AN: First of all, thank you so much for your reviews, favorites and follows on the two one-shots I posted recently! Also a shout out to all those of you who have favorited several of my stories over the course of the last few weeks, and especially so last week. I am really glad you like my stories so much!
This story is a short multi chapter story. It consists of seven rather short chapters and I have already finished writing them, so I will definitely publish all of it. Back in the days when I had a little more time on my hands I used to update most of my stories of Thursdays and I thought that it might be nice to go back to that. So there will be an update every Thursday.
In this story Robert has an elder brother who is supposed to marry Cora. Robert however wishes she wouldn't say yes to him because it would put him into an impossible situation.
Have a great day everyone,
Kat
Chapter 1
Violet – Grantham House, London, June 1889
She notices the physical distance between her two sons. Although they are talking to each other they stand much further away from each other than they would have to. And she knows that this distance is a physical manifestation of the emotional distance between the brothers. Although the age difference between them is only a little over a year they seem to have fallen apart.
She thinks it all began with Rosamund's engagement. Robert was in favor of her marrying that banker and Richard was dead against it. He saw the stain it would put on the family reputation while Robert saw that Marmaduke Painswick would make his sister happy. Because she loves him and he is rich enough to finance the lifestyle Rosamund wants to lead. Because their father sided with Robert and gave Rosamund his blessings, Robert has become much more outspoken about his own opinion.
He talks more about the estate and what he thinks should be done with it than he used to. This of course sets Richard's teeth on edge. He is the future Earl of Grantham of course, not Robert. If he is lucky, Robert will live at Eryholme. If he finds a woman rich enough to support him there.
The financial difficulties of the family are another sore point between the brothers. Robert wants to modernize, make the farms more efficient and Richard wants to keep things as the way they are. As their father made a very bad investment a year ago, keeping things as they are is not option. But neither is modernizing because they don't have enough money. The task of securing the estate falls to Richard of course. He will have to marry an heiress. Preferably an English heiress, but considering how much money the need, he might have to make do with one of those horrible American dollar princesses. Richard does not want to get married, not yet at least and envies Robert the freedom of not having that responsibility on his shoulders.
It is for the better though that it is Richard who needs to marry the right heiress. He is much better at flirting than Robert and better at pretending to like or even love someone. Robert has never fully learned to his emotions. If Robert had to propose to a woman he didn't love he'd probably be honest about the fact that he was only asking for her hand in marriage out of a necessity while Richard is able to make any woman swoon. She certainly hopes that Richard will be able to swoon the right women tonight because he needs to get married within the next year.
Richard – That same day, a ball in London
He loves those balls. The sparkling diamonds in the lady's hairs, the sparkling drinks, the sparkling silver trays that are being carried around and offered to the guests. He loves talking to his peers and dancing with the ladies. The ladies who all try to make him like them. Despite their financial troubles, he is still considered to be a good catch. He will be an Earl, the family owns a beautiful estate and with the right kind of money they will be able to keep it. He is sure of that. All he needs to do is find the right heiress for that. A feat he thinks must be rather easy. He knows he is popular with the ladies, good looking and charming. He knows he will be able to make those American dollar princesses swoon. He is a little apprehensive of having to have a woman in his life permanently but then again he knows that that must not stop his other exploits. He can still stay with his friends as much as he likes, he can still sleep with as many women as he likes. As long as his wife doesn't find out about it too soon.
"Well then, good luck," his brother says to him and he detects a sarcastic note in his voice. He knows that Robert does not agree with his plan to not let a marriage change his life style. "You have to give your wife a chance at least," his younger brother had told him and he had laughed about him. Robert has such ridiculous ideas about love and romance and honesty. Well, Robert can be true to his wife if he so prefers. If he ever finds a wife.
His father has pointed out the American heiresses to him and he plans on dancing with all those in attendance. They vary greatly in age and beauty but there are few he thinks are acceptable enough for him to produce an heir. Miss Claire Walters, Miss Helena Flynn and Miss Cora Levinson. Those three he needs to keep an eye on. Those three he can imagine in his bed and that is all that counts. They have all smiled and simpered at him and he is sure that he can make any one of them fall in love with him. He thinks that Cora Levinson might be the toughest nut to crack but so be it. It doesn't really matter which of those three he marries. If he doesn't find anyone better.
"Make your brother dance with them," his father says to him.
"Huh?" he asks.
"Those that you consider bearable. Make your brother dance with them. He can tell us what he thinks then."
"Why?" he asks.
"Well, those women certainly don't want to marry him so might reveal a little more of their true selves to Robert than they reveal to you."
He doesn't understand why this is important, but he doesn't care. He draws Robert away from a group of his friends, introduces him to his chosen ladies one by one and makes him dance with them.
Robert – that same night
Hardly ever do the differences between a first and a second son of an Earl become more apparent than in a ballroom full of single ladies. They all swoon over his brother and don't care for him. He is sometimes jealous of his older brother, envies him the ability to make any woman fall in love with him but he is also glad not to be responsible for bringing enough money into the estate by marriage. Miss Walters seems rather silly to him, Misss Flynn rather haughty. She made it very clear she did not have any interest in him whatsoever. Although he would not mind having a sister-in-law who does not care for him. Because he knows that she will eventually lead an unsatisfying life and the less she likes him the less he will have to deal with her.
"This is the last one," his brother says and leads him over to a tall woman with dark hair and stunningly blue eyes.
"Miss Levinson," his brother says and this Miss Levinson smiles at his brother rather more calculatingly than Miss Walters and Miss Flynn did.
"Let me introduce my little brother to you. The Honourable Robert Crawley." Miss Levinson looks at the two of them and then addresses Richard. "Have you noticed that your brother is hald a head taller than you Lord Downton? I wouldn't call him little." He almost chokes on his drink and he feels tears of laughter in his eyes. Once he has swallowed and stopped coughing, after being hit in the back unnecessarily hard by his brother, he asks Miss Levinson to dance with him and unsurprisingly she agrees.
"You do not like my brother," he says to her. He does not need to toy with this woman, that much is obvious.
"I neither like nor dislike your brother. I don't know him. I just found it peculiar to introduce you as his 'little' brother.
"I suppose that is what I have always been to him," he says and Miss Levinson asks "So is it a term of endearment then?" He knows it is not, but Miss Levinson does not need to know this. "I suppose so," he says.
"Why does your family want my money?" she asks and the question is so blunt he almost steps onto Miss Levinsons foot.
"What?" he asks.
"I don't have to pretend with you. You don't want to marry me, I don't want to marry you. Why does your family need money? Because you must need money, considering whom your brother has danced with tonight."
He decides there and then that honesty is best in this situation.
"My father made a bad investment a year ago. A very bad investment." Miss Levinson nods.
"So it isn't gambling or some such matter that has ruined you financially?" He shakes his head.
"Well then," she says and nothing else. But when his brother asks Miss Levinson for the next dance she smiles at Richard the way that all the other women smile. As if she was already in love with him.
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