"Spare a moment?" Miss Baxter asked from Thomas's office doorway.

Thomas removed his spectacles, an accessory he begrudgingly donned in order to see his paperwork clearly. "For you? Always. Care for some tea?"

Miss Baxter put up her hand. "No, thank you. I just dropped in to check on you. You've seemed distracted."

Thomas sighed and leaned back in his chair. "I'll say," he said with raised eyebrows, gesturing broadly to the papers spread across his desk. "Circus acrobatics would be easier than the balance it takes to get this house's budget in order. And that," he said, pointing to a lopsided tower of papers in the corner of his desk, "is the London house. Haven't touched that in weeks. Maybe the family won't go to London this spring, eh? A man can dream, after all."

A smile grew across Miss Baxter's lips as Thomas described his current headache. "Why are you the most animated when you're complaining?"

"I take exception to that," Thomas said with faux offense. "I don't complain near as much as I used to."

"Though it's still a fair amount."

"Aye, what's this teasing for?" Thomas asked, his troubled tone belied by his smile.

"The thing you enjoy second most to complaining is teasing."

"Yes, when I'm doing the teasing," Thomas replied, slipping his spectacles back to the tip of his nose. "When I'm doing it, Miss Baxter."

Miss Baxter chuckled. "Don't go back to your work so fast. I still say you're distracted, but it's more than papers. Just tell me you're alright, please?"

"I'm alright," Thomas said, briefly looking over his wire frames at Miss Baxter. "And you?"

Miss Baxter sighed. Surprised by the response, Thomas removed his glasses again. Miss Baxter looked over her shoulder before responding. "I'm still concerned about Mrs. Hughes. She's seemed even more drained than the last time I mentioned it to you."

Thomas gave a quick nod. "I've seen it, too. I offered extra time for a vacation, but she declined. I tried to delegate more of her duties, but she took offense. If you think of a way we could remove some of her burden, I'm all ears."

"I'm sure it would require more budgetary acrobatics."

Thomas puffed up his cheeks and released the air. "Well then I'm sorry, any more daring feats and I think the curtain will fall for good on this act."

"The thing you like third most is dramatics."

"Alright, alright. Back to work Miss Baxter," Thomas said as he pushed his glasses up to the bridge of his nose. He looked up again when he could feel Miss Baxter's eyes still on him.

"You're really alright?"

"I'm alright," Thomas said, waving his hand. "Don't worry about me."

Thomas's lips and right hand were numb from the cold, and for a moment he was almost glad he'd lost most of the feeling in his left hand during the war. He used his the thumb on his left hand to flick his lighter until a flame finally won out against the winter wind. The flame illuminated his icy pink cheeks as he raised a cigarette in his trembling lips. Was Eli ever coming tonight, Thomas wondered as he paced the dirt road in front of the cottage. They had met three previous times, and Eli had never been late.

"You could've let yourself in!" a familiar voice called from forty paces away.

"Yes, I could've, if it weren't locked," Thomas replied with a frozen-lipped smile.

"I'm so sorry," Eli said, jogging to the door. "I swear I left it unlocked for you."

"Well, lucky for you, I'll let you make it up to me."

The door was indeed unlocked, but was as frozen as Thomas. Thomas lit his lighter once again and used it to warm the lock. When the door finally opened, it revealed a fire already burning, a bottle of wine and two glasses set on the table.

"I don't have time for all that," Thomas said, nodding to the table as he removed his overcoat.

"I put it out when I thought you would get a head start. Or perhaps, this time, you could stay a bit longer?"

Thomas looked at a hopeful, smiling Eli from the side of his eye, then picked up the wine bottle. He read the label, impressed by the quality of the vintage, and set it back on the table. "Let's save it for a time when we can enjoy it properly."

"And what do you have time to enjoy properly this evening?"

Thomas chuckled. "I have enough time to warm up from the cold before heading right back out into it."

Eli lead Thomas to the hearth. "Which part of you is the coldest?"

Thomas licked his lips, still numb and now tingling from the warmth of his tongue. "How about you warm up my hands with yours?"

"Well what do you know?," Eli said, enclosing both hands around Thomas's, "there's even time for a little bit of romance."

"A little bit," Thomas said, closing his eyes as the Eli's lips found his in the dimly-lit cottage.

"I'll take what I can get," Eli said after the long but delicate kiss.

"So," Thomas said, licking his lips again, "what kept you this evening?"

Eli rolled his eyes as he recalled his evening. "It's embarrassing."

"Now I must know."

