Chapter 7

Anna had left the three alone soon after she had seen the child. She couldn't wait for her husband to come home. She wanted him so badly. She wanted to start her family and her life. She wanted to be as happy as Sybil had been just a few seconds before. As she walked away from Sybil's door she longed for him and stopped half way down the corridor. She couldn't keep going. Mary walked up the corridor, but stopped when she got to Anna, who was leaning on a pillar to one side of the corridor. "Anna, what's wrong? What's happened?"

"Don't worry, Milady, it's nothing to bother you with," Anna said, straightening herself – standing on her own two feet, smiling and turning to walk away.

"Anna..." Mary stopped her. "What's happened. We're friends – you and I. Or at least, you're certainly a lot nicer and a whole heap more friendly than most of those I have to call my friends. Tell me, please," Mary was insistent, but she wasn't pushy. When she wanted to be nice she certainly could be. "Come into my room if you don't want anyone else to overhear."

"I don't want to disturb Mr. Crawley, Milady. There's no..."

"He won't mind. I know him; he won't," Mary interrupted. Anna needed some comfort, but she didn't want to stop Mary from doing what she was doing.

"But you were on your way..." Anna protested.

"I was only on my way to get the book I think I left in Sybil's room, but that can wait. Come on," Mary said indicating to her bedroom door. Anna followed obediently and was quietly thankful that Mary had been so persistent.

As they entered Matthew said, "I thought you wer-"

"I was," Mary cut him off, "but Anna needs some comfort, so we've come in here to avoid anyone overhearing."

"Well, I leave you two in here alone then," Matthew said as he stood up from his chair.

"Mr. Crawley, I don't want to make yo-" Anna tried to explain, but was cut off by Matthew,

"No, no, I have things to do anyway, so I'm happy to get out of your way." Anna said nothing, and began to cry a few tears of sorrow. Matthew hurried out to let Mary help her housemaid. Mary turned to hug her, and Anna didn't reject her, no matter how wrong she knew it was for a lady of the house to hug a housemaid she didn't resist it. She didn't care who hugged her at that point, she just wanted a shoulder to cry on – she would have used O'Brien's shoulder if that's what it had come to. She was so happy to have someone to talk to. She and Mary talked for about half an hour, and Anna had fallen behind her workload in that half hour, but she didn't care – at least now she was actually in a state that she could work. They would have talked for longer, but Tom knocked on the door and entered with Mary's book, "Oh, sorry," he said as he realised Anna had been crying, "Mary, you left your book in our room."

"Thank you, Tom," Mary said as she stood up to take it from him. He left swiftly to leave Anna and Mary alone, and to get to Sybil who was calling him. A little more discussion and Anna left to get on with her day, but not without thanking Mary with great gratitude. Mary made nothing of it. She loved having someone to be there for. That's why she wanted to be a mother. Although she and Anna were about the same age, she still felt the ability to comfort her, and Anna clearly appreciated it.

Everyone got on with their days, Anna got back to work and visited Mr. Bates after lunch, Mary and Matthew stayed close all day and tried to get some time alone in the afternoon, Sybil got up and walked around a little with Tom telling her that she had to rest, but she felt useless and wanted to get up, no matter how tired she was from having a newborn baby – she couldn't sit around and do nothing, it's just who she was, Robert and Cora got on with their normal jobs – meeting Mrs. Patmore about lunches, dealing with the estate and more admin upon admin, Edith went to see her grandmother for the remainder of the morning, and every staff member downstairs was buzzing with the news of the baby. The day went on – whenever anyone wasn't thinking of the baby it was a normal day. There was lunch and spare time and supper and spare time and bed, with a lot of admiring Harriet in between jobs and meals.

At the end of the day Mary and Matthew were in bed, both exhausted which was surprising really as neither of them had done anything particularly tiring that day – it was just a normal day, but it had seemed to have gone on forever. Mary was lying with Matthew, buried in his chest, talking about the day's events, "Harriet's the topic of conversation in the entire house you know."

"Even downstairs?" Matthew queried.

"Apparently so. According to Anna, when anyone has a spare minute to talk, Harriet slips into every conversation one way or another."

"Well, actually, now that I think about it, I wouldn't expect anything else. A new baby always offers something to talk about. Do you think a child of ours will offer conversation in this house?"

"Yes, I'm certain of it. At some point – hopefully soon – we'll have children, I promise."

"God, Mary, I hope you're right. I do so want children," Matthew said kissing Mary's head.

"So do I," Mary replied, lifting her head to face and kiss him. "Matthew, I do love you so remarkably much, you know?"

"I know," he replied, "and I'll never forget it!" He kissed her again, and she certainly did not refuse. They rolled over in bed, without leaving each other's lips, so that Mary was now lying with her back on the mattress as Matthew was hovering over her. "You know Mary," he continued after their long kiss, "I sense this could be an enjoyable night..." he kissed her again, but not for quite such a long time as before.

