Title: Missing
Rating: PG
Spoilers: No spoilers
Disclaimer: Julian Fellowes was quicker than me in selling his soul for the idea...
Other: First: Thank you to all of you who wished me a Happy Birthday. :)
Second: A 600 word drabble, because I'm too tired to make it either more or less. Posted here and on LJ...
And: This is a present for the wonderful Lavender and Hay. ;)
Enjoy.
~o~
The house is in turmoil. The maids are rushing through the house, the footmen searching the gardens, the nursemaid in tears in the drawing room, Lady Grantham just seconds away from fainting and Lord Grantham has returned from another round out in the woods with Pharaoh. And they are all searching for Little Lady Sybil.
The girl went missing shortly after luncheon and no one noticed until tea. She was supposed to play with her sisters but apparently Mary and Edith got into a fight over some toy and she toddled of.
Elsie feels her heart beating hard in her chest when she rushes down the stairs into the servants hall. What if she fell down some back stairs in the house? What if she got lost in the garden? What if some man – her hands suddenly shake and sweat forms on her forehead - convinced her to come with him? Or she had played by the lake – and here Elsie's heart stops – and fell into it?
And even worse is that Mr Carson has vanished also. No one has seen him since luncheon when he said that he would go to the village. He hasn't returned yet. Walking in the direction of the kitchen she stops mid-step and turns to the door of his pantry. They all think that he hasn't returned yet but everybody has been busy fretting over the Little Sybil and her teddy bear going missing.
With a quick stride she reaches his pantry door, thinks about wether to knock or not for a moment and then simply opens the door. Quietly she presses it open and then slowly peeks around it. And what she sees warms her heart.
Working quietly on the account books, writing down numbers with one hand, the butler peers down occasionally at the little girl in his arm. Curled into his lap lays Little Lady Sybil, pressing Teddy to her slowly rising and falling chest and cuddling against the stern butler. Who doesn't look so stern at all but smiles softly realises Elsie.
Carefully he shifts the small girl on his lap as not to wake her when he moves slightly to reach his ink bottle. A little hand reaches out and softly grips the lapel of his jacket but she doesn't wake. Instead she loosens the grip on Teddy and he nearly tumbles out of Mr Carson's lap, but he grips it with a speed Elsie hadn't thought the stern butler able of. But she stops thinking about his amazing reflexes when she sees him settle Teddy against the girl's chest again, smiling at her other hand snaking around it to hold it close. She hears a low chuckle in the silence of his pantry and Elsie can't keep a happy smile from spreading over her face.
She watches him stroking his big and gentle hand tenderly over the girl's dark silken locks and her cheek while he smiles contently before he takes up his pen again and continues busily writing down numbers in the account book.
As quietly as she has opened the door she closes it again.
Softly smiling she shakes her head and starts to walk slowly up the stairs she rushed down mere minutes ago. She can still hear the maids rushing frantically through the house searching for the girl.
They won't find her.
Opening the door dividing Sybil's world from their own she hides her smile behind the mask of the stern housekeeper and walk towards the library to inform the family that their little girl is well and cared for, thanks to Mr Carson.
~o~
Little Sybil is just so cute. There need to be more fics about her. :)