Eli laughed and squeezed Thomas's hands. "I've had to bring the sheep in every night since it's been so bitterly cold, and one escaped as I was closing the pens in the barn. Foolish sheep. I was doing her a favor."

"Why is that embarrassing?"

"Because I had to chase her," Eli said, shaking Thomas's hands. "I had to chase a sheep through the cold night because she's too stupid to know that being warm is better than freezing."

"The life of a farmer."

"Quite the life, indeed."

Thomas brought Eli's hands to his lips. "I'm sorry the stupid sheep ran away from you," he said, kissing Eli's knuckles with smiling lips.

"Such a stupid sheep," Eli said, watching Thomas kiss his fingers slowly. "There was a long time there where I didn't have to chase sheep for a living."

"Yeah? What did you do instead?"

Eli's scooted closer to Thomas. "Well, still nothing exciting. I was a baker. But I was making my way up in that world, I probably could have been a head baker if my fate was different."

"Your fate?" Thomas said, shaking his head. "There's fate and then there's fatalism. If you don't enjoy farm life, you don't have to stay on the farm."

Eli rubbed Thomas's palms with his thumbs. "That's easy to say when it's not your life's path. I'm the last of the line, this farm would have died with my dad if I didn't take it on."

"Or it dies with you. Or, Eli, you sell it and do what you actually want to do. There are options."

Eli shook his head. "It's not the burden I'm making it out to be. The cold weather is icing my heart, I suppose. I enjoy this work when it's warmer, truly. And I'm thankful for it. Not everyone inherits something like this, especially not these days. And I still get to bake sometimes."

"And I'm glad you do."

"What about you? Did you always want to be butler?"

Thomas grabbed Eli's thumbs. "Changing the subject I see."

"Maybe."

Thomas released Eli's thumbs and relaxed as Eli continued rubbing. "I never really wanted to be anything in particular. Just… just important, I suppose."

"And you are."

Thomas shrugged as he watched Eli's busy hands. "You could say that."

"Well you are to me," Eli said quietly. He waited for Thomas to look up, then kissed him slowly.

As Eli's kiss began trailing to Thomas's neck, Thomas pulled away. He brushed Eli's hair with his fingers. "I can't."

"I know, but I can still hope. A quick glass of wine for the road?"

"Maybe next time."

The two men stood, and Eli helped Thomas into his overcoat. "Or maybe next time we meet, it could be somewhere besides my cottage?"

Thomas wrapped his scarf tightly around his neck as Eli fastened his buttons. "The pub?"

"Maybe a different location. Have you been skating yet this season?"

"This season?" Thomas repeated with a smile as he pulled on his gloves. "I haven't been skating this decade. Nor the last."

Eli handed Thomas his hat and smoothed Thomas's overcoat lapels with his palms. He patted Thomas's chest. "It would be fun. Have you heard of fun?"

"Heard of it, yes, but rarely participate."

"I want to have fun with you, Thomas."

Thomas pressed his lips to Eli's cheek, then rubbed the tip of his nose against Eli's. "We will. I've just been chasing my own sheep these days. We'll have fun soon."

"The ice'll be melted by then."

"Then we'll do something else in the water."

Eli's posture straightened. "Really?"

"That's not what I meant," Thomas chuckled. "But I like how you think."

As Eli watched Thomas walk away down the dirt road, he reflected on how he had never known a man like Thomas; cocky yet humble, confident yet awkward, and fragile beneath his sharp wit. Eli was sure when he moved to the village he would stay single, assuming his options for a partner would be slim to none. Yet here was a man more promising than any he encountered during his years away from the village, and Thomas lived just up the road. Eli knew how lucky he was to have found Thomas, and stayed as patient as he could, but grew more frustrated with the passing time.

And as that time passed, Eli's intuition was correct. When the raw winter finally gave over to crisp early spring, Eli invited Thomas out for a day of golf. But Thomas said he only had time for the pub or the cottage, and he could barely manage the time to stay long at either place. There was no true day off for a Downton butler. There was one day that Eli was surprised to see Thomas in the village during the day, and was about to call out when he saw another hand holding Thomas's. A young boy. That must be little George that Thomas had mentioned, Eli thought. He stayed back and watched Thomas chat with George about the clocks displayed in a shop window. Thomas kneeled to George's height even though the ground was wet after a spring shower, and seemed oblivious that his knee was getting wet. Eli couldn't hear what the two discussed, but it ended with a laugh as Thomas hoisted George onto his back. I've found the sweetest man in Yorkshire, Eli thought as he continued on his way. Now how do I really make him mine, he wondered.