Elsie pulled the last of the biscuits from the oven filling the small kitchen of her and Charles's cottage with the smell of warm shortbread. Pushing her damp hair from her face, she filled the kettle for tea and smiled at the peels of laughter coming from the other room.
They were keeping little Margaret Bates tonight to give her parents some much-needed rest. Elsie had made the offer to babysit when she had watched Anna almost fall asleep in her soup one night at dinner. Mr. Bates had been little better having been found snoring over a pair of His Lordship's shoes by none other than Mr. Barrow. So Elsie had offered her and Charles's day off to watch Maggie and let Mr. and Mrs. Bates catch up on some sleep.
The kettle on to boil, Elsie began gathering the tea things onto a tray to take into the sitting room. She found herself humming along to her husband's baritone as he sang to Maggie. It was always lovely to hear Charles singing outside of church. He sang so rarely that it was always a surprise when he did.
Elsie had expected Charles to grumble and complain about spending their rare joint day off babysitting, but she had been pleasantly surprised by his grinning acceptance of her fait accompli. She had known that he was good with children despite what he wanted others to believe. She still remembered how he had given little Miss Sybbie a tour of the House when the others were gone to the fair years ago. He had tried to hide it, but Elsie knew he had been looking forward to today more than she had. In fact, little miss Maggie had spent most of the day in his company.
Elsie filled the waiting teapot with the water from the boiling kettle and placed a few of the cooled biscuits on a plate. She carried the tray through the doorway into their cozy sitting room. Her breath caught in her throat at the sight before her.
Charles was still singing. He was dancing about the room making the little girl in his arms squeal in glee. Elsie let herself watch them from the doorway with a wistful smile on her face. Few times in her marriage had caused her to wish that they had had the courage to find each other sooner. Watching Charles waltz about with the smiling infant, she could almost see him years younger dancing with their own child.
"What is it?" Charles asked breathlessly beaming when he noticed her standing in the doorway.
"Nothing," she smilingly shook her head and placed the tea tray on a side table. "Just...I love you, Charles Carson."
Impossibly his face grew brighter and he held out a hand to her. "Come dance with us, Elsie."
Laughing, she took his hand and the three of them danced until the tea grew cold.
AN: This is for day 14 of the Chelsie Christmas Countdown over on tumblr. If you haven't yet, you should go look up all the Chelsie awesomeness happening over there. Merry Christmas!