Isobel

"Matthew, we've been invited to Downton Abbey. They ask us to stay from New Year's Eve till the day after the shoot on the third of January. You must have made a very favorable impression."

"Will we go?"

"Of course. We cannot decline an invitation issued by both the Earl and Countess of Grantham." Her son's face lights up and she thinks that he is a little too happy about their plans for New Year's and the days to follow.

Matthew

When he sees Downton Abbey for the first time he can't believe how majestic it looks. He is almost afraid of it. But Mary has told him not to worry. She told him that her parents were looking forward to meeting him. He still wonders how she managed to get her parents to invite him, although she keeps insisting that it was actually Edith who asked them to do it. He has an idea of why Edith might have done such a thing and he knows that all three of them, maybe four of them if Patrick is counted, are playing with fire. But he can't stop. When he received the first letter from Mary, only three days after returning from Liverpool he knew that he couldn't keep the promise he made to himself, he couldn't stay away from her. They've exchanged letters regularly ever since, he writes back the day he receives her letters and she does so vice versa. Their letters are full of discussions about politics and banters about literature but he still isn't sure they are appropriate because there always seems to be something in between the lines.

He and his mother enter the Abbey and he looks around himself in wonder. "Mr Crawley and Mrs Crawley", the butler announces them. A man in his fourties walks towards him and welcomes him and his mother. "Let me introduce you to my wife, the Countess of Grantham, my mother, the Dowager Countess and my youngest daughter Lady Sybil. Of course you already know Lady Mary and Lady Edith." He is slightly confused because he didn't expect the Earl of Grantham to be so welcoming and unassuming. Mary smiles at him and nods and he is able to relax a little.

"James and Patrick will join us later today. Thomas and William will show you to your rooms. You can stay there and rest if you like, or come downstairs and join us. We will be in the library."

"Thank you Lady Grantham", he replies. She looks at him a little startled but not unkindly and says "call my Cousin Cora. That's what I am." She really is American is all he can think.

"She is very nice."

"What?"

"I said she is really nice."

"Who?"

"Matthew, the countess."

"Yes. Mother, I am sorry, I wasn't really listening."

"No. You were staring at her daughter."

"Whose daughter?"

"Cousin Cora's daughter. Mary."

"She looked at me. Was I supposed to look away?"

"No. But you are playing with fire."

"I know, Mother", he says because there is no point in lying to her. She knows him too well. "I'll go downstairs again, if it is all right with you."

"It is son. But don't do anything you might regret later."

He spends the afternoon in Mary's company and sits next to her at dinner. He hardly talks to anyone else, although he notices the looks that Lord Grantham, the Dowager and Patrick are throwing him. Lord Grantham looks as if he doesn't know what to think, the Dowager couldn't look more disapprovingly and Patrick looks calculating. He doesn't care about any of it, all he wants to do is take Mary somewhere and kiss her. But he knows he can't. Although he would like to very much. So very much. He wonders if there is any way to do this when Mary makes this decision for him.

Mary

"Matthew, come to the library with me, I want to show you something", she whispers in his ear. She knows that Edith has heard her and feels her eyes on her back but she doesn't care anymore. They have started to play with fire, her and Matthew and Patrick and Edith, and she knows that this might burn their whole lives to the ground, but she doesn't care. She kissed Patrick on Christmas day, just to find out what it was like and she didn't like it. She found it disgusting and she thought that so did he. Until she saw him kissing Edith only a few hours later. Finding them kissing by the Grecian temple hurt her less than she thought it should have hurt her. She is of course afraid of losing the title and the estate but thoughts of all of this being worth the loss of a title and an estate keep coming to her mind. She isn't sure what 'all of this' is yet, but she wants to find out. So she decided to kiss Matthew while she watched Edith kiss Patrick.

"What did you want to show me?" Matthew asks. "Nothing", she says. She hadn't planned on being so obvious but now that it has happened, she thinks that turning back makes no sense. "I wanted to do this", she says instead, puts her hands on each side of Matthew's face, pulls him close and kisses him. She doesn't find this disgusting. Quite the opposite. She could go on like this forever. "Mary", comes her sister's voice. "What do you think you are doing?" For once in her life she is glad that it is Edith and not Sybil. "Only what you did with Patrick at the Grecian temple. I won't tell on you if you won't tell on me." Edith turns around but Mary isn't sure that her sister agrees with this deal. She wonders what her sister is up to. Considering that it is Edith, probably nothing good. "Oh God, Mary" Matthew whispers in her ear and he kisses her again. She isn't able to stop him; she doesn't want to stop him.

Matthew

He knows he has to break the kiss. They have already been discovered although it appears that Edith has a skeleton in her closet as well, so she probably won't tell. "Mary", he says and pulls away. "We have to stop this."

"I know, but I don't want to. Meet me later tonight. In here or somewhere else, I don't care."

"We are playing with fire, Mary."

"I know. We all are. Edith and Patrick as well." "

"Mary, no good can come of this."

"Wasn't this kiss good?"

"It was fantastic Mary. But we can't do it again. You have to marry Patrick."

"I don't care about Patrick. I kissed him too and it was disgusting."

"When was this?"

"Christmas Day."

His world is pulled from under his feet. How could she have done this to him?

"How could you Mary. How can you kiss him first and kiss me only a week later?"

"How can he kiss me and kiss Edith only hours later? We wanted to see what would happen. Nothing happened. We didn't feel anything. But it was different with you. Kissing you is something I don't want to stop."

"Mary, you are"

"I am what?"

"the most wonderful woman I have ever met. But we have to go back."

"Meet me later tonight, please."

"No Mary. I want to. Very much. But we can't."

He can see the disappointment in her eyes but he can't risk it. If they were caught, Lord Grantham would throw him out of his house. And he'd be right to do so.