Chapter 15

April, 1926

The screams from the bedroom shook Tom so badly he fell against the wall sliding down to the baseboard. Lord Grantham patted his son-in-law's shoulder in a vain attempt at reassurance. "Tom, don't fear."

"Don't you remember the last time we were here?" Tom buried his head in his hands. "Right now I wish I could take it all back. Just to have her safe, not go through any of it, the pregnancy, the baby."

Robert turned to Thomas who hovered nearby, "Two whiskeys up here on the double." Turning back to Tom he joined the younger man on the floor, "You don't mean that. Isobel herself said Mary was doing well. Dr. Clarkson has run every test. There are no signs of complications. She's doing fine."

"But why labor early? Why so soon?" Tom lifted his head revealing reddened eyes, puffy lids, and a blushed face.

Before Robert could answer Cora stepped out of the room. The sounds of delivery came rushing through the opened door: Isobel speaking soothing words as she doused Mary's forehead with a cold compress; Anna telling her mistress how well she was doing; the midwife reporting to the Doctor that she saw a red head.

Tom heard Dr. Clarkson repeat that to Mary. Between deep breaths Mary panted "Tom will be happy."

Cora shut the door then sat down in front of Tom reaching for his hands. "Mary's being wonderful Tom. Dr. Clarkson is confident of birth very soon."

"But why so early? Surely something's wrong?" Tom gripped his mother-in-law's hands.

"Any number of reasons, she's only three weeks early." She glanced to Robert who gave Tom the other whiskey. "There's nothing else we can do. How are Sybbie and George?"

Tom ran a hand through his hair, "I tried hard to put up a brave front but they saw right through my charade." Sybbie had that curious mix from her parents, Tom's skepticism, and Sybil's capacity to empathize. George did what his own father would have done: approached Tom where he placed a hand on his shoulder, saying nothing, but communicating much. "I went to comfort them and they ended up helping me." He looked into Cora's eyes, "Please tell me she'll be fine?"

Cora kissed his cheek. "Dr. Clarkson says everything's normal. That she is in no danger." Carson suggested three chairs be brought up. "Oh Carson, that's so thoughtful but the floor suits us fine." Cora turned back to Tom. "You and Mary are going to be blessed with a beautiful child in a few moments. Take your mind off of this. Think pleasant thoughts."

#

In the end, they chose the ceremony to be in the library where they both had the first intimations of a deep and abiding love.

Mary liked the idea, "Remember when you said you'd catch me if I fell? Well I've fallen now catch me."

The wedding was a low keyed family affair. Mary's other suitors, Bollingstoke and Count Conrad, reacted rudely when they read the marriage announcement. Conrad telephoned Robert that the Grantham name would be forever sullied by such an 'odious match.'

Robert replied that he'd suffer the barbs of society for a thousand years rather than give his daughter away to a pompous elitist.

Even Napier, normally a solid man of integrity, stomped out after hearing about Mary and Tom. "But he's nobody; he's only here because of your sister. Surely he can't be comfortable in gentle society?" Napier had told Mary when he drove up from London.

Mary looked through him as if she were shooting flames. "Evelyn I am so sorry that you obviously misunderstand the nature of my commitment to Tom. He alone fills my heart. Whilst Bollingstoke, Conrad and yourself circled me like rams around a ewe in estrous, he alone has always been present to give me what I need: purpose, using my mind for my son's future, as well as valuing me for myself."

"The next thing he said was that I was inviting scorn, poverty, and ridicule."

"And what did you tell him?" Tom had asked her.

"I told him that would be interesting coming from people whose own estates were either rumps of what they had been or completely liquidated. Then he really made me angry."

Tom chuckled, "How so? Go on, I'm enjoying seeing this side of the woman I love. My feisty Mary, so to speak."

"He called you an inconsequential apostrophe who is only tolerated because of a profane marriage to my sister; that you have some form of Rasputin like hold over me."

Tom laughed aloud. "Look deeply into my eyes," he affected a Russian accent.

"I snapped at him. I glared at him for a second then called him a thick, pencil necked twit. I told him, 'You do not see it do you? The old order is gone: The Romanovs, Hohenzollerns, and Hapsburgs, even our own Windsors are changing right before your eyes. I told him men like you and Matthew were men of the future, that I wanted my children growing up looking ahead, not to the past."

"I even used a term you like to speak of, 'aspiration's democratization.' Poor Evelyn, he's so stuck in last century."

