Disclaimer: The quotations in italics and the characters that you recognize are the sole property of Julian Fellowes and co. I have no claim or gain from writing this.
A/N: Based off the scene with Daisy and Mrs. Patmore in Season 1.
…
Perhaps, Thomas has seen and done more than is good for him. He's not a lady's man.
Well, in't it a blessed relief?
Daisy! Thomas is a troubled soul.
I don't know what you mean, Mrs. Patmore.
Oh. Nothing. I don't mean anything.
…
Daisy turned back to her pot scrubbing but Mrs. Patmore's words had left Daisy confused. What exactly did Mrs. Patmore mean by saying that Thomas is a 'troubled soul?'
The whole evening and the entirety of the next day, Daisy thought of nothing else.
"Daisy! Do watch where you are going," Mrs. Hughes reprimanded as Daisy bumped her pail and brush into Mrs. Hughes's leg.
"Awfully sorry, Mrs. Hughes!" she said hurriedly and scurried back into the scullery.
'Troubled soul?' What could that possibly mean!
"Daisy the good lord gave you hands for chopping those onions! Why are you not?" Mrs. Patmore snapped at Daisy, once again, as Daisy idly played around with the knife.
"I was just lost in thought, Mrs. Patmore. I forgot I was chopping onions," Daisy said with a slight far away look in her eyes.
"Well kindly start losing yourself into chopping onions. I've already started the sauce and you still need to finish the potatoes," Mrs. Patmore bossed.
"Yes Mrs. Patmore,"
"Oh Heavens," Ms. O'Brien, muttered as Daisy apologized profusely and knelt to pick up the fallen sewing kit.
"What has gotten into you? You can't still be thinking of the Titanic," Mrs. O'Brien added in a sarcastic tone.
"Oh no, not at all. I was just thinking about what Mrs. Patmore said about Thomas," Daisy said brightly, handing the sewing kit into the older woman's hands.
"Indeed? And what may have she said to you about Thomas?" asked she, curiosity getting the better of her.
"Well she said that he wasn't a lady's man and that he was a troubled soul," Daisy whispered dramatically. Mrs. O'Brien's normally expressionless face twisted into a wry smile briefly as her eyes softened at the look on Daisy's face.
"Truer words haven't been spoken," she replied to Daisy and walked on, leaving a bewildered Daisy behind.
"Mrs. Patmore is wanting you in the kitchens. You're to start washing up the dinner glasses," Anna informed in a brisk voice as she rummaged around.
"Anna? Can I ask you a question?" Daisy said in a singsong voice.
"Daisy if it is about the Titanic again…"
"Oh, it isn't. It's about Thomas?" she said quickly, coming to stand next to the taller woman.
"All right, but it better be fast," Anna, said.
"Well I was wondering if you could explain why Thomas is a troubled soul and not a lady's man." She said in a hushed tone.
Anna's eyebrows rose, quite comically and she smiled gently at the girl.
"Maybe you should ask Thomas yourself," she said in amusement.
"Oh but I dare not!" Daisy said, almost scandalized.
Anna just pushed Daisy in the directions of the kitchen and Daisy left it for the moment.
"Daisy be a darling and get me another cup of tea, will you?" Thomas drawled as he put his 'downstairs' jacket on. William scowled at him ordering Daisy about and decided to take rest in his room. Thomas smirked after him as Daisy smiled happily at Thomas and went to get him tea.
"Thomas?" Daisy asked after a few minutes of silence as they sat alone in the communal resting area. Thomas looked up at Daisy in acknowledgement.
"Why are you a troubled soul?" she asked, her cheeks red and finding the wooden table rather interesting.
"Who was naming me one?" Thomas asked in almost an accusatory tone.
"Oh no, it was nothing. Mrs. Patmore was just having me on." Daisy dismissed in haste.
"Mrs. Patmore said I was a troubled soul," Thomas asked in surprise.
"Aye, and she said that you were not a lady's man," Daisy said eagerly, before clasping a hand over her mouth as she realized her blunder.
Thomas stared at the girl in astonishment for a while before he put his cup town and laughed softly. His face lost its arrogant furl of the lips and he looked genuinely amused.
"Who would have thought that Mrs. Patmore would have guessed it?" Thomas said more to himself than to Daisy and she had to strain to catch his words.
"Guessed what?"
Thomas eyed her and finally got up, not answering her question.
"You'll know in good time," he said as he sauntered off, leaving Daisy baffled once more.
It was as if everybody knew a secret about Thomas, apart from her. She shrugged then. His mystique only added to his charisma and how she loved his charisma and charm!
For years to come, Daisy would be fond occasionally wondering what Mrs. Patmore had said to her that day in 1912. Downstairs an inside joke was resurrected. Whenever she was lost in thought, people would shout out, "Thinking of the troubled soul, again?" Then everyone would laugh, but Daisy would be left just as puzzled as she was when Mrs. Patmore had first told her.
…
1988
A young Yorkshire lad sat in an armchair next to the fireplace. His face held trepidation and his hands kept brushing over the telephone next to him, but not quite picking it up.
"Mate, you'll have to tell her at some point," said a male voice, which was followed by a pair of legs and a body.
"I know, but how will she take it?" the former said quietly.
"Very well I'd imagine. And if not, I'll go over there and ask her to cook me her kidney pie again." The latter said, as he made to sit next to the other man.
"Well here goes," he said tightly as he clenched one hand and picked up the phone.
"Hello?" said a frail female voice from the other end.
"Grand-mama? It's Pete." The man spoke into the phone.
The woman said something from the other end and the man smiled.
"You remember my friend Bill?" he asked as Bill's hand squeezed Pete's in support.
"Of course I do," Pete's grandmother replied, a smile in her voice.
"Well he's a bit more than a friend. He's quite special to me. He's my boyfriend actually," Pete said, hesitatingly but with defiance in his voice. A small exclamation could be heard over the phone and Bill wrapped a warm arm around Pete's shoulders.
"Grand-mama?" Pete asked softly.
"Just like Thomas," the woman on the other end said just as softly.
"Who?" Pete asked, momentarily distracted.
The woman smiled gently and wiped tears that were suddenly falling from her aged eyes.
"Oh, no one dear. Just an old memory," she sniffed onto the phone. "I'm making Kidney pie this weekend, will you and Bill be coming," she asked, her voice full of love for her grandson.
Pete and Bill shared happy smiles as Pete turned back to the phone.
"We love you, grand-mama!" he spoke, joyfully.
Daisy smiled as she put the receiver down on her end.
"Oh Peter, you are such a troubled soul!" she whispered to herself as she rocked herself gently in her chair.
THE END
A/N: In the early 20th century, homosexuality was punishable by death, so I doubt that the environment in Downton Abbey would have been tension-free if people discovered Thomas' secret, but literary leeway? Please review and let me know what you thought of this. It is my first DA fic after all!
-Vitzy-