Since we don't know yet where Jimmy has gone the alternate POVs are ended, Jimmy will pop up again once he has been located, but don't worry, you won't have to wait long.

In reply to the guest; you will find out in the next chapter who Jimmy has taken with him… I know, I'm really mean, it's all for dramatic effect.

Thank you for reading and for any reviews.

Apologies for spelling/ grammar mistakes

I swear this is getting harder and harder, I've rewritten this chapter about eight or nine times. Enjoy! :)


"Your Grace?" Mr Carson murmured disapprovingly with more than a little confusion at the new footman's outburst, one could hear the rumbling vibrations of his oesophagus continuing on into Sebastian's space for his excuse for calling his colleague by a distinguished title.

"Uh…" Sebastian mumbled, receiving a hard wide eyed stare off Alex, while Victoria and Thomas resisted holding hands from their seats at the table in worry, until the new footman spoke up. "Sorry, Mr Carson, old habits."

"You mean… you know Alexander?" Mr Carson furrowed his eyebrows.

"Yes, from a while back," Sebastian spoke disjointedly in trying to think up a way to tell the truth and avoid it at the same time, "I often called him 'Your Grace', we know each other well, but I'm surprised to find him here."

"Well, maybe I'll let the two of you get reacquainted now you've met the staff, then Alexander can tell you your duties." The butler continued in satisfaction, "But understand that you will get used to calling him by his name."

"Yes, Mr Carson, of course."

Alex led Sebastian with most urgency into Mr Carson's office, not that the butler had any kind of say in it, Alex shutting the door behind them, but it was Sebastian to do all the questioning.

"Why are you in livery, Monseigneur? What are you doing here?"

"First off, stop calling me 'Your Grace', and- at least you remember the 'Monseigneur'," Alex remembered spending a while trying to get the footman to call him by something other than his title but equally respectful, "but I'm not sure that's not even less subtle than 'Your Grace'." Alex ordered. It felt strange telling the footman who used to serve him almost every day to address him informally, but it had to be done, Alex couldn't slip back into the reality of who he was, not now, it was all too late, and had already taken too great a toll on his patience and his sanity.

"That's your due. Even if you are a fugitive... Monseigneur." Sebastian said, somewhere between bitterness and the pleasantness of old habits.

"So you know about that?"

"Lord Bycroft talks about little else."

"And Stephen? That is- Lord Bycroft's son?"

"Lord Stephen and His Lordship say you're innocent," Sebastian sighed in recollection of the many many conversations he overheard his former employers have at the dinner table, the table which seemed strangely vacant as of late without the Viscomte de Chagny sitting alongside the young Lord Stephen with whom he went to Oxford and made his second home with at the Bycroft's family's home; Banebridge Manor. "They won't let any of us speak bad about you." Sebastian continued.

"What do you think?"

"I don't know, Mon... ahem, I always thought you were a decent man, a true gentleman, even if you are more tolerant than most of them. But I hear things, I read things, and I don't know."

"What will you do?" Alex asked fearfully, he could not have a repeat of what happened with Jimmy here, if Sebastian called the police Alex knew he could do nothing to stop him.

"I don't know. I still can't believe it; that you're here."

"I had no choice. I thought I'd be safe hiding in a household underbelly. I won't blame you if you turn me in." He was fortunate he had lasted this long, he was just lucky that the Grantham's knew no one who could recognise him. "But may I still have the obstinacy to beg that you don't; to give me some time? I'll leave, I'll leave tonight, and when I'm gone if you want to call the police then be my guest."

"But what if they found out I knew all along who you were but never said anything? I'll get in trouble."

"You've already put yourself in danger of that by lying to Mr Carson." Alex reminded him.

"I didn't lie, I told him I knew you, never said where from."

"How clever of you." Alex tried to keep the bitterness from his voice, he had no right, for the footman could have given him up as soon as he saw him, his future and his life lay in this young man's hands, and he couldn't take advantage of that. "Nonetheless, you'll be in no trouble, these are reasonable people, they will understand that you had certain loyalties to me, and to Lord Bycroft. Please, Sebastian."

"Just tell me… did you do it?"

