AN: As you can probably gather from this chapter, hardly anything is shown of Mary and Matthew's life in New York. I didn't think that it would fit this story. But I will write a companion which will deal with the year between the weddings and what is about to happen in the next chapters.

Thanks for the many reviews! They are what make me want to write that companion piece.

Kat

Patrick

"Patrick, I want to go on the Titanic."

"Why?"

"Because it is grand."

"And?"

"It befits our station."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"We are a future earl and countess. We should be on the maiden voyage of the greatest ship ever built."

"Your parents are a current earl and countess and they have no interest in going on that ship."

"Patrick, you never do anything for me."

"That is not true." He watches his wife leave the room in a very bad mood. He thinks back to the time between Christmas and shooting party a year ago. He had kept thinking that he was playing with fire, testing whether he liked Edith or Mary better and he sometimes has the feeling now that he got burned rather badly. Quite opposed to Matthew, who in his eyes played an even more dangerous game but came out a winner. Matthew won a wife who loves him for what he is, not the title she will eventually get because of him (there is no title after all), Matthew has got a successful life in one of the most exciting cities in the world and he is rapidly becoming Robert's favorite son-in-law even though he is over three thousand miles away. Patrick knows that some of Edith' antics stem from the fact that she is not yet pregnant while Mary is about to give birth in a month, but it is driving him mad. Maybe he should go on the Titanic with her. His father is going anyway, he has some business in New York, they could accompany him. He'd also like to see Mary and Matthew. They have announced to bring the baby for a visit in summer but he still likes Matthew and it would be nice to see him before summer. Maybe Matthew can give him some tips on how to make a Crawley girl happy.

Robert

He opens the telegram Carson has handed to him eagerly and once he has taken in the news he leaves the breakfast table and almost runs upstairs. He enters his wife's room without knocking and finds her still asleep.

"Cora, darling, wake up."

She looks at him a little confused.

"It's a boy Cora. Mary's had the baby, we have a grandson. Everything went well." His wife elicits a little scream and pulls him closer to her with such force that he loses his balances and falls on top her. He just manages to catch his weight with his arms.

"Oh, I am glad Robert. I was so worried, not being there for her. I kept asking myself whether I shouldn't have gone over there. Whether I really should have believed her that she wanted to this alone with Matthew. I am so happy. A healthy grandchild."

"Yes. And it is boy. That should take some pressure of Edith and Patrick. I think" But he can't tell his wife what he thinks anymore because she has started to kiss him senseless and he is only too happy to give in to her.

Edith

"Where are my parents?" she asks the butler.

"I don't know my lady. His lordship had a telegram this morning and left the breakfast table to tell her ladyship about it."

She knows what this means. Mary has had the baby. She expects her parents to be in her mother's room talking about what a great person Mary is and how lovely it is that at least one of their daughters managed to have a child. She is so lost in her own thoughts that she forgets to knock on the door. She takes one look at the bed, closes the door again and sinks down in front of it. Apparently her parents' love life is much better than her own. Patrick would never do something like that with her, especially not in the morning. When her parents become so loud that she can hear them she gets up and leaves. She isn't shocked by what she has seen and heard but it makes her sad. She has wondered her whole life why her father preferred to share her mother's room when he had his own room. And why her mother would let him spend every night in her room. She has learned what married people do over the course of the last year, but she has always had an inkling that she and Patrick weren't particularly good at it. He never spends the night with her and she doesn't want him to either. She knows that she and Patrick don't have what her parents have. She remembers the passionate kisses at the beginning of their relationship but those kisses became less passionate even before the wedding. Now they hardly kiss anymore and they only sleep with each other because they need an heir. She sometimes has the feeling that Patrick regrets choosing her over Mary. She is sure however that Mary does not regret choosing Matthew. The letters she gets from her are full of tales of a very happy and probably passionate marriage. Edith made Patrick fall in love with her, took him away from Mary, took the title, the estate and the money away from Mary and Mary is the one who ends up with the perfect marriage, ends up with what their parents obviously have. It makes her so bitter towards her sister. She is glad her sister is far away, although she supposes she'll have to see her when they are in New York. See her and the baby. She is sure the baby is a boy and she knows what that means. As long as she doesn't have a boy, Mary's boy will be the heir. Not before Patrick but still. At least Patrick has consented to go onto the Titanic with her. She hopes that something as exciting as that will rekindle the passion in their relationship.