Surprise! The muse struck again, so here is another quick update! That being said, if you haven't read chapter 12, which was posted the other day, please make sure you do so! I must also confess that I had a good giggle at the amount of people who said they felt conflicted for feeling sorry for Larry. Well, your attitude might change a bit after this chapter ;o) THANKS AGAIN FOR READING AND REVIEWING! I appreciate them very much!

Freedom
May 1909

"My last season of freedom…" Patrick murmurs before taking a drink from his brandy glass.

"What?" Larry asks, withdrawing the cigar from his lips and looking at the future Earl of Grantham through the haze of smoke.

Patrick sighs and sets his glass down. "Next year everything will change; Mary will be eighteen and will officially be 'out' in Society…and thus it will all begin."

Normally Larry envies Patrick, but this isn't one of those moments.

"So it's settled then?"

Patrick simply nods. "It was always settled; even if Cousin Robert did have a son, it was always the desire between our families that the two of us would marry."

"So…just like that, next season you'll be engaged?"

Patrick shakes his head. "Not quite; next season our courtship will 'officially' begin. Nothing will be announced until I finish at Cambridge; and until she turns twenty-one." He takes a long swallow from his brandy glass, then leans his head back and closes his eyes, like a prisoner resigned to his fate.

A moment of silence passes as Larry absorbs the information Patrick has given him. "You're right; this is your last season of freedom."

They both chuckle as Larry lifts his glass in a mock toast.

"What about you, Grey?" Patrick asks. "Has your father tried to pawn you off onto someone?"

Larry groans, remembering the way his parents have sung the praises of the Honorable Miss Louisa Belmont in his ears. She's a chubby, freckled thing that wears spectacles; hardly his type.

"Edith is pretty," Patrick mentions out of nowhere.

Larry stares at him as if he's gone mad. "You can't be serious."

Patrick laughs. "She is! I know she's young—fifteen, and a little shy, but she shouldn't be dismissed because she's not as 'striking' as Mary."

Larry shakes his head before lifting his glass to take a drink. "She does have a decent pair of tits, I suppose."

Now it's Patrick who groans. "I wish you wouldn't talk about her like that; Edith really is sweet and deserves more respect than I fear Cousins Robert and Cora give her."

Since when was Patrick a defender of Edith? Didn't she annoy him when they were younger, the way she always clung to his shadow?

"Good evening gentlemen!" they are greeted by a sultry voice.

Larry smiles and rises to his feet, while Patrick looks rather bashful. "Good evening Madame Vivian," he glances at Patrick and winks. "This is my friend's last season of freedom; I'm thinking…someone blonde, petite, voluptuous…" Basically the opposite of Mary Crawley.

The brothel madam smiles. "I think I have just the girl…if you will follow me?"

Patrick glances at Larry one last time, giving a sheepish smile, before disappearing behind some velvet curtains.

Within a few minutes Madame Vivian returns. "And you, sir?"

Larry is silent for a moment. "A buxom brunette," before quickly adding, "and young!"

"Young?" she asks with the lift of a painted brow. "How young?"

"How young do you have?"