Alex wiped his forehead, interrogation by servants wasn't something he was used to and it had become so routine lately it was maddening. "Of course, you're entitled to ask…." He croaked, tired and not unashamed of revisiting the memory of the night his father died by his hands. "Yes, yes I did do it. But it was an accident. I give you my word on that."

"You lived at Banebridge Manor for six years. You have your own room, your own valet. You're like a son to His Lordship…. And so I believe you. But if it was an accident the police will know, why don't you turn yourself in... um… Monseigneur?" The footman bumbled through confidences at the man in livery who he had to keep telling himself was a Count.

"It's not that simple…" Images of the young housemaid danced through Alex's mind, followed by the razor edge of a guillotine, just waiting for patricidal men like him. Alex rubbed his vulnerable neck at the thought, then finally asked pleadingly. "Will you stay silent, or not?"

"I'll give you a day before I decide to call the police, give you a chance to think about whether you should do it yourself." Sebastian generously offered, Alex could only nod, a 'thank you' seemed too unfit to speak. "By the way, Mon- um… Alexander." The footman corrected himself, knowing they were going back out and he had to get used to speaking to the nobleman as an equal, a task all servants would love to venture upon at one point. "Lord Stephen thought… thinks the world of you. He hasn't been the same since you went missing."

"Nor have I, Sebastian. Nor have I." Alex smiled sombrely, taking a seat on the visiting side of Mr Carson's desk and put his elbow on its edge. "Could you give me a minute, and then I'll show you around the place?"

"Of course… Alexander." Sebastian left the room and waited outside quietly, not wanting to attract any questions from anyone that would force him into a lie, he wanted at least to be able to deny lying should Alex's identity be discovered.

Meanwhile, Alex picked up Mr Carson's telephone, and gave the number to be connected to Banebridge Manor.

"Hello, may I speak to Lord Stephen Bycroft? ... An old friend from Oxford… Thank you." Alex tapped his fingers nervously against the trunk of the telephone stand, wondering in the seconds he had whether to hang up, but a smooth masculine voice, which floated to Alex from times when life was gilded and gleaming, made him speak with more enthusiasm and heart felt emotion than he meant to, a singular tear springing to his eye at the familiarity and his present hopelessness. "Stephen? Stephen, it's me."


"What do you think's going on?" Victoria whispered to Thomas. It was obvious by Sebastian's address to Alex that he knew him, and he must owe enough loyalty to him to have kept silent, but all that could change when the footmen emerged from Mr Carson's office, which the butler was astounded by the obstinacy of it being used in such a manner without permission.

"How should I know?" Thomas replied, the curiosity racking his mind also, but he trusted that all would be revealed in time, but Victoria was worried for the man she not-so-secretly loved, her eyes not leaving the door of the closed office. "If you're so curious why don't you go and listen?" That made the girl's attentions change.

"I'm not O'Brien."

"I heard that." The eavesdropping ladies' maid raised her head from the other end of the table, Victoria raising her hands at a point proven. Obviously their conversation was not as discrete as they hoped, nothing ever was at Downton, so Thomas once again took the girl's shoulder and they turned away from the pack of wolves surrounding them. "Do you think Sebastian knows?" Victoria whispered.

"Why don't you go and ask him?" Thomas suggested, not offering any help from himself to do something about it, but he knew just as well as Victoria did there wasn't really anything they could ask without implicating them all in Alex's scandal.

"How could I possibly do that?"

"Well if Sebastian does know he's not doing anything about it, he's not running to Mr Carson or calling the police-"

"Unless he's gotten Alex to do it himself." The girl tried to find a reason why the young man was standing outside alone while Alex remained by himself in the butler's office.

"He wouldn't do that without telling you."

"You think?"

"Of course. Can see it in the way he looks at you. He wouldn't ever go without telling you." Thomas said confidently, Victoria smiling in hope that what he said was true, and that her love interest thought so much of her.

"To be honest, Thomas, I'd be scared to death if he turned himself in. But I can't help thinking I'd also be damn proud."

"Well, here he comes, and it looks like he's not going to tell us anything for a while." Thomas said confusedly as Alex came outside to meet Sebastian and they walked off together in the opposite direction. He looked shaken but Sebastian seemed sympathetic, but his manner around the nobleman was still telling. Thomas wondered whether it would be a good idea to keep the new man away from the others for a while until he got used to the change, and maybe Alex already had that in mind and that was what was happening here, but he and Victoria couldn't help but worry that the situation wasn't as crystal clear as first thought.


