It took six months before he got an answer. Apparently, a fire at Downton a hundred years ago made a soggy mess of some of the family records so copies had to be located and then verified. Robert didn't really ask, just signed the check to the genealogy experts who went to work tracing the family line back generations.
Now, sitting in Murray's office, waiting for the expert to arrive with the information he desperately needed to know, Robert couldn't sit still. He tried not to let it show how anxious he was, but judging by the look on Murray's face as he sat across from him he wasn't all that successful. It seemed like an eternity before the knock on the door from Murrary's assistant came, indicating that the genealogist had arrived.
Introductions were quick and before he knew it Robert was staring at an updated family tree, the branches of the extended family filled out more than he had ever seen.
"Lord Grantham, we had to trace back over 300 years to find a direct male heir that was still alive. I think you'll find that you actually know him very well." The genealogist pointed to a name at the bottom of the family tree and it took him a moment to notice the line that was drawn across the bottom to his own daughter's name.
"Matthew? My daughter's husband Matthew is the heir?" He had been preparing himself for the worst case scenario, not wanting to get his hopes up that it would be someone he wanted to be his heir. "This is fantastic news!" He looked to Murray who didn't seem to share his excitement but was pleased all the same.
"It does make everything with regard to the estate and the inheritance, much tidier." Murray agreed.
"Yes, yes. But when they have a son, my grandchild will be the heir. This is the best I could have hoped for." Robert missed the other papers that Murray shuffled on his desk at that declaration. He was too focused on staring at the proof that Matthew was his heir to say anything more. "And my daughter will be the Countess. Cora will be thrilled."
"With regard to Mary and Matthew, we don't believe there will be any issue with their marriage legally, seeing as they are eighth cousins. But I wanted to make you aware."
"Yes, yes." Robert repeated, still too excited to pay much attention to those concerns. "I'll tell them that when I give them this fantastic news."
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Eight months earlier - April 2016
Mary stared at Matthew as he stretch out along their couch. When he had changed out of his work clothes, he hadn't bothered to put on a shirt before joining her, not that she was complaining. She sensed he did it with an alternative motive, as if she needed that extra motivation. He wasn't looking at her, but as if sensing her staring, he stretched out, showing off just how toned he was before curling his arms behind his head to act as a make shift pillow. Mary wasn't ashamed to admit, at least to herself, that she took the bait.
She closed the distance between them and settled herself across his chest, slipping one of her legs between his until she was pressed against him in every way she could without being indecent. Matthew seemed to be expecting her coming to him, shifting in a way to make her more comfortable and then settling a hand on her back so he could trace his fingers up and down her spine. She felt herself relaxing at the movement, her eyes becoming harder to open with each and every blink. "You're making me sleepy." She complained, but her eyes remained closed as she spoke. Matthew huffed out a laugh and she felt it beneath her cheek where is was resting on his chest. "I had meant to talk to you." She continued.
"Mmh. About what?" Matthew didn't stop running his fingers up and down her spine, his free hand finding hers and linking their fingers together.
"Do you want kids?" It came out as more of a murmur. Matthew's hand stilled momentarily at the question before continuing on its course.
"Of course. Just tell me when." He pressed a kiss to her hair, tugging her closer to him. Mary had known that's how we would respond; it's how he responded every time children were mentioned. What he didn't say was that he was waiting for her to be ready and for that she was grateful. After all they had gotten married young. She hadn't been ready to be a mother at 22, but now, five years later, she knew it was the right time to start trying.
"How would you feel about now?" She replied and his reaction was immediate. His hand stopped stroking her back, the other tightened its grip on her own.
"Mary." He said in a mixture of shock and wariness.
"I stopped my birth control last week." She explained, sitting up slightly to meet his eye. "I'm not pregnant. I just thought it might be the right time to start. Trying that is." His face was inscrutable as she spoke, his eyes flickering down to their joint hands before meeting her eyes again.
The next thing she knew, his lips were pressed to her as he flipped them, pressing her down into the couch cushions as he hovered over her. "Are you sure?" He was out of breath, but he was smiling.
"Definitely." She couldn't help her own smile which was sure matched his own. "But I have a few rules."
"Alright, let's hear them." He nodded and brushed his lips against her cheek.
"No talk about getting pregnant each time we have sex. I don't want us to feel like we are only trying to make a baby."
"Agreed." He pressed another kiss to her skin, this time to her neck.
"No mentioning this to the family. If they know, that's all they will talk about every time we see them."
