HAHAHAHAHAHA I wrote another one :oP I couldn't help myself, the idea came to me and I wanted to leap on it. Now we'll start to see a change in Larry, an "interest" in a certain person that one could argue existed before now, but now it will start to take a particular turn, one that might make you squirm with discomfort (just to warn you). I won't say anything further, just post it and let you read. THANKS FOR THE FEEDBACK! If you didn't get a chance to read chapter 10 (I posted it very late last night) please give it a read too!
Man to Man
July 1908
It's the summer before he leaves for Cambridge. Both he and Patrick will be going, and Lord Grantham insists on throwing a celebration for them both. The dinner was grand, the wine was sweet, and now he and Patrick are enjoying cigars and brandy, just like "real men", as his father chuckles.
Their fathers, along with Lord Grantham, sit in the dining room and discuss politics, while the two of them excuse themselves for a game of billiards; Patrick isn't ready to rejoin the ladies, which is fine with him. What would they talk about anyway? No doubt Edith would continue making cow eyes at Patrick; surely he must be aware. She's not ugly, Edith, but she's not a striking beauty the way Mary is.
"What do you think of Mary?"
Larry is surprised by this question, considering he was just thinking about her. "What do you mean?"
"She is beautiful," Patrick continues, ignoring Larry's question. "Beautiful and graceful and very sophisticated, even at sixteen," he sends a ball into the corner pocket. "Father says she will make a fine countess."
Larry's eyes widen and he nearly coughs on his cigar. "You and Mary?"
Patrick simply nods. "It makes sense, I suppose," he murmurs as he sets up another shot. "I never gave it much thought, really. I like her, and she is lovely…"
Larry senses a but.
"But it would be strange; my cousin being my wife."
Larry shakes his head. In his opinion they're far too young to be thinking about marriage; good God they haven't gone away to Cambridge yet!
"Would you marry her, Larry, if you had the opportunity?"
He's startled by this question. He agrees that Mary is beautiful, but he's never thought of her in that way before. In all honesty, he can't imagine a girl like her being "warm company" in bed. Not now that he has finally "become a man", thanks to a kitchen maid back at school.
His mind wanders then to another member of the Crawley family.
Sybil is twelve now. But she looks older, just as she did when she was a child—STILL is a child, he reminds himself, but a younger child.
But she's growing faster than he realized. She looks…lush…and curvy. She's the same height as Edith, but unlike her sister, has a fuller chest.
Yes, he was surprised when he first saw Sybil again. And even more surprised to be reminded that she's only twelve! Only twelve and has breasts like that already!
"Well?"
He's brought out of his thoughts and sees that Patrick is waiting for an answer.
"Would you marry her?" he asks again.
"Perhaps," Larry murmurs, honestly. But in truth he's not thinking of Mary Crawley.
But he is thinking of a Crawley sister.
And he's troubled.
She's just a child. And she's annoying.
But she is pretty.
And buxom. Or will become buxom with time, if she continues growing as she has so far.
"Your shot, Grey."