When Mary moves to London to escape painful memories of Matthew at Downton, she must face more than grief as former suitors and her estranged sister come back into her life.
Chapter 6: Sincerest ApologiesRichard and Evelyn have similar ideas, but whose execution will elicit a more favourable response from Mary?
When Mary moves to London to escape painful memories of Matthew at Downton, she must face more than grief as former suitors and her estranged sister come back into her life.
Chapter 5: Quiet On the Front
Evelyn’s familiar candour delivers unexpected new perspectives on the War, but the view from Richard’s newspaper office appears to have changed little, if at all.
For rohwyn, who requested Mary x Richard in a 21st century election campaign.
Campaign Trail
Richard’s text arrived in the middle of Mary’s dress fitting at Alexander McQueen.
Come home immediately.
She excused herself from the alterations clerk, whose irritation showed through her a taut smile and gracious words, made only because of who her client—and her client’s husband—were, and stepped off the platform to reply.
Fine—If you don’t care how I look at the gala. Otherwise, I’ll come as soon as I’ve finished my fitting.
No sooner had she tucked her iPhone back into her purse with a smug smile and stepped up onto the fitting block than another text arrived from Richard.
I don’t care.
With a sigh, Mary made her apologies to the clerk, who grudgingly agreed to squeeze her into her schedule the following day, and hastily dressed. Richard’s demands were nothing she hadn’t signed on for when they came to the mutual decision that if he was serious about the political aspirations he’d always harboured, now was the time to run for parliament, and they were seldom unreasonable. They were even less frequently delivered in so curt a fashion, she reflected on the drive home, so it must be really important. She felt sincerely sorry that nearly an hour elapsed before she blustered through the front door, breathless with apologies.
la-bella-borgia and hobgoblinsandpeachfuzz both requested Mary/Richard in Westeros, so that’s my excuse for the mega length of this one. ;) There’s no accounting for the crazy, though…
Whispers
When her lord father told his three daughters they would travel down from the North for a tournament in Lannisport, Mary passed the long journey in the wheelhouse with her lady mother, grandmother, and sisters, pretending not to care about their speculations about which knights and lordlings would beg their favors to wear into the lists.
“What need have I for a husband?” Mary asked. “It seems unlikely Mother should give Father a son so late in life—” She felt a little pang as Lady Cora glanced away, blue eyes brightening with a sorrowful expression. “—and he may choose to name me heir to House Grantham.”
“But what if Prince Rhaegar is smitten by your beauty?” asked Sybil, snuggling against Mary beneath the fur they shared for warmth.
Mary could not feign coolness at that. “Of course I’d give up being Lady of Downton to be Queen of the Seven Kingdoms, sweetling.”
When Mary moves to London to escape painful memories of Matthew at Downton, she must face more than grief as former suitors and her estranged sister come back into her life.
When Mary ventures out into the new world of London nightlife to meet an old friend, it’s not only the venue she finds unfamiliar.
The 4th of August, 1914 marks Aurora Carlisle’s first birthday, and Downton Abbey is en fête. With the onset of another First on the same day, will it be the party that lives on in the family’s memory? [A Girl In Black ‘verse]
1913: After a rushed autumn courtship and wedding, a honeymoon to Paris gives Mary and Richard the opportunity to see a bit more of the world, and even more of each other. [sequel to A Girl in Black]
Chapter 2: Parlez-vous
The revelation of an unexpected gap in Richard’s knowledge tests just how well he and Mary can do together.
When Mary moves to London to escape painful memories of Matthew at Downton, she must face more than grief as former suitors and her estranged sister come back into her life.
Chapter 3: Pushing In
Isobel sticks her nose in the Crawley girls’ business. Will Mary or Edith take it worse? And will Isobel’s meddling bring the sisters together, or pit them against each other?
When Mary moves to London to escape painful memories of Matthew at Downton, she must face more than grief as former suitors and her estranged sister come back into her life.
Chapter 2: Cocktail Party
Dinner with Richard becomes a party of six with a little help from Aunt Rosamund, but Mary is far from at ease as a hostess when her guests bring past grievances to the table.
MaryxRichard- Somewhere Very Near by Ju-dou
Character/Pairing: MaryxRichard
Rating: M
Summary: In 1939, Richard is gone, and in 1915, Mary’s life with him is just beginning. Life means all that it ever meant.
.
.
.
