I do wish we had gotten to see Mary tell Matthew she was pregnant...sigh. But this was very good

Aww

what a beautiful story...and how tragic from what we know now but at least we have this to remember.

i am also often frustrated of the lack of MM interactions in the show, seeing they are probably the main protagonists but JF's story seems to focus on the servants more as if they have more interesting lives than our beautiful couple.

Your MM fics are mindblowing. I wish u could write some AU for them. The way you write mary's grief is perfect.. Oh gosh i'm so sick of crying over them. But your fics hurt in a good way , cause of how amazingly u write mary and matthew...

Keep up the great work , i'll be waiting for any MM u'll write :)

Gah. I've been promising a real review of this and am just now getting to it (because I knew I'd have to read it again, which would take time and thought). I've told you on twitter how much I love this one-shot, so now I'm "saying it properly."

The themes and tone and setting and leitmotifs are all brilliant in this. You convey darkness and light so well in so many different aspects (the actual lighting of their setting - lamps and firelight and moonlight; the contrast between them - both their inner lives and their physical appearances; the idea of tragedy and joy mingling together, etc.); it really is a very sophisticated piece in that sense. Your dialogue too is striking. Your Matthew is spot-on (I really think you're one of the writers who captures his voice best) and I'm always intrigued by your Mary, who speaks her mind more than she does in canon. In a setting like this, it really works; it's credible and doesn't feel OOC because of the intimacy of the scene. And the connection between the pair is palpable and intense yet stays grounded and has a day-to-day reality to it.

You have such a turn of phrase sometimes. One of my favorite lines: "Mary naked and Matthew clothed was a heady, vulnerable thing, one that they reveled in, one that made Mary feel needy and Matthew feel needed." That alone captures so much about the dynamics between them and how they *shift* when it's just them behind closed doors.

And then the last two paragraphs ... I've reread them now more than a dozen times and they never fail to both send chills up my spine and bring tears to my eyes. In the hands of a less sensitive author, they could be mundane exposition, but you elevate them and they are simply ... beautifully, painfully prophetic.

Kudos and please keep writing.

I've just read my way through a few of your stories and all I can say is WOW!

You truly are a gifted writer! You have a fantastic attention to detail and the descriptions you put forward in your stories are simply wonderful. I loved this story in particular because you're right, I think something was missing a bit from the series and it was so great to see Matthew and Mary talking about the tragedy they had seen.

Love your work and keep writing! :)

this is so beautiful i cried. you just win. omigoodness. the feeeeeeeelings. job well done. good language. good pace. the feeeeeeeeelings.

The beauty of this piece takes my breath away. Wow. It's a privilege to read it. Thank you so much for sharing it. Selfishly, I hope you may consider writing more Matthew & Mary moments. Thank you again.

This was absolutely beautifully written! You obviously took such care with every word, feeling what they felt as you daringly scripted it for others to read and be moved. You have a dazzling talent, and I am so very glad that I found this story.

Beautiful! Thank you :)

Absolutely lovely, and so deliciously heartbreaking. Thank you. :)

I enjoyed this one shot, a lot. It had so many emotions in it. Beautifully written. I would love to see more of these(:

This was absolutely stunning, moving, and so well written that it made me cry at the end. What you did so wonderfully was create a one-shot that felt like a whole novel, like a whole little world that sprung out of one small moment into a sweeping arc of a story. I love how you ended it, it was perfect all around. You should be extremely proud of this. xx

That was just beautiful... thank you so much for writing and sharing it. :')

So sad and so lovely too. I like how you captured the sense of Matthew as being very good and kind but making mistakes, because he has his flaws like we all do.