17. Here's My Story

TROLLOPING HABITS OF LUDICROUS LADY MARY

Eldest daughter of one, the Right Honourable Earl of Grantham starred as leading lady in rumors that sparked long before the first World War. But today, The Daily Herald reveals each one of these bizarre stories to be shockingly true. Lady Mary Crawley, cold exterior and poignant stare to her placid face, is a somewhat attractive woman but holds little to her personality beyond a stoney and vain exterior. Behind closed doors, this daughter of an egotistical and self-absorbed aristocrat, took as her paramour the once live and healthy Kemal Pemuk, a Turkish diplomat who visited Lady Mary's family house in the late Spring of 1912...

TWO 'HONOURABLES' IN BRAWL

Yesterday afternoon, The Right Honourable, the Earl of Grantham took the son of Viscount Branksome, The Honourable Evelyn Napier for his opponent in a one-on-one brawl at his estate - Downton Abbey, North Yorkshire. The Daily Herald reports on this unlikely battle between the Earl and his social inferior, Mr Napier. Claims stand that Napier arrived on the estate under the invitation of Grantham's second daughter, Lady Edith Crawley for reasons unknown. Lord Grantham, having not approved the arrival of Mr Napier, threw out in an all scale tantrum which ended up in fisticuffs as Napier attempted to defend himself. Reports also stand that the Earl's pregnant wife, the The Right Honourable, the Countess of Grantham also got unnecessarily involved, trying to protect Lord Grantham in a fight that he himself had picked. Lord Grantham continued to violently assault Mr Napier to the point that he had to flee to his vehicle and leave the estate...

"Carson, dispose of this morning's Herald will you?" Robert passed the paper over his shoulder, choosing to ignore both his morning paper and his stack of unopened post as he began on his breakfast.

"How is mama this morning?" Sybil asked, setting aside another letter as she reached for another on her own pile.

"She's well. Very tired but she's alright," Robert assured.

Silence ensued again over the morning meal. Only the clattering of cutlery and the tearing of knives on envelopes could be heard. Robert looked up from his eggs and observed his family around him. They all looked incredibly tense and uncomfortable... much as his staff had behaved on delivering his morning newspaper and holding open the door for him... He cleared his throat.

"I think that I ought to apologise for yesterday if any of you is to act normally today," he said simply.

"Oh papa, you don't have to do that," Sybil said, looking around at the others for support.

"I think he does... That is if anyone's to retain any respect for us, I think the staff should hear too," Mary said, stabbing at some toast with a little too much enthusiasm.

"My reasons were utterly justified, I will not answer to you, Mary. Especially given your own mistake has made front headline-"

"Surely you understand though. You can order everyone to act normally but it'll never be that way again unless you explain what went on yesterday. Everyone needs to be on level-pegging as far as understaing Napier's involvement goes. And that includes the staff."

Nobody responded to Mary. Robert merely stared at her.

"Have you read this morning's paper?" he asked finally.

"I have," she said. "The article its self lightened my spirits considerably. It's utterly hysterical," she said without notion of amusement.

"I'm glad you find it amusing." Robert said flatly. "Particularly given that you well know that article will expand in variety and appear in every other paper by tomorrow morning." Mary gave no answer, nor did anyone else. The uncomfortable quiet resumed. Robert had had enough. "Right. This afternoon I would like all of you here with Isobel, Matthew, Lavinia and the Dowager in the library at 4 o'clock... Carson, yourself and Mrs Hughes are invited also, you can afterwards explain to the necessary downstairs staff what I have to say."

"Oh hello Matthew... we weren't expecting you until 4," Mary smiled for the first time all day.

"No, I thought I'd come up early. Lavinia and mother are coming later. I wondered if I might have a word about this morning's paper."

"Well... yes, if you must. Come into the library."

They walked past Robert on his way out of the room.

"Good afternoon, Matthew. You're a bit early," Robert said, pausing for a moment.

"I just came to have a word with Mary..."

Robert nodded, smiled and left the room for upstairs. Leaving Mary and Matthew to talk, he went straight through the corridors, up the stairs two at a time and along the landing until he stopped outside Cora's bedroom. Leaning into the doorway, he tapped his knuckles lightly on the wood and listened. He heard a muffled 'come in' and turned the handle, opening the door just enough and slipping inside, closing the door behind him.

"Hello you," he could hear the smile on her voice though he couldn't see her face.

"Hello," he said, walking over to the bed and sitting down beside her, she was curled up with her eyes closed. "How are you feeling?"

"Terrible... but better now you're here," she didn't open her eyes but reached out for his hand.

"Me too... I'm repeating mama's scripted apology this afternoon."

"What? Why?" she opened her eyes and he wished he'd not said anything for the worry was clear on her face.

"The post and the newspapers this morning were worse than we could have imagined... It seems everyone known to us, well known or not, wants to know if the stories are true. I don't know about Napier but Carlisle has authored his own version. It's time for ours."

"Want to run me through it?"

"It's carefully constructed - by mama - not to implement you. The papers didn't pick up on everything but that could change if Napier doesn't agree to our terms and sets off the real scandal. There's not much to be done about Carlisle, he's already let rip..."

"What are the terms?" Cora asked, stifling a yawn.

"I don't want to trouble you with it. It probably won't come to it."

"I'd like to know."

"...Well, we've offered him something in reward if he stays quiet. If he isn't quiet then we retaliate with a scandal of our own that will ensure he's shunned by society... Mama has some favours owing to her with a few nobles in London and I have a few old contacts in newspaper firms."

"Do you think that'll be enough to over-ride Sir Richard?"

"No, but it'll be enough to over-ride Napier with a different scandal if he chooses to release the truth about... you know."

"What will you tell people?"

"We don't need to come up with anything yet unless Napier reveals what it was all about and we need to deny it. We'll just say an argument sparked for now. I can worry about a story later..."

"And what is the reward you spoke of?" she'd closed her eyes again but she could tell he thought he'd wormed his way out of telling her.

"Well... err, we err... We... Err."

"Robert?"

"...Yes?" he said weakly.

"Stop saying 'err' and just tell me."

"Well, I spoke to mama and she agreed there's no way around it, it's all we have to offer him that we know he'll likely take... It's a combination of money and... we said that when the baby's born he can see it once," he said quickly, hoping she'd not heard him correctly for he hated the idea as much as he knew she would.

"You did what?"

A/N: I hope the articles at the start of this chapter were ok, obviously they're written for Carlisle's paper and he's an angry dude after what went on so I hope I got that across. I know he loved Mary but he's only human. Human's get angry. Sorry it's taken a while to get these last few chapters up, the next one will be the last one! :O
Oh and I hope it was clear the way the Crawleys are trying to deal with the Robert v Napier scandal. Not much to be done for Mary's sadly... But we'll see.

I promise the last chapter'll be a good 'un though. I'm super excited to write it and get it out there for you to read so hopefully it shan't be too long. Also, I know some of my chapter titles are a little bit rubbish and ill-fitting but I'll explain that in my final author's note next chapter. Anyway, if you have the time I'd love a review, they're just little sprinkles of awesome. See you all next chapter I hope! x