Chapter 6

I took precisely seven days; seven days before everything went wrong. Seven days before Mary realized that someone had seen her coming back from her little escapade on Christmas Eve.

Everything had been fine on Christmas day. Everyone was happy and enjoying this special day of the year, Sybil's favourite. Granny, Aunt Rosamund and James were there. Everything seemed normal, peaceful even. No bickering, no arguments. They played their traditional games. Mary could even say that she had some fun that day.

Of course, they'd all heard rumours concerning a mysterious Santa. The subject had been discussed at the dinner table a few days later. They all speculated about who it might be. In fact, only Granny named Matthew as the possible secret Santa.

"Matthew Hartley?" Asked Robert. "Well, it surely is a possible option. I didn't think about it at first but now that you mention it."

Mary's heart stopped for a brief moment at the mention of Matthew's name. They couldn't possibly know, could they? But the subject was dropped quickly enough, without anyone asking for her opinion, which allowed her to breath properly once again.

Mary did not hear about Matthew again until New Year's Eve. More precisely, until she came down the stairs and saw him standing there, talking with her father and some other guest as if this situation was perfectly normal.

She stood there, frozen, if only for a moment before her legs started to move again. What was he doing here? To say that his presence to their New Year party surprised her was an understatement. As she walked towards them, she couldn't just ignore the three men and go directly to the drawing room, she noticed for the first time how very different he looked. He was wearing a black suit, which fitted perfectly and his hair were impeccable. She tried to stay concentrated on her father's face as she finally reached them.

Do not stare. Do not stare. Do not stare. Matthew repeated over and over again as he was watching Mary in the grand staircase. This was the Lady Mary everyone was talking about. There was no doubt about it.

It had taken him a lot of thinking to decide if he should accept Lord Grantham's invitation or not. This was not his scene, but Mary's. This was her house, her life; the one that she somehow tried to explain to him. But in the end, this was an occasion like any other to see her again, wasn't it? Plus, he couldn't possibly refuse an invitation from the Earl.

He watched Mary, from the corner of his eye, walking towards them. She looked so elegant; she really was in her element he thought.

"My dear!" Robert greeted her. "Sir Henry Thompson, this is my daughter Mary." The man in question took Mary's hand in his and bowed is head a little.

"Pleased to meet you Sir Henry." She said rather coldly.

"It's my pleasure Lady Mary." The older man smiled brightly at her.

"And Matthew Hartley, which you've already met." Robert added. Smiling as he finished the presentations.

"Mr Hartley. How nice to see you again." Mary said politely, trying to avoid eye contact with him. This situation was impossible.

"Lady Mary. Very nice indeed." He replied, smiling at her, unable to look away.

After a short moment, finding nothing else to say and wanting to escape this particularly weird situation she finally added "I should join the ladies in the drawing room and let you discuss. If you'll excuse me." She bowed her head slightly and gave a small thigh smile before leaving the three men alone.

The drawing room was particularly full that night. The Crawleys New Year's Eve party was one of the most awaited soirée of the year. Mary spotted her grandmother quickly, sitting a little behind all the fuss that was going on in the centre of the room, and joined her there.

"Are you quite all right dear? You're a little pale." Her granny commented.

"I'm perfectly fine." Mary replied simply but surely. And she was. She had only been quite shocked to see him here, in her house. She had no idea that he had been invited at all. Why didn't he tell her? He must have known it when they met a week ago.

Her thoughts were rapidly interrupted by Edith and Sybil, who made their way through the crowded room to join them.

"You never told us how handsome Mr Hartley was Mary!" Exclaimed Sybil before she had the time to settle herself on a chair.

"I never thought it was a relevant information." As soon as the words left her mouth, Mary realized her mistake. Edith and Violet did too. She did not dismiss the fact that Matthew was indeed handsome, but she agreed to it in a way.

"What is he like?" Asked Edith after a moment.

The men had now joined the women. They where all watching him from their place at the back of the room, he was actually engrossed in a conversation with four other guests that Mary didn't know anything about. They all seemed fascinated by him. Probably because he's American she thought. "I barely know him. But he seems like an hardworking, respectable man." What else could she say? If only they knew… "I wonder why Papa invited him though."

"James asked him to." Sybil replied quickly.

"When?" Mary inquired.

"I heard them talk after breakfast on Christmas day. Why?"

"Oh, nothing. I was just curious I guess." This couldn't be a coincidence could it? What could he possibly know? But before she had the time to actually think about that new piece of information, Carson was announcing that diner was ready. She saw James approaching their little group, he extended his arm to her, and she took it, only with a moment's hesitation. A hesitation that didn't go unnoticed by her grandmother.

