4: Rose's affair / The cricket match (3x08)

Dear Richard,

this was a letter I was hoping until the last minute not to write. Sadly, I have to cancel our plans for the weekend and I am truly sorry for that, especially considering how hard is for you to take some days off at the hospital. Edith wrote to inform me that she and Matthew are coming to London for those same days and are going to stay at my place, and I don't have any actual excuse to deny their coming, at least not yet. Sometimes I have the clear feeling that they consider my house as a sort of hotel, but if that is the case then I am only sorry I can't always choose my guests. Of course I do not mind their company, but would I be too forward in saying that I would have liked yours more?

We are going to meet soon in Downton, anyway. I'm coming for the annual cricket match in two weeks. As you already well know, I'm not usually much interested in the event, but this year I must admit that the idea of watching you play is giving me a certain curiosity… Oh, if Robert heard me now, he would call me a traitor! As far as I know, he is very determined to win this year, so be alerted.

The last time we saw each other you asked me a question. Just know that I did not forget about it, and I promise this is not an excuse to delay my answer. Therefore now, I am merely asking you to be patient – even if that may sound a bit ironic, considering you are a doctor.

I am truly looking forward to see you again.

Yours,

Ros

Things hadn't gone as planned: her guests were all day outdoor leaving her alone with nothing to do and in the evening, instead of spending it with the man she was currently courting with, she was dragged into an infernal and very miserable jazz club. But yet, Rosamund Painswick looked unpredictably happy, since that set back was giving her the time to think more about the question and, well, thinking about the question was actually what she did all the time. Tired after a long day and disapproved for her young Cousin's behavior, still there was a smile on her face as she was heading to her bedroom after a quick talk about the situation with Edith; little did she know though, that when she would have arrived there, she would have found a brusque interruption of her pleasant thoughts.

In fact, the reason of her disapproval was waiting for her, holding the reason of her happiness in her own hands.

"Rose, what are you doing here?"

The younger woman turned around and the pleading expression on her face already anticipated the content of the conversation they were about to have. "I needed to speak with you after what has just happened. I'm begging you not to tell Aunt Violet, please, or I would be sent back to Scotland!"

Rosamund sighed softly, the look in her blue eyes was full of severity, but yet there was a trace of affection and even perhaps empathy in it. "What you did is unbelievable, not to mention extremely unproper, don't you realize? I'm afraid I have to report this to my mother… You have to face the conseguences of your choices…"

However, against any prediction, as the sentence was delivered there was no further desperate pleading nor apologizes. On the contrary, Rose remained perfectly still and silent for a short while with a thoughtful look, until it became suddenly determined. With a quick gesture, she finally fully revealed the piece of paper she had in one hand, moving it teatrically in the air.

"I didn't want to come to this, but you aren't leaving me no choice, Cousin Rosamund" she said then and a real sense of remorse resonated in her voice. That didn't stop her from going on though, as she brought the paper now closer to her eyes in order to start reading. "Dear Ros, I can understand your reasons, even though delatying our meeting is actually making me sadder than I am maybe entitled to be. I have always considered myself a practical and guarded man but-"

"Stop it! Hand me back that letter immediately, that is something personal!"

"-But you are breaching little by little inside me, so much that I am daring to say and write what I feel, I have dared to ask you that question and I am now daring to hope. For all my life I have been a lonely man, a friend, a brother, a doctor – a doctor really? – but now I am hoping for the first time to be something else too, for you."

"Enough! Rose, take that letter back!" the older woman exclaimed again, fuming of rage, even if rage wasn't surely the only reason why her whole face was slowly becoming red as her hair.

The situation must have looked hilarious from the outside: after the first reproach, Rosamund had passed to action and was now trying to phisically grab the letter, while Rose was trying to get away instead, holding that incriminatory piece of paper for dear life and still keeping on reading. Basically, they were playing the game of the cat and the mouse, but it wasn't clear which role each of them was actually playing.