Tom rested his chin on her shoulder, "So that's when I walked in to see him storming out?" Tom smiled.

"Not quite. I pulled the service cord, offered him my hand, I said 'I hope we can part friends but if not then don't come skulking around here again.' He didn't bother shaking my hand so I asked James to show him out."

#

Another muffled scream broke Tom's reverie. He turned to Robert. But his father in law was already attempting to comfort. "She adored Greece Tom. That's when she knew you'd someday go into politics. The way you were awed over the Parthenon, the Athenian Acropolis. Of course I can't say she's too pleased by the prospect."

Tom sipped his whiskey, "I hope I thanked you enough for that holiday. Such a magnificent gift," His smile waned. He turned to Robert, "Things are going well in there? You're certain?"

Robert winked, tussling Tom's hair. "Don't despair." He poured Tom another whiskey, "Your fears are understandable, mine too, but we must accept as truth everything we have been told so far: that she'll be fine."

Silenced lapped between them for a spell with Tom studying his father-in-law. "She said when she told you, that you replied 'thank god?'"

Robert frowned then. "When she first said something to me I wanted to resist all over again, but had the good sense to be quiet. Then I remembered how close you are to George, how the family has embraced you, and not least the way I treated you when Sybil…" Robert paused, looked away, composed himself, and then turned back to Tom. "I had a nice long chat with myself, Cora too, who said that this is an opportunity to redeem myself over how I mishandled you and Sybil." Robert turned his head to conceal his rising emotion, "I hope I have requited myself."

"Nine fold." Tom gripped Robert's shoulder. A muffled scream escaped the closed room. "Oh I'm so scared for her."

Robert tapped Tom's shoulder. "Do you want to know who required the hardest push? Carson."

Tom smiled at that, "Mary said she approached him and the old goat very nearly wept openly. 'But you'll never earn a higher title.' She told me she looked him in the eye saying, 'I have the highest title there is Carson that of Mother."

Robert looked sideways at Tom. "What happened the day Bollingstoke came to Downton, I thought he was staying for dinner. But he left without as much as a 'how do you do.'"

"I don't like to talk about it." Tom mused then took his time taking another sip of whiskey. Bollingstoke had caught up with Tom in the hay barn on the estate.

It had been raining that afternoon. Tom was catching up on some paperwork he'd brought along in an oilskin when Bollingstoke car pulled into the drive. "Branson? Tom Branson?"

Tom went to the barn door calling over the shower, "Here, over here."

Bollingstoke splattered mud onto his brogans caring little for the mess he was making of himself. The man approached Tom with a face that could have twisted metal. "She was ready to go with me. I could offer her a title. Instead she confesses her love for you?" He flung his hat at Tom striking him in the face. "You may win her but I'll show you the mettle of a gentleman." Bollingstoke stripped off his coat tossing it on the packed earth floor of the barn, and then loosened his tie. "Queensberry rules?" He balled his fists.

"I'm not going to fight you. She made her choice. Accept that."

"I can accept a choice she makes when it's a better man but not a lesser!" Bollingstoke glowered. "Defend yourself or I shall strike." He considered Tom a few seconds, scoffing at last. "You won't even defend yourself?"

Tom opened his palms to show he had no fight in him. "This isn't a good idea. Why don't you go home?"

Bollingstoke was having none of it. "I will strike you down regardless if you defend yourself or not." Bollingstoke charged forward.

With his hands still out, palms up Tom took two steps forward then kicked his knee into Bollingstoke's groin. As the bigger man grunted, his breath left him. Tom followed up driving a fist down across Bollingstoke's eye. The force knocked the man down completely.

"Foul." Bollingstoke gasped as he held his groin, "Most unfair."

Tom flipped a lock of hair back into place. "Dublin rules, street rules! You're right. I don't fight fair. I fight to win."

#

Another sustained scream snapped him back to the present. He tapped the back of his head against the wainscoting half a dozen times until he could conjure up a happier memory.

He recalled their first night together in the same bed. Their room in the Southampton Savoy was a suite. They were both a little nervous so they played a game they invented called remember when…Tom went first asking her to recall the first time she touched him, the night a young chauffeur came to tell her Sybil had been injured at a political rally that she had tricked him to drive her to.

She asked him to recollect the first time he held her the day after Matthew died.

He asked her how she felt that day at the lake when she began, then pulled back from kissing him.

