Consolation Prize, Chapter Two
Title: Consolation Prize
Fandom: Downton Abbey
Author: Silvestria
Rating: 12/PG-13
Summary: Following yet another misunderstanding with Matthew, Mary is sent abroad with her grandmother in search of culture, self-knowledge and a not too picky Italian. Back home, Matthew tries to move on, and Sybil comes into her own. AU epic starting after ep 5.
Genre: Drama/Romance
Many thanks to LadyGrantham for betaing.
Read Chapter One here!
Chapter Two: How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria
“We need to talk about Mary,” said Robert, when he finally came to bed.
Cora looked up from her magazine. “Must we do it now, Robert? It's late.”
Her husband sighed as he sat down on his side of the bed. “When would be a better time? Something has to change. What was this evening all about?”
To describe the dinner earlier that evening as anything approaching a success would only be remotely true if referring to Mrs. Patmore's trifle and even then generous allowances would have to be made.
“I don't know. I tried to talk to her this afternoon but she locked her door and wouldn't let me in. I'd have insisted if I'd known what she'd be like at dinner.”
“She certainly does know how to create an atmosphere.”
“Well, I wish she'd create a good one for a change!”
They were silent for a moment as Robert got into bed.
“If it wasn't for Sybil,” he continued a moment later with renewed energy, “we'd have been lost. Who would ever have thought initiating a debate on the Russian revolution would be such an ice-breaker?”
“Who indeed!” Cora chuckled and then added with a touch of irrepressible glee, “Your poor mother!”
Robert smiled along with her, before they both became more serious again. Amusing as was the memory of cousin Isobel trying to deflect suggestions she might support the Bolsheviks and the dowager countess' horror throughout the conversation, they were straying from the point. Matthew had been silent and grave throughout the dinner, speaking only when spoken to and then with a formality they had not seen from him since his first arrival at Downton. As for Mary, she had been even more silent and seemingly lost in thought. The contrast with her usual demeanor had been marked. Normally, even when upset, Mary made her presence known verbally. However, the only thing she had said had been to put down Edith once who had dared to express an opinion on Russia. Apparently Tolstoy had said differently in Anna Karenina and one must be guided in all things by one's reading of Tolstoy! Or perhaps Edith had gone to Russia and seen for herself? Apart from this one interruption, she had simply sat there toying with her food, a solitary black hole of morose and silent bad temper and misery.
Cora had some but limited sympathy. However badly she was feeling, she always put on a brave face in public. Whatever had happened that afternoon between Matthew and Mary clearly went deeper than one of their average squabbles.
“I thought they were moving towards some kind of understanding- they seemed to be getting along so well,” mused Robert. “I cannot tell you have happy it would make me to see Matthew my son-in-law and Mary well settled.”
“I know.”
“And then these last couple of weeks, it's all gone wrong somehow. Either she's pushing him away or he's pushing her away or -”
“I think they're sharing out all the pushing pretty equally. But, Robert, what do you want to do about it? You can't force them to marry each other if they don't want to.”
“No, of course not.” He reflected a moment before continuing, “I wish there was some way that Mary could be made aware of her situation: she will be twenty-two next month and she ought to be married soon, whether to Matthew or to someone else!”
Her husband did not know how right he was. “I think Mary is perfectly aware of her situation.”
“Then why does she persist in acting so - so against her own interests?”
Cora almost smiled at his blind frustration. “When was the last time you saw her actually acting in her own interests? You know Mary!”
“I do indeed know Mary, and that is why I feel that we should help her. The society here is so unvarying- and I wouldn't wish Sir Anthony on her, not really!”
“You propose sending her to London then?” Cora was sceptical.
“Yes, why not? She always likes to go to London - she can stay with my sister for a month or so, and that will give her a good opportunity to think about Matthew, or find someone else in town if she decides against him and show the world Evelyn Napier is quite wrong with those rumours. Nothing could be easier- Rosamund knows plenty of young men.”
Cora sighed. “My dear, Mary knows everyone there already! If she was going to marry one of them it would have happened already.”
