Disclaimer: I do not own Downton Abbey.

Chapter 3 – I Do

They made the announcement to the family at dinner that evening, surprising both Sybil's sisters as well as the servants, though not surprisingly the Dowager had already known somehow. Congratulations were offered, though they seemed somewhat hollow from Mary, as if she was just realizing what it was she gave up, and however true that might be, it was too late now. Cora and Isobel immediately began planning the wedding, determining that May would be the perfect time. This meant they only had three months to plan everything, but they had little doubt they would succeed, especially once Granny got involved. While they'd told their family, and for Matthew that was really just about everyone that mattered to him, Sybil had one other person to tell, or, she supposed, to talk to, for he'd no doubt have already heard. She sought him out the following day, finding him in the garage next to the stables, which is where she'd told her mother she was going.

"Tom." She greeted softly. He looked up briefly before going back to work and Sybil sighed. "Please don't be like that."

"Like what, milady?"

"Tom, please." She came further into the garage, a sorrowful look on her face.

"What is it you want me to say?"

"I…I don't know." She admitted. "That you forgive me, I suppose."

"And what is it exactly I'm supposed to forgive you for?"

"For marrying Matthew."

"You don't need my forgiveness for that." He finally turned to look at her and she was glad at least that he didn't look angry, merely resigned. "It's not as if you were mine, or we'd made any promises to each other."

"I know, but-"

"Or really anything for that matter." He interrupted. "We talked, milady, and I like to think you enjoyed our talks as much as I did, but that is all that's happened."

"I know that." She said more surely. "I know that nothing's happened nor have we even talked about anything happening between us, but the potential was there…at least for me it was."

"For me too." His resigned look had a turned a bit sad and Sybil wasn't sure if she was happy he felt the same way, or sad that he was hurting because of it. "But had we pursued anything it would have torn us and your family apart. They never would have approved of a chauffer in the family."

"I wouldn't have cared." She insisted, coming forward and taking one of his hands on hers. "If things were different, and we wanted to be together, I wouldn't have cared what they thought."

"I'd like to think that's true." He murmured. "But we'll never know, and perhaps it's better that way."

"Perhaps." She agreed noncommittally.

"I'm just glad you're marrying someone who won't stifle you, who will let you have your opinions and your politics."

"And I know you will find someone who shares yours as well." The two smiled softly at each other and after hesitating only a moment, Tom bent down and kissed Sybil on the cheek.

"Goodbye…milady." He released her hand and stepped back and Sybil did the same, turning and leaving the garage. She felt sad that she never got the chance to pursue her feelings for Tom, but was not devastated by any means given she'd not had the chance to pursue them so they'd not had the chance to really grow. As she was making her way back to the house, Sybil saw Matthew up ahead, walking onto the grounds and all but throwing himself onto a bench. Curious, Sybil went after him, smiling as she approached and taking the seat next to his.

"We weren't expecting you till dinner." She said by way of greeting.

"Obviously." His reply was terse; clearly something was wrong.

"Matthew, what is it?"

"Did you ever plan to tell me about you and Branson?" He got right to the point, shocking Sybil who recoiled at the vehemence in his voice. "Or did you plan to cuckold me our entire marriage? I will not be made a fool, Sybil. I will not have a wife unfaithful to me!"

"I beg your pardon?!" No longer only surprised, Sybil was getting insulted. "What on earth are you on about?"

"I saw the two of you. In the garage…together." He snapped. "If you loved another you merely had to tell me, Sybil, and we could have avoided all this. I just hope mother has not told anyone outside the family or it might be too late to call it off."

"Call it off? You mean the wedding?"

"Yes the wedding! I will not marry a woman clearly in love with another man!"

"Now wait just a moment!" Sybil snapped back. "I am not in love with another man, Matthew."

"I saw-"

"You saw Tom and I talking, nothing more."

"Tom now, is it? And it was more than talking. He was holding your hand. He kissed you."

