Boxing day
A/N Merry Christmas to all of you lovely readers! A short piece of fun on Boxing Day.
'Visitors?' Mr Carson asked his wife.
'Yes, you know the Crawley family always spent Boxing day at the Dower house and the staff aren't as busy as usual. So I thought I'd invite Mrs Patmore over for tea.'
He chuckled. 'Elsie, you know you're useless in a kitchen. Inviting a cook for tea, I say you've made yourself quite a challenge.'
They were on their way home from church on Christmas Day. The service had not been as boring as usual, due to a good choir and beautiful Christmas hymns. It was a cold but clear day and they had decided to take a detour through the park. Thin layers of ice and snow and the sun in the brilliant blue sky made the bare branches sparkle. The park looked almost as beautiful as it did in summer.
Mr Carson pulled his wife's arm a little closer to him.
'Aren't you cold?'
'No love, I'm perfectly all right,' she smiled at him.
'And as for my competence in the kitchen, I know how to brew a pot of tea and I can make delicious sandwiches.'
'That's true,' he had to admit.
'Yes. And you my dear man, are almost as good in baking apple tart and lemon cake as Mrs Patmore herself. All ingredients are in stock, you will have a field day in the kitchen this afternoon.'
He frowned.
'I don't know, Elsie. Serving Mrs Patmore her own specialities, would that be a Christmas treat for her?'
'I think so yes, Charles. You just said it; we will be serving her. She can sit down and relax and enjoy a tea without having to work for it herself. I think she'd like that and I want to spoil her a little, too. I've bought her a box of Belgian chocolate and confectionery, pralines and bonbons.'
Mr Carson gave his wife a warm smile.
'That's very sweet of you, and I think you're right about her for once not having to worry about the next dish. But you said visitors plural, did you perhaps invite Daisy as well?'
'I did, and she told me the new footman, Gerald I think she said, is taking her out to see a film tomorrow. Much more exciting for a young woman. Oh look, we have reached the duck pond!'
Ducks and swans were quacking a loud welcome while Elsie produced a bag of stale bread and crusts. She threw the contents over the pond, smiling at the hungry birds. 'There you go birdies, merry Christmas!' she told them, laughing merrily.
Charles watched the scene with a soppy smile on his face. She really was the sweetest woman he knew. And, he reminded himself, also the most scheming one, second only to the Dowager Countess.
She put away the empty bags, he offered her his am again and they began their walk home.
Once again, he pulled her arm closer and she sighed contently, relishing the presence of his large, warm frame beside her.
He lifted her hand and kissed her gloved fingers. Then he frowned at her.
'Elsie Carson, who else have you invited for tea tomorrow!?'
She smiled up at him.
'Mr Mason. You know, William's father? He has no one close to celebrate Christmas with, what with his wife and all his children dead, and only one brother who lives in Plymouth. I thought he would like a nice tea in pleasant company.'
Mr Carson chuckled. 'I'm sure he does.'
They had reached their cottage. It was freezing, but Elsie quickly built fires in their living room and the kitchen stove and soon it was nice and warm and cosy.
Charles donned his apron and began preparing the apple tart and lemon cake. Elsie helped, peeling and cutting the apples, the only task he trusted her with.
'Off with you now…leave that poor apple alone please…thank you. Elsie, you're quite the matchmaker but stay out of my kitchen.'
'Matchmaker, me?' she cried out.
No matter the amount of dough on his hands, he wrapped her in his arms and kissed her.
'Yes darling, and I hope you'll succeed. They deserve each other.'
She smiled and reached up to kiss him.
'Make sure you don't mess up the apple tart, then,' she whispered in his ear.
THE END