the princess and the pauper ♕ tommy shelby

chapter twenty eight

Ophelia Crawley was a smart young woman, someone who respected her family and valued loyalty. Thomas Shelby also valued family and loyalty, but he had more ambition than Ophelia had. Tommy had the ambition to work on himself for her, to be with her. The only one he truly needed to convince was the Dowager and he managed to do quite well with her. Maybe at first, she had her doubts, but even a woman like the Dowager could give credit to a man like Thomas Shelby, who had been the son of someone who did nothing more than make fortunes and steal horses.

Even with the Dowager's plan to separate them, which backfired on her, she gave him the credit he deserved. The morning of the servants' ball was another moment where she would have admired him. Just before his family took the train to go to Downton, he told everyone to be on their best behaviour. Especially his brother Arthur. His aunt kept the big smile on her face ever since they left the house. They brought some proper evening wear with them, and clothes for in the morning. Lord Grantham had asked them to stay, would have been too late to go back home and Downton had enough rooms.

Ophelia welcomed the Shelby family when they arrived shortly after lunch, with a big smile on her face. "This is your house?" Polly asked, one of the only people to have never seen it. Arthur and John had been here before during the war, and Ada had visited over the years as well. "Yes, it had been my family's home for few generations now" she said looking at the building. Carson had sent Barrow to help them with their baggage which he resented but didn't speak it to anyone but O'Brien.

"Who else will be here?" Freddie Thorne asked, who had come after Ophelia insisted Ada took her husband with her too. "Well, you, and my grandmother, and my cousins; Isobel and her son Matthew. And people from town" Ophelia said, and everyone nodded. "It is such an honour to finally meet you all" her mother said when everyone walked in. Her father followed shortly after. "I'm Cora, and this is my husband Robert" her mother said, and Ophelia smiled, she could tell her mother wanted to get rid of the titles but her father's face didn't like it as much. "I'm Tommy's older brother, Arthur" Arthur said, taking off his cap and shaking their hands politely.

"I'm John, and this is my wife, Esme" John said introducing his new wife. "I'm Polly Gray, their aunt" Polly said, and Cora smiled. "Glad to meet you" Cora said. "This is my husband, Freddie" Ada said, knowing they knew her already. "Congratulations again" Lord Grantham said to her. "These are my sisters, Edith and Mary, my sister Sybil lives in Ireland now with her husband" Ophelia explained. "Pleasure" everyone said and Cora smiled at her daughter. "Why don't you show everyone their rooms and a tour of the house" she suggested. "Yes, of course" Ophelia said and went to show everyone their room.

She secretly couldn't wait for the day she could share a room with Tommy, at least at Downton. She showed everyone around, until it was time to get dressed and ready for dinner. Isobel and Matthew arrived before the Dowager and were excited to meet Tommy's family, even with Tommy slightly on edge about his family. When they walked down Isobel smiled. "Hello, you must be the Shelby's" Isobel said. "Technically we are the Thorne's" Ada said, referring to herself and Freddie. "My apologies, it's my pleasure to meet everyone" she said.

The dinner went better than expected and only once John and Freddie asked how someone could have such a place. Freddie more from his communist point of view, while John just wanted to know how much he needs to have a home like that for himself. Isobel and Matthew were much better with the Shelby's than Lord Grantham was, in Ophelia's opinion, but he did try.

At the ball Ophelia explained how everything would be done. "My father dances with Mrs. Hughes, and my mother dances with Carson, while my sisters and I usually dance with the footmen but there are more of us than footmen." Ophelia said. "Which is why Ophelia will dance with one of the kitchen boys of Mrs. Patmore's kitchen, who dances with Matthew" Mary explained. "Feel free to dance whenever" Edith said, smiling at the Shelby's. While everyone of the Crawley family danced with who they were meant to, Ophelia saw Isobel dance with Arthur and Daisy with Tommy who was blushing like mad.

