A/N: Everyone is ill at ease now they're all being called in for Mr Carson's announcement.
A/N2: I want to thank everyone for sticking with the story so far. Your reviews, favourites, follows, PMs and emails are making me so happy! (please don't stop!)
1.
"Will you come into the Servants' Hall, all of you? Mr Carson has something to say." A young hallboy pops into her kitchen - well, not hers, but she is getting a bit of credit these days and she is getting more responsibility. She often thinks about Mr Mason's offer. Has decided if Thomas is going to be the new butler, she's off. She doesn't need two people shouting at her, at least when it's Mrs Patmore it comes with a dose of affection.
She wipes her hands, calls Ivy and they follow Mrs Patmore into the Servants' Hall where the others are already tucking into their bread- the loaves she has been kneading when they were just coming down, bleary eyed and still warm from sleep. Usually Mrs Hughes pops into the kitchen, saying good morning, giving Ivy and her some attention before she starts her day. Today she didn't come. She doesn't like it when her routine changes, but she likes the thought of Downton without Mr Carson and Mrs Hughes even less.
Mr Carson had held her arm on the way to William, had given her to be wed and had steadied her, all caring like. Mrs Hughes had smiled encouragingly. Mrs Patmore had wiped away a tear even and it had been over before it even began and she had been so sad and confused by all of it. She had hardly even kissed William.
There was this rumour going round that Mrs Hughes had kissed Mr Carson.
She didn't know if it was true or not, but to her it made perfect sense.
It's quite alright for parents to kiss each other and while they are not that, not entirely, it's as close as she'll ever get to that kind of belonging. Mr Mason is good and kind and he is willing to teach her all he knows and he loves her because he loved William, but Mr Carson and Mrs Hughes and Mrs Patmore - they know her and that is different.
That is family.
2.
Has Lady Mary made her choice already? It was only yesterday when she had called Carson in, when they found out that the old man was retiring. The only one not shocked, not nervous had been Mrs Hughes.
She had probably been consulted. He should not be jealous of that, not of her. The woman is the only one in the room who is kind to him, cares without wanting anything in return. Anna had shown him the same kindness when Lady Sybil died, but now her husband's promotion is on the line and he doesn't blame her for being distant. He just wishes he had someone in his corner and he had hoped it would be Mrs Hughes, but she is not.
She is preoccupied.
She sits next to him as always - Mr Carson at the head of the table, always a little bit too close to her to be appropriate but no-one ever says anything about it - her hands under the table and he guesses she is wringing them in that telling way. An annoying habit, but one he has grown accustomed to. He's become fond of her. Her unshocked face when he told her everything (how he was and what he had done to Jimmy and how it was all a mess he didn't know a way out off) and the way she had stood up for him - he knew she had, it was written all over old Carson's face - which was more than his own mother had ever done for him.
If Lady Mary has chosen Bates, he can ask her to convince the old man to write him a good reference. He might do it this time, it's been months since the incident. He can't take orders from Bates and with a reference he won't have to starve, won't have to work in a mind numbing factory in the noise and the dirt. He is good at what he does, has worked hard for it and he gives both Mr Carson and Mrs Hughes credit: they have shaped and molded him in ways no-one else could have done.
It won't be easy to leave his home if he has to go.
3.
They are all looking at him and he doesn't know how to say it. Finds he hasn't the words and it's making him nervous. His stomach is starting to churn. He knows it was the right thing to do, but he worries how they'll react to the news. He tries not to think of the jokes the boys will make, the sniggers of the girls that will undoubtedly come.
Elsie is wringing her hands in her lap. She is uneasy as well.
4.
Where the blazes is Carson? And Mrs Hughes for that matter. He has rung for them minutes ago and there is no sign of them. Normally they are in the Drawing Room at ten thirty and they all discuss matters of the house and after that he feels like things are being managed well between Carson and himself, Cora knows Mrs Hughes will do whatever is needed and they go back to what they were doing and Mrs Hughes and Carson go downstairs to inform the rest of the staff.
This had been their routine for over twenty years and he is disturbed that it's being altered today. Cora seems unaware of it, pricking away at her blasted needlepoint - the same work she's been slaving over for the past seven years.
"Where the devil are they?" He exclaims as he watches the grounds from the window.
"Maybe there is a calamity downstairs. You know how they would never trouble us with that." She argues in their favour.
He nods. Knows that if there is an emergency, they will come to know it when it's resolved. Not before.