"I am feeling somehing I have not felt in a very long time, probably never with this intensity, something that I was sure so far not to have the chance to feel, and that is because of you, mo gradh. Oh, oh, he's Scottish, isn't he?"

The letter wasn't finished yet, but Rose decided to finish reading at that point. Probably that was because she had got enough information and done enough provocation, or maybe just because she didn't know where to escape anymore. So, she just lowered the letter and willingly finally gave it back to her cousin.

"I have nothing against this, actually it seemes like a wonderful love story!" she admitted, in a much more gently tone that characterized her more. "But it is just that I can't understand why someone who has such a passionate lover would refuse to understand my situation and my relationship with Terence!"

"We are not lovers!" Rosamund warned her, promptly, not letting herself be fooled by that new strategy of understanding and comparing. "This is exactly the point. He is a respectable unmarried man and I'm not eighteen, so I don't need anyone's permission!" she continued firmly, even if according to her behavior she was actually strangely acting like a young girl at her first love.

It was Rose's turn to sigh, as she shrugged slightly and looked thoughtful once again. But when she eventually spoke it wasn't to reveal a new ace in the hole, but to show a real empathy.

"Well, but why haven't you told anyone yet, then?" she let her notice and right after that accusation, an actual kind smile formed on her lips. "Look, I just want us to help each other. You only have to keep what happened tonight to yourself and I promise not to talk about your Scottish lover until you don't want to do so…"

Rosamund remained for a moment in silence, not to consider the proposition just made but actually to think once again about Richard's one. Why haven't she told anyone yet, why indeed? Because she wasn't sure of her feelings yet or was it because she was afraid of everyone's reaction to a clearly not traditional marriage? No, she was more than sure so far and certainly she had nothing to be ashamed of. She just guessed that she wanted to be immersed in her own happy thoughts for a little while, before seeing them become reality, before having everyone sticking their nose in that beautiful unexpected surprise that happened to be the relationship with Richard.

"He is not my lover" she precised once again, unavoidably reddening a little bit more at the thought. "And you may do as you wish, since I have nothing deplorable to hide, unlike you!" she concluded then, confirming her inflexibility on the matter in spite of everything.

But yet, the morning after, in front of Matthew and Edith as witnesses, she promised to keep quiet about Rose's infamous adventures anyway.

"I never thought you would have made it for the match. You always made excuses not to come the previous years…"

Looking away from the field, which was currently emptying for the break, Rosamund turned to her niece with a rather unusual twinkle in her blue eyes.

"Maybe this year I had a special reason to come" she replied then with an enigmatic smile, which unavoidably caused even more curiosity.

But before Edith could inquire more and Rosamund explain better, they both were obliged to break their small talk as a rather dangerous interruption materialized in front of them. Literally as a thunder in a sunny day, Rose had in fact almost thrown herself in their direction and now was staring at them with an unusual crossed expression.

"Who gave me away?" she asked, looking consulvely from one woman to the other and then focusing for some reason on Edith only. "Was it you?"

"Certainly not!"

The answer came out so quick and natural that its sincerity wasn't put to question and so, obviously, the accusation was moved on Rosamund instead. "In case you don't know, I'm being sent to the north tomorrow with a monster for a jailor! But, oh, maybe you don't find Scotland so terrible, do you?"

"Rose, you can not blame me… Truth will out, as Shakespeare says"

With the impulsiviness of the eighteen years old that she actually was, Rose took that answer only as a further provocation and prepared herself for the immediate payback. So, she turned around and welcomed with an almost evil smile Violet's approachment, who in her own opinion, couldn't have had a better timing.

"If you care so much about honesty, then it's only fair to tell Aunt Violet about your secret affair with the Scottish doctor!" she exclaimed then, showing clear satisfaction at her cousin's embarassment, a feeling that she was finding herself witnessing for the second time.

