amerigirltn said: Really, I think it was the choice of Jeremy Piven as the lead actor. Most people, me included, couldn’t erase Ari Gold from their minds. Maybe Dominic Cooper would have been a better choice. With DA, I think the Casting Director, did an excellent job. It was the writing and Julian Fellowes’ ego in not seeking help that ruined seasons 3-6. Can hardly wait to see what drivel he has penned for the movie. I didn’t really have an issue with him probably because I only saw him in Entourage after I started watching Mr. Selfridge. I think he fit the part perfectly and he and Katherine Kelly had great chemistry. The writing in Downton just falls apart in 3-6 but Selfridge was solid. Definitely won’t be seeing the movie.
Know how busy you are, but if you have any time during the holidays, could we have an update to UAN. It's a wonderful story that badly needs an update. Please?
I’m sorry this took so long for me to update after you sent the request. I’m so slow! Not that I meant for…six months to pass before updating this drabble series. Hopefully I’ll have more time to write now.
I didn’t write all that I initially planned for this part, but I’d love to write another update soon!
Anyway, enjoy!
Up All Night, part 14 |1|2|3|4|5|6|7|8|9|10|11|12|13|
Mary walked through the darkened halls of Downton in her slippered feet, unable to sleep after such a busy day. Violet had come home from the hospital earlier in the week, the return coinciding with her sisters’ winter holiday breaks from school as well as the family’s Christmas gathering. In the midst of so many people now, cousins, aunts and uncles, and grandmothers, Mary had found herself hiding away whenever she could, slipping into her room without warning or running off to the many walks of Downton. She had little chance of being followed outside, as the cool, damp weather usually deterred others from following. At least then she could think about Matthew in peace.
Nearly seven weeks had passed since Mary had left Matthew on the way to Vienna. A week since she knew he was due to be back.
And nothing.
She had debated meeting him at the airport, as she’d remembered exactly when his flight was due to arrive (they had been scheduled on separate planes and had planned to meet once they’d returned to London), but she hadn’t gone. Stuck in Yorkshire, she was too worried about her parents reaction to her flitting off to London. As angry as she remained with them, she was still at the mercy of their good graces. And their money. Then, with Violet due to return home at the same time, leaving her parents to deal with her grandmother had seemed like a poor decision.
Even so, she regretted it.
She slipped into the dimly lit kitchen, surprised to see her youngest cousin, Rose, seated at the long table that wasn’t often used.
“Mary,” Rose said, looking up from her cup of tea. A pot of recently brewed tea sat in front of her as well. “Couldn’t sleep?”
“Not really,” Mary said, fishing a cup for herself out of the cabinet and helping herself to Rose’s freshly brewed pot.
“Nor I,” Rose replied before taking a sip of her drink. “I’m still on my exam schedule from last week. I’m sure those A-levels kicked my arse.”
Mary smiled, fetching a box of biscuits from the cupboard before taking a seat with her cousin.
“It can’t be as bad as that,” Mary insisted, opening the biscuits and taking one for herself before offering them to Rose. She took two.
“I know it can. English and history were fine. Chemistry is iffy. But the maths did me in for sure. And then there’s my Latin. Oh, God,” Rose sighed, eating both of the biscuits in succession. “Maybe I’ll give up going to university. I know I can’t get into Oxford or Cambridge like my parents want. Perhaps I’ll try a school for normal people. Or defy them altogether and go to drama school.”
Mary offered a sympathetic smile. “I wouldn’t want to be in the room when you broke the news to your parents,” she said.
“Oh, Daddy wouldn’t mind, not really,” Rose said, absentmindedly tracing her finger around the rim of her cup. “But Mummy is another story entirely. I’m sure she’d lose her mind if I even mentioned a vague inclination of skipping college.”
“It’s not so bad,” Mary told her, taking another biscuit.
“Let’s not talk about that now,” Rose said. “I want to hear all about Europe.”
Mary’s face drained of color. “What about it?” she asked, not wanting to get too defensive too soon, but really not in the mood for personal matters. Rose had always been her favorite cousin, but she hadn’t wanted to talk to anyone about it since she’d been back.
“You were gone a long time. What did you see? Where did you go?” Rose asked. “You know I’ve only been to Paris once and Rome as well.”
Mary had a feeling she knew more than she was letting on, but she didn’t want to push it in case it was still a mystery.
“Oh, um, I saw Paris, Nice, went to Germany and Rome. Venice,” her voice broke off and she looked down, unable to say anything else for the moment.
She felt Rose’s gaze on her, but Mary didn’t look up.
“His name’s Matthew, isn’t it?” Rose questioned.
Mary lifted her head, shock visible on her face. “Your parents told you?”