And like that the log jam between them broke. He wrapped himself into her arms, and she to his for hour after delicious hour. Waking up late the next day, they very nearly missed RMS Olympic as she was picking up steam.

On a lark after Athens, they traveled to a small island called Tinos. There they discovered a favorite spot, an outcropping of rock overlooking the Aegean.

They loved the isle so much they stayed an extra week. The residents of Tinos enjoyed them with as much affection as they became part of the island. Tom and Mary promised to come back to that spot in the years ahead. They kept their word. Every three or four years for the rest of their lives they walked the same beach arm in arm, hand in hand. The locals called them the oracles of life because their presence seemed to always portend good fortune to the village of Loutra. Except for the war years when they could not travel, Tinos longed for the visit of the Bransons. There the residents did not know them as the Bransons; they knew them only as The Loving Couple.

Suddenly Dr. Clarkson was shaking him. "Tom, Tom. You're a new father again."

Tom blinked up at Dr. Clarkson. "She's alright?"

"Flying colors. Mother and babies are healthy."

"Babies?"

"She had twins; you have a pair of identical baby boys Tom." Dr. Clarkson couldn't help grinning. "A little underweight, as many premature babies are, but they're healthy."

Tom turned his head listening to the sound of squealing newborns from the closed room.

Cora canted her head to listen then reached for Robert's hand, "Just as I would expect babies of Mary and Tom's to sound; demanding to be heard." She touched his arm. "Give us a minute Tom."

Edith was next out where she wept as she embraced Tom. "I won't tell you how beautiful they are. But they'll make you cry. You will love them so."

"I already do." Tom rose to compose himself. He brushed his jacket, straightened his tie then combed his hair into shape.

Finally, after what seemed an hour, but was merely minutes, the door to the bedroom opened slowly. Anna beckoned with a curled hand for Tom and Robert to enter.

Tom spotted Mary first. She appeared to him tired, twisted, yet a sparkling triumph colored her face. She smiled at him as he sat at the edge of the bed. She held their sons, one in each arm. He kissed her then, "I was so afraid."

"All is well now." Mary smiled at her babies. For a long minute Mary and Tom just stared at the pair of them. Finally Mary spoke. "Look at them. Aren't they perfect? So divine," She bent low to kiss first one then the other. "My darlings, my perfect little men, my Princes of Downton."

Tom was near tears as he watched her gently nuzzle each one. "We should name one Matthew the other Robert."

Mary looked up then. "Something Irish too? After all they may be my princes but they're also your patriots."

Tom thought a minute then gazed at the child in her right arm, "Hello Matthew Thomas," to the baby boy in her left he said, "Good morning Kieran Robert."

Mrs. Hughes came in next leading Sybbie and George. The younger children were all smiles and giggles as they climbed onto Mary's bed.

Tom hugged them both, "Your brothers. They'll look up you someday soon."

Sybbie gasped her eyes wide, "Oh Papa, how on earth shall I ever tell them apart? Never mind, I shall call them perfect 1 and perfect 2."

George took his sister's hand. "We will learn how to tell them apart siss." Then looking at his mother he said she looked so happy. Mary caught Tom's eye as they both heard traces of Matthew in George's voice and Sybil's in Sybbie's.

Cora and Robert held on to each other as they looked on. Mrs. Hughes fought away a tear of happiness as she grabbed Carson's hand. Even the stoical Anna suppressed a lump in her throat as John Bates caught up with her by the towel service.

Thomas entered with a telegram for Tom, who asked Robert to read it aloud.

Robert laughed, "Oh goodness, it's from Uncle Harold, he must have been in the telegraph office waiting for my cable." Robert paused and coughed, "Tom are you sure you want me to read this?"

Tom nodded absently, too focused on Mary and their sons to avert his eyes. "Yes, please."

"Very well," Robert began, "Sold Miami Beach Props STOP Wired Natl Prov Bank $3.5 million US your name STOP Congrats babies STOP Mother and I leaving for Downton soon STOP"

Robert's face reflected his confusion, "But how?"

Cora tapped him on his arm, "There will be time for answers later. For now let's just enjoy this moment.

Tom and Mary were too focused on one another and the new lives in her arms. He brushed her head, "I love you my beautiful girl."

Mary gazed up into Tom's face, "I love you mo chroi."

THE END

Thank you all for reading this story these last few months. I have enjoyed writing this. I want to thank all of you for your reviews, they made me feel like I haven't been scribbling away in vain.