this is part 1 of 2! hope you enjoy=)
Dedicated to Kissman
It was common knowledge that among the young ladies of the upstairs Carson had his favorite. To be fair, he loved them all, but Lady Mary was by far his favorite. As fate would have it Ella and Mary happened to be the same age of 13. Everyone knew this also. But the girls were very different and while one had lived a life of luxury her whole life, the other had never been quite as fortunate.
Ella was cleaning the small salon that the ladies used during the day one afternoon, when Mary waltzed in. Ella had curtsied and acknowledged Mary with a brief greeting. The truth was that Ella shared the belief of Elsie in that Mary was an uppity minx who needed to be taken down just a notch.
She set back to work, scrubbing the wood floor next to the carpet. Mary huffed and sighed an then stood and told the girl to leave.
"Milady, I am almost finished if..." She trailed off as she watched Mary march up to her and push her back.
"Carson and Mrs Carson may have adopted you, but he will ALWAYS like me best. He just felt sorry for a poor little orphan girl, who nobody loved. And I will prove it." With that utterance she kicked the bucket of dirty soapy water onto the carpet and screamed. She then sat on the floor an pretended to cradle her knee.
Carson came running in and surveyed the whole situation. Mary with tears in her eyes and Ella trying to frantically mop up a mess.
"Carson, Ella lost her temper and pushed me, causing me to upset the bucket and fall and hit my knee." Mary said in a pitiful tone.
"Papa..."
"Ella, go downstairs immediately and send up Ginny I clean this up. Wait in my pantry. Now." He watched her eyes fill with tears as she ran out of the salon.
Ella fled into her mothers sitting room, and told her the whole story of what had happened. Her mama's face turned to ice as she told her what Mary said.
"A stór, do you promise you are telling the truth?" Elsie asked firmly.
"I swear it mama." Ella said.
"Go wait for your papa as he said, he will listen to your story and he will sort it out." Elsie promised, hoping that for once he would listen to their girl about the blessed Lady Mary.
Ella didn't have to wait long at all. Her papa slammed the door as he came in. His face was thunderous.
"Your behavior is inexcusable! How could you push a Lady of the house? Let alone Lady Mary who was just trying to be nice and share a book with you! I am so disappointed with you. You shall not have dinner tonight, I want you to go directly to your room and think about what you have done!" Carson finished with an edge to his voice.
"But papa, I di-" she was cut short.
"I don't want to hear it Ella Alexandra. Go to your room." He said pointing to the door.
She ran up the stairs and into her room throwing her door closed. She buried her head into her pillow, and wondered why she was always second best to the men in her world. Second best to the whiskey her father had drank all the time, and now second best to Lady Mary with her papa. Why was she never good enough?
-/-/-/-/-/-/-
Elsie had heard her husband yelling, had heard their girls plea, and the subsequent interruption of her side. She took a deep breath to steady her anger, but it did nothing to help.
She marched over to her husbands pantry and closed the door firmly.
"Charles, you didn't even listen to Ella's side of the story! You cannot keep showing such a preference for Lady Mary, Ella is our girl now! We need to do right by her, but instead you act rashly and don't even listen. As always your love for the Crawley family has won out. It won out when I wanted children, it won out in not revealing our marriage, and now it is winning over our precious Ella!" She ranted.
He got up and went to put his hands on her shoulders, but she shrugged him off. "Elsie, you didn't-" she silenced him with a glare.
"No, Charles, I do not want to hear it. Not until you figure out what is more important, their family or ours." She left the room quickly.
She collected a tray from the kitchen and climbed the stairs to Ella's room. She knocked softly on the door, and it swung open. Ella looked at the tray and up at her mama with tears in her eyes.
"Thank you, mama." She sniffled
"Well eat up, and I will be sleeping next door if you need me, so you don't have to traipse all across the Abbey to find me." Elsie sighed, "I'm sorry. We just seem to come second in everything. And I should have known it wouldn't have changed. But you must know that I believe you."
"I just, I thought that maybe I would finally come first. But I guess I should get used to being second best to the fathers I've had. First alcohol took precedent and now it's another girl." Ella confessed, "I just thought it would be different. That's all."
Elsie's heart ached for her girl. She hated the defeat outlined in the girls features. Her eyes lost a little of their shine, and her shoulders were slumped.
"A stór, you should eat." Elsie pushed the tray towards her, and watched as the girl ate with gusto. She had missed luncheon and most likely would miss dinner as well. She sighed knowing she would bring her up that tray as well.
She kissed the girls forehead, and collected the tray with a promise to be back later.
-/-/-/-/-
Dinner had been quiet, with the staff noticing that the heads of staff weren't speaking.
"Mrs. Carson, I need to speak with you in my pantry." Charles told her as he rose. She arched her brow and pursed her lips, but stood to follow him.
He motioned her in and closed the door. "The rug in the salon, was saved. So there is no need to worry about Ella's callousness there."
Elsie couldn't handle it any more," Do you even hear yourself? Do you know that our girl, you know the one we adopted, thinks that she will always be second best to the men in her life? Your Lady Mary was jealous. Not the other way around. Our girl didn't push her, Mary kicked the bucket herself. Our girl just tried to salvage to rug. But all you could see is you damn precious Lady Mary, who in your eyes does no wrong. Do you not remember the time Rosamund brought Edith a gift and Mary cut all it's hair off? She is a little uppity minx and until you get your head out of the clouds you can sleep alone. I will be in my old room if you need me!" With that she walked out of the room, leaving a blustering Charles behind.
-/-/-/-/-
The next day Charles was walking past the library and heard two of the young girls arguing, and heard Ella's name come up.
"...I only proved to the little urchin that Carson would always love me best..." He heard Mary say.
"...you got her into trouble! Nanny told me she didn't even get dinner! How could you Mary?" Edith squealed.
Carson made himself known with a gruff sigh. Lady Edith's eyes lit up with delight. Lady Mary's filled with dread. He nodded to them and went to find their father.
After telling Lord Grantham what he had heard, he would need to find Ella. He had a lot of apologizing to do.
let me know what you think!
Much love-
Samantha
