Filandre, Gossamer

She was the first person Edith met at the Sketch office, small and plain but awaiting her arrival with inexplicable excitement. She led her through the busy workplace to the editor's office before returning to her desk just outside his door. At the time, the secretary had been a detail folded into the fabric of new information. A new job. A new way of living. A new person she should have paid attention to, if only to brighten the memory of that day.

After the meeting, she again led Edith to her destination. It was the last time she needed to do so – surely Edith was not so stupid she couldn't find her own way now – but as inexplicable as the excitement, she found herself by Edith's side each time the woman moved about the building. She arrived, the secretary was there, and her presence grew to be expected. They walked together and with each step a thread was wound, creating a rope to bind the two in a wordless friendship. Wordless until a question was asked. Her name.

It was Russell. Louise Russell.

Louise had been born to a large family in London that was as poor as dirt, owning nothing but the shirts on their backs and the sparse furnishings of one room. Several of her siblings had died before they reached the revolting embrace of adulthood, but Louise (the baby by nearly ten years) had thrived in a household that seeped gentle hugs and warm words. Her father broke his back day after day at the docks, and her mother sewed until her fingers bled. Day after day, without fail. Each morning the children were roused and sent to school stumbling on legs still waking with nothing in their stomachs but biting hunger and a mouthful of porridge. The Russells were determined their children lead better lives than they themselves. Louise was twenty-two years old and had wanted to be a writer from the moment she first picked up a pen. So, naturally, she became a secretary.

All of this was learned through miles of easy conversation. Louise's story unfolded before her, urged on with subtle, polite questions. And in return, Edith reciprocated with her own story. How she had always lived in the shadow of her elder sister. How her first love had drowned in the icy Atlantic, returning years later with a new voice and scarred face, only to disappear again. How her second love had shoved her away before anything was allowed to begin. How she had drawn him back and he had left her in the dust, standing forgotten at the altar. Edith told Louise things she dared not whisper a word of to any of her family. The farmer that had kissed her and told her she should be a writer. The nudging feeling that she would soon be adding a third love to her list, one whose office she had been visiting. Louise confided in her similarly, the secrets tumbling from her lips with little trepidation. They were friends now. True friends. Edith could almost laugh at how pitiful the situation was – to not have friend until one was almost 30 years of age. But at least Edith had Louise, and Louise had Edith. And it was enough.

Two months- really only four visits after the first, Edith invited her to tea. Louise picked the place, Edith offered to pay. It was modest to one, grand to the other. Three o'clock, two days later.

Two chairs in a crowded tearoom.

One occupied, one glaringly empty.

Wilting flowers. A feeling of being overdressed.

Another glance at the clock. Another minute she sat alone, totalling sixteen.

A fluttering stomach, a cup being turned round and round in its saucer.

Another glance. 17.

Maybe she's not coming.

Another turn. 18.

Maybe she's lost.

Another glance. 19.

Maybe she forgot.

Another turn.

Twenty.

Maybe– And suddenly she was there, the fresh air falling off her shoulders like smoke and pooling in the path she carved to their table.

"Sorry… Michael," the words tripped from her mouth in a messy explanation.

"It's alright." She felt too loud and too tall. Too there. She wanted to slide herself under the table and disappear, like a magic trick. She didn't, of course. But she wanted to.

A pot of tea was brought, throats cleared, sandwiches nibbled, tea stirred, throats cleared again. And finally, a word offered. "Hello," it fell from her lips and lay, shivering between them, cold and lonely.

"Hello." A cracked smile, and the word was dropped a companion. There was a shift in the air, a minute, imperceptible shift. What had been stinging nervous energy melted into something electric and nearly tangible that wove itself around the two women, clinging to them like gossamer.

That table in that tearoom at that time was stapled onto every other Thursday. For two hours (sometimes more), they would sit and drink. They would never be late, and they would not leave early. They would talk. When Louise's mother set down her needle to lay on her deathbed, they talked. When seas stormy with change rocked Downton, they talked. When Mrs. Russell was abandoned in the unforgiving depths of the earth, they talked. When Michael asked Edith to dinner, they talked. When Louise was promoted and given a column, they talked.

The afternoon meetings were blinding stars strewn across the black expanse of the days that lay between. They could have carried on like that indefinitely, if it were not for one night and a cruel white piece of paper.

Author's Note: This is just the beginning. Barely 1,000 words. I can make no promises as to when or how this story with a shitty cliché title will progress, I can only pray that it will. I can tell you that it won't be for at least a week. I can tell you that the next chapter is unwritten. I can tell you that the only outline exists within my head. Please have faith in me. I wouldn't have posted, but the bubbling excitement of a story you've been thinking about for weeks finally being put into words was to much to resist. Sorry.

p.s. The title is French for Drink With Me

UPDATE: An amazing beta team was formed since I posted this chapter, and while I needed their help predominantly on the next chapter (tomorrow!), they also had some input for this one, which I have taken and updated. Don't worry about reading it all again, though, it was just grammar stuff ;)

I'll see you all tomorrow(!),

helladella