A/N: Thanks to the sweet and very helpful brenna-louise for beta work!

I think many of you have been waiting for this bit - and it answers a question a couple of you had several chapters ago.

Just a few more to go - drop me a note and let me know what you think. :)

Special shout-out to the guest reviewers who send me amazing feedback to which I cannot respond in person. I do appreciate it all.

xx

CSotA

I could make you happy, make your dreams come true.

Nothing that I wouldn't do.

Go to the ends of the Earth for you,

To make you feel my love ...

To make you feel my love.

"Charlie," she whispered, practically running back to the door and into his pantry, placing her soft, strong hands in his. "I'd about given up on you."

"I'm glad you didn't," he replied, looking deep into her eyes, the both of them knowing that they weren't referring to the unlocking of the door.

"Me, too."

Charles moved away from her and closed the door again, locking it behind him, as Elsie took a seat in the chair at his desk. He turned and spotted her there, letting out a laugh at how its size completely dwarfed her frame.

"And just what do you think you're doing, Mrs. Hughes?" he teased.

"Making myself comfortable, Mr. Carson," she said with a smirk. "Would you begrudge me the opportunity to be comfortable?"

She enjoyed the sound of his low, rumbling chuckle - a sound she'd heard precious few times over the course of her life - and let it fortify her.

"Are you alright?" she asked gently.

He nodded. "Yes, I think so, thank you. I am just tired of waiting. I know she needs time, but …"

"I know," Elsie said, getting up. "You can have your chair if you like," she continued, but he waved his hand in the air, motioning for her to sit down as he pulled another chair over. The familiar hand-waving motion took her aback - it was such a Mr. Carson thing to do, not a Charlie thing.

"What?" he asked, noticing her expression.

Elsie smiled and shook her head, then tilted it as she contemplated him. "Oh, I don't know. I'm not quite sure what to make of you sometimes."

"How do you mean?" he asked, his expression clearly showing fascination at her words.

She bit down on her lip, trying to come up with the way to explain it. "It's just that, lately, you've been so much more … open, I suppose. This entire situation with you remembering Daisy, and wanting to claim her instead of pretending she means nothing special to us … well, it's so Charlie. So not the Mr. Carson I encountered when I started working here. And when you're like that, it's easy to forget that more reserved man. But then you'll do something that is so Mr. Carson, and it shakes me. It's like I'm living in two worlds with you, and unsure of where I stand in each. Does that make sense?"

Charles nodded. "Oh, believe me, it does. I find it difficult myself to sort my feelings, it's as though I'm figuring out who I truly am all over again. I'm sixty-six years old, Elsie, and trying to determine what I want out of my life. I'm unsure where I stand - with the family, with Daisy … with you."

She nodded, humming in agreement. Goodness, Elsie … it's so hard for you, imagine how it must be for HIM.

"Have you given any more thought to our investment cottage on Brouncker Road?" he asked suddenly. "Because I'm thinking, it could come in handy in more ways than just one. If Daisy were to move away, but if she accepts us, wants to visit and have a place to stay, it would be nice …"

Oh no, not tonight. I didn't want to do this tonight, Elsie thought.

"I'm not sure …" she stalled. "Do we have to decide tonight?"

Charles furrowed his brow, suddenly suspicious. "No, but Elsie … do you not want to do it? Invest in a property together? I thought … well, I don't know what I thought. That things were progressing before, that after all that's happened since that horrid accident things were better, perhaps? You seemed to want this … when we were looking at them all ..." he trailed off, the unsurety seeping back in once again.

She sat back in the chair with a sigh."It's not that I don't want to go in on a property with you, not at all."

"Then what?"

Elsie twisted her hands in her lap, trying to come up with the right words. In the end, she settled for direct and to the point.

"I can see there's no way around it … I'm just going to have to tell you the truth."

"I've never caught you in a lie, Elsie Hughes?" His incredulous look just made her all the more uncomfortable, but she forced herself to tell her story.

"I have a sister, Charlie," she said softly.

"A sister? But … but I thought your mother had been the last of your family?"

"Because that's what I wanted you to think." She twisted her hands in her lap, suddenly missing the loving, warm grasp of his own, and feeling so very, very ashamed that she'd never entrusted him with her secret.

"Her name is Becky. I've never told you about her because … well … I suppose after all these years I'm just so used to keeping her hidden away from a world that doesn't understand what it's like for people who are ..." she smiled softly, "well, who are the way Becky is."

She saw his look of confusion. "She's not quite right in the head, you see. And, since my mother died, she's lived in a seaside home in Lytham St. Anne's, and I send money to them every month for her care."

"But your mother died quite a while ago," Charles gasped. "That must be costing you a fortune!"

She nodded. "It's cost me every penny I have, and then some. I don't see how I could ever afford to retire. I've just got to hope that they'll keep me on as long as possible here, and care for me when I cannot continue working.