The young nobleman avoided everybody, he made his appearances upstairs, and that was where he spent most of his time (at least that's what everyone thought as he was barely seen). At dinner with the servants he kept apart from Thomas and Victoria and sat towards the end with Sebastian, though they hardly spoke to each other. All the time Victoria was getting paranoid, and Thomas could see and feel her stress. In passing through the day they both even came to the same conclusion; that perhaps Sebastian was an old lover that Alex had taken up with while he stayed at an English home- it would explain Sebastian's silence. But it didn't seem right. Thomas even asked Mr Carson where Sebastian had transferred from and a bit of history, and it turned out that Miss O'Brien had also made a similar enquiry that day. She was a slithery one and no mistake.

Thomas told Victoria what Mr Carson had told him, "Sebastian has only had one employer; Lord Bycroft, resides at Banebridge Manor, what's more he told me a story- that wasn't confirmed by Sebastian- that Banebridge Manor may have been the temporary residence of the Viscomte de Chagny." This put fear into their hearts, but Sebastian's silence was a relief for the time being but Alex could not keep Thomas and Victoria in the dark in this way, and since night had come and all had gone to bed; Thomas volunteered himself for the mission to confront Alex with all he had discovered, and was about to discover something even more worrying when he opened the now-Comte's bedroom door.

"What are you doing?" Thomas said, entering Alex's room silently, not giving the youth a chance to hide the very simple scene; that he was packing, and the amount he was packing meant a long journey was ahead of him.

"Thomas." Alex gulped, caught red handed in his act of leaving.

"Don't look guilty, Alex. What else can you do when a footman who served you at Banebridge Manor recognised you and threatens to give you up?"

"You know everything then?" Alex knew Thomas was a resourceful man, and if he wanted to find out something he would one way or another, he just wished his curiosity could have held out for another day.

"When were you going to tell me?" Thomas asked, more anger in his voice than before, "More importantly, when were you going to tell Victoria?"

"I can't, Thomas, it's too hard. I wish it wasn't, but it is." Alex said, distracting himself from the impossibility by continuing to shove pairs of carefully folded trousers and shirts into his suitcases, one which looked rather new, Thomas wondered whether that was where Alex had managed to hide himself away that day; sneaking off to go and buy some luggage, and travelling clothes to go with it.

"So you're just skulking off like a coward, a thief in the night?" Thomas' sharp tongue stabbed at the nobleman, now dressed in his part for his departure, the servile boundaries had broken down, and Thomas knew he was addressing a Count and had no trouble in showing his distaste for how dishonourable his actions were for a man in his position.

"I have to go. It's all been arranged."

"By who? And where will you go?" Thomas imagined some pirate, smuggling Alex for an outrageous fee out of the country in a wooden box labelled up to contain perishable goods, and so was shocked by the answer actually given.

"Banebridge Manor."

"You would force that decision upon them; to help you or turn you in?" It was cruel, even for Thomas it was cruel, not believing Alex to have such cruelty in his bones he was willing to listen to his reasoning.

"No. I've known Stephen, Lord Bycroft's son, for nearly ten years, we were at Oxford together. I've lived with him for six of those years. Sebastian said that Stephen should like to hear from me, I would have called sooner but I could never do anything to bring any harm to Lord Bycroft nor his family. I did call, and Lord Bycroft offered his help if I turned myself in. It also means that if I'm found innocent then I can be with Victoria, there's no hope of that if I run." Alex locked his suitcase up in fervent belief of his decision. He was scared to turn himself in, but with his old friend (not to mention his lawyers) he had hope for his future. "Ever since that night my father died, not a day has passed that I haven't thought of turning myself in, but I was scared. Lord Bycroft gave me the push I needed to do it. I have to do this."

