Fic: A Girl in Black (24/?)

[mrstater]

Title: A Girl in Black (24/?)
Author: mrstater
Fandom: Downton Abbey
Characters & Pairings: Mary Crawley/Richard Carlisle, Cora Crawley, Sybil Crawley, Violet Crawley, Rosamund Painswick, Anna Smith, Dr Clarkson
Chapter Word Count: 5239 words
Chapter Summary: While Mary's on bed rest, new instincts stir as she finds herself no longer carrying the burden of

Comments

[glorious_clio]

YOU WITH THE CLIFFHANGERS!!!

I loved that Violet and Rosamund are APPALLED that Mary didn't elope with Sir Richard.

I would have eloped with him, lol.

OH MAN. LOOKING FORWARD TO THE NEXT CHAPTER!!

[mrstater]

I'm actually already feeling quite emotional about it being finished.

Hee! That was my personal favorite bit. And here Mary had been thinking the scandal to the family would be too great. Thought wrong, Mary! They would just be thrilled she'd be an honest woman. Well, everyone but Robert would be thrilled. ;)

I would have eloped with him, too. But then, if I were Jane Eyre, I also would have happily gone to Italy with Mr Rochester and been his mistress. I have no integrity. ;)

YES, ME, WITH THE CLIFFHANGERS. I can't wait to reveal what's going on with this one. :D

[glorious_clio]

I don't want this to ever end.

Ever.

This has kinda become my Downton experience this fall. I haven't had ten minutes to spare, hunting for a means of watching it. I'll just dvr it when it airs on PBS and damn the spoilers.

This is holding my attention much more effectively anyway. Good on you!

[mrstater]

Aw, I'm glad AGIB is giving you a Downton fix. It's been a brutal season! (I hope your schedule relents soon.)

[vladnyrki]

Well done! The three scenes were excellent, each in their own way. The scene between Mary and Sybil was particularly poignant knowing what happens in s3, and it was was very easy to imagine MD and JBF saying those lines. The second one between Violet, Rosamund and Violet was just too funny! Both women's reactions to Mary's naive romanticism were priceless. It was also great to read that Mary was able to share her thoughts at last, and discovered at the same time how naive and a bit foolish she had been. In that sense, the last exchange with Rosamund was very interesting and forced Mary to reconsider her indignation at Richard's actions. In a way, your fic is a great study about how much excessive inner brooding can lead somebody to partial conclusions and foolish decisions

[mrstater]

Thanks very much! I'm always concerned when I have major character scenes all in a row like this that it'll be a bit much, but I'm very pleased to know that wasn't the case, and that you could hear all the actors in the roles. I had the most fun writing the Ros and Violet one, of course! But they're almost like Mary at different ages, in a way, and I felt would really draw her out in a way Cora wouldn't. Though of course I have more planned for Cora!

In a way, your fic is a great study about how much excessive inner brooding can lead somebody to partial conclusions and foolish decisions.I recall Iain saying in one interview or other about Richard how it's fascinating to work with this sort of character in that time period because we're in the information age now but back then there was neither ready information nor did people just talk about everything. And I think that's an interesting conflict because obviously you've got Richard whose job very much is to report everything, and while he's very honest he doesn't necessarily just

[gilpin25]

This is such a good wake-up-and-face-the-reality chapter for Mary, and she has the best possible characters around to sort her out once she finally lets her guard down, who all come up trumps in their different ways. It's very apt that it's Cora she can finally cry in front of, Sybil who loves her elder sister and therefore sees Richard's faults here as greater than Mary's, and Rosamund and Violet, who are full of peppery wit, commonsense and the best kind of advice - to be honest yourself if you want someone else to do the same. Their section is my favourite part of the three excellent scenes, because together they're such a formidable - and not unkind - pair. Just what the doctor ordered

[mrstater]

I'm sure you can imagine how much I loved writing the Rosamund and Violet scene! It practically wrote itself, they were just too much fun. I always think Violet isn't really as scandalized as she pretends to be, and that she loves to see a good drama unfold. And in a weird way it was fun to write them as a bit supportive of the marriage/Richard now that they know it must happen. Or perhaps it's that they'll say whatever Mary needs to hear to get her to TELL THE MAN, haha.

Very glad you like how Mary is not only going to fight for herself here, but for the baby. Obviously that's been an underlying theme, and in growing up I wanted her to realize that this is about a great deal more than her. I hope you like how that resolves itself.

As well as the cliffhanger with poor old Evelyn. How can I be so mean to him? ;)

Thanks for reading and commenting!

[shimotsuki]

Oh, no, not another cliffhanger! LOL.

You completely had me fooled at the end of the last chapter as to where you were going to go with this. ;) But I do think it's a bit more interesting for Mary to keep on having to deal with being pregnant.

Loved Rosamund and Violet here, and their practical attitudes. Also loved their analysis: it's talk of love, not talk of marriage, that's more likely involved when dodgy seduction is going on!

And now, just when Mary thought she had some familial support for getting Richard back to Downton, he's gone and done something else that's going to get him in hot water with the family.

I so want to keep reading, but it's almost one in the morning and I really should get to bed, heh. Looking forward to more!

[mrstater]

Haha, yes, I'm afraid I'm as bad as Dan Brown with the cliffhanger chapter endings! At least you didn't have to wait.

I confess I did hope to trick people with the previous chapter's, though actually I did briefly toy with Mary actually miscarrying; in the end I decided she and Richard really never could have recovered from that, because she would blame herself and he would be so angry that she'd lied and he'd had no say about the matter. And obviously I wanted a happy ending for them!

So happy you enjoyed Rosamund and Violet--they were too much fun to write, and really it's all about avoiding scandal, so they'll say anything to get Mary to stop dithering. Though I do think they're right.

And Richard and Mary are always their own worst enemies so I had to let him do something else that shows his ruthless, coarse side. ;)

Thank you, again, for your thoughtful comments! I've really appreciated reading this slew of reviews. :D