"Becky was the reason I couldn't stay on the farm with a bairn," she continued. "I couldn't trust her to be gentle, and I needed to work. I knew I'd have to save whatever I could beyond what I was sending back to help them, because I knew once my Mam was gone, Becky's care would be up to me. When I returned home, with child, the farm was already failing.

"It seems silly now that I never told you. I'm not sure why I let myself get caught up in our little dream for as long as I did. But I can't go in with you, Charlie ... I'm a pauper. I do hope you can make a go of it yourself, but I won't be able to be a part of it." She looked away from his painfully hurt gaze and down at her hands again, trying desperately not to cry.

Charles stood and leaned over her, grasping her hands and pulling her up from the chair. He kissed the back of her knuckles, then leaned over and placed another kiss to her forehead. She looked up at him, startled, and saw the utter adoration in his eyes. It was unnerving, exhilarating … and it felt like home. She couldn't help the sigh that escaped her lips.

Charles reached his hand up and caressed her cheek, letting his gaze stay on her deep, blue, beautiful eyes a moment longer before leaning down to place his lips on hers. The sound of her tiny moan did not escape his ears, and he almost lost himself completely. This was so very unlike the other kiss they'd shared; this wasn't relief at having remembered the past, it wasn't the comfort of two friends who'd just had a horrible row. This was the coming together of long-ago lovers who had been separated by decades of shame, anger, hurt, and walls of defenses, only to have fought their way through them all and found each other once again, now healed from it all and ready to move forward. It was a promise of things to come: faithfulness, love, openness, and family.

He pulled back, and Elsie felt the loss immediately. His kiss had awakened a sense of purpose in her, a rededication to the path she'd long since wandered from - the desire to have this man in her life, as a full partner, as part of a family.

Except that you can't have it all, Elsie, as you've just made clear.

"I am going to purchase that cottage, Elsie, and your name is going to be on the deed."

He startled her out of her reverie. "What?"

"I'll hear no arguments about it. I have the means to do it, and I hate to change a plan when there's no need."

"Charlie, I can't accept that from you."

"Why not?" he asked, clearly flustered.

"'Why not?' Charlie," she admonished, "look at us! All these changes, coming along so fast. I just … it's too much."

"Elsie Hughes, please, listen to me," he pleaded. "I found the love of my life in London twenty-seven years ago. I was swept off my feet, and was foolish to send you away because I couldn't give up my own pride. I hurt the two people I love most in the world in the process, and I can never make up for that.

"And then, by the grace of God, you came back into my life and, once again, I was too obstinate to accept you. I made you crack away at me over the years in some attempt at getting something, anything that I might offer you. I had blinders on, and they only started to fall away when I realized I truly could have lost you again - first to Joe Burns, and then to cancer."

"But it wasn't cancer," she reminded him quietly. "And I'd never have married Joe. Once I thought about it, I realized that I couldn't leave you or Daisy behind." Smiling, she added, "I told you before, I'm not that farm girl anymore."

"Yes, I know, and I've sent up many a thankful prayer for that ever since." He smiled at her, and placed another kiss to her forehead, and sighed.

"But then that blasted train went off the tracks, and I could have died, Elsie. I think I was meant to, at one point. I had the strangest dream, you see, when I was unconscious in hospital. I was floating about, and there was this enormous building - which I know now was the Abbey - standing there in the distance, and I could feel it pulling at me, trying to draw me in. But I was distracted, you see, by this lovely, lilting, singing Scottish voice." He smiled. "It called to me like a siren, and I knew I had to follow it. It made me want to wake up, to fight my way toward where you were."

"Oh, Charlie," she whispered, her tears finally spilling over. "I was singing to you, you know. When you were unconscious."

He bent down and kissed away her tears. "I realized you must have been. Your voice opened up inside of me a chasm from which all of the best parts of my past came forth, challenging me to make a choice. And I did, Elsie. Only, when I woke, I didn't yet know what the building was, or to whom the voice belonged. But I knew I had a family, a true family. I was certain of having a daughter, somewhat less certain that I had a wife, but if I had a daughter I figured I must have a wife - it was the only sensible conclusion," he said sheepishly.

She shook her head. "Well, our little situation isn't exactly sensible, now, is it?" She gave him a sad smile.

"No, it isn't. But I made my way to you in the end, didn't I?"

"Yes, I suppose you did. But this cottage, Charlie …"

"I am going to do as I said, Elsie, and you'll not change my mind. If there is one thing that I've learned - both as Mr. Carson and as Charlie - it's that life changes when you least expect it. Change is frightening, thrilling, and unavoidable. You have seen me through so much, Elsie, and I wouldn't have made it here without you. I want to be stuck with you, love, for as long as you'll have me."

And, with that, there was really nothing more to say.