“Feelings can change over time.” Robert looked at her and for a moment their eyes met in mutual acknowledgement and fondness.
She squeezed his hand before saying, “The problem with Mary's situation is that she never had to look for a husband before, not properly. Unless she managed to find someone better than Patrick then she could always rely on being a countess. And eligible dukes and marquesses don't grow on trees, you know!”
“Even so, she still did not manage to attract proposals from anyone, did she?”
“Sir Giles Ambleforth proposed to her in her first season,” admitted Cora rather reluctantly.
Robert frowned at her. “I never heard of this! She rejected him?”
“Yes. On my advice, and your sister's. I wonder now if we should have interfered. She did seem to quite like him.”
“Like or love?” asked Robert, still frowning.
“Oh, she was quite happy to refuse him; I don't think either of them broke their hearts over it, but if I'd known how things would turn out I'm not sure either of us would have been so quick to dismiss him.”
“I wish you'd told me about this. I don't like the idea of you and Rosamund going behind my back in this way.”
“Oh, come on, Robert! You would have sided with us; you wanted Mary to marry Patrick as much as anyone!”
As this was true, the earl forbore from pursuing this subject and turned his attention back to the present. “So if not Rosamund, where should she go? I suppose there's always my aunt.”
“Lady Elizabeth! You can't seriously be suggesting that Mary is going to find a husband staying with an eighty year old spinster in a boarding house in Brighton?”
“What then? I don't have an inexhaustible supply of relatives on which to off-load my daughter.”
Cora had been thinking. She turned to her husband with a mischievous smile. “What about mine? She could go to America!”
*
“America?” exclaimed the dowager countess the following afternoon. “She's behaved badly but not that badly!”
Cora smiled into her tea and was determined not to rise to the bait. Her mother-in-law's reaction was not unexpected.
“I said America, not Australia and I believe New York is quite civilised these days. But you must agree that the best thing to be done for Mary would be to separate her from Matthew for a period and introduce her to new society, and new men.”
The dowager shuddered expressively. “We certainly do not need a repeat of last night's performance, I will agree with you that far.”
“Exactly.” Cora took a cucumber sandwich.
“But America! Is it really necessary to send her that far?”
Cora was starting to get exasperated. “What do you propose instead? Robert suggested that she could stay with his aunt Eli-”
Violet held up her hand in protest. “He must be going senile if he thinks that is a good idea! My dear, Mary would murder her within a week. Or the other way round; I never could tell with Elizabeth.”
“If you'd let me finish, I was going to say that I told him it was not a practical idea.”
“Hmm, well, that would be one way of putting it. My dear, what on earth is wrong with the continent? Italy these days is positively filled with girls searching for husbands! And the climate is infinitely to be prefered.”
“Unlike America, I do not have any relatives conveniently living in Italy who would love to see Mary,” replied Cora drily.
Her companion was silent for moment before saying thoughtfully, “I don't suppose you could go with her yourself, not with Sybil's first season just round the corner.”
“No, exactly. It would be quite impossible.”
“She cannot go unchaperoned of course.” Violet was quiet again and Cora sipped her tea, not liking to interrupt her in case she came up with a solution. Eventually the dowager fixed her with a beady eye and said almost grudgingly, “I could always go with her.”
Cora's eyebrows shot up into her hair and she opened her eyes wide in astonishment. The desire to retort “Why?” was overwhelming. She opened and closed her mouth again, not sure whether to take her seriously or not.
Violet's lips twitched in amusement. She cleared her throat. “My dear school friend Lady Eastwick, Elinor Brentford as she was before her marriage, moved to Italy some thirty years ago. For her health, so she always said.” She sniffed sceptically. “I always said I would go and see her one day but I have not yet had the opportunity.”
Cora had never heard of Lady Eastwick or known her mother-in-law to have ever expressed any interest in going to Italy but if she was being serious then this was too good an opportunity to pass up.
“Do you mean it?” she inquired cautiously.
“I was not aware that I was in the habit of saying things I do not mean,” Violet retorted.
