Thanks for reviews! Here goes part two...

She was extremely relieved when the day reached an end. The strange undercurrent amongst the staff had continued all through dinner. Whilst they had not been as boisterous as they had earlier in the day, the general atmosphere has remained suspiciously cheery. Mr Carson had seemed distracted throughout and she hoped there was nothing the matter.

Making her way to Mr Carson's office she knocked on the door and waited for his permission to enter. He was seated at his desk, his posture weary and his brow furrowed. He still managed a small smile when she entered.

"Mrs Hughes, I thought everyone had called it a night by now." He said.

"I think we're the last." She said, noticing how tired he looked all of a sudden. "Is anything the matter Mr Carson? You seemed a little morose during dinner."

He shook his head. "It's been a busy few days, that's all."

"It's been a busy few years!" Mrs Hughes said gently. His answer had not been an answer at all, as they last few days had no busier than any other.

Mr Carson chuckled. "Do you think maybe it's always been like this and we just didn't find it as…tiring?" he asked.

She raised her eyebrows. "Do you mean, are we just getting too old for this?"

"Ha! Maybe." He conceded.

"We're far from it!" she replied somewhat primly which made him chuckle again. "However, if you continue to work late like this it won't be long before you work yourself into an early grave." She nodded towards the ledgers he had open in front of him.

He followed her gaze and sighed. "If I'm honest, I haven't been doing much work" he confessed. "I've spent most of the evening going over and over the same figures and getting nowhere. Can't seem to concentrate this evening."

"Then leave it aside until tomorrow." She advised. "Go to bed and rest."

"I really don't think I could sleep" he mumbled, almost to himself.

She looked at him with concern. There was obviously something bothering him.

"Is there something troubling you Mr Carson?" she asked. "You know you can always confide in me."

He smiled gratefully at her. "I know. And I appreciate your concern."

"But you don't want to talk about it?" she guessed.

"It's not something that would be my place to discuss." He replied.

Something to do with the family then, she thought. "Well, if there's to be no sleeping and no talking…how about I do something else for you?"

Carson raised his eyebrows curiously.

"Cocoa? In my sitting room? You can sit there and drink it in silence if you want." She offered. She thought his face brightened suddenly as he agreed and thanked her.

He sat on her settee and she handed him the cup and took a seat opposite in her armchair. She watched him take a sip and debated whether to ask him again about this matter which was troubling him. She didn't want to push him though.

"Things with the family have been very calm of late." Mrs Hughes commented quietly. "I take it the incident with Lady Sybil has been forgotten." Referring to the evening Sybil had attended an election count and been injured. His Lordship has been furious, and who could blame him? For a while it had looked as though Branson might lose his job but between Lady Sybil's threats to run away if Branson were to be fired and Lady Mary's assertions that Branson was not to blame the young man had luckily kept his position.

Carson raised an eyebrow. "Hardly forgotten but I think His Lordship has decided to move on from it. Branson should count himself lucky he still has a job."

"Indeed. Lady Sybil is alright though isn't she?" Perhaps this was what was troubling him.

"Yes, she's fine. Very much back to her old self from what I gather." he smiled to himself slightly remembering what Lord Grantham had said earlier that evening about her. He took another sip of his cocoa. "His Lordship is still quite concerned about her though. She still doesn't seem to grasp the danger of the situation she got herself into. By all accounts, it could have been much worse if Mr Crawley had not arrived when he did."

"I don't the young ever do fully grasp the concept of danger. Perhaps they are not meant to or otherwise they would be too afraid to make their way in the world." Mrs Hughes mused.

Mr Carson looked at her thoughtfully. "Bit of a rebel in your day were you?" he asked with a hint of amusement.

"Rebel? No." she smiled. "But I did have my share of hair raising moments. I didn't realise at the time perhaps but…looking back, " she got a sudden vacant look in her eyes, "…well," she shook her self a little. "When you leave home at the age of 14 to work you have very little understanding of the world or of people. The situations you find yourself in…if you realised at the time the peril of it the terror would probably prove too much."

He was not sure if he saw a hint of sadness in her expression. He wondered what kind of situation it was that had been so perilous.

"You are right I suppose. We made our way in the world without any of the securities that Lady Sybil enjoys. But in a way it is those very things which keep her safe that have made her all the more vulnerable. I don't think she truly realises the harshness of this world."

