This is the last chapter of this story. Thank you for reading and for the reviews. I really do appreciate it when anyone takes the time to let me know what they think. Thank you for coming with me with this tale.

'Daddy, what did you do to your hand?' Sybbie asked, gently touching Tom's bandaged hand.

'I injured it in the garage, poppet,' he said, as she turned it over to examine it.

'Does it hurt?'

'It's a bit sore, but Mrs Hughes kindly bandaged it for me.'

'She's wrapped it up well,' Sybbie said, looking up at her father and nodding approvingly. 'Will it help if I kiss it better?'

Tom smiled at her. 'I think that would do it the power of good, Sybbie.'

Mary watched as Sybbie bent her head and kissed Tom's poorly hand, thinking how like Sybil her niece looked at that moment. George wandered over to take a look at Tom's hand too.

'Did you bang it with a spanner, Uncle Tom? Or did you drop something on it? Like a car bonnet or something? Did you properly squish it? Is it broken? Was there a lot of blood?' he asked, his questions getting steadily more gruesome.

'George! Don't be so bloodthirsty,' Mary admonished, thinking how quickly her sweet baby was turning into a rambunctious boy.

'No, Georgie, I ba-' Tom began only to be rudely interrupted by Henry barrelling into the room, his face like thunder.

'You took it, didn't you, you scheming, thieving bitch?' he snarled at Mary when he saw her sitting on the sofa, Caroline in her lap.

Tom sprang to his feet, ready to defend Mary, only to be beaten to it by George. The boy planted himself in front of his mother and his sister, legs akimbo, hands on his hips.

'Don't you shout at my mummy!' he cried, glaring up at his stepfather.

'Get out of the way, George. This is between me and your mother,' Henry said, impatiently.

'I will not! You don't shout at ladies, that's what Donk says. It's bad form and very rude,' George retorted, not budging an inch as he faithfully parroted his grandfather's words.

Henry reached out to push him aside only to stop when Mary's voice cut through the air like a knife.

'If you lay one finger on my son, Henry, I will make sure you end up with nothing. Not one single thing.'

Henry hesitated then dropped his hand.

'Nanny, could you take the children out to play in the garden for a little while, please?' Mary said, standing to hand Caroline to the woman.

'But, Mummy, I don't want to leave you when he's shouting at you,' George said, turning serious eyes on his mother.

Mary reached out to cup his face. 'I know, darling, and I am so proud of you for sticking up for me like that. But I need you to look after the girls for me. Can you do that?'

George bit his lip, scowling at Henry, torn between obeying his mother and protecting her.

'Uncle Tom will be right here with me,' Mary said, trying to ease her son's mind.

'I will, George, don't you worry about that. I'll look after Mummy for you,' Tom said, reassuringly, nodding at his nephew.

'Oh, for goodness' sake! I'm not going to hurt her, George,' Henry said, exasperated by this scene.

George glared at him, obviously not trusting him in the slightest.

Mary laid her hand on his shoulder. 'Go with Nanny and look after Caroline and Sybbie while I talk to Henry, darling, please.'

'All right,' he said, reluctantly, casting another warning glare at his stepfather. 'I'll be just outside if you need me, Mummy.'

Mary bit back a smile, feeling a great rush of love for and pride in her son. 'Noted. Thank you, my darling.'

With that, George trailed off behind Nanny, Sybbie and Caroline, shooting worried looks back at the little group of adults all the time until he disappeared out of the door.

'What do you want, Henry?' Mary said, switching her attention to her husband once the children had left.

'You took it, didn't you? You came in and took the letter from me while I slept, didn't you?' Henry snapped, furiously. 'Or if it wasn't you, you got one of your minions to do it.'

'My minions? How melodramatic. You make me sound like the devil,' Mary said, unable to resist needling her livid spouse.

'Perhaps you are. The devil in female form. You don't deny it then?'

'Why would I deny it? You were the one who stole my letter. I simply took it back. I've done nothing wrong here.'

'Nothing wrong? You're having an affair with him,' Henry gritted out, jabbing a furious finger in Tom's direction. 'And you've swiped my only proof of that.'