Cora could think of several ways of countering that but decided she had better not. “Where in Italy does Lady Eastwick live?”
“They have a villa in Tuscany not far from Florence. At least I believe Lord Eastwick is still alive. She rarely mentions him in her letters so it is hard to tell the difference.”
“You might want to ascertain that before you write and invite yourself to stay!”
“Hem, yes, the thought did occur to me. I would not anticipate spending the whole time there, however. If the aim is to find Mary a husband she might as well go and stay with Elizabeth all winter for all the good Lady Eastwick's villa will do her. No, I think a tour of all the main cities, Venice, Florence, Rome, Naples, is called for before settling for a period in the countryside. I assume you will tell Robert of our decision?”
Cora blinked. “Yes, of course,” she replied faintly. If the dowager really intended to take Mary abroad, then she was not going to stop her. In fact, she thought, as she made her way back to Abbey some time later, a winter without either her mother-in-law or her difficult eldest daughter under her feet was an almost delightful prospect.
*
After this plans advanced quickly. Lord Grantham was somewhat surprised to hear that his mother intended to take Mary to Italy to find a husband but he approved of the scheme. Not only would it solve the problem of her behaviour towards Matthew and maybe get her married off after all, but he knew that his eldest daughter would truly appreciate the opportunity to travel. He knew she was bored and frustrated by her life and felt that a few months of seeing new places and meeting new people would be very good for her from that point of view as well. Nevertheless, by an unspoken mutual agreement neither he nor his wife nor mother spoke of their scheme to anyone else whilst it was in the planning stages. The more details were fixed, they thought, the less Mary could object or make trouble.
Secret as they were intending to keep it, Cora nevertheless spoke of it to Miss O'Brien when she was undressing her. It was her habit to talk to her maid about matters uppermost in her mind, little thinking that O'Brien might do something with the information or that she might find it interesting herself.
So it was that about a fortnight after the dowager countess first mentioned Italy Miss O'Brien came into the servants' hall for dinner and sat down with such a look on her face that once they had finished eating Anna felt compelled to say, “Now what is it? We can tell you know something. Come on, out with it!”
“What's it to you then what 'er ladyship might 'ave told me this evening?”
“Well, then,” said Bates, exchanging an amused look with Anna, “you can't say that and not expect us to be curious.”
“I'm not curious,” drawled Thomas, though his eyes were fixed on her.
“We all want to know; do tell us, Miss O'Brien!” put in Gwen.
Assured of a captive audience, O'Brien dropped the bombshell. “'Ere, you're goin' to like this. Lady Mary's gettin' 'erself a trip to Italy this winter to find 'erself a 'usband!”
Thomas whistled. “Lucky beggar!”
“You 'aven't 'eard the most of it. Guess who's accompanyin' 'er?”
The servants looked at each other.
“Are they all goin'?” asked Gwen. “Or is it just Lady Mary?”
“Just Lady Mary, an' wait for it - 'er royal 'ighness, the dowager countess.”
“The dowager countess is taking Lady Mary to Italy? Wonders never cease!” Mrs. Hughes shook her head and smiled.
“Rather 'er than me, I must say. Fancy spendin' months on end with no-one to talk to but 'er ladyship! If you ask me they're tryin' to get rid of them both together.”
“Why would they want to get rid of Lady Mary?” put in William with a frown. “She's always been decent to me.”
Nobody replied though Thomas met O'Brien's eye briefly.
“Do you think they'll take any of us? Imagine going to Italy!” sighed Gwen.
“I shouldn't think so,” replied Anna not unsympathetically.
“If they take any of us, it'll be you,” said Thomas. “You're as good as Lady Mary's maid after all.”
Anna bit her lip. She didn't look particularly thrilled.
Bates was watching her. “It would be a wonderful experience, if you did go.”
She made an effort to perk up and nodded. “Of course it would be.” She met his eyes briefly.
Daisy had been staring dreamily into the distance all this time. “Think of Lady Mary in a gondola! I can't imagine anything more romantic...”
