Chapter 5

With Mary and Matthew finished with their breakfast and Matthew still refusing to leave her side, even though she was up and about, they were together in the drawing room. As Matthew had predicted with Tom, Edith had escaped the house. Sybil and Tom were hanging around the drawing room and hall waiting for Doctor Clarkson. They had established between the four of them that Edith had probably gone for a ride, as Sybil had seen some of the horses ready and waiting to be ridden outside the front of the house. Even if it wasn't with Mary, Edith still chose to go out of spite. Sybil and Branson had stopped pacing as Sybil's back was beginning to ache and the two couples ended up having a very long, rather emotional conversation. It went from one thing to another and both women cried multiple times at various different things due to pregnancy hormones flying around all over the place and illness messing up logical thinking, which resulted in the men these women had fallen in love with having no clue how to deal with two wailing sisters who really rather liked their men usually, but were screaming at them and were instantly apologising for things that weren't their faults and everything got really rather out of hand until Cora and Carson arrived in a panic, worrying about what the uproar was about. Mary ran out of the room and hurried to her bedroom, and she would have been closely followed by Matthew if she hadn't have turned around almost knocking him over and told him that if he followed she would deny nothing if he were mysteriously found dead later on in that day. With all this going on Cora and Carson stood back, wishing they hadn't arrived in the first place and Branson ushered a slowly recovering Sybil to their bedroom – the Doctor was late and Branson and Sybil needed a bit of time alone before he arrived. Matthew sat alone and shocked in the drawing room with nothing to do but think over what had just happened. Cora was obviously thinking the same thing, "What on Earth has happened here?" She was still standing against the wall with Carson, and although she had witnessed the end of the commotion she had no idea how it started, or what poor Matthew had done to make poor Mary murderous.

"I don't know," Matthew stammered. He had just about as much idea what was happening as either Cora or Carson.

Thomas entered in a hurry, "Mr. Carson, we need you downstairs."

"Thank you, Thomas," Carson replied as he headed out of the drawing room to go downstairs. He was followed quickly by Thomas, who nodded and smiled as he made eye contact with Cora.

Cora was just as flabbergasted as Matthew, so said, "I'll go and check on Mary," as she stood up to go and find her troubled daughter.

Matthew quickly interrupted with, "No! You mustn't. She needs some space – she's not in her best mood."

Meanwhile, downstairs Daisy had been taken ill, three plates and a wine glass had been smashed by the hall boy being clumsy, bumping into a few kitchen staff and Mr. Carson had only just found out. When Carson first saw the mess he was horrified, "What in God's name has happened down here? Who's smashed the plates?" He was so clearly, utterly furious, "Where's Daisy – why isn't she clearing this mess up? What on Eart-"

"Mr. Carson!" Mrs. Hughes hollered like never before to shut him up, but then she went back to her normal soft self, "A few plates have been dropped by accident along with a wine glass. Nobody has done anything on purpose – accidents do happen, Mr. Carson and nobody is to blame. Daisy has been taken ill and will not be around for today at least, and probably tomorrow, I'm going to get Doctor Clarkson to look at her when he comes for Lady Sybil and also Mr. Carson, Anna has just been called to speak to His Lordship, so we'll have to manage without her for a while, too."

Carson hadn't noticed Anna's absence, as he was getting stressed with the unorganised chaos. He looked startled at what Mrs. Hughes had said and turned to look around the room, in order to seek her out among the havoc of the servants' hall, but she wasn't there, "Do we know what he's called for her about?" Mr. Carson was fond of Anna, and he didn't want anything to happen to her – the house could not be run properly without her.

"No, I have absolutely no idea, but we'll have to do without her until she's back," Mrs. Hughes answered. "Now, then, where's that menace of a boy? Arthur?" Mrs. Hughes called, as he hurried in. He knew that he was the one that caused the mess, and he knew he'd have to face the consequences. "Arthur, please clean this up, and everybody else get back to work. Shoo! The lot of you!"

Meanwhile, back upstairs Robert was pleased for Anna, but he had no idea how to deal with her – she was a servant (albeit a more human one than most, but still a servant) who had just been told that her husband was being let out of prison. This was not a common occurrence for Robert. Matthew walked in, wanting to talk to Robert. Cora had insisted on forcing Mary to come downstairs to be more sociable to her husband, and Matthew wanted to talk to Robert about their damaged house before she came down. "Robert, I wan–, oh, sorry, I'll come back later."

"No, no, actually where's Mary?" Robert enquired. It was no secret to the family that Anna and Mary considered each other as friends, and Robert thought Mary could comfort her much better than he ever could.

"She ran upstairs. She's not in the best of moods with me to be quite honest. She's threatened me with death, so I'd like to stay away from her to be quite frank," but Matthew could see Robert's thinking, "but, I could go and tell her she needs to come down if she really is needed."