'That letter was proof of nothing other than Tom's vivid imagination. And I've already told you, Tom and I are not having an affair,' Mary replied, calmly.

'But you want to!'

'Yes, I do, but I'm not. I hardly think a court will condemn me for thinking about something. If they did that, hardly anyone would be married anymore,' she pointed out. 'Now, you, on the other hand, you are having an affair. And I will be divorcing you on the grounds of your infidelity.'

'You don't have any proof of that!' Henry fired back at her.

'The proof is easy to get,' Tom said, keeping his voice level, even as part of him wanted to drag Henry as far away from Mary as he could. 'We can hire a detective to speak to the staff at the hotel. As soon as he shows them a picture of Mary, they'll be able to confirm that she is not the woman you told them was Mrs Talbot during your stay with them.'

'Poppycock! You don't even know which hotel it was!' Henry asserted, glaring at Tom.

'The Royal Midlands in Birmingham, wasn't it? Or had you forgotten how I found out about your affair in the first place?' Tom said, watching with some satisfaction as Henry's face fell. 'And I suspect it wasn't the first time you'd stayed at that hotel with her.'

'And we know her Christian name,' Mary added. 'Tabitha, wasn't it?'

'Yes, Tabitha. One of the secretaries to the senior management at Austin, I think you said, didn't you, Henry?' Tom continued. 'I can't imagine she'd be too hard to track down, not with a name like Tabitha.'

'And I daresay I could offer her a large enough sum for her to roll over and confirm to a court that she's your mistress,' Mary said, confidently.

'So that's it, is it?' Henry said bitterly, switching his gaze between them. 'You're ganging up to get rid of me, even when you two are just as in the wrong.'

'We haven't done anything wrong, Henry. I haven't broken my marriage vows; I haven't slept with another man. And all Tom is guilty of is writing an indelicate letter to a married woman. And even that is just an allegation because you no longer have the letter.'

Mary watched as her husband slumped onto the sofa opposite her, his head in his hands. Surprisingly, she felt some level of pity for him.

'Look, Henry, I don't want to destroy you. I simply want us to end this marriage. Neither of us is happy and I don't want to be miserable anymore and I suspect you don't either,' she said in a gentler tone.

'I wasn't unhappy, Mary,' he replied, looking up at her.

'Maybe that's because you were having your cake and eating it,' she said tartly, some of her sympathy disappearing.

'Can't we try again? If I promise to give up Tabitha? I don't love her, you know. I still love you,' Henry said, looking at her with pleading eyes.

Mary shook her head. 'But I don't love you.'

'Because you love him, I suppose,' Henry said, bitterness leeching into his tone again as he glared at Tom.

Mary paused, looking at her husband carefully and deciding not to address that comment. 'We can do this as painlessly as possible if only you'll let us, Henry, but I will not remain married to you.'

'And I suppose I have no choice in the matter, do I?'

'No, not really. Not when I hold all the cards as I do. But, as I said, I don't want to destroy you. You are Caroline's father and so we will always be in each other's lives. I want us to try to be as amicable as possible for her sake.'

Henry was silent, thinking about that. 'You won't… you won't take her away from me?'

'No, I won't do that to you. Or her. She deserves to know her father,' Mary said, softly. 'Whatever has happened between you and me, she will have her own relationship with you. So, please, Henry, for the sake of our daughter, don't make this difficult or unpleasant.'

Henry was quiet thinking about that. Mary glanced at Tom, taking strength from the small smile he gave her.

'And what do I get out of this?' Henry asked, eventually.

'What is it you want?' Mary said, settling herself on the sofa opposite him.

Henry looked up and across at Tom. 'I want the business. If I'm to lose my wife and my home, I want my business. I will not walk away and let you have that too, you bastard.'

'No,' Mary said, shaking her head. 'No, I meant what do you want from me. Tom doesn't owe you anything.'

'I think he does,' Henry said, fixing Tom with a hard stare. 'Don't you, Tom?'

Tom looked at him consideringly. 'If that's what you truly want, then I will agree to it, but you'll have to buy me out. But I think you should sleep on that for a while. Make a decision when you're calmer and you've had time to think.'

'Why? Because you think I'll change my mind? Why would I want to be partners with the man who's stolen my wife from me?' Henry snapped.