Nominate a story or an author to the next Highclere Awards here.
phoenikxs answered: While you are entitled to your opinion, how about you STOP TAGGING YOUR HATE! Basic tumblr etiquette. Not that hard to follow.
I’ll stop tagging my hatred of a cruel, abusive character and the way he manifests in fic whenever we can finally go 24 hours without someone…What even?! How does your reponse and especially your tags even have anything to do with my original reply? No one is calling Mary a bitch. Or does writing Mary/Richard fanfic somehow equate belittling Mary in your mind?
Just let people write fanfic on whatever topic the choose. No one is forcing you to read it. But that might be too mature an act for a person who thinks “don’t tag your hate” doesn’t apply to her unless it’s in the TOS and who tagged her post with #HATEY HATEY HATE HATELet’s see: the tags relate because Mary & Richard are the characters under discussion, and I hate one of them.
Plenty of people call Mary a bitch. If you wanna whine at people for tagging their hate while you play tumblr police, hop on over to the Mary Crawley tag. You should have an opportunity to issue a ticket every tenth post or so. I put up with unfounded Mary hate in her tag every single day. When people call her a bitch, I respond with a list of canon-supported reasons why they’re wrong—not with “DON’T TAG YOUR HATE.” Richard-fans should expect to put up with some hate because that’s what happens when you stan an abusive blackmailer. Since they can’t post a contradiction of the fact that he’s an abusive asshat using canon evidence, they have to resort to tag-policing, victim-blaming, and denial.
People can write fanfic about whatever they want, I’m not stopping them. But fanfics about Mary Crawley getting back with her abuser after being widowed, or about a Mary Crawley who loves to f*ck Richard because he bought her a pretty [whatever] are fair game for criticism, just as much as Downton Abbey itself is. It’s disturbing that in 2013 people still want to make excuses for abuse, even if it’s “just fictional.” Fiction and our reaction to it says a lot about who we are as a people and where we are culturally, so it’s notably sad that in 2013 there are women who swoon at the idea of a man as cruel as Richard. (This applies to Matthew somewhat as well, but you’ve never whined at me for tagging THAT hate, hypocrite.)
“Don’t tag your hate” doesn’t actually apply to anyone because it’s not actually a binding rule on tumblr. It’s just something little tumblr-mall-cops like you enjoy “enforcing” as you praise yourselves for how “mature” you are.
Basically, what you’re saying is, you’re tagging your hate because you have to put up with people tagging their hate on the Mary tag? How biblical of you. And saying Richard fans should expect hate is just complete and utter bullshit. Everyone is free to like and root for whomever they want without getting hate for it!
How anyone can call Richard “Mary’s abuser” is absolutely beyond me. And if you’d ever bothered to read one the fanfics you bad-mouth, then you’d know that no one is “making excuses for abuse”. Far from it. No one is claiming they had a perfect relationship, and some of Richard’s actions have undoubtedly been more than questionable. That’s why many of us Richard/Mary fans (yes, there are more than a handful of us, shocking, right?) have answered questions as to why we ship them repeatedly and at length with what bascially boils down to us loving the idea of what the Richard/Mary relationship could have been. I won’t bother linking you to those posts, because I’m sure you won’t care.
Also, I most definitely didn’t whine when I politely told you to not tag your hate.
Title: Gloves Off
Author: mrstater
Fandom: Downton Abbey
Characters & Pairings: Mary Crawley/Richard Carlisle, Isobel Crawley, Baby Crawley
Word Count: 2024 words
Rating & Warnings: PG for references to power dynamics in relationships; spoilers for S3
Summary: Winter, 1922: Two years…
1913: After a rushed autumn courtship and wedding, a honeymoon to Paris gives Mary and Richard the opportunity to see a bit more of the world, and even more of each other. [sequel to A Girl In Black]
Chapter 1: The Morning After
As Mary adjusts to being a married woman, the papers report the society wedding of the season from an unexpected angle. But Richard has surprises of his own up his sleeve—or rather, in his briefcase.
I loved you, you know. More than you knew. And much, much more than you loved me.
Novel Length- Haxby in the Afternoon by sierrac
Character/Pairing: MaryxRichard
Rating: M
Summary: After several sleepless nights, Mary returns to Haxby one last time to find Richard and clear the air. They explore the empty mansion, revisiting the rights and wrongs of the past while speculating about a future that never was… and perhaps discovering a new way forward.
.
.
.
Nominate a story or an author for the next Highclere Awards here.