"Oh for goodness sake, it was nothing like that! And no, I do not love him." She continued before he could interrupt. "We were just talking. Tom and I…that's what we've been doing these last months since he came to Downton. Talking about politics, mainly, though also anything else that might interest us. He became a friend whom I didn't have to hide my unladylike opinions from. And alright, there was some attraction there, and maybe it could have grown into love, but it hasn't, and nothing has happened between us. What you saw today was me…saying goodbye, for lack of a better term. I wanted to make sure he was alright after hearing about our engagement, to make sure that I hadn't read things wrong and his feelings ran deeper than I thought. He kissed me goodbye, on the cheek, I might add. Now it's over and done with, there's nothing more to be said." It appeared that all the wind had been taken out of him, his anger disappearing quickly.

"So you don't love him?" He found himself asking.

"No, I do not." Matthew sighed.

"I'm sorry, Sybil. I jumped to conclusions, and I apologize."

"It actually sounded like you were jealous." She observed with a raised eyebrow. Matthew had no answer to that, though they both knew whatever jealousy he'd had did not come from a deep underlying love for her.

"More possessive than jealous, I think." He muttered.

"It was quite out of character for you, Matthew." Her tone was reprimanding. "I never thought you to be one to see your wife as your property."

"I don't." He tried to assure her. "Please believe me, Sybil, I do not see you as my property, not even close."

"But…" She sensed the but in his voice. He sighed.

"But…I saw him with my fiancée. My soon to be wife and I…I got angry."

"Hmm." Sybil hummed, not sure if she liked this side of Matthew, but letting it go for now. He had not once displayed such male chauvinist tendencies before and as such she was inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt for now. He had just lost the woman he loved, that he thought loved him and whom he thought to marry, only to have her reject him, quite callously in Sybil's opinion. To then see the next woman he was to marry with another man, regardless of how innocently, she could understand how it would upset him more than usual. "Regardless, you still jumped to conclusions. And the wrong ones at that."

"Indeed I did." He readily admitted. "Can you forgive me?" Sybil eyed him for a moment.

"I suppose." She said finally. "Just this once, mind you." Matthew gracious accepted her forgiveness and offered her his arm, the two making their way back to the house.

~/~

Sybil was preparing for dinner that evening when Mary came to see her. It was hard to tell what her eldest sister was thinking, but knowing Mary, it was likely not to be pretty.

"So…you are marrying Cousin Matthew." She said and Sybil held in a sigh, having expected some kind of confrontation.

"Yes."

"I suppose someone had to, I mean since I wouldn't have him he had to settle for you or Edith. I suppose you are the lesser of-"

"Mary stop." Sybil said, turning to face her. "What are you doing?" Mary stared at her for a moment with that indiscernible look. "I'm not Edith, Mary. We don't exchange pointed barbs intent on hurting each other, and I don't feel I'm standing in your shadow. Yes, I'm marrying Matthew. Yes, I will one day be the Countess of Grantham, and not you." Sybil paused, taking in Mary's near shocked expression and feeling all the better that she stopped Mary's tirade before she could being.

"Sybil..." Mary wasn't sure what to say now.

"If you have something you want to say, then say it. But if you're here just to make me feel bad, or make yourself feel better by putting me down, then please leave." Still Mary sat there shocked, unable to believe that her youngest sister was speaking to her so. "You turned him down, Mary. You had your chance." Sybil turned back to her vanity, essentially dismissing her sister. Mary sat there for a few moments before getting up and making her way to the door. She turned back as if to say something even while her hand on was on the door, but thought better of it and left. Sybil sighed and dropped her head into her hands once she was alone again. She knew exactly how Mary could be, knew that she would very likely be thinking that even if she didn't want Matthew, that didn't give Sybil, or anyone for that matter, permission to have him. She would still view Matthew as hers and it was imperative that Sybil make her see otherwise. It would take time, but she knew that cutting Mary off at the knees was the right thing to do. In the following days she was proven right. Her words to her eldest sister hadn't stopped the barbed comments, but they seemed to have accelerated them and after a week they'd run their course.

~/~

Sybil was never more glad that the Crawley's weren't a family who preferred London to their country estate than she was with her upcoming wedding. A large society wedding was something neither she nor Matthew wanted, and though it would not exactly be small, having the wedding in the village did put a limit on its size whereas those London socialites who married at St. Paul's did not. Still, the marriage of the future Earl of Grantham to one of the current Earl's daughters was nevertheless as grand an affair as their mothers could get away with and both were quite glad when it was over. As they rode back to Downton in the carriage, Sybil stole a glance at her new husband. Husband. The very word was foreign to her and she was still trying to process it.