'Because if you think about it rationally, you'll realise that keeping me in the business is the only way you can hope to keep the business going. We don't need to see each other much. We don't at the moment,' Tom replied, saying it as he saw it.

Henry frowned at him. 'You think I can't run it on my own?'

'No, I don't,' Tom said, honestly. 'Henry, you're the schmoozer. You're the salesman, the dealmaker, and you're damn good at it. But I run the mechanical side of things, the garage, and that's bringing in more and more business now more people are owning cars. And I look after the business side of things too. I do all the paperwork, all the invoicing. I pay the bills and sort out the taxman, all the stuff that you have no head for and no interest in.'

Henry scowled at his partner, even as he realised the truth of what Tom was saying. 'I could hire people to do all of those things.'

'Yes, you could,' Tom acknowledged. 'But you'd have to pay them, and I do the books, so I know we don't have that kind of spare cash yet. That means you'd have to pay them out of your own pocket.'

Henry bit his lip, thinking about that.

'Or we could continue as we are with Talbot & Branson Motors but Talbot and Branson themselves don't have to spend much time together,' Tom said, laying it all out on the line. 'Look, I understand you want nothing to do with me at the moment, I do. And if you want to dissolve the partnership and buy me out, I will agree to that. I'm just saying giving it some thought before you decide.'

Henry stared at him, chewing the inside of his cheek. Eventually, he nodded. 'I'll think about it. And I want to see the books.'

'Of course. They're in the safe in the office at the dealership. You can see them whenever you like.'

Henry looked back at Mary. 'I don't know what I want from you yet. I suppose I need to talk to a solicitor.'

Mary nodded, feeling somewhat relieved that he wasn't about to create a scene. 'I will instruct Murray to begin divorce proceedings, so when you have a solicitor, you should direct him to contact him.'

'And there's no way you'll change your mind?' Henry asked, unable to snuff out the last tiny flicker of hope.

'I'm sorry, Henry, but no,' Mary said as gently as she could.

He sighed, running a hand tiredly over his face. 'And I suppose you want me to leave Downton as soon as possible, do you? Get out of your hair, so you can fool around together without worrying about me catching you.'

'I think it would be for the best, although not for that reason,' Mary said, feeling a slight twinge of guilt for the lie. 'You behaved quite badly last night, and Papa is very cross with you. It's probably better if you don't spend much time here now.'

Henry cringed a little. 'Was I that bad? I know I drank rather more than I should have.'

'I think Papa expects an apology,' Mary said, not willing to recount the evening to her husband in case it made him angry again.

'I'll apologise to him today and leave this afternoon,' Henry said, rising to his feet.

'Today?' Mary asked, taken aback. 'I'm sure you can stay a bit longer if you need to sort out alternative accommodation.'

'Quite frankly, Mary, I don't want to stay here and watch you and Tom making eyes at each other. You've broken my heart, you know. I expected us to last forever,' Henry said, not even trying to hide the pain in his eyes.

'I don't see how when you were sleeping with someone else,' Mary said irritably, annoyed by his assertion given his infidelity.

'I know I did wrong, but it's entirely different to what you've been doing with Tom,' Henry shot back at her.

'Yes, it is, because as I've repeatedly told you, Tom and I have never slept together,' Mary retorted, her irritation growing.

'No, but you fell in love with him. In my book, that's a bigger betrayal than sharing a physical act with another person,' Henry responded, hurt on his face.

Mary stared at him, at a loss for what to say when she couldn't honestly refute his statement.

'So, I'll go, but I'm going for my sake, not for yours.' Henry turned to leave, walking over to the door before turning around. 'Do they know?'

'Does who know what?' Mary asked, warily.

'Your parents. About you and Tom.'

'No. Are you going to tell them?' she asked, immediately on her guard.

'I could,' he said, staring at her for long enough to make her squirm, 'but I won't. As much as I'd like to. I'm not sure they'll be as receptive to the idea as you might hope. After all, he's still your brother-in-law. In some areas of society, that will be seen as quite scandalous. Incestuous even. So don't think for one minute this will all be plain sailing for you just because you've managed to get rid of me.'

