stable hand.

He grunted and began to row again. He had returned to London and his small flat to concentrate on a series of meetings with clients in the next fortnight. He had consolidated all of them to be accomplished in one fell swoop. So then he could get back to Downton and stay for an extended period of time. Mary had agreed to walk through Crawley House with him as soon as the family that currently resided vacated at the end of the month. To see what renovations needed to be done.

Matthew was pleased with that outcome. She could have been much harsher with him and the way he had stumbled in the property acquisition. The quarrel bitter. The accusations of betrayal of trust meant to hurt. But instead the argument was reasoned. He felt they had come to understand each other that much better. They were both stubborn and desirous of getting their way. But if this fragile new marriage was to have any long term success, they both had to concede and compromise. She could have made it final that they stayed at Downton Abbey. And he knew he would have acquiesced if just to please her.

But she did not. And so now, now they had a real opportunity to put down their own roots as a new Crawley family took up residence at an old estate home.

Matthew also held daily meetings with Tom and Mika and catch up on projects. They told him the Burleigh property deal was in the last stages of negotiation but that he was needed to finalize the sale. Mika reminded him about the trip to Berlin in February with their team members from Swire Inc to look over the office complex acquisition. In addition two more investors required Matthew's consulting skills.

It was more than enough to keep him occupied.

Matthew showered, changed clothes, and walked back to his office. His P.A. informed him in the hallway he had a visitor. Lord Grantham was already seated inside.

Matthew, surprised that his father-in-law was here simply nodded. Robert had returned to work of course in January. Back to the reality that his business, his marriage, his honour were all in tatters.

He took a deep breath and gripped the door handle to his office.

"Robert." He said with as much an attempt at pleasantry he could muster as he walked in. Robert was so mercurial. Matthew could never really sense his mood.

The older man stood by the window. "Lovely view of the Mall from this location."

"It is." Matthew agreed. "I chose this particular office because of it despite the fact it was a bit smaller than a corner one."

"You've done quite well for yourself." Robert turned around. "Self-made man, eh?"

"I don't know about that." Matthew demurred. "We all have to play the game at one point or another to get ahead. I know how to compromise or make something work to my advantage as well as the next." He knew the rumours that swirled about his first marriage. He had worked three times as hard to prove the nepotism wrong and then quit to create his own reputation. And then worked even harder. And destroyed that marriage before it even had a chance.

He was done with that now. He wasn't sure where the next challenge lay, but for now he was content keeping his business afloat and his partners happy with their joint successes.

Robert had a long road ahead of him by turn.

"I can help you Robert." He offered out his hand. "If you'll let me."

Robert accepted the hand shake. Firm grip.

"Thank you."

Matthew gestured to the seat near his desk. "I know how things stand for you…." He stammered a bit. "I mean in your business dealings. We can go over the details later. But for now I think you have a single big decision to make. One that will make or break your financial recovery."

Robert, with a heavy sigh took the proffered seat. "I won't fight you anymore on this Matthew. I believe you have the best interests of the family at heart. What do you think I need to do."

Matthew had never heard Robert without any of the fight, the bluster he usually brought to meetings or dinner conversations.

The hollowed out tones of a defeated man.

Matthew took a deep breath. "As I see it, you have two choices. Sell Downton to keep your business afloat …" He furtively glanced at Robert to gauge his reaction.

Robert didn't even flinch. Matthew suspected he already knew the alternative.

"Or sell Grantham Inc. to pay off your losses and the debts incurred due to .. erm… extraneous circumstances" What the hell else could you diplomatically call Robert's affair and love child? "And retire."

Robert made a move to protest, but Matthew kept talking. "Your health scare certainly plays a factor in this decision I should think. You don't need the stress of this job. I know it takes a toll."

"But what about my employees? I can't just see them let go if whoever buys Grantham chooses to downsize them. They're my responsibility. It's why I've been trying to juggle all this for so long…"

He left off with another world-weary sigh.

"I've considered that as well." Matthew started back diplomatically. "I went over several options but I think the wisest solution would be to offer Swire Inc the opportunity to purchase Grantham."

"Swire?" Robert furrowed his brow. "Why them? We've never been on the best of terms with them. Besides we're small pickings in comparison."

"I have an in with Swire." Matthew replied tactfully.

"You do?" Robert looked over at Matthew behind his desk. The younger man's hands were steepled in front of him as he leaned forward. "Oh that's right. … Your marriage. But isn't that all over now? Given the circumstances of your divorce?"

Matthew tapped his fingers in contemplation as he spoke. "It was an unusual state of affairs at Swire. My divorce from Lavinia still left me as CEO per Reggie Swire's will. I spent a great deal of time earlier last year finding a replacement for me. As far as I know it's all worked out to their satisfaction."

"You were CEO?" Robert was flabbergasted. "And you gave it up? For what?"

Matthew looked his father in law straight in the eye. "For Mary."

Robert gave a slow nod. He had no idea Matthew had given up such a plum opportunity for the love of his daughter.

Matthew went on to explain. "I couldn't stay in a job that was given to me under false pretenses. Reggie was rewarding my fidelity when indeed I had already betrayed that trust." Matthew replied with brutal honesty. "I was in love with Mary from the first moment I saw her. My marriage would not survive. But Reggie died before knowing any of that. I turned my shares in Swire over to Lavinia. She then sold them to the new CEO that I helped choose as my one act of leadership. I think I can work out an arrangement where Grantham can be brought into the Swire fold without losing any of your employees. If they want to go elsewhere of course they can. But we can work out a settlement where they could find equal positions with the new firm."

The older man sat silent.

"You don't have to make an immediate decision." Matthew said. "But it will have to be soon."

"My ancestors built Downton to last. I know every pillar, every stone of it. I want it to stand. To be passed down to future generations." Robert gave a short gasp. "The title will go to Peter. I've made a damned mess of it all but it is his. I want to leave a legacy for him as well. Money as you well know has not been my friend. The house must stay in the family. Mary is the obvious choice to control Downton. Her business must take priority."

Matthew breathed a silent relief. That was exactly the answer he wanted from Robert.

"So you will take up my offer to sell to Swire?" He confirmed.

Robert stood up. "Yes. I need to take back control over my life. I've let things slip. I want…" But he kept those private thoughts regarding his relationship with Cora to himself. "I want time to work things out." He said instead.

Matthew read between the lines of what Robert said.

The two men shook hands. Matthew saying, "I'll get to work on it all immediately. And Robert…"

Robert stopped at the office door.

"I wish you luck. I want the Crawley family to stand as well." Matthew said.

Robert gave Matthew a weary look. "You're a good man Matthew. I was wrong to doubt that." He took his leave.

Matthew sat back down, relieved that at long last the air had cleared between the two of them.

There was so much now to look forward to.

XX
I hope you liked this chapter. Thank you for all your kind words as reviewers. It is always much appreciated.