Matthew, Mary, Bates, and Anna all sat silently on the front porch. As luck would have it, they were perfectly positioned here to see the destruction of Downton Place off in the distance. Matthew had lost count of the number of times he'd checked his fob watch; he'd gained a whole new appreciation for the aphorism "A watched pot never boils."
But then, the wait was over. At first it was just a glow beyond the hills, with perhaps a hint of the fireball itself raising over the horizon. A second later, the sound of the explosion reached them, even at such a remove sounding worse than the closest lightning strike he'd ever heard. All four flinched, before gazing in awe as the glow intensified. Sybil had assured them the fire wouldn't spread if the charges were planted properly, but actually seeing it caused Matthew to worry all over again.
At least Mary was there to provide an emotional rock. If she was feeling any of the same things he was, her face certainly didn't show it. And then she noticed his glancing at her and turned with a smile he knew was completely genuine, having grown so used to telling the difference these past few years. And before he quite knew what was happening, they were kissing.
Matthew had quite lost track of time when they parted, and he looked over in embarrassment at Bates and Anna. It was the latter who spoke first: "Well, it's about time."
Mary playfully gasped. "I beg your pardon?"
Bates chuckled. "It's a good thing we never actually got around to laying money down on it. I would have just lost."
Matthew replied, "Well, as long as we're all feeling so good about ourselves, may I turn everyone's attention back to the giant fireball currently threatening the whole area?"
Mary chuffed his shoulder. "I trust Sybil completely. She may have changed quite a bit since I last saw her, but she'd never be so reckless with this place. At the very least, you can trust she'd want to protect the tenants."
No more really needed to be said, on either subject. And when both couples made love that night, it was with the full satisfaction of a job well done.
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The entire household was up bright and early to get the news on their accomplishment as soon as possible. Matthew was the one who ended up getting it, but Mary then watched as he seemed to become frozen on the spot. He didn't even seem to be breathing. Finally the others couldn't take the suspense anymore and crowded around to read it for themselves, and saw the headline:
TWO DIE IN MYSTERIOUS EXPLOSION
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Patrick and Edith had already been fast asleep by the time the bombs went off, and it was only when they picked up the paper themselves that they learned what had happened. Edith simply continued staring at the article in shock, while Patrick swiped his whole breakfast set off the table in a rage.
"We're ruined! You understand, completely ruined! They got in my head, all that talk about our money not being safe in the bank, and look at us now!"
"Patrick…" Edith started to say, but was quickly cut off.
"They must have done it deliberately. There's no way this happened by a coincidence! That count and his wife with the crazy name, what do we even know about them anyway? Well, they'll pay for this. Somehow I'll make them pay!"
"Patrick, I really think…"
This time she was interrupted by her husband ringing the servant's bell. And there wasn't any time to start again before he was off. "They must be after the Abbey themselves. They want to take over the whole place. Well, it's mine by right! You know more than anyone all I did to earn this place, and…"
That was when Edith finally had enough, and slapped him across the face. He turned to her in a rage, clearly about to return the favor, when she stuck the article right up to his eyes. "Look at the picture, damn you!"
The article about the two bodies found in the wreckage of Downton Place didn't contain any names, as they were burned too badly for any recognition beyond being a man and a woman. However, a necklace the woman was wearing had survived relatively intact, and a picture was included in the hope that someone would recognize it. And Edith certainly had; the gaudy thing had annoyed her even before Rose started talking.
Luckily for her sanity, recognition soon dawned in Patrick's eyes as well. "It was ROSE?" he squealed, just as Thomas arrived in response to the bell.
"What was Rose, sir?" he asked.
Edith wordlessly shoved the paper into his hands, in no mood to explain any of this again. "The poor girl was killed while we were supposed to be watching her," she murmured. "Her parents will want us hanged from the highest gibbet, and I'm not sure they'd be wrong."
Patrick grabbed her shoulders roughly. "Can't you see that doesn't matter now? All our money is gone! We can't pay our tenants, or even our own staff! Unless you plan to be the maid of the person who buys this place out from under us, we need a way to fix this!"
Edith had some difficulty breaking her husband's grip, but she managed it at last. "Well, I'm wide open to ideas."
In the middle of their argument, neither of them noticed that Thomas was long gone, having heard everything he knew Mary and her compatriots would need to hear.
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Ever since seeing the article, Cora had been sitting in her chair staring blankly ahead, only the occasional tremor in her hands showing there was still life in her. Robert could imagine what was going through her mind. There had been a time when he was completely new to the idea that a human life had ended because of something his own hands had done, and it had taken him quite a while to be able to function afterwards. And with his wife being so much more delicate to start with, he shuddered to think how this was affecting her, and wondered if he would ever see that spark of life in her eyes again.
He mentally cursed Sybil. He didn't dare do it out loud, as there was no telling how that would affect Cora. Despite what her orders had wrought, she was still their daughter, and Cora might well still be driven to defend her no matter what. What he feared perhaps most of all was what would happen the next time they saw each other, as he honestly didn't know if he could resist the urge to beat her.
Carson stepped into the room. Mrs. Hughes had fainted dead away upon getting the news, and he'd been tending to her upstairs. "I believe the worst is over," the butler said quietly. "She's resting comfortably, and should wake in due time."
They stepped out into the hall. "Well, that's something, at least," Robert said, only making the barest effort to hide the bitterness in his voice. "What do any of us do from here, knowing what we do? We're all responsible, us who placed the damn things, and everyone who planned it, including our daughters. The whole family damned."
Carson put his hand on Robert's shoulder, neither of them acknowledging the impropriety in the emotion of the moment. "I've watched this family for a long time. I've grown to love you all. And you may not believe it right now, but I will tell you that you were not at fault. And neither was Sybil, or Mary, or especially Rose. Something I've grown to understand is that sometimes people's actions can combine to tragic ends, which no one intended, and it does none of them any good to try to assess the blame afterward. It is equally everyone and no one."
Robert looked the man straight in the eye, and he looked right back. "I thank you for your words. Perhaps I'll believe them tomorrow."
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Mary, Matthew, Bates, and Anna had all gathered together to hear Thomas' news of just who had been killed in the explosion. Mary tried to sit down, but missed the chair and simply didn't move from the spot where she'd fallen on the floor. "I met her just once. We weren't even ten years old."
Matthew quickly knelt down beside her. He started to open his mouth, but then realized he didn't actually have anything to say and just hugged her. She made no move to return it.
It was Anna who broke the motionless tableau, as she abruptly walked to the silverware drawer and pulled out a whole handful of knives. "This has gone on long enough. I should have done this from the start, and because I didn't all this is happening now. Well, no more of that. They're both dying today."