"I think I do, too," Mary replied, almost laughing, making Matthew simply want her more. And their night was enjoyable – Matthew had been right.

The next morning they woke early, despite having had little sleep. Anna hadn't come to wake them yet. It was only about quarter to eight, but they couldn't get back to sleep, but then again they didn't try very hard. "I love you, Mary," Matthew said, as Mary buried herself in the crook of his arm and put her own over his torso.

"I know! But I love you more," Mary challenged.

"Should I argue?" Matthew laughed, waiting for an answer, although he knew what it'd be.

"I suggest you don't if you want to stay on my right side..."

"Just as I thought," he smiled and the both of them obviously had the same thought – I need to kiss you! Their kiss lasted for what seemed like ages, but they both wanted to go on for longer, so they joined lips again. They kept going for a while, but then stopped in order to just cuddle. Mary pushed herself as close to Matthew as was physically possible, stealing his body heat, which she found always comforted her. There was silence for what seemed like forever, but it wasn't at all awkward – it was loving silence. She weaved her fingers through his and loved him more and more with every touch, which she wasn't aware was even possible. "You know, Mary, I realise this is completely the wrong time to tell you this, but the other day when I went to the house I don't think I ever told you what happened," Matthew broke the silence.

"No, you didn't," Mary said, not taking her eyes off their intertwined hands.

"Well, in a nutshell, I was told it's totally ruined. The rain and thunder storm last week finished it off. It's not worth fixing it, we'd have to knock it down and rebuild from the foundations to repair it – it doesn't seem worth it to me."

"Where would we go?" Mary asked, but she wasn't really interested in the answer. Her eyes were still locked on her fingers in his.

"I thought we could stay here. Of course we'd have to ask your parents, and you'd have to be happy with it, but it's the easiest, quickest and I think most..."

"Matthew," Mary interrupted, "Nobody will mind. Of course we'll ask them, but nobody will mind – I promise. I think they'll like it actually – Mama was always complaining that we never saw her when we weren't living here. And I think I'd like to be home actually – as long as we can have our own time together I'm sure I'll be fine. I've grown up here – I'll always love this house." Mary kissed Matthew – just to stop him from saying anything else about their property, but Anna entered. Time had gone so quickly. They had been awake for about half an hour, but it had felt like a few minutes even though their kisses seemed to have lasted for centuries. They slowly broke their contact as Anna walked over to open the curtains. The sun came in through the windows brighter than it had done for weeks and streamed straight onto Mary and Matthew. Mary was facing the wrong way so her back was towards the sun, but Matthew's eyes were right in the sun. He looked away with a facial expression that said, Oh, God, the sun hates me. But Mary laughed and lifted herself up over him to shadow him from the sun and give him a chance to see her eyes which said, Haha, my eyes aren't in the sun and yours are! But Matthew simply said, "Oh, thanks very much for mocking me, darling!"

"I didn't say a word!" Mary laughed with a teasing look, but Matthew didn't care, and gave his jeering wife a warm, gentle and soft kiss of affection. Mary let him have her lips, but pulled away when she remembered Anna was in their room. Mary sat up in bed, letting the sun flood past her into Matthew's eyes, but Matthew avoided it by sitting up next to her and holding her hand in between them. "How far have you got with finding a cottage for you and Bates?" Mary asked, trying to make Anna feel a little less awkward.

"His Lordship has found one for us that certainly seems big enough," Anna replied obediently, as any member of staff at Downton would.

"Do you like it, though? Because if you don't we can find you another one – it wouldn't be tricky."

"Yes, I like it. Honestly, just having my own house will be nice. I grew up with three siblings in a small house with cousins around most of the time. I'm looking forward to having some space."

"How long is it until Mr. Bates is back?" Matthew wondered aloud.

"About a week and a half I think. There's no date set in stone, but he should be home in less than two weeks."

"Are you visiting him before that?" Matthew inquired.

"Yes, I'm visiting him whenever I have a spare half hour, but they don't come around very often, so Mrs. Hughes has been almost shooing me away to visit him!"

"I'm glad to see you're being given time to see him," and then, turning to Mary, he said, "I should leave you alone to get dressed."

"If you must," Mary kissed him lightly once more and let him go... reluctantly. As he left Mary rose from the bed, having more time to talk to Anna now that Matthew wasn't there reminding her of his presence with a gentle hand and a few caressing kisses.

So, I've got the school play this week, so I doubt I'll get much done in terms of writing more of this story, but I hope you are all enjoying the story. I have no idea where it's going - I'm just making it up as I go along, but I don't think it's going too badly. If you have a spare minute please tell me what you think, because I think it's pointless to keep going if nobody likes it - although, having said that, I'll probably keep going despite what you think because I just enjoy writing and coming up with new ideas. Anyway... this could be the last thing you get for a couple of weeks, but I hope you like it anyway.