"Unfortunately, that's an understanding that only comes with experience." Mrs Hughes said sympathetically.

"Hmm."

They were both silent for a while, both lost in memories of their own youth.

"His Lordship said to me today," Carson began, "that I should count myself lucky I never had children." He stared into his cocoa cup.

"There is no more stressful a job than parenting I'd imagine." Mrs Hughes mused, then glancing at him asked; "Would you have liked children?"

"In an ideal world" he answered.

"Was there anyone…sorry, it's none of my business." She had been about to ask if he had ever had anyone special in his life who he would have considered having children with and suddenly realised the impertinence of such a question.

He glanced up from his cup for a moment, realising her question.

"Not really." He said. "It would be a far more interesting story to say that yes, there had been a great love of my life but so strong was my vocation to become a butler that I had spurned her in favour of a life in service." he smiled boldly, "But no. " His boldness evaporated suddenly and he looked at the cup in his hands again. " I wasn't…there was no one. I thought for a while there might have been…" he looked sad suddenly.

Mrs Hughes felt suddenly a little uncomfortable. She had not meant to make him melancholic.

"Whoever let you go must have needed her head examining!" she said more vehemently than she had intended.

He looked at her with surprise and chuckled in amusement. "I was too nice apparently." He said, he could remember as though it were yesterday how it felt like his heart had been ripped out when she had told him.

"Too nice?" Mrs Hughes scoffed. "How on earth is possible to be too nice?"

"I think it was a euphemism for 'dull'" he said ruefully.

"I think you had a lucky escape then!" Mrs Hughes replied. "Foolish woman." She shook her head.

He chuckled again. "Maybe. She married a… an acquaintance. Last I heard he'd run off with a…a woman of let's say, questionable repute and she was working on a fairground."

"Well," Mrs Hughes was wide-eyed, "I bet she regrets letting you go now! Too nice!" she huffed again. "Ridiculous. She was just too daft to recognise a truly good man when she had him." Suddenly she realised that her comments could be mistaken for gushing and forward. She smiled at Mr Carson a little self-consciously. He was smiling back with a hint of amusement.

"You wouldn't have thought me too dull then and sent me packing?" he asked playfully.

"No, I would not." She answered honestly.

"Shame I didn't bump into you years ago then!" he gave her a lopsided grin and drained the rest of his cocoa. He was teasing her now, she realised.

"You think we could have lived happily ever after?" she asked, eyebrows raised.

"I think so." He glanced slyly at her. "I mean, we're not doing too badly as it is." He smiled at her confusion. "It struck me this afternoon, when his Lordship said I was lucky not to have any children, that sometimes it feels as though I do! Sometimes, with the younger members of staff…I feel like, a replacement father of sorts." He looked at her a little shyly in case she thought he was being ridiculous.

Mrs Hughes was nodding. "I know what you mean." He was relieved to hear her say.

"His Lordship said I have avoided all the stress and worry but, I worry just as much about the younger members of staff – Thomas aside – as if they were my own flesh and blood. And I spend just as much time, as you yourself do, refereeing arguments amongst them as His Lordship does amongst the girls…" he laughed a little. "So I am not sure I missed out on much at all."

She understood what he'd meant now. "So, what you are saying is, we have inadvertently ended up almost like a married couple?"

He nodded. "We worry about the young people under our care, we spend most of our time discussing household issues (granted they pertain to someone else's house), we enforce the rules and discipline. We deal with all the headaches and disputes. We work ourselves almost into a state of paranoia when everyone plays nicely and there are no disputes to be moderate…." He laughed. "And here we are at the end of our day discussing things over a cup of cocoa."

She laughed a little too. "When you put it that way, I suppose."

"It's marriage without the fun bits." He said wryly.

"Fun bits?" she asked, eyebrows raised.

"Well, I mean without all the…you know, at the beginning and…" It was difficult to tell in the light of the room but it almost looked like he was blushing. "I'm not saying, we don't have any fun, I mean any good, enjoyable moments, we do. Just not like married couples do." He was floundering now. "Forgive me, it's late and I'm rambling." He could feel his cheeks getting warm.

She stared at him for a moment before speaking. "I think I know what you mean." She smiled. "And I think we better call it a night before we start giving too much thought to what those "fun bits" might entail!"