Part of the „Mistletoe Challenge" from Batwings79 and Onesimus.
Using the criteria:
Kiss under the mistletoe with one half of your ship and another character,
Chocolate, Peppermint or anything other edible item
Shakespeare or Dickensian quotation
and Singing – drunken or sober
Well, here's what happens when you mix these ingredients.
Mrs. Hughes was humming her favourite Christmas tune while making her round through the ground floor rooms to check that everything was ready for the annual Christmas festivities. The hall boys were busy decorating the banisters with fir branch garlands and got some assistance by a number of housemaids. Rose and Elizabeth tied red ribbons around the branches and Anna was carefully hanging several Christmas balls inside the evergreen branches.
"Be careful with those Anna. Some of them are already very old and have been in the family for decades." There would be no excuse if any of the balls would shatter on the floor. Her thoughts went back to the days when she had still been head housemaid and one of the Christmas balls dropped from her hands right in front of Lady Violet. Hughes! You silly girl! Be more careful. Look what you did! This one was from Paris. I will see that we will dock it off from this week's wages. The sound of the Dowager Countess' harsh words was still ringing in her head.
"Don't worry Mrs. Hughes, these are so beautiful that I take extra care and have decided to hang them myself."
"Very good. Let me know when you are finished." She ended her round in the dining room where Ellen and Maureen took care of the flower bouquets for the grand dinner tonight. "Place it in the middle of the serving cabinet girls and don't forget to water them once more before the dinner starts." The two girls nodded their heads and scurried away to tend to the other necessary preparations. Mrs. Hughes took one more look at the room and decided that it was time to go downstairs where Mrs. Patmore was busy preparing an enormous amount of delicious Christmas food.
She still had the melody in her mind while descending the stairs "Oh come all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant, oh come ye, oh come ye, to Bethlehem", she faintly sang until she reached the door of her pantry. Suddenly a deep bass joined her alto. "Come and behold him, born the king of Angels." It was unmistakably Mr. Carson's voice that was finishing the line for her.
"Seems you are already in a festive mood", he smiled at her as he entered the room behind her. "How are the preparations progressing upstairs? Will everything by ready in time?"
Mrs. Hughes smiled back at him. She had never heard him sing before and was surprised of his fine and expressive voice. "The girls are already busy with the decorations."
"Excellent. Then we should have enough time for all the other little things that are still on the list."
"Well, the list is still long, if you ask me", she sighed because she had been busy since six in the morning when the groceries where delivered for the festive dinner tonight. Now it was already half past two. She still had to talk to Mrs. Patmore about the Christmas pudding.
"Why don't you take a short rest?" he suggested after seeing her stressed expression. "I will go over the dinner with Mrs. Patmore."
"Me taking a rest in the middle of the Christmas preparations? Charles Carson, how on earth did that thought get into your mind?" Hands on her hips she faced him, looking up to him shaking her head in disbelief of his absurd suggestion.
"This was not a recommendation, it was an order!" his voice suddenly stern and determining. If she wasn't to rest now he would never have the chance to hand her that little Christmas present he had bought for her. He had tried to get hold of her all day but she was so busy running around the house that their paths did never cross until now.
Mrs. Hughes could not help but burst out with laughter at this sudden change of Mr. Carson's facial expression. He shot her a quizzical glance. "Alright then. But just for fifteen minutes."
As promised Mr. Carson went over to the kitchen to go through the dinner preparations once more with Mrs. Patmore. The kitchen was as busy as a beehive. Kitchen maids running around, taking orders from a red faced Mrs. Patmore who was also bustling around and almost bumped into Mr. Carson who was standing in the doorframe. "Oh, I'm sorry Mr. Carson. Did not want to soil your coat with that flour." She tried to get the dirt off his dark tailcoat but just made it worse, her hands still full of flour and dough.
"Leave it to me Mrs. Patmore." He brushed her hands off and was relieved when she finally let go. But only a second later Daisy was pointing at the butler and the cook giggling, "Look where you are standing!" Mr. Carson followed her finger and found himself standing underneath the mistletoe together with Mrs. Patmore. How much worse could it get?
"You know what this means?" Thomas' was just passing by and had noticed the commotion. "You'd have to kiss the cook", he sneered leaning on the opposite wall enjoying the scene.
"Certainly this tradition can for once be overruled", Mr. Carson started to step into the kitchen but Mrs. Patmore took hold of his arm.
"It's bad luck if you do", she grinned pursing her lips.
So he was going to make a fool of himself, alright. "If you believe so Mrs. Patmore I would not risk it. God knows we need all the luck we can get hold of to manage this evening." And he bent down to kiss her on the cheek while she threw her arms around his neck. His tailcoat now fully covered in flour.
"So, can we now please talk about the Christmas pudding." He straightened his back again and quickly stepped into the kitchen.
He was still trying to get the flour off his suit when he finally got back to his pantry. It was an impossible attempt so he decided to take the spare one out of his wardrobe instead. He had to retrieve something from it anyway. A little square parcel covered in red gift-wrap with a little bowknot around it. He slipped it into the inside pocket of his tailcoat and made his way over to Mrs. Hughes pantry. The fifteen minutes were over when he knocked at her door and entered her pantry a second later.
