Downton Abbey Fanfiction

¤Seventeen¤

Downton Abbey, The Dining Room

And so the dinner began. Conversation filled the room, chatter of the future, love, hopes and dreams. The past was also mentioned, only good times of course, a wedding was not the place to dwell on previous misfortunes. The staff were upstairs for once, quite the novelty for Daisy and Mrs Patmore especially, as the kitchen staff are so rarely seen above stairs.

There was no division of class, a decision complemented by Tom and frowned upon by Violet. Lord and Lady Grantham were seated beside Mr and Mrs Carson, Lady Violet wedged between the Bates's and the Goswami's, Lady Edith and David beside Dr Clarkson and Isobel, Lady Mary and Tom next to Thomas, and Baxter and Moseley next to Martha. Becky was close to Elsie. The children were huddled at the end of the table.

Edith was holding hands with David under the table. The Dowager was making some witty comments, while her American counterpart was discussing New York with David. Mary glared at her sister. She couldn't believe that ugly, boring, stupid Edith was sitting next to a handsome blonde American, while beautiful, exciting, intelligent Mary was drinking glass after glass of wine at the end of the dinner table with an under butler.

Edith was supposed to be the old maid, the spinster sister that no one liked. Mary was supposed to be the happily married, talented perfect daughter that everyone loved. And dearest Sybil was supposed to be the political, modern pretty daughter that everyone loved (not as much as they loved Mary though). Now everything was wrong. Sybil was dead. Mary was a young widow. And worst of all, Edith had a beau who wasn't an old man or married to a lunatic. The world had clearly gone mad.

Meanwhile, Mr Moseley was laughing with his bride to be. Phyllis was practically bursting to announce their engagement, but it was quite fun to keep such a secret. Mr Goswami was making conversation with Isobel and Dr Clarkson, while Anna and John clasped hands. Now was the time. John tapped his spoon against his glass. The guests came to silence. "Ahh, I hate to interupt everyone, but Anna and I have an announcement." There was a pause. "Anna is pregnant." The table erupted into applause and congratulations.

"Well, let us drink to that. To Mr and Mrs Carson and the baby Bates on the way. May they all live long and happily!" Lord Grantham exclaimed with joy. The guests rose their glasses and grinned, clinking glasses and laughing. Everyone was happy. Even Mary, kind of.

○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○

Mr Bricker's Appartment, London

Simon sighed over his letter. He didn't want to wait much longer. He was planning to set off for Egypt the following month, and wanted Cora to be with him. If she didn't love him enough to risk it, then he would have to go without her. He refused to be the idiot who hung on her every word without any proof of her love for him.

He loved her, and she claimed to love him. But, her procrastination of the matter of telling Robert how she felt and her pregnancy, made it seem as though she was simply toying with Simon. Simon wanted to know where exactly he stood, he understood that Robert was the father of her three daughters, and that they had been married for more than thirty years, but he did no feel that it was a reason not to go with him. Lady Mary and Lady Edith were grown women now, they did not need to live with their mother anymore. As for Robert, well, he frankly didn't deserve Cora.

Simon was now terrified that Cora had changed her mind. Maybe she had decided that she really did love Robert. Maybe she never did love Simon, she was just bored. Maybe she was too comfortable with her life at Downton and her title as Countess, to venture into a world of camel rides and sand storms. Maybe to her, their entire relationship was a fantasy, unrealistic dreams of far off places. As real as her grandchildren's fairytales.