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

[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.
And the cliffie at the end was just mean, but, at the same time, a certain conversation from November in London needed a proper conclusion. I suppose there's a newspaperman out there who is in a rather foul mood while Mary's resting from her ordeal, some might even say a bit testy about a certain topic. Love it!

[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 open up and reveal all, and Mary certainly doesn't!

You may be supposing rightly about the cliffie. You shall find out hopefully this Friday. If I can stop playing around with the Halloween meme, hehe. ;)

Thanks, as always, for your lovely comments!