“Is that you, Daisy?” called Mrs. Patmore from the kitchen. “These dishes won't clear themselves! Move yourself, girl - you're not the Doge of Venice!”
Daisy jumped up so fast she pushed over her chair and began collecting plates and cutlery. “Coming, Mrs. Patmore!”
As she disappeared, the others could hear her say as she followed Mrs. Patmore to the sink, “Oh, I wish Lady Mary would take me to Italy... I'd love it more than anything!”
Thomas was tapping the table pensively. Then he stood up and cocked his head towards the door to the yard. “Smoke?”
O'Brien nodded and followed him out.
“I wonder what they're plotting now!” wondered Anna with a shake of her head.
“Probably how best to smuggle Thomas out of the country in the countess' hat box,” replied Bates and they laughed.
None of them thought that it might be a secret.
The next day, when Anna went up to dress the girls for dinner, it was quite natural for her to say while putting up Lady Mary's hair, “I suppose you must be very excited, my lady.”
“What about?” asked Mary languidly, studying her reflection.
“Going to Italy, of course!”
“Who's going to Italy?” piped up Sybil.
Anna frowned. “Why, Lady Mary and the dowager countess. I'm sorry, my lady! I - I didn't mean to speak out of turn.”
Mary had frozen in her seat, but she managed to say smoothly, “No, that's quite alright, Anna. Of course I am excited about it.”
Anna smiled in relief. “I thought for a moment your ladyship didn't know about it!”
Mary's heart beat rapidly in her chest as she watched almost mesmerized as Anna put a final clip in her hair.
“There you go, my lady, all done!” She stepped back.
“Thank you, Anna. You may go now.”
As soon as Anna left, Mary jumped up and ignoring Sybil's cry of, “What is this about Italy, Mary? Oh, you did know! How absolutely thrilling of Granny to take you to Italy!” pushed past her sisters and left the room. Sybil followed her out.
Left behind, sitting on the bed where she had been all the while, Edith looked down at her hands and whispered unheard, “I wish someone would take me to Italy.”
Read Chapter Three here!
Fandom: Downton Abbey
Author: Silvestria
Rating: 12/PG-13
Summary: Following yet another misunderstanding with Matthew, Mary is sent abroad with her grandmother in search of culture, self-knowledge and a not too picky Italian. Back home, Matthew tries to move on, and Sybil comes into her own. AU epic starting after ep 5.
Genre: Drama/Romance
Many thanks to LadyGrantham for betaing.
Read Chapter One here!
Chapter Two: How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria
“We need to talk about Mary,” said Robert, when he finally came to bed.
Cora looked up from her magazine. “Must we do it now, Robert? It's late.”
Her husband sighed as he sat down on his side of the bed. “When would be a better time? Something has to change. What was this evening all about?”
To describe the dinner earlier that evening as anything approaching a success would only be remotely true if referring to Mrs. Patmore's trifle and even then generous allowances would have to be made.
“I don't know. I tried to talk to her this afternoon but she locked her door and wouldn't let me in. I'd have insisted if I'd known what she'd be like at dinner.”
“She certainly does know how to create an atmosphere.”
“Well, I wish she'd create a good one for a change!”
They were silent for a moment as Robert got into bed.
“If it wasn't for Sybil,” he continued a moment later with renewed energy, “we'd have been lost. Who would ever have thought initiating a debate on the Russian revolution would be such an ice-breaker?”
“Who indeed!” Cora chuckled and then added with a touch of irrepressible glee, “Your poor mother!”
Robert smiled along with her, before they both became more serious again. Amusing as was the memory of cousin Isobel trying to deflect suggestions she might support the Bolsheviks and the dowager countess' horror throughout the conversation, they were straying from the point. Matthew had been silent and grave throughout the dinner, speaking only when spoken to and then with a formality they had not seen from him since his first arrival at Downton. As for Mary, she had been even more silent and seemingly lost in thought. The contrast with her usual demeanor had been marked. Normally, even when upset, Mary made her presence known verbally. However, the only thing she had said had been to put down Edith once who had dared to express an opinion on Russia. Apparently Tolstoy had said differently in Anna Karenina and one must be guided in all things by one's reading of Tolstoy! Or perhaps Edith had gone to Russia and seen for herself? Apart from this one interruption, she had simply sat there toying with her food, a solitary black hole of morose and silent bad temper and misery.