"You're turning yourself in..." A hitch appeared in Thomas' voice, he was distinct in his sorrow that he might never see Alex again, and proud that he was finally willing to take responsibility and earn the respect his title afforded him, but at the same time he was angry; that he made all these plans, he had all these thoughts, if Thomas could have convinced Alex to turn himself in he would have done it, and he knew Victoria would have done it. More secrets. He thought they were close, but how could they be? Alex was a count, Thomas was an servant. "And you weren't going to say anything to her."

"If I do I'll never be able to leave." Alex fixed his scarf assuredly around his neck, adjusting the tip of his trilby hat nervously at going off into the night alone. "I was going to leave you both a letter-"

"I don't want your bloody letters!" Thomas cried, tired of suffering the drawls of Alex's pen, tired of feeling unworthy of his words. "Why? What else have you got to confess, Count?" Alex frowned at this, but not at Thomas' anger, but that he could even guess at the real reason behind his letter, which contained more than a series of drawn out good byes. "Oh my god, oh my god there is actually something. What have you done?"

"Please, Thomas, just read the letter." Alex tried to push past but Thomas stopped him, placing himself in the doorframe, his hand covering the handle. Alex wouldn't fight Thomas or force him away, he looked at Thomas' torso, hoping it would move through the will of his silence, but Thomas wouldn't budge.

"No, if you've done something I want to hear it from your lips. Have you killed someone else?" Thomas cocked his head, not putting anything past the Count who had lied too many times to warrant any else than an assumption of the very worst.

"Stop."

"Is that bag you're holding full of Lord Grantham's silver?"

"Stop!"

"Then what it it?!"

"I- I can't.." Alex mumbled, his lip quivering, tears forming in his eyes and at last he was consumed by claustrophobia enough to push his way past Thomas, leaving the letters to him, Victoria, and Mr Carson on the bed behind him. He ran, down the corridors, making for the back door, but Thomas chased after him. He knew Alex was the faster, and yet the under butler had better knowledge of the house lay out and that it was all locked up, and Alex was carrying two suitcases, this providing enough delay for him to catch up with Alex just as he reached the back door. Thomas put his hands on Alex's shoulders, the nobleman turned, tears streaming down his reddened cheeks. Thomas found no compassion, and Alex had not the strength to challenge Thomas' rage when the under butler pressed him up against the door.

"Now, you're not going anywhere, anywhere, until you tell me what you've done, that's so bad that you can't tell me to me face. Tell me! Or I swear to god I'll tell Victoria that you never loved her, that you used her."

"No!" Alex cried, "You wouldn't. You wouldn't do that to her."

"I would. It might be better than telling her that terrible secret you've left in my letter and putting the worst spin on it imaginable."

"Please, Thomas-" Alex implored while trying desperately to compose himself, but Thomas screamed in his face; "Tell me!"

"It's Jimmy…"

"What about him?" Alex lowered his head, he didn't know how to begin, so Thomas shook him, "what about him?!"

"You must understand;" Alex said, "I was scared, I was so scared that he was going to come back and carry on with his threats, I was so scared, I had to lie, I had to lie-" He mumbled.

"What are you talking about?"

"The night Jimmy got drunk and visited Rose… the night he made his threats, tried it on, we got in a fight then…"

"Then what?" Thomas narrowed his eyes, not taking his hands off Alex should he try to run before revealing his shattering confession.

"He hit me because I tried to kill him."

"You what?" Thomas released him, his hands lost their strength, there was only shock and absence of understanding.

"He never tried to rape me, Thomas, he never tried to rape me." Alex shook his head, closing his eyes in deep regret, and tears began to fall once more, but relief also at the truth finally revealed that was feasting on his soul since the day Jimmy left. "I did genuinely forget, but it all came back the day he left. I wanted to tell you, I wanted to tell you, and the guilt…." He couldn't talk about his guilt, he couldn't make Thomas feel sorry for him, he had no right to it. "I was scared, Thomas. I just didn't know what else to do."

"You tried to kill him?"

"I wouldn't have done it! I wouldn't! I was just so angry, he was saying all these things, he was trying to make me do things and I couldn't take it."

"And all this time you've let me think he was a rapist. The last thing I said to him was that he was no better than the Duke! You let me say that! For the last six weeks you've let me think it!"

"I know. I know, and I'm sorry."