"Definitely agree with that one." Again, he kissed her, moving lower to the hollow of her neck.
Mary opened her mouth to speak again, but her voice cut off with a gasp as Matthew continued to pepper her with kisses, moving down from her neck and across her collarbone.
"Any more rules?" Matthew murmured between kisses. Mary threaded her fingers through his hair and tugged lightly to get his attention back on her face."
"I'll think of some more later." She reached up to fuse their lips together, forgetting about the rules.
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November 2016
"I would get sick just as you need to head out of town." Mary complained as she watched Matthew pack from her position in bed. She had woken up nauseous all week, thanks to Sybil and whatever stomach flu she had the week before. "That's the last time I try to nurse one of my sisters back to health." Matthew just looked at her in amusement as he folded a shirt before placing it in his luggage. "This is all Sybil's fault." Mary continued, propping herself up against the headboard.
"I thought Sybil just had a case of food poising after she ate that questionable Thai food the other night?" Matthew asked as he disappeared into the closet to grab some more clothing.
"Obviously she didn't since now I am feeling poorly." She rolled her eyes.
"Have you considered --" Matthew began but Mary cut him off.
"Don't even think about uttering those words, Matthew Crawley." Mary's posture went from relaxed to tense in an instant.
Matthew but his lip to keep from smirking at his wife. After all he had agreed to not mention the possibility of her being pregnant as one of her rules when they began trying, and he had been fairly good about not breaking that rule. But he had been watching her for signs that she could be pregnant since that first month and now it seemed like all the evidence was adding up. However, if Mary wanted to bury her head in the sand a little while longer, he could wait. For a little bit longer. At least until he was back from his business trip in two weeks, but he suspected she'd finally admit it by then. After all, if his calculations were right, she was almost six weeks along already.
"You're making a mess of everything." Mary interrupted his internal monologue, bumping his hip lightly with her own to move him out of the way. "I thought by now you'd know how to pack a suitcase."
"This coming from the woman who had staff pack and unpack her bags her entire life." Matthew joked, but he still moved to the side, taking a seat at Mary's vanity as she refolded his clothing and set it in his suitcase. Mary didn't even bother to respond, but he could see her eyes rolling in exacerbation.
"Are you sure you'll be alright on your own? I could call mother and she could stay with you until you feel better." As much as he knew all the symptoms she was exhibiting were normal for pregnancy, he still didn't like the idea of Mary feeling ill and him not being around to help her.
Mary abandoned packing the bag and moved to stand in front of him, her hands on his shoulders. His hands automatically reached her her waist, tugging her closer until she was standing in the v of his legs. "I'll be fine," she assured him, "just, if you have the chance to come home early, take it."
"Absolutely." He agreed easily. Due to their height difference with him sitting, he took advantage and pressed a kiss to her stomach. He heard her huff of exacerbation at his action, but when he stood to properly kiss his wife, he saw she was smiling.
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Present day - December 2016
Robert couldn't wait to tell the family the news. He had hoped to use the next weekly family dinner to do so, but Matthew was out of town for work for two weeks so he held off. He figured he should tell his heir first before he told the rest of his family. And then when Matthew was finally home, Mary was feeling poorly so they both were absent. As much as he wanted to shout this exciting news from the roof tops, he comforted himself with knowing that he knew his heir well. But finally, Mary and Matthew were here for dinner and he couldn't wait any longer.
"Mary, Matthew!" Robert greeted them as they walked through the front door. He accepted his daughter's kiss on the cheek and Matthew’s handshake before ushering them quickly away from the door. "We are still waiting on your sisters, so would you two mind joining me in my study for a few moments? I have something I want to discuss with you." He didn't give them much choice as he steered the pair into his study and away from the lounge where Cora sat talking on the phone with someone.
"Is everything alright, Papa?" Mary seemed concerned. Instead of taking the seats Robert gestured to she rounded on him, meeting his gaze head on. "What's this all about?"
"Have a seat, have a seat." He brushed her concern aside, reaching for the drink cart and pouring himself a pre-dinner drink. "Mary, Matthew?" He held up the decanter as an offer. They both refused so he took a generous sip from his glass and took the seat in front of them. "I have some news about my future heir."
Mary and Matthew looked at each other quickly before turning back to Robert. "I'm inheriting Downton, Papa." Mary responded.
