Midwinter Prompt #3: Auld Lang Syne, My Dear (Downton Abbey)

[mrstater]

Title: Auld Lang Syne, My Dear
Author: mrstater
Prompt: resolutions
Fandom: Downton Abbey
Characters & Pairings: Lady Mary Crawley, Sir Richard Carlisle, Lady Violet, Dowager Countess of Grantham; Richard/Mary
Rating & Warnings: rated PG, spoilers for the S2 Christmas special
Word Count: 759 words
Summary: "This is Haxby, and that's not how we do it here

Comments

[mrstater]

It's really freaky you used this icon here, because minutes before I got your LJ alert, I'd quoted that line in my Haxby fic! Are you reading my mind?

Anyway, I'm so happy you enjoyed this one--I wasn't sure if it was a little too fluffy bunny AU for such a tumultuous pairing, so it's a relief you think I captured the strange and shifting dynamic between them. I wish S2 had ever come back to that initial notion of Mary kind of making Richard her project--or at least, him wanting her to make a gentleman out of him--and as I said above, I think actually being married to Richard would give Mary a measure of freedom with him to be more assertive, because even though he's trapped her into marriage with him, there's not really much he can do with his threats to ruin her once she's his wife. I don't think I'm making sense with that, but I think the scales would ultimately tip in Mary's favor. Not that that's entirely the same thing as a marriage of equals given how it started, but...I like the challenge of them making the best of the bad choices they both made starting out the relationship.

And so pleased you can imagine Violet coming around--reluctantly!--about Richard! I dunno, though, I think Violet's pretty transparent, hehe.

Thanks so much for reading and commenting, dear!