Cora had some but limited sympathy. However badly she was feeling, she always put on a brave face in public. Whatever had happened that afternoon between Matthew and Mary clearly went deeper than one of their average squabbles.
“I thought they were moving towards some kind of understanding- they seemed to be getting along so well,” mused Robert. “I cannot tell you have happy it would make me to see Matthew my son-in-law and Mary well settled.”
“I know.”
“And then these last couple of weeks, it's all gone wrong somehow. Either she's pushing him away or he's pushing her away or -”
“I think they're sharing out all the pushing pretty equally. But, Robert, what do you want to do about it? You can't force them to marry each other if they don't want to.”
“No, of course not.” He reflected a moment before continuing, “I wish there was some way that Mary could be made aware of her situation: she will be twenty-two next month and she ought to be married soon, whether to Matthew or to someone else!”
Her husband did not know how right he was. “I think Mary is perfectly aware of her situation.”
“Then why does she persist in acting so - so against her own interests?”
Cora almost smiled at his blind frustration. “When was the last time you saw her actually acting in her own interests? You know Mary!”
“I do indeed know Mary, and that is why I feel that we should help her. The society here is so unvarying- and I wouldn't wish Sir Anthony on her, not really!”
“You propose sending her to London then?” Cora was sceptical.
“Yes, why not? She always likes to go to London - she can stay with my sister for a month or so, and that will give her a good opportunity to think about Matthew, or find someone else in town if she decides against him and show the world Evelyn Napier is quite wrong with those rumours. Nothing could be easier- Rosamund knows plenty of young men.”
Cora sighed. “My dear, Mary knows everyone there already! If she was going to marry one of them it would have happened already.”
“Feelings can change over time.” Robert looked at her and for a moment their eyes met in mutual acknowledgement and fondness.
She squeezed his hand before saying, “The problem with Mary's situation is that she never had to look for a husband before, not properly. Unless she managed to find someone better than Patrick then she could always rely on being a countess. And eligible dukes and marquesses don't grow on trees, you know!”
“Even so, she still did not manage to attract proposals from anyone, did she?”
“Sir Giles Ambleforth proposed to her in her first season,” admitted Cora rather reluctantly.
Robert frowned at her. “I never heard of this! She rejected him?”
“Yes. On my advice, and your sister's. I wonder now if we should have interfered. She did seem to quite like him.”
“Like or love?” asked Robert, still frowning.
“Oh, she was quite happy to refuse him; I don't think either of them broke their hearts over it, but if I'd known how things would turn out I'm not sure either of us would have been so quick to dismiss him.”
“I wish you'd told me about this. I don't like the idea of you and Rosamund going behind my back in this way.”
“Oh, come on, Robert! You would have sided with us; you wanted Mary to marry Patrick as much as anyone!”
As this was true, the earl forbore from pursuing this subject and turned his attention back to the present. “So if not Rosamund, where should she go? I suppose there's always my aunt.”
“Lady Elizabeth! You can't seriously be suggesting that Mary is going to find a husband staying with an eighty year old spinster in a boarding house in Brighton?”
“What then? I don't have an inexhaustible supply of relatives on which to off-load my daughter.”
Cora had been thinking. She turned to her husband with a mischievous smile. “What about mine? She could go to America!”
*
“America?” exclaimed the dowager countess the following afternoon. “She's behaved badly but not that badly!”
Cora smiled into her tea and was determined not to rise to the bait. Her mother-in-law's reaction was not unexpected.
“I said America, not Australia and I believe New York is quite civilised these days. But you must agree that the best thing to be done for Mary would be to separate her from Matthew for a period and introduce her to new society, and new men.”