As for Violet, confusion and astonishment clouded her face all at once. "Rosamund, what is she talking about?" she asked, but at the same time she was thinking and it didn't take long for her to find an answer on her own. After all, she didn't know many doctors and only one in her knowledge was actually Scottish. "Oh, Heavens! Are you having a secret affair with Doctor Clarkson?"

In spite of the uneasiness of the moment, Rosamund surprisingly looked straight into her mother's eyes and just slightly shrugged. "Well, now it is not that secret anymore" she confirmed with that same enigmatic smile she had given to Edith before, a smile that could have finally a meaning. "Now, if you excuse me, I'm going to say hello to my fiancè"

With those few but very meaningful words, she surpassed them and just headed to the other side of the field with her head held high, leaving behind a predictably disappointed Rose, a quite puzzled Edith and an exceptionally completely speechless Violet.

"We have a chance to win even this year, so our next move will be to…"

Doctor Clarkson trailed off his encouragement to his team, when he noticed a sudden lack of attention attended by a sort of uneasy astonishment. He frowned in evident confusion at first, but when he turned around, he found himself having that same reaction, plus a sparkle of apparently unmotivated happiness. He had been looking forward to see her since their last meeting in London when he had hinted, maybe in vain, to a marriage proposal. But now that she was in front of him in all her noble beauty and her innate grace, he would have liked to disappear instead, afraid to hear the answer.

"Lady Rosamund, I would call that a pitch invasion…" he finally greeted though after the first moment of surprise, with a small casual smile.

But if he was trying to keep a balance between natural teasing and forced formalism, she was giving much less importance to the second aspect. In fact, she completely ignored all the other people and just took a step more toward the doctor. "Maybe I only want to wish you good luck… And besides, I wished we could have a talk, Richard" she said then, not only calling him openly by his name but also stressing it a bit more than necessary.

Richard widened his eyes, clearly taken off guard, and feeling for a moment as a young boy caught by his school mates talking with the girl he liked. "My Lady, I think it would be better to speak later…" he replied, trying to keep his composure, while giving a glance behind himself.

He couldn't help but pay attention to the other unavoidable listeners of their conversation: people of the village who knew him very well in person and her basically by name, people who, in spite of the good consideration for him, wouldn't have taken long to spread rumors through all Downton.

"Well, I don't have much to say, actually" she soon said though, attracting his attention back on her. "Just a word: yes" she revealed then, with a pretended calmness, even though the small nervous smile playing on her lips was betraying her.

Now completely staring at her, he blinked a few times in incredulity, before an unhoped smile started to form on his lips as well. "Are you sure about it?"

Rosamund nodded and her widening smile only confirmed more that answer. At that, Richard let out the breath he didn't know he had been holding and, suddenly forgetting about the unwanted public, reduced the distance between them a little bit more, until her umbrella covered him too. He could have easily leant over and kiss her then, tasting her lips after weeks of separation with finally the right to do so; but as far as he did not care about the surrounding now, he knew he couldn't and his lucidity prevented him from doing just that. Instead, he took her hand in his own and squeezed it for a short while, leaving in that brief contact a clear promise. Not now. Later. Forever.

"I would suggest you to let my brother win, so that he'll be happier later when we'll have to share the news" she whispered with a playful but yet still somehow touched tone.

"Oh, I knew it… It is a pitch invasion then!" he exclaimed, with affectionated irony and unusually complete joy in his look.

Finally, letting go of her hand, he started to walk away and, once he was back with his team, called out loud the restart of the match. And so he played, unusually with his mind completely unfocused and an absent-minded smile; and so his team lost and he didn't even care that much.

The day he had already won something way more valuable, after all.

This was hands down the funniest one to write so far - and also probably the funniest one I have thought about. I've always asked myself why Rosamund actually decided to keep Rose's secret at first in spite of her own disapproval and well, I decided to use the doubt to write one of these richamund AUs. This is how the letters and the blackmail show up. I hope you had a bit of fun while reading too... A feedback is always very appreciated!:)