Chapter 10

"Elsie … what do you mean you can't marry Mr Carson?" Mrs Patmore said, absolutely stunned.

"Exactly that Beryl … I need to talk to Mr Carson … I need to talk to Charles …" Mrs Hughes said clearly.

"Elsie … you cannot see the groom on the morning of your wedding … it is bad luck … you are just having a few wedding day jitters … everyone gets them …" Mrs Patmore said, her voice sounding more hysterical by the minute.

"Beryl there won't be a wedding if I don't speak to him …" Mrs Hughes stated.

The three women stood in shocked silence; Mrs Hughes was fidgeting with the cord on her dressing gown and pacing back and forth across the room.

"Elsie … please … what is this all about?" Mrs Patmore said, grasping her friend's hands in hers, in an attempt to still her.

"… I don't know how to be Mrs Carson Beryl … he deserves better … I don't think I will make a very good wife … and …" Mrs Hughes began.

"And what Elsie?" Mrs Patmore said sympathetically.

"Beryl … I don't even know if he loves me … how can I marry a man who has not told me that he loves me?" Mrs Hughes said sadly.

"Oh Elsie … it is as plain as the nose on your face that Mr Carson loves you …" Mrs Patmore reassured her.

"She's right Mrs Hughes … Mr Carson loves you very much … we can all see that …." Anna interjected.

"Then why has he not told me?" Mrs Hughes asked them both.

"Have you told him? Have you told him that you love him?" Mrs Patmore asked, knowing the answer.

"No I haven't …" Mrs Hughes said sheepishly.

"There you go then … and why have you not told him?" Mrs Patmore asked.

"Well … because … because … I don't know how he feels about me … I don't want to appear foolish if I am in love with him and he only sees me as a friend …" Mrs Hughes answered honestly.

"… and don't you think it is entirely possible that he has not told you how he feels for exactly the same reason …" Mrs Patmore responded. She could see the flicker of recognition on her friends face and hoped she was getting through to her.

" … I need to speak to him to find out …" Mrs Hughes said, as she surged past Anna and Mrs Patmore and headed for the door.

"Elsie wait!" Mrs Patmore said, as Anna gripped her arm to stop her from following Mrs Hughes.

"Let her go Mrs Patmore … she needs to sort this out for herself … " Anna said wisely.

Mrs Hughes climbed the stairs to the servant's floor. She knew Mr Carson would be in his room. She had to speak to him. As the morning had progressed she had felt panic starting to take hold. So many questions had run through her mind. Would she make a good wife? Did Mr Carson love her? She knew he cared for her. She knew she loved him. But she could not get rid of this niggling doubt inside her; she could not marry a man that did not love her. She had been foolish to think otherwise. She needed to know one way or the other. She may not be a young slip of a girl marrying her childhood sweetheart, but she needed to know that she was marrying for love.

She knocked on his door.

"Who is it?" he asked cheerfully.

"Charles it's me … Elsie …" she whispered, as she stood in the men's corridor in her dressing gown.

"Elsie … what on earth … you shouldn't be here … we aren't meant to see each other until the Church … not to mention the fact that you should not be in the men's corridor!" he replied from behind the closed door.

"… Charles just let me in! I need to speak to you …" Mrs Hughes said, growing a little impatient. The last thing she needed was for Thomas or Jimmy to walk along the corridor and find her standing in her dressing gown outside Mr Carson's door.

" … but Mrs Patmore said it would be bad luck for me to see you before the Church …" Mr Carson said adamantly.

"Well then cover your eyes with something so you can't see me … because if you don't let me in this minute … I am going to scream the house down!" Mrs Hughes cried, her Scottish fire coming forth.

From behind the door, Mr Carson gave his most exasperated look but he knew when she was serious – and when she was angry -and so he picked up the nearest thing to him and covered his eyes.

As she let herself into the room, her nerves on edge, she could not help but chuckle as she set eyes on Mr Carson. The most distinguished Butler of Downton was standing in the middle of the room with his bed sheet tied around his head, covering his eyes.

"Charles … what are you doing?" she laughed.

"You said to cover my eyes!" he said incredulously, as if this was the most normal situation in the world.

He does make me smile, Mrs Hughes thought merrily. However, she then remembered why she was here and she immediately felt her heart sink. Even Mr Carson, behind his blindfold, seemed to sense a change in atmosphere.

"Elsie … what's wrong?" he asked lovingly.

"I am scared Charles …" she began.

"Scared?" he asked.

"Scared that I won't be a very good wife …" she explained.

"Oh Elsie … no woman on earth could make a better wife …" he said truthfully.

"But you don't know that Charles … wives are supposed to obey their husbands … I doubt I'll ever do that … and I have a terrible temper … and I am very stubborn and too independent for my own good sometimes … and … and well I can't cook! I can't even boil an egg Charles … and at times … well at times you drive me absolutely mad with your old-fashioned and rigid ideas … and I know that I exasperate you … I know I do … what if we end up hating each other? I could not bear that …." she finished, despondently.

"Elsie … don't you think I am scared as well … I am terrified that I'll not be the husband you deserve … but I promise that I will spend the rest of my life doing everything in my power to make you happy … and as for you … yes you do exasperate me sometimes and you do have a temper and, heaven knows, I realise that you'll never obey me … and thank goodness for that … because I don't want some meek and mild wife who is too timid to stand up to me … I want you Elsie Hughes … and as for hating each other ... I could never hate you ... I love you …" he said sincerely.

"You love me?" Mrs Hughes whispered. She was frightened she had misunderstood. She gazed at her Butler, willing him to repeat his last words.

Mr Carson, his eyes still covered by his blindfold, faltered a little. He had not meant to say that. He knew how much he loved her but he had not meant to say that now. What if she was horrified? What if she only viewed him as a friend? Oh damn and blast, he thought, I love this woman with all of my heart and she needs to know that. So he reached out for her. He could not see her, obviously, but he knew she was close. Mrs Hughes took his hands tentatively in hers.

"I love you Elsie … I have always loved you … and I would be the happiest man alive if you would marry me today …" he said, his voice splintering with emotion.

Tears were streaming down the Housekeepers face as she beamed delightedly at her Butler. She squeezed his hands and replied,

"I love you too Charles … and I cannot wait to marry you."

She watched the broadest smile appear on his face as she stepped forward, wrapped her arms around his neck, and gave him the warmest hug. He enfolded her with his strong arms and held her to him for a long, lovely moment.

"Elsie …" he said softly, still holding her securely to his chest.

"Yes Charles?" she breathed happily, hugging her blindfolded Groom.

"Can you really not boil an egg?" he joked.

She swatted him on the arm as both dissolved into joyous laughter.

A/N: Thank you very much for your continued kind reviews - please do keep reviewing x