Chapter 11

Although the couple had gone to bed earlier than usual they still didn't wake until Anna came in. The two heard the click of the door and the sound of Anna's shoes on the floor and became conscious of the world around them. Mary opened one tired eye as Anna pulled back the curtain and the sun glared at her, forcing her to put out a hand to save her eyes from hurting. She sat up, wondering what time it was, but knew it somewhere between 8:00 and 8:30 as Anna woke them up the same time every morning unless she'd been told otherwise, but nevertheless, Mary still wondered, so asked Anna, "What time is it?" Anna looked over her shoulder from the window and replied,

"8:20 Milady." Mary just sat, leant against Matthew, who was more awake than she was, thinking of how she managed to be still tired when she'd gone to bed so early. She would have fallen asleep again, leaning on Matthew's shoulder if he hadn't have moved to go and get dressed. Mary groaned – somehow elegantly – as she got up. Matthew, who was in the doorway, turned around at her sound, and walked towards her.

"Come on, love. Life's not that bad," he said, trying to make her a little cheerier. He gave her a kiss for good measure and left her reluctantly in the fully capable hands of their head housemaid. Mary was tired, but she still managed to think straight.

"Anna, when Matthew and I were in London yesterday, we were wondering if, perhaps you'd rather be a full-time lady's maid rather than a housemaid?" Mary questioned, wondering what Anna's response would be.

"Well, I don't want to make anyone feel as if-"

"Anna, nobody feels they need to give you anything, but it would pay more and you deserve the chance if you want to take it," Mary interrupted, firmly, but politely.

"I'd love it, Milady," Anna said, grinning.

"Well, that's settled then," Mary said. "We'll find another housemaid who can dress Lady Edith and Sybil, when she's here, and of course O'Brien will dress Mama."

"Thank you, Milady," Anna said, gratefully, but a little too solemnly for Mary not to worry.

"Anna, what's wrong?" Mary asked, beginning to get anxious for her maid.

"Nothing," she replied, stoically. "My mind's just elsewhere."

"But you're minds elsewhere on something bad," Mary observed, "I can tell, Anna. You can't hide it from me. And I'm not going to let you suffer in silence, when you could clearly do with some comfort," she insisted.

"It's not bad, Milady. Not as such. It's just that Mr. Bates is coming home earlier than we thought he would be," Anna said, with tears of joy in her eyes.

"I thought he was coming back next week," Mary wondered aloud.

"He was, but they've had a change of plan and now he's coming back on Sunday."

"Sunday?" Mary smiled at Anna. "That's in two days! Oh, Anna!" she exclaimed, taking her hand and squeezing it, as a sign of their friendship. Mary didn't really know what else to say, but eventually she found the words to say, "Have you found a cottage yet?"

Anna replied with, "I think I have, yes, but I think I ought to get Mr. Bates' approval anyway."

"Quite right," Mary said, "But I'm sure he'll like it anyway!" Anna finished getting Mary dressed, but it took longer than usual. The two women were having a hearty gossip the whole time, laughing at so many things.

Mary was late down for breakfast, but she didn't care. She was happy and was showing it – she had a huge grin on her face and her eyes were lit with bliss. "What's made you so happy?" Matthew enquired. "You were miserable this morning!" Mary shot him a warning look as if to say, Don't mess with me – you know that it never gets you anywhere, and then said sarcastically,

"I'm glad to know you're on my side, dear." She grabbed her breakfast from the side and came down to sit between her husband and her father.

"So, why are you so pleased with yourself?" Matthew pushed her for an answer.

"I'm not pleased for myself, I'm pleased for Anna. Bates is coming home early – they're letting him out this Sunday," Mary replied, beaming with delight.

"Oh, I am glad," Sybil said, smiling at her sister. "I'll have to tell Anna when she attends me later today."

"Ah, yes, about that," Mary said, dropping her joy a little. She continued, very cautiously, "Papa, I've sort of offered Anna the chance to be a lady's maid rather than a housemaid..."