"No, no. I know that." He waved his hand around in agreement. "I meant the heir to my title. The next Earl of Grantham." He didn't notice the way that Matthew reached out for Mary's hand or the way her skin paled. "After Patrick, I thought the male line was extinct. His father James is older than me and not likely to have any more children. Actually, last I heard he was in hospital for something. And after that incident at dinner months ago, I knew I needed to redouble my efforts to find him." Mary and Matthew said nothing, just continued to stare at him.
"It's you, Matthew." Robert didn't know what he expected their response to be, but it wasn't silence. "You are the next Earl of Grantham."
The silence dragged on as Robert waited for Matthew to say something, anything really. Instead, Matthew looked to Mary causing Robert to do so as well. Her face was free of any expression as she stared back at Matthew.
"Your mother is here, Robert." Cora called through the study door, finally breaking the silent stalemate that had fallen over the three of them. Robert stood, shuffling the papers he had meant to show them in his hands before setting the pile down in front of the couple.
"Why don't you take a look at these? And if it's alright with you Matthew, I hope to announce this to rest of the family during dinner tonight." It was impossible to miss the hopeful expression on Robert's face. Matthew looked between his father-in-law and his wife, unsure what to do. Mary had yet to react forcing Matthew to make a decision.
"Of course." Matthew ended up agreeing. The sound of his agreement finally caused Mary to turn towards Matthew, with her expression now hidden in a placid mask.
"Sounds lovely, Papa." She agreed robotically.
"Brilliant!" Robert clapped his hands together in excitement. "See you two out there." He left the room, a decided bounce in his step that left silence in its wake. Matthew didn't know what to say to Mary and Mary seemed content not to speak.
After a minute of silence from his normally opinionated wife, he couldn't take it anymore. "What are you thinking?" He reached out for her hand where it was resting in her lap. He was encouraged when her fingers automatically interlocked with his own.
"I'm pregnant." Instead of the happy tone Matthew expected when he thought about how Mary would tell him, it was stated as a fact, as if it were a bad one at that.
"I know," Matthew found himself whispering in response. "I'm, well, words can't describe how happy I am."
"How did you know? I didn't know myself until yesterday." She met his eye, and while she still seemed off, like a muted version of her normal self, it was better than the blank expression she had been giving off only moments before.
He just smiled and leaned in to brush a kiss to her lips. "I just did."
"Well, I'm confirming it now," she raised an eyebrow at him, "because this news changes things."
"No it doesn't." He automatically disagreed.
"It does. We are cousins. We are related." Her hand fell instinctually to her still flat abdomen. "What if he comes out with some rare disease? Isn't there a genetic phenomenon that when family members marry amongst themselves, their offspring have all these terrible, rare diseases?"
Matthew was surprised at the turn of Mary's thoughts. "We aren't that related. We're like eight generations apart. I think that's enough apart to spare our offspring. Children." He added at the end, feeling weird calling his children 'offspring'. He grabbed the copy of the updated family tree Robert had left for them to look at and began to count. "Nine generations actually. According to this. I think I feel confident that the baby will be okay. And I am not your cousin."
"Well, when he is born with webbed feet, we can just tell him its okay, we aren't truly related." Mary stood, smoothing her dress down from the creases the developed from sitting.
Matthew rolled his eyes, standing as well. "The baby won't have webbed feet." He led her to the study door so they could join the rest of the family, but just before opening it he turned to steal a kiss. "But if you are truly concerned we can ask the doctor when we see them for the first scan." He leaned down for another kiss, but it was cut short as he began to laugh. "You know, when I imagined you telling me you were pregnant, I didn't think it would come in a conversation where you were worried that he or she would have webbed feet." Mary just rolled her eyes, but found herself chuckling as well.
"We still don't know he won't." She retorted quickly.
"You say he, like you know it's a boy. I think I quite like the idea of having a girl, a mini you." Matthew was so wrapped up in his own imagination of having a daughter that he didn't see Mary's smile quickly turn to a frown at his words or hear her mutter “I'd rather have a boy. Boys have it much easier.”
"Mary! Matthew! Come out of the study!" Sybil shouted from outside the door. "Stop making out and join us at the table! Mama won't let is eat without you!" Sybil's words spurred them into action, finally opening the door and making their way to the dinning room. Matthew stepped into the room first and Mary paused at the threshold. Looking down at her flat stomach, she laid a hand gently over the area that would soon show evidence of their news and sighed.
"I pray you are a boy." She murmured quietly. Taking a deep breath, she repeated those words in her mind as she joined the rest of her family. The baby had to be a boy, there was no other option. Not now, not with this latest news.