October 16, 1918

London

"I do not understand her. I have presented myself at every opportunity in the best possible light and the only response I receive is cool civility."

"Perhaps you are not her type."

"Yet"

"Then keep trying, do not whine to me about your lack of success"

"I need your help"

"In what way?"

"I need to know her price"

"Her bride price?"

"If you want to call it that"

"What don't you ask her? How much money do you want to marry me?"

He stared at her. "Very funny. You know what I mean"

It was her turn to stare at him. "It is not a simple mercantile transaction. There are other factors involved."

"Such as?"

"Her cousin for one"

"Her cousin? I thought she was finally done mourning him"

"Not him, the live cousin."

"The Canadian?"

"You did meet him?"

"Yes."

"And what did you think of him?

"He is young, good looking I suppose, I take it he was recovering from a wound, he went to bed early; he did not say a lot"

"Let me guess, you did all the talking"

"You know I am in the business of propounding the news"

"And your views"

He shrugged "All news is somone's views"

"So what was your assessment of him?"

"Typically Canadian. Modest, polite, affable enough. You don't think..." he looked at her with scepticism. "He was only there a week"

"I have not met him yet so I cannot say for sure but I think there is something more to him than mere modesty, politeness and affability. The very day he arrived at Downton Mary broke her mourning. It cannot be coincidence, something must have happened between them. Mother says she cannot remember Mary being so happy"

"So he is my competition"

"It seems so"

He seemed pensive.

She took pity on him. "Come now, he was gone back to the war, you have the whole field open before you. Take advantage of the situation. Show Mary what her life would be like if she married you instead of him"

"I should not be telling you this but the war will be over in a matter of weeks, not months The Germans are falling apart."

"Better for you." He gave her a puzzled look. "He is a Canadian in the Canadian Army. When the war is over the Canadian Army will go home. To Canada."

He smiled at that. "Absence will not make her heart grow fonder."

"Not if you are there to distract her. When he is safely on his troop ship sailing west I will invite her to visit me here and you can take the opportunity to show her the London to which only the rich and powerful are privy."

He stood up. "Lady Rosamund it is always a pleasure"

"Sir Richard, the pleasure is all mine."

November 25, 1918

Downton

"So how was your tour of Haxby?"

"Very interesting, Sir Richard has done an excellent job in renovating the old house."

"In the most gauche manner possible I imagine"

"Not at all, I understand that he retained the services of one of the best decorators in London. The result is quite exquisite."

"Was Mary impressed?

"She was, shall we say, quite neutral in her comments"

"She did nothing to encourage him then?"

"On the contrary. It was quite amusing to watch him try to sidle up to her while she tried to always have me or one of her sisters between her and him."

"You all went?"

"Yes, that was the only way Mary would agree to go. And until she agreed to go he was going to keep pestering her"

"So our cowboy still has her favour"

"Yes, if the volume of mail is any indication. She writes him every day and if she doesn't get a letter from him every day she mopes. And you know he isn't really a cowboy"

"He will always be a cowboy to me. Has she picked a date?"

"She thinks New Year's Eve would work best"

"Well it should make it easy for him to remember his anniversary. Has she arranged for the licence and the reading of the banns?"

"The licence was not a problem. Travis wants to see Matthew before he will read the banns"

"I will speak to that jumped up cleric. Periodically he needs to be reminded of his place"

"You know it would be a shame if after all this Matthew did not propose to Mary"

"We both know that is not an option. Besides he wrote to ask me to get her ring size"

"How did you accomplish that?"

"I had her try on different rings from my box. I told her I was determining which granddaughter got which ring. The one which fit was a Victorian monstrosity of my mother-in-law's. I can imagine she is dreading the day I give it to her and expect her to wear it. After that I took the ring into a jeweller in Ripon and had him size it."

"So that is Mary taken care of. Edith's should be a more traditional wedding."

"Has Sir Anthony proposed?"

"No but it is anticipated he will at Christmas"

"Good, the sooner the better. We do not want the groom to die of old age before the wedding"

"Now now"

"Oh do not mind me. He will make Edith an excellent first husband"

"Which brings us to our problem child"

"Yes, what to do, what to do"

"I wish Branson had been Norwegian."

"Yes, things would be much simpler if we only had to deal with the class difference. We can raise Branson up but we cannot make him not Irish and I fear that my son's general antipathy towards Ireland

will aggravate an already bad situation."

"In a choice between Robert and Sybil he will expect us to choose him"

"Then he may be surprised"

"How so?"

"You agree that Sybil will not back down"

"Never. There is a surprising amount of steel in that sweet girl"

"And Robert will exhibit his volcanic Crawley temper and say many regretful things."

"Yes, I hope we all survive."

"After the eruption of Mount Crawley has subsided it may be possible to make him see reason"

"Yes, but he would have to be brought to realize the extent of the devastation he had wrought and be made to know that our way is the only way out. Who is going to able to do that? We can't"

"No, it cannot be us; coming from either of us he would just reject it as nagging. No it must come from someone whose favour he seeks."

"And pray tell, who is this paragon who will bell the cat?"

"His son"