This update #2; please make sure you read the chapter before this one, which was also posted! This one is a tad longer than some of the previous chapters, but I felt it important to move some events in the story forward. If you're following the show timeline, you know that we're getting closer to a certain event...

Unseemly
August, 1918

It's through his father that he learns Lord Grantham's heir was wounded. And while his father does not know the full details, he knows enough that the earldom is at risk once more.

Shortly after learning this, Larry takes a train to Downton (after all, isn't that what fiancé's do? Show some concern for the family of their future wife?) However, it is not Sybil he finds leaning over Capt. Crawley's bed and sponging his brow, but Mary, who despite her own engaged state, is looking at Lord Grantham's heir the way one would gaze at a lover.

…He can't help but feel jealous of the pretender. To lay helpless and have a beautiful woman nursing you; had he gone to battle, would Sybil do that for him?

His sweet nurse is keeping herself busy, which she always seems to do, both at the hospital, and at the house. While he wishes she would stop, even to just have a cup of tea with him, he reluctantly stands aside and lets her "get on with her work" (oddly enough, Sybil does seem to love this nursing business).

However, he does notice when she thinks no one is looking, her pause in her routine to take a deep breath, before lifting her hands to quickly wipe away at her cheeks.

"He'll be alright," he tells her, though they both know it's a lie. Apparently the man is a cripple, his legs completely useless (and Larry wouldn't be surprised if other things are just as useless beneath his waist).

She swallows and wipes at her cheeks again. "No," she whispers. "No, he won't. They've brought him back so he can die in peace."

He's shocked by her words, so final and cold. He looks at Capt. Crawley again; the man is in bad shape but doesn't look like he's at death's door.

"I shouldn't be here…"

He looks at her again, and his heart swells with understanding. "No, no you shouldn't." She should be in London, as his wife, in a beautiful gown that flatters her figure—not this drab frumpy uniform, surrounded by these sick, useless men.

"I should be there, at Downton…with him."

Him?

Larry freezes. Who is "him"? What does she mean by "him"?

The chauffeur.

His hands fall to his sides and he clenches them as rage boils in his blood.

Before he can stop himself, the words tumble out. "Good God…how can you be so selfish? Is that ALL you think about!?"

She finally turns and looks up at him, her face paling at the accusation. "W-w-what?"

He makes a gesture with his arm towards the broken image of Capt. Crawley. "The future Earl of Grantham is the one who needs you! Not him!"

Sybil looks horrified. "I…" she swallows and gazes beyond his shoulder to where her cousin lies. "…He's my friend—"

"He's a SERVANT!" he spits in disgust. "And compared to someone like Mr. Crawley, even if he is just a middle class solicitor," he mutters under his breath, "he matters very little!"

She looks at him as if he has just slapped her. Well, in a manner of speaking he has—slapped some sense into her, he hopes. Sybil has always been too soft-hearted when it comes to relationships with servants, but this "friendship" she believes she has with the chauffeur needs to end! It's unseemly! And hardly proper for the future Lady Merton. And if the only way to do so is to shame her, then so be it!

It's only later, after he walks away from her horrified, frozen form and returns to the house, that he learns a footman has died.

William Mason, who has served the Crawleys for many years, who is the reason to why Capt. Crawley is still alive, who Sybil had partnered with, for the Easter egg hunt when they were children.

That was who she was shedding tears for. And he had called her selfish.

He debates about whether he should go and apologize. But in the end, decides not to.

Besides, he hadn't been wrong; the footman's life, compared to Lord Grantham's heir, matters very little. And truly, Sybil does need to stop thinking that these servants are their equals.

Such friendships will not be tolerated in their house.