Mary stared back at Henry, her face inscrutable, unwilling to give him the satisfaction of knowing that he'd hit a nerve.

'Goodbye, Mary,' Henry said, finally taking his leave of them.

Mary watched her husband disappear out of the door before turning to Tom. 'He's right,' she said, softly.

Tom walked over to her, taking her hand with his good one. 'And he's not telling us anything we don't already know, love. That was just his parting shot.'

'But Mama and Papa…'

'We don't have to tell them, Mary. Not yet anyway.'

Mary raised her eyebrow at him. 'I'm not sure we'll have a choice.'

'Why not? Do you think he will tell them after all?'

'No, I don't think he will. But you, my darling, have a face like glass. Everyone can tell when you're happy, and I intend to make you very happy very soon,' Mary said with a suggestive smile.

Tom gave a startled laugh. 'Oh, really?'

'Yes, really. Your condition for us becoming lovers was Henry leaving Downton and, well, Henry is leaving Downton. Today,' she said, running a finger down his chest.

Tom grinned, giving a slight shiver. 'In that case, I had better go and write to Lucy.'

'What?' Mary said, taking a shocked step back. 'You're still going to write to her?'

'I need to let her know my circumstances have changed, so she won't expect things to progress between us,' he said, closing the distance she'd put between them.

Mary looked at him in surprise. 'You're going to tell her about us?'

'No, but I can't let her continue thinking we might become more than friends. That wouldn't be fair to her.'

'No, I suppose it wouldn't,' Mary said, suddenly feeling bad for Lucy Smith after weeks of seeing her as her mortal enemy.

'And if things are going to escalate between us so soon, I feel, in all good conscience, that I should at least write the letter to her before we take that step.'

'You're a good man, Tom Branson,' Mary said, sincerely.

'I don't think Henry would agree with you,' he said, dryly.

'I don't care what Henry thinks. I know the truth. And I know how you tried so hard to be loyal to him even though it turned out he has a very vague notion of the meaning of loyalty.'

Tom gave her a soft look at that statement before changing the subject. 'So, going back to Robert and Cora, are you saying you want to tell them about us?'

Mary shook her head. 'No, not yet. I think we should keep it to ourselves for as long as we can. If we end up having to tell them, we should make sure it stays a secret within the family. Certainly until after Granny… after Granny...' Mary said, trailing off.

Tom squeezed her hand in understanding. 'All right. I will tell myself it's a secret, not a lie, and hopefully, my face will not give us away.'

Mary smiled. 'Good. We will try that then. Now, go and write your letter.'

Tom looked around, double-checking they were alone before sneaking a kiss from Mary. 'I will.'

'I want you to give her a message from me if you're willing,' Mary said, making a sudden decision.

'Oh? And what's that then?' Tom said, a little warily.

'Tell her I would be honoured to help her learn how to run Brampton.'

Tom stared at her in surprise. 'Really? Are you sure?'

'Yes, I am. I may be responsible for ruining her romantic dreams, but I would like to help her realise her business dreams. If that doesn't seem too cruel of me.'

'I'm not going to tell her about us, Mary, not while everything is under wraps. Even if she wants to withdraw from you when she knows, she can learn from you before that.'

'Us. She can learn from us,' Mary said, firmly. 'I know you're fond of her and want to help her too. I won't begrudge her that. Although I may get a smidgeon tetchy if I see her making eyes at you.'

Tom grinned. 'Don't worry, love. I won't be making eyes back at her.'

'You'd better not,' Mary said, crisply.

'Although you are very beautiful when you're jealous,' Tom said with a teasing smile.

Mary narrowed her eyes at him. 'Don't even think about it, Tom.'

He laughed, leaning in close to whisper in her ear. 'The only thing I'm thinking about right now is how beautiful you will look tonight when I finally get to find out how it feels to make love to you.'

Mary smiled, anticipation tripping through her. 'And with that, you are back in my good books again. Now go and write your letter while I think of ways to distract myself from counting down the minutes until bedtime.'

'It can't come quickly enough,' Tom said softly, resting his hand lightly on her hip and kissing her gently on the cheek before walking backwards towards the door, smiling at her all the way.

Mary watched him go, smiling soppily back at him. Today was going to be a very long day.