"Are you alright?" Matthew asked, reaching over and grasping her hand. Sybil smiled, though she could tell it came out forced and did not fool Matthew one bit. Unsure what to say, Matthew smiled tightly back and the two went through the rest of the day in a bit of a daze. The wedding night that neither had looked forward to came too quickly. Matthew, who was ten years Sybil's senior, tried to make things easy for his young new bride, though it was Sybil's straightforward, easygoing nature that ended up relieving any awkwardness. Afterwards they laid silently together, the awkwardness settling back in.

"Are you alright?" Matthew asked for the second time that day. Sybil nodded. "You're certain? I didn't…hurt you?" She shook her said before letting out an agitated sigh and rolling over to face him.

"You didn't hurt me, Matthew." She assured him first before getting to the point of her agitation. "This isn't what it's going to be like every time, is it? This awkwardness?"

"I…" He wasn't entirely sure what to say but settled on. "I certainly hope not."

"As do I." She said with all sincerity. "I know this is knew for us both, but I want to make a real go of our marriage."

"As do I." It was his turn to say.

"Good. Then let us do away with the awkwardness now, it does no one any good." She leaned down to kiss him, and following her wishes, Matthew did not let her pull away awkwardly after a moment, but deepened the kiss.

~/~

The two moved in to a new set of rooms at Downton, both agreeing that the Abbey was better than Crawley House in the village, but that Sybil's girlhood bedroom was not suitable for the two of them. Like Robert and Cora's rooms, the new suite came with an attached dressing room for Matthew – which pleased Molesley to no end, the duo butler and valet having moved with his employer to become a full time valet – though unlike Sybil's parents they didn't bother with the pretence of keeping a separate bed in there. Being married now Sybil got her own lady's maid instead of sharing with her sisters. While Anna would have been the obvious choice, everyone knew that she and Mary got along very well and that the eldest sister had planned to ask Anna to be her lady's maid when she herself got married. As such, Sybil let Anna be and asked Gwen, whom she got along very well with and had been helping to become a secretary. Gwen tried to protest saying that Sybil should choose someone else as she planned on leaving service, but Sybil disagreed, saying that it would give them more time together to help Gwen reach her goal; as the new lady's maid couldn't fight that logic, Sybil got her way.

With the wedding over with, life settled into a new normalcy. For Sybil this meant spending more time with her mother, learning about the duties that came with being Lady Grantham. She happily discovered that there was much more to being a countess then an endless parade of parties and dresses, flittering from one drawing room to the next. Of course she knew her mother was not like that, but she also knew that many titled ladies were, and so was quite happy to discover that Cora's job was much more than she thought, and centered around the estate, especially the well being of the staff; she had never truly paid attention before, never having expected to be Lady Grantham herself, so it was a nice surprise. Of course, even while the job of a countess was not what she had originally thought, there was still much that was stuck in the old ways, and in just a short while Sybil was discovering things we wanted to change, or help improve. She knew her father would not be amenable to such discussions and so took her ideas to Matthew, who she discovered was of a similar mind. Loving Robert as they, and know how he dedicated his life to Downton, they would have to tread carefully, but both were determined to make change happen, and see Downton prosper.

A/N - I'm playing a bit with the timeline here. Sybil and Tom didn't really start talking or having feelings for each other until season 2, but I wanted to have that scene with them. Tom will not appear again.

The scene directly following it with Matthew being quite out of character kind of just got written without much thought, I mean to say I wrote it quite naturally, it wasn't planned for forced but just happened. Yes the possessiveness is out of character for Matthew, but I don't think a moment of it is too big a stretch. He just had Mary turn him down, the woman he loved, or thought he loved, and then he sees his new fiancée with another man. It was a moment of insanity said in the heat of anger and a bunch of other emotions, and he quickly realized what he'd said and backtracked; it's certainly, absolutely, not a character trait I'm giving him.

The scene with Mary is all that's going to happen. I didn't want her and Sybil at odds but knew that Mary would have to say something so having Sybil cut her off seemed the best idea. There won't be an antagonistic Mary in this fic.

Review please!