The dowager shuddered expressively. “We certainly do not need a repeat of last night's performance, I will agree with you that far.”
“Exactly.” Cora took a cucumber sandwich.
“But America! Is it really necessary to send her that far?”
Cora was starting to get exasperated. “What do you propose instead? Robert suggested that she could stay with his aunt Eli-”
Violet held up her hand in protest. “He must be going senile if he thinks that is a good idea! My dear, Mary would murder her within a week. Or the other way round; I never could tell with Elizabeth.”
“If you'd let me finish, I was going to say that I told him it was not a practical idea.”
“Hmm, well, that would be one way of putting it. My dear, what on earth is wrong with the continent? Italy these days is positively filled with girls searching for husbands! And the climate is infinitely to be prefered.”
“Unlike America, I do not have any relatives conveniently living in Italy who would love to see Mary,” replied Cora drily.
Her companion was silent for moment before saying thoughtfully, “I don't suppose you could go with her yourself, not with Sybil's first season just round the corner.”
“No, exactly. It would be quite impossible.”
“She cannot go unchaperoned of course.” Violet was quiet again and Cora sipped her tea, not liking to interrupt her in case she came up with a solution. Eventually the dowager fixed her with a beady eye and said almost grudgingly, “I could always go with her.”
Cora's eyebrows shot up into her hair and she opened her eyes wide in astonishment. The desire to retort “Why?” was overwhelming. She opened and closed her mouth again, not sure whether to take her seriously or not.
Violet's lips twitched in amusement. She cleared her throat. “My dear school friend Lady Eastwick, Elinor Brentford as she was before her marriage, moved to Italy some thirty years ago. For her health, so she always said.” She sniffed sceptically. “I always said I would go and see her one day but I have not yet had the opportunity.”
Cora had never heard of Lady Eastwick or known her mother-in-law to have ever expressed any interest in going to Italy but if she was being serious then this was too good an opportunity to pass up.
“Do you mean it?” she inquired cautiously.
“I was not aware that I was in the habit of saying things I do not mean,” Violet retorted.
Cora could think of several ways of countering that but decided she had better not. “Where in Italy does Lady Eastwick live?”
“They have a villa in Tuscany not far from Florence. At least I believe Lord Eastwick is still alive. She rarely mentions him in her letters so it is hard to tell the difference.”
“You might want to ascertain that before you write and invite yourself to stay!”
“Hem, yes, the thought did occur to me. I would not anticipate spending the whole time there, however. If the aim is to find Mary a husband she might as well go and stay with Elizabeth all winter for all the good Lady Eastwick's villa will do her. No, I think a tour of all the main cities, Venice, Florence, Rome, Naples, is called for before settling for a period in the countryside. I assume you will tell Robert of our decision?”
Cora blinked. “Yes, of course,” she replied faintly. If the dowager really intended to take Mary abroad, then she was not going to stop her. In fact, she thought, as she made her way back to Abbey some time later, a winter without either her mother-in-law or her difficult eldest daughter under her feet was an almost delightful prospect.
*
After this plans advanced quickly. Lord Grantham was somewhat surprised to hear that his mother intended to take Mary to Italy to find a husband but he approved of the scheme. Not only would it solve the problem of her behaviour towards Matthew and maybe get her married off after all, but he knew that his eldest daughter would truly appreciate the opportunity to travel. He knew she was bored and frustrated by her life and felt that a few months of seeing new places and meeting new people would be very good for her from that point of view as well. Nevertheless, by an unspoken mutual agreement neither he nor his wife nor mother spoke of their scheme to anyone else whilst it was in the planning stages. The more details were fixed, they thought, the less Mary could object or make trouble.
Secret as they were intending to keep it, Cora nevertheless spoke of it to Miss O'Brien when she was undressing her. It was her habit to talk to her maid about matters uppermost in her mind, little thinking that O'Brien might do something with the information or that she might find it interesting herself.
So it was that about a fortnight after the dowager countess first mentioned Italy Miss O'Brien came into the servants' hall for dinner and sat down with such a look on her face that once they had finished eating Anna felt compelled to say, “Now what is it? We can tell you know something. Come on, out with it!”