“Hardly,” Rose scoffed, reaching for more biscuits and dunking them in her tea. “As if Mummy and Daddy would let me know that anyone could meet someone and fall in love on an European adventure. They’d sooner die than actually think I know a thing about the opposite sex.”
“And we don’t want to kill them, do we?” Mary asked, regaining a bit of spirit at the ability to tease her cousin. She and Rose had always been fairly open with one another, with Mary as the older cousin often questioned about sex.
“I’d give it a try if it would get them off my back,” Rose replied. “But, no, I overheard Aunt Cora talking to Mummy about it. All very hush hush, of course, but they didn’t know I was listening. Did you really travel for nearly five months with a man you’d only met in Nice?”
Mary nodded.
“How romantic,” Rose said, looking rather starry eyed as she polished off her biscuits. “When was he supposed to get back?”
Mary’s throat felt dry as she replied, “Last week.”
Rose looked flabbergasted. “And you haven’t heard from him?”
“Not a word,” Mary said, her heart sinking once more. It had been the reason she’d been unable to sleep once again. After two nights in a row it was getting old.
“Why don’t you contact him? It’s not 1950 anymore and I’m sure he can’t be too hard to find. Where’s he from?” Rose asked.
“Manchester,” Mary told her, sipping her tea. “But perhaps he doesn’t want to see me.”
“Why would that be?”
“Because I let myself be dragged away by my parents. And for what?” Mary asked.
“Auntie Violet was ill,” Rose said, taking her cousin’s hand. “You would have wanted to be here if anything had happened, I know that.”
“They clouded my judgment,” Mary insisted. “They acted as though I’d been doing something horrible, being with Matthew.” Saying his name was still difficult, but not as impossible as she thought it would be. “Traveling together had been cheaper, even safer. I never meant for anything to happen between us. Not like this.”
“You love him?” Rose asked.
Again, Mary nodded, blinking back a few tears that burned her eyes.
“Then we’ll find him, I promise you. Tomorrow morning after breakfast we can get to work, how does that sound? I’ll even pay for train tickets to Manchester if you need it. I’m up for anything that has even any semblance of an adventure to it,” Rose said.
“You’ve always been my favorite cousin, you know that?” Mary asked, smiling finally.
“That’s not difficult compared to Patrick and old rumbling James, is it?” Rose quipped, finishing her tea. “Get some rest, then. You’re going to need your strength if we’re going to make a clean break from Susan and Shrimpy. You know they have fists like iron.”
“And Robert and Cora don’t?” Mary asked, feeling exhausted by finally some sense of relief. Soon she would see Matthew again.
Laura Carmichael wasn't a press launch today. Do you think it's because she's filming today?
I know she said she was filming her final scene with Samantha Bond (Rosamund) and it’s a night shoot ending tomorrow (maybe Saturday) morning really early. If I’m remembering correctly from the BAFTA interviews the other night.
Is there a chance that we'll get an update for your Cancelled series sometime soon? So many of your fans would love it.
There is ALWAYS a chance. The question is the “soon” bit. But I’m trying to stretch the writing muscles. Life has been a wee bit busy at the moment, and any downtime occupied by some health setbacks, but, hell *I* want to get back to writing those idiots.
Does it bother you that they're at Ep6 out of 9 and MG is still in NYC? Do you think they're just going to set up Mary and Henry's relationship in S6 and show the culmination in the DA movie? Do you think MG will rethink his decision to permanently move to UK?
I think you misunderstood HB or maybe my recap wasn’t clear. (You can see the interview for yourself here.) He meant that he’s only seen the scripts through ep. 6, he doesn’t know what happens in eps. 7-9 yet. He also said they’ve been filming for seven weeks, that’s not enough to film 6 eps. Next weekend is also Easter weekend, their last big break before they resume filming in April. That gives MG some extra time to finish up TGW and relocate to the UK.
The movie’s just an idea at this stage and Gareth Neame made it very clear yesterday they’re not going to entertain any thought until they’re done with the series. He’s also emphasised a stand-alone movie means it doesn’t have to pick up from the series (e.g. could be a prequel, take place midway or far into the future). So any culmination of the TV series will take place in the Christmas special for S6, i.e., the series finale, not some indefinite movie that’s not even an idea on paper yet.
Neame has also admitted they all knew S6 would be the last series for some time and they were just waiting for the PBS broadcast of S5 to be over to make the announcement. The implication’s then he knew—I don’t know about the cast, but he and Julian Fellowes certainly—they knew as far back as when they were drawing up plans for the S5 Christmas special, the launching pad for S6 (and introduction of Henry Talbot), that S6 would be the end. That means early last year, maybe even earlier. That means they were very mindful of that when they cast MG. That means they might have hinted as much or at the very least shared his character would be endgame for Mary when they wooed him. There’s nothing that’s going on now that’s news to MG. Why would he rethink his decision now when he knew all along?
