Cora
"The Duke of Suffolk, Lord and Lady Downton and Lady Mary," the butler announces. She has to smile about that. They are being announced in their own home, although that is probably due to the fact that they have returned from their journey to America a day earlier than expected and nobody was outside to greet them.
Mary runs towards her grandparents as soon as she sees them and even Sam tries to wriggle free of Robert's grasp. Their son learned how to walk in America and although he is still a little unsteady on his feet, walking is obviously his favorite activity.
Her parents-in-law pester them with questions not only about their trip to America but also about their wedding journey because her and Robert were home for less than a day between returning from their wedding journey to the continent alone and leaving for America with their children. She wishes she could defer the questions to the next day because she is very tired but she can't as that would be very unkind.
After dinner she and Robert are the last ones downstairs again. She is still incredibly tired but she wanted to be with her husband alone in their home for few minutes before they go upstairs. She knows that she will fall asleep as soon as she lies down in bed.
"Robert, dance with me." He smiles at her as if he had expected her to ask him for this.
"I'm glad to be home," she says to him and he stops dancing and wraps his arms around her.
"Me too, my darling." She lifts his head of his shoulder and looks at him.
"Robert?"
"Hm?" This is it. She will tell him now.
"We are going to have a baby."
"I love you," he says and kisses her. "When?"
"In about six months."
"I love you."
"I love you too."
She has been trying to get to sleep for almost an hour now. It is the middle of the day but she needs to rest a lot. Just as during her first pregnancy, tiredness is her biggest problem. But this time there is someone there to take care of her. Robert has paid her more attention during the last four months than ever before and worries about her wellbeing constantly. She thinks it is rather cute. There is a knock on the door.
"Enter"
"Cora can I come in? Papa said not to bother you but"
"You aren't bothering me Mary. Of course you can come in. Come sit next to me."
She indicates Robert's side of the bed to Mary and she climbs onto it. She puts her arm around Mary who moves closer to her immediately.
"Papa said you were very tired because of the baby."
"Not very tired. Just tired. The baby always moves around when I try to get some sleep and that is keeping me awake." In fact the baby seems to be very fond of either tap dancing or of some violent form of cricket. Sam didn't move around half as much as this one.
"Does the baby know it is keeping you awake?"
"No. Would you like to feel your brother or sister move?"
"Can I?"
"Yes." She takes Mary's hand and places it on her abdomen. Mary is fascinated when she feels the baby move.
"Does it hurt?"
"No. It feels a little funny. But it doesn't hurt."
"The baby will call you 'Mama' and call Papa 'Papa'." It is not a question. She has been worried that Mary might become jealous of the baby.
"Sam calls my Papa 'Papa' too, although he isn't his Papa" Mary adds.
"Is that what you think?" She has an idea where this is going and she hopes that she can handle it well.
"That is what I know. But Papa doesn't mind. He says he loves Sam as much as me."
"How does that make you feel?"
"Mad." This will be difficult.
"Why?"
"Because Sam and that new baby will have a mother and a father. And I don't. I only have a father."
"Is that how you feel?"
"Yes."
"I am very sorry that you feel this way my darling girl." It breaks her heart to hear Mary say that she doesn't have a mother because she has tried her best to be a mother for her.
"Cora?"
"Yes?"
"Do you love me as much as Sam?"
"Of course I do." It is true. The little girl stole heart long ago.
"Does that mean that I am your daughter?" Although she has known Mary for over a year she is still amazed by her intelligence.
"That is how I think of you." Mary doesn't say anything for a while and Cora wonders whether her daughter has fallen asleep.
"Mary, are you still awake?"
"Yes."
"You haven't said anything for a while. I thought you had fallen asleep."
"Can I ask you something?"
"Of course you can."
"If Sam and the new baby call you 'Mama', can I do that too?"
"I'd be honored if you did."
"Mama, I am really tired."
"Then lie down properly. Your brother or sister seems to have stopped moving around, so maybe we can all get some sleep."
There is a soft knock on the door again.
