Chapter 8

The day got underway, starting with the entire family at breakfast. Even Cora was downstairs instead of having breakfast in bed as she normally chose to do. Sybil decided to enquire as to why she had come down, as she could tell that the rest of the family were dying to know as well, "What's made you come down, mama?"

"That's a good question actually. You were the one who always told us that once we were married we'd be fools to choose not to have breakfast in bed!" Mary said, joining in the conversation.

"Oh, come on, love, don't bully her. Surely she can choose to have breakfast with her family if she pleases," Matthew defended his mother-in-law with a smile and a soft tone of voice. Mary shot him a look which said something along to lines of, Do you have to defend my mother on this? I thought you were on my side, and before you ask me, yes, I still love you, even if you are on mama's side this time!

"Thank you for your support Matthew – you're the only one who seems to be giving me any, but I think I might be able to cope," she then turned to her two nagging daughters, "And, girls, I do think you're fools, and I'm not in bed because your grandmother is coming around early to talk about the Christmas service in the village."

"It's October though," Tom said rather loudly.

"I know, we're late on the meeting – it should have been last month really," Cora replied before she got bombarded with statements and questions and shouting from everyone – everything was utterly frantic.

Robert retorted, "I think you'll find that I support you, actually!"

"Last month?" and "Tom, there's no point in arguing, darling – I know mama and you won't win!" came from Tom and then Sybil.

And then, "I'm sure Granny wouldn't mind if you were a little late to come down from upstairs, you know," came from Mary, but Cora knew how to deal with it – it'd happened before. She just shut up and ignored everyone. She said nothing and looked at no one and did nothing, but sat in silence and continued to eat her breakfast. Everyone had their own arguments, and conversations – the day could never be classed as a real Crawley day if there wasn't an argument, or at least a heated discussion, at some point throughout the day. So Sybil and Tom had a discussion about the Christmas service, and everyone seemed to leave their own conversations with one another and joined the new parents in their debate – each taking a different side. But, surprisingly, it didn't result in being a nasty discussion, but it rather made everyone laugh. No one took it seriously, and nobody noticed that Cora had left the table until Mary decided to leave, and Tom said to Sybil, "When did your mother leave?"

Sybil looked at him in confusion and then turned to where her mother had been sitting and replied, "You know, I didn't notice! Not until you mentioned it!" Everyone promptly finished their meals, with only a little chat – Matthew especially, as he wanted to catch up with Mary. Sybil and Tom went to check on Harriet as soon as they'd finished and everyone else got on with a normal every day morning.

Mary had gone back up to her bedroom to change her shoes, as the ones she had been wearing in the morning were new and were rubbing awfully. Matthew eventually found her just as she was coming out of their room with an old and tatty pair of shoes on. "It's not like you to wear shoes that don't even match the colour of your dress. Are you sure you're not ill?" Matthew laughed.

"Very funny, darling. My black ones are rubbing and it's become painful to walk, and you know I've loved my red pair longer than I've loved you!"

"But you love me more, don't you?" Matthew asked, knowing the exact answer he would get back.

"Of course I do, you silly idiot!" Mary gave him a quick kiss in their bedroom doorway, before heading back downstairs to the living room, but as the pair of them wandered down the corridor hand in hand, Tom came out of his room, "Have you seen Nanny recently?"

"Not since yesterday evening, no. Why? Nothing's wrong, is it?" Mary wondered, genuinely concerned for her niece's welfare and her sister's happiness.

"No, no, nothing at all, we were just wondering where a few things were, that's all," Tom replied, as Sybil walked out of their room with Harriet in her arms. She wasn't asleep, but she was getting close.

"You know, I really thought you would have got farther than the doorway, Tom!" Sybil teased her husband and smiled at her sister, offering her newborn for her to hold. The four of them walked down the stairs. Tom went on ahead to search for Nanny, but the girls and Matthew walked slowly, concentrating wholly on Harriet. When they finally reached the drawing room Mary gave Harriet back to her mother, who carried her over to the settee to sit and relax a bit until Tom came in. He sat beside Sybil, gave her a quick kiss, held her hand and said,

"We'll have to wait a bit to find out where she's put them – she's gone out to the village."

"I'm sure we'll survive without them for a few hours," Sybil replied as she felt her husband's free hand placed on hers against the baby's head. Mary sat with Matthew on the opposite sofa and thought of the love she had for Matthew and the love Sybil had for Tom and smiled and gave Matthew a soft and gentle kiss.

"I love you," Mary said quietly to Matthew as Violet walked in to the room. Mary heard her footsteps and looked towards the door, still with her hand on Matthew's knee. "Oh, hello Granny!" Mary exclaimed, as she got up to help her grandmother into the room.

"Hello, dear. Do you know where your mother is? Not still in bed, I hope!" Violet smirked, as the four others in the room laughed between themselves. "Oh, what have I missed?" Violet said, rather crossly. "I hate second hand news."