"Thank you, Matthew," Robert said. Matthew left the room and ventured upstairs, afraid that he would get screamed at for going anywhere near his wife, but as he was about to enter his bedroom Cora came out and let him past. Mary had clearly changed her tune. Her cheeks were still red and damp from her tears, but she was clearly happier. He entered the room and before he could say a single word, she pressed her lips against his. He certainly was shocked, but he knew Anna needed his temperamental wife. He did the pleasure of being kissed, but then Mary pulled away enough to tell him that she loved him dearly, and he took that chance to stop the kiss altogether.

"Mary, I love you so very much, and I don't know what your mother has done, but I like it – whatever it was, but listen, darling, Anna needs you in the library." Matthew still held her waist and still longed for another kiss, but he knew he wasn't going to get one.

"Anna? Why? What's happened?" Mary worried as she escaped Matthew's grip and headed for the door.

"I haven't been told, but Robert's told her something or other and she's crying," Matthew informed as he followed her out of the room and down the stairs. He thought it amazing how Mary could go from ill in bed, to crying and murderous, to loving him so dearly and finally to worrying about her head housemaid and dear friend. How were women so mercurial? Mary arrived in a hurry down in the library where Anna was sitting down and Robert was trying to comfort her in the best way he could.

"What's wrong? Anna, what's happened?" Mary anxiously went to sit next to Anna to get an answer out of her. Anna clearly wanted to answer, but she couldn't say anything; she was too emotional.

"Mr. Bates will be released from prison next month," Robert told his eldest daughter.

"Oh, Anna! That's wonderful!" Mary exclaimed. After some deliberation they decided that Mary should take Anna up to her room to comfort her and to calm her down. Robert and Matthew stayed in the library to let Anna and Mary have some peace and quiet.

"How many others know?" Matthew asked Robert once the women had left.

"Well, I thought Anna should be the first to know, so now it's her, myself, you and Mary. I think she should be able to tell everyone downstairs. I'm sure the news will get around up here eventually, too," Robert paused and then remembered that Matthew had wanted to speak to him earlier, "Oh, Matthew, what was it you wanted before you fetched Mary?"

Matthew stumbled, "Err, I forget," he said truthfully.

Up in Mary's bedroom Anna was beginning to recover from the news she had just received and Mary was doing so utterly well to be so kind and loving. "Really, though, Anna, you can. If you do want to get your cottage ready before he's home you are truly welcome, and I'd be happy to help if you needed any assistance!"

"Thank you, Milady. Thank you so much," Anna was still crying, but she could speak now – she could think logically and slightly more sensibly now that Mary had calmed her down enough for her common sense to kick in again. Mary and Anna were gone for about an hour and a half. It didn't take long for Anna to get back to a normal state, but she and Mary just got chatting as old companions do and lost track of the time. As soon as they noticed how long they'd been chatting Mary escorted Anna downstairs to inform the downstairs staff. They were all on their break in the servants' hall, so it seemed to be a coincidentally good time to arrive down there to catch them all together. When they arrived everybody stood up – not for Anna, but because Mary was there. They all shut up out of courtesy for their employer's daughter until Anna started laughing in a way that made her look more like she was crying. Mary hugged her, but Carson said, "What can we do for you Lady Mary?"

"Well, Anna's been given some news, and we thought you should all know about it."

Anna began to tell them with, "Mr. Bates is be-," but she burst into tears again.

Mary finished for her, simply out of kindness, "Mr. Bates has been told that he will be released from prison next month!" Mary was clearly excited and all the other servants could see now why Anna was crying and laughing. They all reacted and congratulated Anna – well, all except Thomas and O'Brien, but Anna had learned to ignore them over the years. Daisy walked over to Anna and gave her a monumental hug. After about ten minutes of very excited behaviour from most people downstairs Mary left Anna in the company of Mrs. Hughes and the other housemaids.

When Mary returned upstairs she tried to find Matthew, and seemed to be searching for hours before she finally found him in the garden sitting on the bench under her favourite tree – she had always gone to that bench when she needed some space when she was younger. Now she'd go to Matthew, but if she needed to get away from him too she'd often go and sit on that bench. She walked around the back of the bench to sit next to him. "I'm so sorry for earlier, Matthew. I don't know what happened."

"Neither do I, but I'll forgive you. I know you'd make my life hell if I didn't forgive you."

"You know me so well," Mary said before she leaned in to touch her soft lips against his.

"I love you, darling Mary," Matthew said, pulling her in for a hug. She buried herself into his chest and replied with,

"I know, but I think I probably love you more, dear."

"I don't think so, but I won't argue because I know that when you put up a fight you won't back down!"

"I've taught you well!" Mary and Matthew stayed outside for hours – right up until they had to go in to eat, and even then they were reluctant and would rather have stayed outside for the rest of the day.

I think this is actually going better than I thought it would go. I truly do value your opinions, please tell me what you think, and I'm sorry if the next chapter doesn't come for a few weeks, but I've got quite a bit going on, but anyway, I hope you've enjoyed this and look forward to the rest of it as much as I do!