Walking together they made their way slowly to the dining room. Mary observed that her companion seemed to be in a particularly good mood. This realisation suddenly made her feel uneasy. James was never this happy, not during such an event anyway…or perhaps only at the end of the night, when he had drunk too much wine.

As they finally reached the table, almost everybody was already sitting at their designated place. Before Mary could reach hers, James suddenly interrupted her.

"Darling I think we should go on the other side, I asked your mother to sit us there."

For the first time since she entered the room. She really took the time to look at the table and at all the people talking animatedly around it. On the other side, where James was taking her, only two places were left untouched. Between Matthew and a woman that Mary remembered as the widow of some newspaperman in London. Looking blankly at the space between both of them, Mary realised that he had planned this. Matthew's presence, James wanting them to sit next to him, his firm grip on her arm, parading her like she was some kind of trophy, it just couldn't be a coincidence.

"Matthew, my friend! I'm so happy you could join us!" James said with a little too much enthusiasm.

"Well, thank you." Matthew replied hesitantly, utterly confused by James greeting. What was happening? They were not friends. He hated that man. "I'm quite happy to be here." He finished.

"I sure hope you'll enjoy yourself tonight. This soirée is going to be memorable." James added before taking the seat next to the older woman.

As soon as the other man had turned is back on him, Matthew relaxed a little. There really was something about James that didn't seem right. But he was relieved for only a few seconds before he remembered that Mary was next to him, already sited at her place, strangely biting on her bottom lip. A gesture he'd never seen her do before. Matthew had never expected to be placed right next to Mary and her fiancé no less. But he was glad that it was her right next to him and not the latter.

As the first plates were served, the animated conversations started once again. Waiting a few moments, making sure that James was not listening, Mary finally turned slightly towards Matthew.

"I think he knows." She whispered quickly.

"What do you mean?" He replied with a hint of desperation in his voice. He knew what she meant, of course he knew. He could see it in her eyes and the possibility that they could have been caught had crossed his mind on more than one occasion. It certainly would explain James strange behaviour.

"About last week." She murmured trying to stay composed. "I don't know how he found out, but he has."

Nothing more could be added. As soon as Mary had pronounced the last syllable of her sentence, the Dowager Countess who was sitting only a few seats away from them on the other side of the table, addressed herself, quite loudly so everyone could hear, to Matthew.

"Mr Hartley, are you enjoying the English countryside? It must be very different from what you are used to."

"It is indeed very different." He said, smiling a little. "I do not believe we have houses like Downton back at home. But I enjoy it very much."

"Wasn't your mother from Manchester Mr Hartley?" Asked Edith before Matthew even had a chance to take another bite of his dinner.

At her sister's question Mary finally looked up from her plate. What were they doing? Couldn't they just leave him alone?

Noticing that everyone was listening to their conversation now, Matthew took a few seconds before answering. "Yes, she lived in Manchester for many years. She talked to me about England very often when I was a kid." Seeing The Dowager Countess raised an eyebrow he added quickly "In a very lovely way I can assure you."

"I don't doubt it Mr Hartley. She must have missed it very much; I know I would have if circumstances had led me to America. Fortunately they did not." Violet finished, satisfied.

"Well, I think America seems terribly exciting!" Sybil joined in. "Don't you think so Mary?"

Mary hadn't said a word in this conversation so far. She was a little taken aback by her sister's question unmistakably directed at her. She couldn't show any interest in the matter, not with James sitting next to her, patiently waiting to hear her answer with an amused smiled on his face, the one she hated. She needed to go there, to that cold place she knew so well, she needed to numb herself for a moment, to forget that Matthew was sitting so close to her. "I never had any particular interest towards America." She finally said, without any emotion, as if she was uninterested by the subject itself.

Her short and cold answer seemed to cool the atmosphere a little and everyone went back to their meal, starting conversations with their neighbours, avoiding to look in Mary's direction who was now meticulously playing with the food in her plate, unable to eat.

She surely was standing up to her reputation Matthew thought. The cold and careful Lady Mary Crawley. That's how people describe her. And he must admit that if he had met her today for the very first time, it is possibly how he would have described her himself. But he knew better, he knew her, the real Mary, his Mary. Or at least, he knew another facet of her personality that he doubted a lot of people knew about. She told him, she warned him in a strange way, about her life. The question had trapped her and James was there, and if he knew, like they both suspected, she needed to cover herself, to throw him off. Even if her comment stung for a moment, completely dismissing him, he understood her reasoning. He couldn't blame her. Not now anyway.