“What's it to you then what 'er ladyship might 'ave told me this evening?”
“Well, then,” said Bates, exchanging an amused look with Anna, “you can't say that and not expect us to be curious.”
“I'm not curious,” drawled Thomas, though his eyes were fixed on her.
“We all want to know; do tell us, Miss O'Brien!” put in Gwen.
Assured of a captive audience, O'Brien dropped the bombshell. “'Ere, you're goin' to like this. Lady Mary's gettin' 'erself a trip to Italy this winter to find 'erself a 'usband!”
Thomas whistled. “Lucky beggar!”
“You 'aven't 'eard the most of it. Guess who's accompanyin' 'er?”
The servants looked at each other.
“Are they all goin'?” asked Gwen. “Or is it just Lady Mary?”
“Just Lady Mary, an' wait for it - 'er royal 'ighness, the dowager countess.”
“The dowager countess is taking Lady Mary to Italy? Wonders never cease!” Mrs. Hughes shook her head and smiled.
“Rather 'er than me, I must say. Fancy spendin' months on end with no-one to talk to but 'er ladyship! If you ask me they're tryin' to get rid of them both together.”
“Why would they want to get rid of Lady Mary?” put in William with a frown. “She's always been decent to me.”
Nobody replied though Thomas met O'Brien's eye briefly.
“Do you think they'll take any of us? Imagine going to Italy!” sighed Gwen.
“I shouldn't think so,” replied Anna not unsympathetically.
“If they take any of us, it'll be you,” said Thomas. “You're as good as Lady Mary's maid after all.”
Anna bit her lip. She didn't look particularly thrilled.
Bates was watching her. “It would be a wonderful experience, if you did go.”
She made an effort to perk up and nodded. “Of course it would be.” She met his eyes briefly.
Daisy had been staring dreamily into the distance all this time. “Think of Lady Mary in a gondola! I can't imagine anything more romantic...”
“Is that you, Daisy?” called Mrs. Patmore from the kitchen. “These dishes won't clear themselves! Move yourself, girl - you're not the Doge of Venice!”
Daisy jumped up so fast she pushed over her chair and began collecting plates and cutlery. “Coming, Mrs. Patmore!”
As she disappeared, the others could hear her say as she followed Mrs. Patmore to the sink, “Oh, I wish Lady Mary would take me to Italy... I'd love it more than anything!”
Thomas was tapping the table pensively. Then he stood up and cocked his head towards the door to the yard. “Smoke?”
O'Brien nodded and followed him out.
“I wonder what they're plotting now!” wondered Anna with a shake of her head.
“Probably how best to smuggle Thomas out of the country in the countess' hat box,” replied Bates and they laughed.
None of them thought that it might be a secret.
The next day, when Anna went up to dress the girls for dinner, it was quite natural for her to say while putting up Lady Mary's hair, “I suppose you must be very excited, my lady.”
“What about?” asked Mary languidly, studying her reflection.
“Going to Italy, of course!”
“Who's going to Italy?” piped up Sybil.
Anna frowned. “Why, Lady Mary and the dowager countess. I'm sorry, my lady! I - I didn't mean to speak out of turn.”
Mary had frozen in her seat, but she managed to say smoothly, “No, that's quite alright, Anna. Of course I am excited about it.”
Anna smiled in relief. “I thought for a moment your ladyship didn't know about it!”
Mary's heart beat rapidly in her chest as she watched almost mesmerized as Anna put a final clip in her hair.
“There you go, my lady, all done!” She stepped back.
“Thank you, Anna. You may go now.”
As soon as Anna left, Mary jumped up and ignoring Sybil's cry of, “What is this about Italy, Mary? Oh, you did know! How absolutely thrilling of Granny to take you to Italy!” pushed past her sisters and left the room. Sybil followed her out.
Left behind, sitting on the bed where she had been all the while, Edith looked down at her hands and whispered unheard, “I wish someone would take me to Italy.”
Read Chapter Three here!