"How do you feel?" he inquired, closing the door behind him.
Mrs. Hughes was sitting at her settee a cup of tea in her hands. "Like a prisoner", she smiled.
"Well I can tell you, the world outside this room is going mad and it's better for you to stay in here for the rest of the day!" He took seat in the armchair in front of her.
She shot him a curious glance. "Did I miss something important in the last fifteen minutes?" She put away her tea cup and straightened up, anxious for the news.
"We hung the mistletoe at the wrong door." He surly replied. "I had to kiss Mrs. Patmore."
Mrs. Hughes had to cover her mouth to stop herself from laughing out loud. She could vividly imagine how Mrs. Patmore insisted on that kiss and how Charles Carson had to bow down to kiss the petite but resolute cook.
"We need to take this wicked plant down and put it somewhere else later." He was still annoyed by the way Thomas had obviously enjoyed himself at his expense. "However there is still enough time for such things after dinner." Saying this he reached into his inside pocket and withdrew the present.
"Elsie, there is something I wanted to give you." He rose from the chair and presented the neatly wrapped parcel with both hands, looking into her eyes while he did so.
Mrs. Hughes face dropped. When was the last time she had been given a Christmas present? She could not remember actually. She usually got a nice card from him which then stood on her desk until Easter at least. But he had never giving her a real present. "What's all this about, Charles?"
His face softened and he had a tender smile on his lips. "Open it and you will see."
She finally took the present and carefully opened it. To her surprise it contained a book and a box of nougat chocolates. "Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol." She turned the book in her hands, her fingers trailing over the gold engraved letters on the leather covered board. "Marley was dead: to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that", she cited the first sentence spontaneously.
"You once told me that this had been your favourite book as a child so I took the liberty to buy you a copy." It took him quite a while to get hold of the book. He had eventually found this copy in a store in London during the season and had since then kept it in his wardrobe. Obviously it had been the right choice, he thought, after she had intuitively quoted the first lines.
"You remembered that?" It astonished her how well he knew her. "I haven't read it for such a long time but I still know the first sentences by heart." She stood up and went over to thank him by planting a kiss on his cheek. He deserved it although on a normal occasion she would never be so intimate with him. But it was Christmas.
"It was a pleasure." This was more than he had hoped for.
The noise from the kitchen suddenly penetrated through the closed door reminding them that there was still a lot of work to be done. "We better be outside to see how things are progressing", Mrs. Hughes smiled at him and placed down the book together with the chocolates on a nearby table.
Mrs. Patmore had finished the Christmas pudding at the last minute. Thomas was having a hard time snatching it away from her. "Don't forget the brandy!" she yelled at him. "This is not my first Christmas pudding", he hissed and went upstairs to the dining room.
Traditionally enough pudding remained for the servants so that everyone had the chance to find the lucky sixpence in it. This year only a few pieces were left behind. "I don't like it anyway", Ms. O'Brien said with disgust. "You can have my share of it. I'm going to bed now." The dinner was long over but the staff had to clean up after the guests had gone to their rooms. It was past midnight when only O'Brien, Thomas, Mrs. Patmore, Mr. Carson and Mrs. Hughes were still up.
"I have to get up early but I'd like to have my piece of pudding", Mrs. Patmore took a fork and put a slice to a separate plate. "For tomorrow", she explained and put it away. "Good night and Merry Christmas."
Thomas came back from the stowing away the silver, a task usually done by Mr. Carson. "I'm also off."
"That leaves just the two of us." Mr. Carson stood up and took two empty plates and two forks. "So far no one found the lucky sixpence. Let's give it a try." He handed her a piece of the pudding.
It tasted good as always. Mrs. Patmore had a knack for sweets, Mrs. Hughes thought. However she was actually longing for a piece of nougat instead of Christmas pudding. "Excuse me for just a minute."
She went to her pantry to fetch the box of chocolate when her eyes caught the mistletoe above the kitchen door.
Mr. Carson had almost finished his share of the pudding when she came back into the common room. "Any luck yet?" she asked.
He looked up from his plate. "No. Maybe it is in your piece or in Mrs. Patmore's." He took another bite and grimaced. There it was. He had hit the coin and spat it out. "Oh no, it was in my share. Ouch."
"What a lucky man you are", she stood behind him, hands on her back, waiting for him to look up at her. "Would you mind to stand up so that I can give you your Christmas present?"
Mr. Carson turned around in surprise. How come she also had a present for him? Slowly he rose from his chair to stand next to her. "Now you really surprise me, Elsie."
She produced the mistletoe from behind her back. "Didn't you say that we should hang it elsewhere?" His eyes met hers and he nodded not sure what she was up to. "Maybe this is a good place", and she held it up above their heads. "What do you think?"
"Elsie Hughes, sometimes you really surprise me after all these years." He put his arms around her waist and bent down to plant a kiss on her cheek but she was faster and turned her head around so that his lips met hers. He was about to back away at first but he could neither resist her soft lips nor her arms that embraced his body instinctively. The clattering noise of a cardboard box full of nougat chocolates brought them down to reality. "I believe you have dropped that box of chocolates", he whispered.
"I don't mind. There's something better here than chocolate", she smiled at him. "Merry Christmas, Charles."
"Merry Christmas Elsie."