"Enter" Mary says. She has to laugh about her daughter. She knows she should scold her, but right now she is too happy to do so. Robert enters the room carrying an almost sleeping Sam.
"Oh there you are Mary. I was looking for you. I wanted to take you outside."
"Papa, I am very tired. Mama said I could sleep here for a while."
"Did she?" Robert looks at her questioningly and she nods. She knows that Robert has been waiting for Mary to finally call her 'Mama' as much as she has.
"Well, your brother is more or less asleep too. Maybe we should just stay here as well. You three sleep and I read my book."
He puts Sam next to Mary and then sits down on his other side. Their children fall asleep within minutes as they watch them.
"Darling, you should sleep too."
"I know. I will. I love you."
"I love you too. And I would kiss you now if I wasn't afraid of waking our children."
"Kiss me later then." She smiles at him and closes her eyes.
Violet
She is looking for he son but can't find him anywhere. That usually means that he is in his wife's room. So she goes there to look for him. She knocks on the door without getting an answer. But she is sure to hear movement inside so she just opens the door and what she sees takes her breath away.
Her son, his obviously pregnant wife and their children are all fast asleep on the bed. Even in his sleep, her son looks happy. His left hand rests on Sam and Cora's right hand rests on Mary in almost the same way. She is happy beyond words that her son has finally found love in that American girl.
Mary
It is very late on Christmas Eve but she can't sleep and so she gets up again and walks towards the gallery. The lights on the tree are left on even at night and no matter how often she has seen the tree, it always fascinates her. And the look from the gallery is magnificent. When she looks down she sees her parents dancing in front of the tree. Although she can't hear him, she is sure that her father is humming a melody for them to keep them in time. She watches them for a while and as usual they eventually move out of a more or less correct dancing position to just warp their arms around each other and as always her mother puts her head on her father's shoulder. She knows that she is watching a very intimate moment between her parents but it somehow never feels like spying when she watches them dance. It makes her feel like home.
"They love each other very much, don't they?"
"Matthew, you startled me."
"I am sorry Mary."
"I suppose you couldn't sleep either."
"No. I don't sleep well in a bed that is not my own. But it was so kind of your parents to offer my mother and me to stay at the Abbey for the holidays that I couldn't decline. Maybe I'll get used to the bed."
"The first time I saw them dance like that was when I was three. It was in the very early hours of Christmas morning. It is one of the earliest and happiest memories of my childhood. I have never seen so much love anywhere else."
"What they have is very special."
"Yes. And I want that too."
"Mary, can I ask you something?"
"Of course."
"How is it possible that you have a brother but that he is not your father's heir?" She expected him to ask that question a lot sooner.
"Because he is the Duke of Suffolk. He can't be the Earl of Grantham as well."
"Why is your brother a duke and your father an earl?"
"How long have you been asking yourself that question?"
"For the past 8 months. So ever since the day I met your father and he explained to me that I was his heir. He only said that his son couldn't inherit because Sam already held a higher title than himself. I asked my mother about it but she couldn't give me an answer. Then I asked Sam but he told me that you knew the story much better."
"He knows it very well too, but I actually remember some parts of it. Sam was still too small to remember any of it."
"Will you tell me?"
"Matthew, I don't like to talk about it."
"Please Mary. I am to be head of this family one day. Hopefully not for several decades but it is coming my way. And I'd like to know why I take precedent over your brother, your father's son, in that."
"You are not taking precedent over my father's son because my father doesn't have a son."
"What? How is that possible? Sam"
"Sam is the son of the late Duke and former Duchess of Suffolk. The Duke died before Sam was born, which is why Sam has been a duke himself all his life. The former Duchess is now of course the Countess of Grantham."
"Which must mean that she is not your mother."
"She is my mother just as much as my father is Sam's father, which means that she is my mother to all intents and purposes. But no, from an, I suppose biological point of view for a lack of a better word, she is not my mother."
"So your biological mother is dead."
