Response to another tumblr prompt: Isobel and Mrs Hughes find themselves attracted to one another and decide to do something about it.
I've always been secretly dying to write for this pairing but I know what I've written isn't anywhere near as good as some of the stuff that's out there about them. I do have another chapter sort of planned but whether or not you'll want it is another question altogether.
"Mrs Hughes, can I come in?"
"Oh, I'm sorry, Mrs Crawley, I didn't see you there. Yes, come in, if you would like to."
Isobel Crawley came in and shut the door behind as quietly as she had announced herself. But the look she fixed on Elsie as she leant back a little against the door, keeping a polite distance, was steady, firm, in no way uncertain or timid.
"You've been avoiding me, Mrs Hughes," she told her calmly.
"I've done nothing of the sort," Elsie replied, a little shortly, and then, reminding herself whom she was speaking to added, extremely politely, "Our paths simply have not crossed."
"You don't ask me to believe that, do you?" Isobel asked, not unkindly, but still firmly. She looked a little hurt at Elsie's refusal to be honest with her, "This is the first time I've caught so much of a glimpse of you since-..."
A kiss, just a single one, stolen as they neared the bridge on the quiet road to the Abbey. Mrs Crawley had seen her from a distance stumble on a small piece of wood she hadn't seen on the road. She came running in time to help Elsie up and take her basket from her until she got herself sorted out. Elsie had certainly been grateful, and pleased that she had someone who seemed quiet ready to walk with her. She had always had a liking for Mrs Crawley. She knew she could be difficult to handle at times but her heart was very much in the right place.
And before they got to the bridge they were kissing. Elsie hadn't the slightest idea how it had happened. One moment they were talking, walking side by side, companionably. She noticed that Mrs Crawley was looking well, her hair had its old lustre that she'd always rather envied. There seemed almost a glow to her complexion. The outside agreed with her, there was no doubt about that.
She didn't even know who had made the first move. It all happened in a blur, the sound of the river flowing in her ears.
"Look, Elsie," Isobel, told her, using her first name boldly, making her blink a little in surprise, "I know I've embarrassed you, and I want you to know how sorry I am."
Elsie smiled at her gently.
"You haven't embarrassed me," she told her simply, "Nor have you upset me," she added as Isobel's mouth opened again, as if to continue.
"Then why," Isobel asked, sounding a little frustrated, "Have you-... Have our paths not crossed, not for weeks? If I haven't embarrassed or upset you, there must be some other reason."
"Must there?"
Isobel's lips were soft, surprisingly so. Not that they had looked uninviting, not at all, but Elsie hadn't quiet imagined-... Firm too, brief, but unhesitating.
Isobel was visibly annoyed now.
"Elsie," she spoke quietly, her voice low and determined, "I saw your face, after I'd kissed you."
"You would have done," Elsie replied carefully.
"You looked at me like I'd slapped you in the face."
There was a pause.
"I certainly didn't mean to do that," Elsie told her, more seriously, "And I'm sorry that's what you thought I did."
Isobel was quiet for a moment.
"What did you mean to do?" she asked.
"I'm not sure," Elsie replied honestly, a second later.
Isobel's whole body seemed to give out a minute sigh of frustration. They were both quiet for a moment.
"I'd never kissed a woman before," Isobel told her, almost conversationally, a moment later.
"Hadn't you?" Elsie asked.
"No," Isobel replied.
"Nor had I," Elsie told her.
Isobel smiled slightly, "I'm still not quite sure what made me."
There was a look in their eyes as they met, an infinitesimal lilt in the way they talked that hinted at something Elsie could not quite pin down. Their hands brushed as they walked and neither did anything to prevent it.
There was another silence.
"Why don't you take a seat?" Elsie asked her.
"I wasn't asked, I didn't want to impose."
"Take one," Elsie told her, sitting down herself.
Isobel sat down on the sofa. Her hands folded automatically in her lap.
"I may call you Elsie, mayn't I?" she asked.
"It seems you already have," Elsie replied, smiling at her gently.
Elsie returned the smile.
"Please do call me Isobel," she told her, "When we're alone."
Elsie blushed a little; she could not help but catch the implication that they were likely to be alone together often in the future. She smiled, looking down at the arm of her chair.
"Thank you," she told her, "I would like that."
She did not know what else to say. Isobel it seemed, though, was bolder.
"Elsie, if I didn't embarrass or upset you, can I tell you that I liked kissing you?"
Elsie seemed not to breathe for a good few moments. Nor could she think of what to say in reply. Except that she was happy.
"Yes," she told her quietly, a small smile on her lips, "You can tell me that," and then, a moment later, "I liked it too."
"Then why did you avoid me?" Isobel asked, quickly, pointedly.
Elsie realised that she was not going to back down about this. She let out a quiet sigh, trying to think why, exactly.
"I thought it might have been just a mistake on your part," she replied at last.
"You were worried that I might be embarrassed, or upset by it?" Isobel surmised, smiling at the irony.
"Yes," Elsie agreed, "I suppose that's what I thought. That and-..."
Isobel's eyes fixed sharply upon her when she did not continue.
"What?" she prompted her.
Elsie's eyes were fixed firmly on the arm of the chair again.
"I kept-... thinking about it," she admitted, "My mind would go back to it at the oddest of moments and I-.. I didn't know whether-... I didn't know if I could trust myself," she finished at last, "To be around you. Not when someone might see me, and suspect something."
"Why didn't you come to see me when I was alone at Crawley House?"
"I especially couldn't have trusted myself when I was alone," she told the chair, her cheeks glowing furiously.
"Well, I don't see why you should have to. Not if it's just us, alone."
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