The meal went on happily, for the majority of the guests anyway. Matthew couldn't remember the last time he had seen to much food. He couldn't even say if he had ever seen something like it, probably not. It was like these people were living in a completely different world than what he was used too. Of course he had attended some events in the pasts, especially because of his father profession, and then because of school and his own work, but nothing similar to this.

He watched Mary from the corner of his eye. She was composed, her back completely straight, her face not showing the slightest bit of emotion even though he could see James murmuring in her ear, until her lower lip twitched and she closed her eyes for the briefest moment.

She felt his firm grip on her wrist, smelled the wine on his breath way before she realised that he was leaning in, whispering, close, too close, in her ear. As if what he was saying was the most precious secret. And maybe it was.

"Listen. Do not say a word." He waited a moment. No reaction. "I know what you did. What you both did. I'm sure you can easily imagine that I'm not particularly pleased. In a few minutes, I'm going to make an announcement. You're going to stand up next to me and smile. You will look happy. If you did not believe me when I told you that I had the power to close all the doors in your face, you must know that I now have the power to destroy you both. And I won't hesitate to do it."

She saw Matthew watching her. Matthew. She wanted to scream his name, to tell him to go back, that they had made a terrible mistake. Her eyes were burning; she closed them for a moment. This couldn't be happening, not to her, not to Matthew. She knew that what they did was wrong, but was it so terribly wrong that they needed to be punished this way? She wanted to slap that happy grin out of James face, if only she could just… Do what exactly? She didn't even know.

His chair moved, he stood up proudly. Everyone was suddenly silent, all eyes on him.

"Thank you. I would like to take this opportunity to make an announcement." After Robert approved with a nod, James continued. "Since we're all gathered here tonight I thought that this was the perfect moment to finally announce that Mary and I will be getting married in March!"

The room erupted in cheers, everyone nodding in approval at the union of the heir and the eldest daughter. It was such a perfect alliance and they made such a cute couple! She could hear them, all of them and their silly comments. They knew nothing, nothing.

Numb, smile, numb, stay composed, and numb again, Mary repeated over and over in her mind. She spent her whole life building up this façade, perfecting it. And it surely was perfect, she just needed to keep it up long enough. But why was it so hard? Perhaps because the only person that she ever let into those walls that she built, even though only for brief moments here and there, was currently sitting next to her. She could see him from her standing up position, looking straight in front of him, his face unreadable.

The rest of the night went by really quickly. She managed to keep her cold mask on; she shook hands and thanked everyone who came to congratulate her. She forced a smile on her face, sometimes, not too often. It was not in her character anyway. Only when Matthew came to them, and shook James hand "I wish you both the very best." He told them; only then did she thought that her mask would break. But it did not.

Not until she reached her room, well passed midnight, that she was safely tucked under her eiderdown, only then did she let her mask fall down. Tears rolling down her cheeks slowly, one by one.

Horrific, torturous, Matthew couldn't even describe how awful the past few hours had been. Memorable James had said, this night was definitely memorable.

It seemed so promising at first. So very promising. People were interested in what he had to say, in his stories.. But it was all an illusion. James knew, and he made sure that they were aware of that fact. Showing her off like a prize, they were getting married, she was his.

Matthew was not even sure if he could actually remember everything properly. It all seemed so strange. Like a bad dream.

He surely remembers Mary, her stoic face, completely emotionless. He knew her smiles weren't real. Maybe she was able to fool everyone, but not him. She could not.

When James had stood up and made his announcement. It was suddenly all clear that they had been caught. That James knew everything and this was his way to make them pay, or at least one of his ways. Matthew was convinced that this man had more than one trick up his hat.

After he congratulated the couple, he decided that it was time for him to leave. There was nothing else he could do. It wasn't his place to do so anyway, even though he wanted to, very badly. And so he was now standing in the cold English winter air. He felt better here, if only the car that was supposed to take him back could hurry up a little.

"Mr Hartley" called a voice behind him.

"Yes" He replied to the stranger, turning around to see the person in question. Matthew was quite surprised to see the Dowager Countess standing there, only a few meters away from him now.

"Oh there you are!" Said Violet finally reaching Matthew and holding onto his left arm to keep her balance. "I would like to invite you for tea, next week. Let's say Wednesday. Do you think you could make it?"

"Well, yes, I think I could make it." Matthew answered hesitantly. Was this another part of James plan? He really couldn't tell.

"It's settled then" The older woman replied happily before climbing into the motor that only arrived a few seconds ago to take her back home. "Good night Mr Hartley. " She added before the engine started to move, leaving him no time at all to say anything else.

Matthew stood there, not moving, until the car arrived. He took one last look at Downton before it all disappeared in the distance. Memorable. Surely memorable.

A/N I'm always so very happy to hear what you have to say. Please don't be shy and review!