"No. Not as far as I know anyway. My father divorced her after she stayed with her lover at Grantham house. But that wasn't the only reason. She was a horrible wife and an even worse mother. I remember always being afraid. I only ever talked to my father. The first person I ever talked to that was not my father was Cora. My father's first wife invited her to a house party here. Sam was only three months old then and Mama brought him here. She keeps telling a story about how she found me in Sam's room looking into his crib. I don't remember it though. My parents fell in love during the months following that party and then got married about six weeks after my father's divorce. Granny was afraid that it would cause a major scandal but it didn't, not really."
"But I thought your parents met during your mother's first season in London."
"They did. But they didn't get married then. Something about Granny and Mama's father intervening. Papa had considered proposing to Mama then and she would have said yes but it didn't happen. Not then anyway. So they have had a rather complicated start. But they have been blissfully happy ever since Papa finally did propose. I remember the proposal. We all watched. Aunt Rosamund was supposed to keep us out of the entrance hall but instead she sent us all into the entrance hall. I didn't really understand what getting married meant at that time but I knew that it meant that I'd finally have a father and a mother. Although according to Mama it took me another six months to finally call her Mama. I don't know why that was though because it made me so happy that she and Papa got married. The only person who was even happier about it than me was my father. And he still is so very happy. And so is she. Look at them."
Her parents are kissing now. Not in a way that shouldn't be watched but in a way that shows their deep love for one another.
"That is the kind of marriage you are looking for."
"Yes. But I don't think that it is likely that I will ever find it."
"Why not?"
"Because marriages like that are very rare."
"Maybe they are not as rare as you think. Maybe you can find a love like that somewhere you don't expect to find it. Look around yourself carefully, Mary."
She knows this is not what Matthew meant but she really looks around herself now and her eyes come to rest on him. She sees the smile on his face and his deep blue eyes and she wonders if she hasn't done exactly what he meant. And whether he knew what would happen to her insides when she finally rested her eyes on him. She stops wondering when Matthew's lips meet hers.
Cora
She sees movement out of the corner of her eyes and looks up to the gallery. She expects to see Mary there because she knows that Mary likes to watch her and Robert dance. Her eldest daughter once told her that it made her 'feel like home'. Mary really is on the gallery but not by herself and she is certainly not watching anyone dance. She is kissing Matthew instead.
Cora puts her head back on Robert's shoulder. "How do we get your mother to stop making suggestions concerning Mary's and Sam's potential partners in marriage?"
"I have to talk to her. I know she is trying to push both of them into what she calls the 'right direction'. But we cannot accept that. Sam will most likely have to marry 'beneath him' as my mother would say. It is impossible for him to make an advantageous match, unless he were to marry a princess of course, but somehow I doubt it. That's not him."
"No. I don't think he has ever thought about marriage."
"He has. He told me so, or rather asked me about it."
"What did he want to know?"
"Whether I thought that he would have to leave here and go to his own estate as soon as he turned 21 or whether he could wait with that until he was married. I told him to wait until he was married, to which he answered that he wouldn't get married before he was thirty then. I told him to not get married before he had fallen in love."
"I wonder what she will be like, the woman he will eventually marry."
"I don't know, we just have to wait and see. But I don't care who she is as long as she makes him happy. And the same goes for our three girls. I really don't care as long as they are happy and in love."
"Even if they were to marry someone with a job."
"What do you mean?"
"Let's say one of the girls wanted to marry a lawyer."
"What?"
"Robert, look at the gallery."
"That would be more than we could ever have wished for."
"Yes. Let's go to bed."
"And leave them like that?"
"I think that would be best. If we stayed and they saw us watching, they'd feel pressured."
"You are right. Let me take you to bed, darling." She smiles at this, kisses him and then lets her husband lead her away.
They walk up the stairs hand in hand as they have done almost every night for the past 17 years.
AN: This is it. Thank you so much for your support and the many reviews! I am very glad that so many of you liked this story.
I will start to post companion pieces to this story tomorrow, but they will be published in irregular intervals.
Thank you so much again,
Kat