AN: Howdy Ho to all of you out there! As I said at the end of my last Downton Fic "Nothing Else Would Matter", I am beginning a new fanfiction. To answer a few questions, yes it is a Mary and Matthew fic, with much romance. It will be a little more angsty than my last story, but I promise that it will always end well! So, without further ado, I give you "The Heir".

Summer 1918

"Did anyone write or telephone Mary?" Edith asked hesitantly.

"No." Robert snapped. When Mary had suddenly abandoned the family four years prior, for no reason he could find, taking Anna with her, he had taken it the hardest. Well, second hardest after…

"I think someone ought to, she would like to know." Edith said.

"Since when are you a supporter of your sister? I thought you were glad for her to be gone." Robert said, and went back to reading the telegram that he had read a thousand times since Molesley had brought it to Downton. Edith shook her head, and strode from the room, bent on finding her mother, but was stopped by her sister.

"Edith, do you really think we should call her? Wouldn't it just hurt her?" Sybil asked nervously.

"But if we don't tell her- Sybil, don't you think she'd want to know that Matthew has been hurt? She's always appreciated updates on him before." Edith said.

"But what could she do from New York?" Sybil asked.

"Perhaps she could finally come home." Edith suggested. True, she had loathed her sister once, but her poor sister had been through enough these last four years- without causing her additional pain over a petty childhood grudge. And most of the animosity she had felt towards her sister had stemmed from jealousy- but what did she have to feel jealous of now? She was happy, engaged to her Anthony at last, appreciated by all in the convalescent home. She had grown up quite a bit these last years, and finally, she felt nothing except for love and pity for her poor older sister.

"And if she did? There's Lavinia to think about, Edith. You know how Mary feels about that. If she came home with-"

"There you girls are. We finally received a response from Isobel. She's on her way back as we speak." Cora said, effectively ending the sisters conversation. "I promised her one of us would wait at the hospital for his return, at least until she could be there." Edith and Sybil nodded dutifully, and as their mother headed to the front door, Edith caught her sisters elbow.

"I'm going to speak to Granny. I think she will agree with me." Sybil rolled her eyes at her sister's words, but nodded nonetheless.

"Pointless, really to include Granny in this. She knows just as well as the two of us that Mary doesn't want to risk anyone finding out about...Anyone else knowing…"

After all, for four years she had been so, so very careful, so that only five people knew of the reasons for her departure. And half of them had only discovered it by accident.