"Your lady's maid?" he asked, surprised.

"Yes..." she said tentatively. "I was going to ask you before I asked her, but I never got a chance last night, and I thought that she deserved it sooner rather than later and we have the money for it, don't we?"

"Yes, you're right. Your mother's been badgering me to ask you to ask Anna for a while. I'm pleased for her. You can tell her she can start as soon as we have a new housemaid to replace her."

"We're not replacing her, papa. We're filling her old position. I'd never dream of getting rid of Anna. I like her more than most people you know," Mary said, beginning to get ballsy. Robert finished reading the article in the paper without another word and left the table. It had only just occurred to Mary how late down she had been. She noticed that everyone was finishing and beginning to leave, so she said in a quiet mumble, "Was I really that late down? Gosh, time flies."

"Sorry, darling?" Matthew asked.

"Nothing. I'm just talking to myself, that's all," Mary said. A few minutes later she brushed over the fact that everyone had left her apart from Sybil. "You don't need to stay, you know. I'm not trying to make you," Mary assured her sister, trying to eat a little faster to reduce the amount of time Sybil was waiting for.

"I need some time with you actually. I just think that I sometimes need some time away from my family, that's all," Sybil murmured, wearily.

"Sybil, I am part of your family," Mary retorted, pointing out the blatantly obvious.

"Yes, but you're not Tom and you're not Harriet – it's them who I consider as my own family," Sybil pointed out.

Mary finished her breakfast and soon after, she and Sybil were walking around the garden, having a gossip about anything and everything. About Anna, and London, and Harriet, and friends and just about everything else. They met Edith on the way round and she joined with them and they continued to talk about more things – about Ireland, about Downton, and life, and their men, and how Edith had been offered a job writing for the paper and how she'd met a wonderful man in doing so, and how their father was in a good mood today and more about how glad they were for Anna and Bates and more about everything they could think of. They stayed out for hours, and were not called back at all, but they were pleased. The three of them rarely had chats like this. It was a lovely day for it and they were all feeling in a good mood, which, of course, made things easier for them. They stopped on a bench at the side of the path and before long, Matthew, Tom and Harriet were with them. Naturally the attention was on Harriet and the five of them marvelled at her. Mary looked lovingly at Matthew and longed to have children of her own, but she didn't dare say it in front of three other members of her family. They kept walking round the garden, Sybil pushing her daughter along in her pram. They soon came across their head gardener, and they were all so friendly to him, that he was a little startled, until Edith asked, "Are you planning on playing cricket at the annual match?"

He grinned as he said, "Yes, I certainly am. As a lot of the outdoor staff."

"His Lordship's determined to win this year, after your victory last year," Mary informed him.

"We'll watch out for him then. Our teams got stronger though, since last year, Milady," the gardener said back.

But Sybil laughed as she said, "You won't need to watch out for him. He's determined to win, but it won't go his way once his plan is actually put into practice!" The rest of the group laughed, including the gardener, before the family wandered on into the part of the garden that the girls hadn't been in since they were children – and that Tom and Matthew had never set eyes on.

"Was it ever this overgrown?" Edith queried.

"Yes," Mary said. "Don't you remember when we were little and we used to pretend that we were animals in the jungle trying to catch one another and hold each other hostage until we decided to eat one another?" Mary smiled at her memories of her childhood. She didn't often think of her childhood, but now that she was looking back on it she realised how good it was. She had never really thought of the fun she had had with her sisters when she was young, but it gave her a warm feeling inside to know that they weren't always fighting – not their entire lives.

"You ladies certainly had vivid imaginations!" Tom commented as he put an arm around Sybil waist. Matthew smiled at the thought of Mary when she was little, trying to eat her sister.

"We did!" Edith said proudly. "And we used them well. We could spend hours in this part of the garden. You know, I miss the times when we didn't squabble so much."

"So do I," Sybil said.