John had asked Esme, and Freddie and Ada also danced around. Polly had taken a seat for now and she saw her sitting with her grandmother. They switched and Ophelia managed to land in Tommy's arms. "How are you? I feel like we haven't spoken all day" she said and looked at him. "I'm well, your family has been very kind to my family" Tommy said. "We are getting married, it's only fair they are nice to your family" Ophelia said. "Although I don't dare say how they would have been before the war" Ophelia said smiling at Tommy. "Polly seems to like your grandmother enough" Tommy said when he eyes to two women talking to each other, Isobel joining them. "They both value family, they have that in common." Ophelia said and looked at the smiling faces of her family. "May I cut in?" Mary asked and Ophelia nodded.

Ophelia walked away and went to sit down for a moment, joining her grandmother.  "Your grandmother tried to set you up with a Marquess?" Polly asked when Ophelia joined them. "Ah, yes, she did" Ophelia said. "I like your style but would have been easier to make it seem like he was unfaithful" Polly said. "Oh, I like your style" the Dowager said. "Have you tried it?" she asked. "For John, when he wanted to marry Lizzie Stark" Polly said. "Interesting" the Dowager said, and Isobel looked surprised. "How did you manage that" she asked. "Lizzie Stark is a prostitute, we didn't want her to marry our John, and she said she didn't do that anymore, we proved her wrong" Polly said and Ophelia's eyes widen when Polly was as blunt as she was, hoping no one else heard her.

"You did the right thing" the Dowager said which surprised both Isobel and Ophelia. "May I have this dance, Mrs. Gray?" Lord Grantham asked as he walked over, and he took Polly to the dance floor while Isobel and Ophelia were still surprised. "I like the aunt" her grandmother said, and Ophelia smiled. "I knew you would" she said.

Everyone stopped what they were doing when Arthur walked in after he went outside for some air. "We should have a toast!" he yelled. Tommy, who had been dancing with his sister, walked over. "Arthur" he said in a warning tone, not wanting to ruin things with Ophelia's family. "No, Tom, serious, they got engaged" Arthur said and then Mary and Matthew walked in. "We did" Matthew said smiling. Cheers erupted and the Crawleys walked over to them. "I do like it that I was the first to know" Arthur said. "Bet they didn't plan on that" Ada laughed before also congratulating the happy couple.

Ophelia was happy for her sister, she deserved it. Which is how they ended the servant's ball. With promise of more celebration to come. Ophelia always planned on having her wedding after her sister's and she would keep to that, especially now that she was to marry Matthew, they had been waiting long enough.

In the morning, everyone—including the servants—slept in before they had breakfast which was more of a brunch. Arthur was still happy he was the first to know, and Mary said they would be even if she could be the first to know when he would be married, which made John laugh. "If Tommy can get engaged, who's to say Arthur won't be next" Ada said smiling. "Love finds us in the smallest of corners, my boy, and I am sure you will too" Lord Grantham said. Ophelia smiled at her father in thanks to his kind words about Arthur.

Her family seemed to come around about the Shelby's which was more than she could wish for. But the happy moment didn't last long, because when she looked in the morning paper, she saw something to refresh her mind. Another young girl, around her age, with similar hair and facial features, had gone missing. As if everything came to her, she stood up and ran to her room to prepare herself for the trip to town, not even bothering to explain to people why she suddenly disappeared.

"I will go" Mary said and was about to go upstairs when Ophelia came rushing down again and disappeared outside to call for Stark to bring her to town. "What is going on?" Mary asked. "I have been so blind, Mary" was all Ophelia said, because what she couldn't explain were the newspaper clippings rushing through her head, of girls who looked like her gone missing and in some cases were even found dead. And it all started just after she met the Marquess. And it followed her too, the first girl had been in York, but the second one was near Birmingham.

When she managed to make it to town, she went to ask around for old newspapers and she started to put them all together until she saw how each girl looked almost exactly like her.

"I see you have figured me out then"