A Downton Abbey headcanon
In which Violet is bisexual and Isobel a lesbian.
Isobel has never known the truth about her preference. The Victorian and Edwardian eras didn't give her much room to consider the feelings she'd had for her female friends, and when she married Reginald, her feelings for him differed from those she felt for women. She was made to think that probably just was how women felt about their husbands. And she loved him, she really, really loved him. Platonically. She could happily spend the rest of her life with him, platonically. Because, as she mentioned to Mary and Tom at some point, she once knew a great love – and who says great love has to be romantic. Perhaps Reginald felt the same way; perhaps they only had Matthew to please society and fulfill their wish of having children, and then decided that was enough.
He passed away and Isobel thought she'd be unable to love someone in the same way again. She probably wouldn't, because it's extremely rare to find such a good companion. He was her intellectual equal in so many ways: in fighting spirit, in knowledge, and he balanced her out with his easy temper.
Isobel always thought she was heterosexual because she didn't consider there was another option for her. Well, perhaps she considered it once and then pushed the thought to the back of her mind.
Violet, on the other hand, was married to a man she got along with. That's all, they got along. She had her near-escape with Prince Kuragin, someone she did have feelings for, and suspected she might like women as well for some time. She just never thought much about it, because after Kuragin she didn't want to make the mistake of having an affair again.
By the time Isobel arrives at Downton, she's clueless about her sexuality because she always had an excuse. Violet has her suspicions about her own sexuality, and funnily enough she's the one who felt attracted to men before.
When she first arrives, Isobel is both intrigued and enraged with the Dowager Countess of Grantham, who thinks of herself as all high and mighty. She wants to do something about it. But somehow, while doing so, she wants to be as near to Violet as she can to keep an eye on her. You know, like one casually visits their rivals for tea. She thinks she just found herself another challenge, and surely that can be the only reason she's dead set on playing and winning whatever game this is.
Naturally, Violet pushed Isobel away immediately. She was the mother of the man who was about to steal the estate away from her granddaughters. And middle class, too.
What she didn't expect, however, was Isobel's fighting spirit. She finds that finally, someone else is just as persistent as she is, and she secretly finds pleasure in it. Just... not too much, because she obviously can't bring herself to like this middle class woman who is trying to turn her world upside-down. Or can she?
Time goes by and Violet slowly begins to develop feelings for Isobel. She knows and attempts to ignore it, resorting to the only way she knows to cope with these kind of things: disguising her feelings with insults and witty remarks.
Isobel, in the meantime, finds herself wanting to get closer to Violet. She thinks of their rivalries constantly, somehow always on the lookout for the opportunity to start another once one is resolved. Not only because she feels indignant so often, but also to be around Violet in the only way they know how: wrapped in some kind of discussion.
Not a lot changes between them throughout the first years, though Violet placed Isobel's nutcracker – the first Christmas gift she received from her – with some other trinkets in her drawing room.
By the time Dr. Clarkson proposes to Isobel, she already came to realise that the way she feels about men isn't how all women feel about them. She only ever saw men as friends, and while she thinks she could be happy with Clarkson in that sense, she doesn't think they'd make each other happy as a married couple. She begins to realise she feels something different for Violet – but dares not to speculate on it.
Until eventually, when Violet falls ill and Isobel sees no option but to care for her, they're simultaneously smacked across the face with realisation. Violet still attempts to push Isobel away at first; she's already feeling dreadful, there's no way she can deal with feelings while combating an illness. Isobel, however, decides that it is what it is – and that, even if Violet might never like her back in that way, she could still attempt to form a friendship.
It becomes increasingly difficult for Violet to ignore her feelings for Isobel when the latter is clearly trying very hard to be friends, and Violet eventually comes to the same conclusion: they could be friends, at least.
Obviously friends isn't all they stay. It happens around the time Dickie is pursuing Isobel, and Violet fears for her cherished companionship with the woman she now acknowledged her love for. She doesn't want to let Isobel go like that, and ends up confessing over tea with a sarcastic comment. It takes Isobel a bit to grasp the message; so much as she understood its meaning immediately, she can't comprehend that it's true. It can't be, after all these years.
Yet Violet confirms it all by taking hold of Isobel's hand and pressing a kiss on it. An appreciated gesture, and one that Isobel is glad to reciprocate, followed by: "you knew all along?"
"Most of the time," sounds Violet's cryptic remark.
It progresses semi-slowly from there, because it takes a bit of time for the two to get used to the reality of it all. And besides, they have their family to think of. Neither of them is convinced that Robert would survive finding out anything like this, and they have their doubts about Carson – even if he might not be officially part of the family.
It takes them a while, but they acknowledge their relationship and feelings. Tom knows almost right from the start, but he doesn't tell them because he doesn't want to intrude. He probably ends up being the first person they tell, though.