Sybil stopped laughing, composed herself slowly, as the others kept chuckling, and said to her grandmother, "We had a..." she started, trying to think of the right word to use.

"Discussion," Matthew prompted.

"That's the word!" she stated loudly, before continuing to Violet, "Anyway, we had a discussion – thank you Matthew – at breakfast this morning about why she wasn't in bed and it got rather out of hand. I think you'd have enjoyed it actually."

"Oh, I do so wish I'd been there, but at least I can say I told you so to her later on!" Violet sniggered.

"Why? What did you say to her that makes you right?" Mary asked, ever so slightly confused.

"Never mind, dear. But, where's your mother? Did you tell me? I wasn't listening," she asked, as Matthew and Tom laughed at her comment.

"No, I never told you where she is, because I don't know where she is."

"I'll find her," Matthew said kindly, getting up to go in search for his mother-in-law.

"Thank you, darling," Mary said as he walked past her and touched her waist, as an indication for a kiss. Mary willingly gave one to him, followed by, "Shoo!" Matthew went away obediently, but couldn't think of much else other than Mary, his loving and really rather beautiful wife. He stopped in his path in the great hall, wondering what he was supposed to be doing. Conveniently, Cora walked into the hall from the other direction, and he was reminded. "Ah, Cora, cousin Violet's waiting for you in the drawing room."

"Oh!" Cora said, surprised. "How long's she been here?"

"Only a few minutes. Not long."

"Why didn't anyone come to get me?"

"I did, did I not?" Matthew replied, thinking, So this is where Mary gets her stubbornness from. Cora and Matthew went to the drawing room and Cora sat next to Violet whilst Matthew returned to his wife.

Sybil and Tom had moved to their daughter to make space for Cora and Violet, but Mary and Matthew stayed in their spot opposite their two family members. Matthew and Mary talked for a while, as the others went on with their own conversations and Matthew finally decided to mention Mary's stubbornness to her and she just hit him. "No need to get defensive!" Matthew teased, but louder than he'd originally intended.

"Defensive about what?" Violet asked.

"Granny, it's none of our business," Sybil said, respecting her sister's love life, but of course she wanted to know why Mary was being defensive as much as her grandmother did.

"Well, why ever not?" Violet wondered.

"More to the point, did she have the right to be defensive?" Tom asked, siding with his fellow man.

"Well, actually, she probably did..." Matthew confessed to his brother-in-law.

"This is getting intriguing now!" Sybil commented inquisitively, "Come on, Mary, spit it out! This is far too good for you not to tell me. Why did you give poor Matthew a slap?"

"Err... well, actually, Sybil, it's not as good as you think it is," Mary admitted.

"Oh, come on, you can't drag it out any longer! This is torture!" Cora joined the conversation.

"Matthew just told me I was stubborn, so I put him back in his place – that's all!" Mary said, with a slight raise of the corner of her mouth.

"And rightly so!" Sybil laughed, with Violet and Cora joining in the smiles. Sybil walked over to her sister and stood with her hands on her hips, challenging the men to a debate.

Tom took the hint and replied, "Oh, you think you could win an argument about Mary's stubbornness, do you?"

"Well, perhaps not about her stubbornness, but we could win with the argument that she had the right to slap Matthew!" Sybil fought back.

"It wasn't a slap – it was a... gentle hit. But, actually I think I agree with you, we could win against you any day!" Mary supported her sister in her beliefs.

"And what makes you think that?" Matthew retorted.

"I've told you before – women are superior!" Mary replied with a chuckle. The four of them – Sybil, Mary, Matthew and Tom – walked out of the room with a chorus of, "No, I think you'll find..." and, "Well, I told you..." and, "And when exactly did I say that?" Their argument continued out of the house. It was warm weather, so they ventured towards the tree and bench that Mary had loved since childhood – the entire time Sybil and Mary sticking together on their views, and likewise Tom and Matthew sticking together on theirs. And although it was a fight of the sexes, Mary spent most of the time holding Matthew's hand or standing with his hand around her waist and Sybil and Tom were doing the same. Even so, the girls won with one of Sybil's arguments – that the men had married into the family and so they were wrapped around both Mary's and Sybil's little fingers. The four of them stayed out for a long time – Harriet was brought out too, and they stayed chatting about a whole menagerie of things before they were called in for lunch. It seemed more relaxed than normal as both men were sitting on the grass, which they didn't often do, and both women were quite slouched, with some rather vulgar language and lots of real laughs from both couples.

Again, just the normal thing - I have no clue where this is going. Are you enjoying the story though? Sorry this has been a long time coming, but school work has suddenly got really heavy, rather surprisingly, but hopefully (fingers crossed), in a couple of weeks when the Christmas holidays begin I'll be able to write more consistently. Any suggestions for anything would be greatly appreciated by the way!