Disclaimer I do not own Downton. This is my second fanfic for this programme. My first was Action and Reaction. No copyright infringement is intended nor should it be inferred.
Times Change.
"Daisy!" Mrs Patmore wiped her hands on her apron as she called out to her Assistant Cook. Carson smiled slightly. Daisy had been the Kitchen Maid since the age of 12, now as a young woman she was just one of many that had grown up in service. He knew the young woman would not be happy to be just a general dogsbody forever.
"Coming." Daisy huffed as she carried the heavy silver platter into the room. "This is heavy."
"Well put it on the table, girl." Mrs Patmore laughed. "All the fetching and carrying you do, you should have muscles bigger than any man." Carson rolled his eyes as Thomas and Sarah began bickering and the maids set about their daily chores. Anna smiled slightly as she walked into the room. To the outsider it was organised chaos, to her it was the way things were run. It was home.
"Anna." Carson ignored the bickering valet and maid before walking towards her. "Any news?"
"Not really."
"That means there must be some? Surely?" He smiled kindly at the smaller woman. "Mr Bates, is well?"
"Yes. I think so." Anna couldn't help but smile at the mention of her husband. It may have been a year since he was wrongly sent to prison but she couldn't help but think her detective work, along with the help from Lady Mary and Lady Sybil that she may actually be getting closer to seeing John back where he belonged.
"Give him my best."
"Thank you." Anna smiled as Thomas passed them.
"Oh give a convicted murderer your best, but not Ethel. Nice that is."
"You have work to do." Carson snapped as Daisy tried to push past them all.
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"I simply cannot believe it." Mary looked out of the window. "I simply cannot."
"My love." Matthew walked behind her.
"No, my sister is gone." Mary closed her eyes, determined not to cry anymore. "I have to accept it, but I simply cannot believe it."
"Mary."
"No. Mother and Pappa are at loggerheads. Edith is unable to function and Tom. Poor Tom." Her face screwed up in pain. "No, a baby left with no mother is the worst cruelty of them all. I cannot understand it. Mother blames my father. I know she does."
"Robert has only ever done what he thinks best." Matthew stated as she nodded.
"That's as maybe. But the world is changing." Mary sighed. "Edith is right. The War changed everything. Absolutely everything was shook up and has never been the same again. It is men that once ruled the world. It is them that have had control over everything. Sybil died because a man, a dinosaur could not be reasoned with while a family friend was looked over."
"He has made mistakes also."
"Lavina." Mary nodded. "And he has paid for that. I think a man who has known a woman since her birth should have been listened to, not someone who merely charges more." Mary snapped just as her mother walked in with her grandmother. Matthew closed his eyes.
"I quite agree, darling." Cora sighed. "And that will haunt me to the day I join her."
"Cora!" Lady Crowley snapped. "Awful things happens and I may be one of those dinosaurs Mary speaks of."
"Granny."
"No, hear me out."
"I think we have no choice." Cora crossed to her oldest child.
"No you don't. For years I have sat here and watched as you all set about your lives. You, Mary embroiled in scandal one minute then feigning respectability the next. I mean all that business with that dreadful Carlisle man. Edith with her driving, her working on the land during the War and setting her cap at a man your father's age. Then there was Sybil. She was the only one that thought both you and Edith above reproach. I know different."
"Oh he without sin." Mary rolled her eyes.
"Oh I have sin. I have seen more than any of you think. "
"Violet." Matthew muttered under his breath.
"But as Mary rightly says." She waved one hand in the air while leaning on her walking stick. "Times have changed. I cannot sit here and deny that. So, Mary. You and Edith are to stop blaming everyone and everything for your predicaments. Edith thinks the Suffragette Acts have not gone far enough. I, for one quite agree. Now you never thought I would say that but I do. Men have made too many decisions and not all of them right ones. You go out in the world and make sure you live. Go and do what you think is best. Not what I, your father or your husband may think." Cora smiled as she watched the older woman say her piece. Mary and Matthew stood there open-mouthed.
"You heard." Cora smiled slightly, aware it was the first time since her beloved youngest child had been buried. "Do as your grandmother says."
"Oh for once we are in agreement." Coram rolled her eyes as Violet sashayed out of the room.
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It was dark as Carson poured himself a cup of tea. He knew the rest of the household had been sent to bed and he was glad of the solitude. Sipping his drink he sat down and closed his eyes.
"Oh Mr Carson." Mrs Hughes put one hand on her chest as she saw him. "You gave me a fright."
"I didn't mean to." He opened his eyes as his old friend sat next to him.
"Whatever are you doing? It is the middle of the night."
"Quiet reflection Mrs Hughes."
"Something we all need once in a while, I dare say." She sighed as she went to leave the kitchen.
"That poor girl was born in this house." Carson stated as Mrs Hughes stood in the door.
"Aye, I was here that night." She sighed and shook her head sadly. "You know Branson has named the baby after her?"
"Fitting I think. It is a good name and her mother was the sweetest girl to ever live in this house."
"Indeed she was." Mrs Hughes sat down, she knew when her stoic old friend needed to talk. "I was here when Lady Edith came into the world."
"Yes, we were not much more than children ourselves. You a maid and me a footman."
"Lady's Maid, thank you." Mrs Hughes smiled. "I'd been widowed a year when I took that job."
"Indeed." He knew she never talked about her husband. All he knew was Mr Hughes had died of Consumption many years earlier. He had lost his own wife to the disease in the same year. He stared at his mug.
"I remember them all as babies. Lady Mary running through the halls while Edith and Sybil tried to keep up with her."
"All little girls want to be like their older siblings."
"Indeed, Mrs Hughes."
"I think Sybil was probably the only one to really challenge anything here." Mrs Hughes watched as Carson smiled. "Whatever you say, Mr Carson the world has changed. You here is down here. When we were young we'd never dream of using our first names in general conversation. Now it's all we hear. Daisy, Anna, Albert, Thomas. It's all we hear and I for one, think it's a good thing."
"Maybe." He smiled. "You, Mrs Patmore and myself are from a different era."
"That's as maybe, Charles." She nodded as he raised an eyebrow.
"And we need to embrace change? Do we Elsie?" Carson raised an eyebrow as she nodded. "But then, you with your electrified toaster you have already embraced change."
"Don't you be insulting my toaster." She laughed slightly. "Revolutionised my breakfast."
"If you say so." He smiled. "Change."
"It's coming. Some changes we hate. Loosing that young girl is one of them. But others we have to expect and deal with. You and I, we're the dinosaurs in this world. These youngsters have no idea that we were once like them."
"Indeed."
"Just don't let it break your heart. Our world is gone. It's theirs now. Anna, Daisy and the youngsters. All we can do is guide them."
"And we will, Mrs Hughes. And we will."
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A/N Please review.