"I've got to agree with you there," Mary said. "But I doubt things will change so much in the future between us."

"So do I. We might as well face the facts. And anyway, it would take a lifetime to forget the way you two left me to the wild when I was 4 and I fell on my hip!" Sybil joked.

"I thought you were made from sterner stuff," Tom teased.

"Well, actually, she did graze the whole side of her left leg raw and we left her in the rain to get ourselves dry," Edith said, looking at Mary, remembering how mean they'd been to their little sister.

"But if that were to happen now, I'd like to think that we'd bring her back inside with us, even if it meant getting ourselves drenched to the skin. I think we've developed more common sense and care for each other over the years. Now it's just that we all blow the little petty stuff completely out of proportion," Mary said, thoughtfully. Then she looked at Matthew, who had been very quiet, but had slipped a hand around her waist silently.

"What?" he remarked when he saw the way she had looked at him. "I'm not denying any of what you're saying!"

"So you think we do blow the petty stuff out of proportion?" Mary asked, playfully.

"I stand by what I said. I'm not denying anything," he reiterated, teasing his wife and asking for a clap about the head... which he got. The girls all ganged up on Matthew and somehow got him to the floor, lying on the dirty, overgrown ground, laughing over him. It was all in jest and Matthew knew that well, but he knew he had to get his own back on Mary, so when he thought they'd finished rebuking him for not being as masculine as he should be he asked for Mary to give him a hand to get up, which she did, out of good spirit, but Matthew just pulled her down with him. The two of them were on the floor with the others laughing at them, but when Mary gave all three of them a scornful warning look they decided to leave before it got painful for them too, but it was all in good merriment. Mary turned to Matthew who was at her side and said,

"Anna's going to wonder why my dress is covered in grass stains, you know and I'll have to explain to her how they got there." Matthew just smirked until Mary gave him a playful whack and got herself to her feet.

"Mary, will you-"

"No, I will not give you a hand up!" she said, turning to her husband, answering his half-finished question in high spirits.

"Oh, fine!" he said, jokingly, as he got up and held her waist with both hands. They both had the same thought, and kissed each other gently... and repeatedly, for rather a long time, but they both enjoyed the moment remarkably much. The other three walked back towards the house past them, which stopped their soft lips being joined, as Sybil said,

"Mary, do have any idea how dirty the back of your dress is?" Mary looked at her in a way that said, Yes, of course I do – how can I not know. But Edith saw this in Mary's eyes and followed up Sybil's comment with,

"No, really Mary. You're going to need to change before lunch if you want mama and papa to think of you as a respectable lady."

"Oh dear," Mary said to herself quietly, but she looked at Matthew and then at the others and together they set off down the garden towards the house. It would be a push for Mary to be able to get to the house, get changed and be ready in time for lunch, but she didn't care how late lunch would be. She had had the best morning she'd had in a jolly long time, and she wasn't about to ruin it with a rush to get to her room. As they walked, Edith held Harriet, Sybil pushed the empty pram with Tom's gentle hand around her waist, and Mary and Matthew walked hand in hand, not caring about the filth of their clothes. The five of them giggled and chuckled and laughed their way back to the house, drunk on the atmosphere of the morning. When they got there, Edith offered to go and ask Anna for a different dress for Mary, giving an explanation only of,

"It's been an interesting morning, you see." Nevertheless, Anna hurried on with it, knowing that lunch was very nearly ready to be served.

I've got my Downton head back on and I've managed to get my creative mind screwed on the right way. The next few chapters will probably be quite fluffy between Mary and Matthew, but it's Christmas so why not? This will probably be the last chapter you'll get before Christmas, so if it is, than I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas if you celebrate it, and if you want some Downton Christmas, I've got a one-shot Christmas special up from Mary's point of view, about Christmas in 1921. I's called Christmas at Downton 1921 if any of you are interested in reading it. Anyway, Merry Christmas and if you have a spare minute, I'd love a review.