Tom could not believe what his ears were hearing. How could she? And he had just thought that he had made some form of progress. Her words and her actions made no sense. Surely if the guilt she had told him of was the reason then she would have gone before? He was awoken from his thoughts by the entrance of Carson.
"I brought you some hot sweet tea Mr Branson" said Carson.
"Thank you Mr Carson." said Tom. He took the tea and as he drank it became lost in his thoughts again. ...
"Hello Tom" said Violet.
"Hello Violet" said Tom taking a seat. He was in the Dowager's drawing room for tea with Violet and Isobel. Once again, they were meeting to discuss Mary. "So, do you have any idea as to why Mary left?" asked Isobel of Tom.
"To be completely honest no. Yesterday I took her and the children for a picnic. I had been asking her for several days and only yesterday did she finally agree. I got angry at her when she refused to play with Sybbie. She ran off back to the house and I didn't see her again till later in the nursery. Then she started talking about how guilty she felt for not accepting Matthew before and if she had only said yes the first time, they would have had so much more time together. The next morning she had gone". As Tom spoke, his expression grew to be more pained and confused as he tried to figure out what had gone wrong.
"Well we must find her and convince her that that is not true. Matthew was as much to blame" said Isobel, almost at loss due to the tragedy of the situation. "As I have said before, often when bad things happen, we feel the need to find someone to blame and in absence if a suitable candidate, we often blame ourselves." said Violet, thinking sadly of Robert at the time of Sybil's death. "Well that is true of Mary. I suspect she blames herself for more than she said to you" said Isobel with a sad smile.
"We need to figure out where she is before we worry about anything else. Where will she have gone?" said Tom.
" I think that she truly is trying to run from Downton and Matthew. I think up until now she managed to keep those feelings under control by becoming that emotionless shell we see her as. Your chat with her probably awoke those feelings and then she decided to run." said Isobel.
"So it is my fault." said Tom, putting his head in his hands.
"Oh my dear" said Isobel, putting an arm around Tom.
"Tom, something had to be done. Now, I suggest we try to see if Mary is on any passenger lists for any ships leaving the country. It would not surprise me if she decided to go to America to that horrible woman" said Violet.
" I rather liked her" said Isobel.
"Oh my dear, let us not ruin our friendship now" replied Violet.
Tom could not help a small smile, somethings never change.
A/N: I know this was short, but I think it came to a natural end here.
Reviewers, Thank you all. You guys motivate me!