Matthew's Lover: The Story of What Happened Before Downton

Chapter Five

And so the love affair between Matthew Crawley and Lucinda-Anne Cuthbert began. And Miss Barbary did not know. After all why shouldn't a young heiress have business with a solicitor?

Matthew was in his element. To think that a wealthy young heiress, the wealthy young heiress he had fallen head over heels for as soon as he had seen her, was in love with him...the idea! Yet Matthew believed it. Why else would a Canadian heiress conduct herself in a love affair with him? For one must look after one's reputation.

Matthew had realised that both his, and Lucie's, reputations were on the line, and he had tried to separate himself from her. But every time he tried she gazed up at him with her big round eyes, and asked why. And these actions made Matthew fall even more deeply in love with her than he had before. And so within three months of their affair Matthew was completely ensnared by Lucie.

Lucie, however, did not have such feelings for Matthew. True she had a slight affection for him as her solicitor, and a possible friend, but that was where her affection ended. She would end the affair when the time was right: when she was seeing someone as a possible husband, when Miss Barbary got on her trail, or when Lucie grew tired of him. When that day came, for whatever reason, she would carefully break it to him, tell him he could never speak of it, and hand him a wodge of cash to make sure of his silence.

Lucie had been sure of his affection for her very early on indeed, but it was on the thirtieth of the third month that she declared he was truly ensnared. This meant that Lucie could move on to stage two of the affair. Just a little bit here and there. Going to see him and unable to return home, inviting him as a guest and getting Miss Barbary to run an errand. That sort of thing that left just the two of them, when they could truly display their affection for each other. Well Matthew could, Lucie would have to pretend.

And this was the reason that Lucie now involved herself in affairs. It was no longer to feel loved, but rather for these short moments in time when she could see men as the vulnerable creatures they were, and not as the amazing heroes they pretended to be. Of course Lucie only delved into these situations when it was agreeable to both parties, when the man's affections were very strong for her.

Thinking about this Lucie realised that of all the men she had played her little 'game' with, she'd never had any affection for any of them. She wondered what it would be like if both parties held affection for each other. No, it was too late to change herself now. But then again this new boy, Matthew Crawley, something was different with him. Not only had she taken a much bigger risk with him, after all he had a voice in society, but something was different about him for her as well.

Because for the first time in her life, though she didn't know it yet, Lucie was returning someone's love.