"It's not me you should be apologising to." Alex couldn't say anything. Thomas looked at his friend, the man who he could respect, who went along with his lie, and lied to him so his secret could be safe. Jimmy… the suffering he had been through, how he tortured himself with guilt over what he had done, what Thomas had said to him, it was for nothing. It was possible that Thomas was no angrier at Alex than he was at himself, but someone had to pay. He grabbed Alex by the collar and dragged him towards Mr Carson's office. Alex was too stunned and confused to do anything but let himself be dragged. Thomas threw Alex inside the room, stumbling against the chair, and the older man locked the door behind them. He cornered Alex against the desk, the younger man couldn't move, his body locked between the table edge and Thomas' body. Thomas picked up the telephone which sat beside them and pushed it into the Count's chest.

"Call them." The older man said.

"What?"

"The police. Call them."

"What difference does it make?" Alex stuttered, "I'm going to call them when I'm at Stephen's-"

"Somehow I don't believe you. How do I know you're going to Banebridge?"

"You have to trust me."

"Somehow that's difficult." Thomas tilted his head, and Alex knew that any trust he had earned from the under butler had vanished with his latest confession.

"Thomas, it makes no difference if Lord Bycroft calls, if Sebastian calls-"

"Then it will make no difference if you call! For once, be honest." Thomas dangled the telephone in front of Alex, determined not to let the nobleman go anywhere until he had called. Alex took the telephone from Thomas, but didn't lift the receiver, still in two minds about whether he should do as Thomas said. The older man was right in that it made little difference, but it felt dishonourable doing it because he was forced to. "You know, I thought I could forgive you anything." Thomas said, "I thought I could understand anything you went through because we're the same; we're survivors. But we're not the same. We're not."

"What will you tell Victoria?" Alex whimpered.

"I'll tell her the truth, but I know she'll be proud that you did the right thing and turned yourself in, so there would at least be a chance for you to be with her in the end."

"I would marry her, Thomas, I would give her a wonderful life. I would." Thomas looked in Alex's eyes, those deep eyes which once would hypnotise now only reflected himself back in them. Alex sniffed, wiped his eyes, and took a deep breath, and in that breath he just changed. Thomas barely recognised him, and the voice he used was not one Thomas knew when he picked up the telephone, and said, like a Count should; "Ripon police, please. Thank you…. Good evening, sorry to bother you so late, but I have information regarding the fugitive I've reading about in the papers, the one who is wanted for his father's murder; the Comte de Chagny… yes, that's right… Downton Abbey…. If you knock on the front door the under butler will be waiting for you, Thomas Barrow's the name, and he will take you to your man… Thank you." He hung up and looked Thomas in the eyes, setting the telephone down on the desk, and asked him; "Can you ever forgive me?"

"I don't know. If you're found guilty they'll give you the chop, if you're found innocent you'll be a Count on one of the grandest estates in France. Either way I don't think you'll need, or want, my forgiveness."

"You have no idea how wrong you are." His eyes stung, and Thomas could see droplets forming in them, but there was no room in the under butler's heart for pity. He picked up the telephone receiver and asked to be connected to Banebridge Manor, holding out the ear piece to Alex.

"You had better call Lord Bycroft, tell him your plans have changed."

Alex was grateful at least that Thomas believed his plans, and proved their truth by calling Stephen and telling him of their revision. All of this, the finality of it all, it made Alex see clearly and feel differently about his leaving. He went for the door to leave the office, but of course Thomas stopped him. "Excuse me, where do you think you're going?"

"I have to say goodbye now, I can't not, even though it will make it harder I know I will regret it if I don't. You've made me see that at least. Please, Thomas, I know you don't owe me anything, but you owe her, we both do." That was enough to make Thomas stand aside, but he would follow behind and make sure Alex didn't make some kind of escape. He wasn't sure how far he trusted him yet.


Alex snuck into Victoria's bedroom, she shared a room with Megan. He stole over to her bed and for a moment stood over her, just to watch her sleeping. He could have kissed her, it would have done enough to wake her, but he was a gentleman, and to him she was a lady. He placed his hand carefully over her mouth (should she scream) and shook her. She did not scream. Instead, with widened eyes and shock on her features she let herself be led out into the corridor, careful not to wake Megan.

"Alex?" It was in the dimly lit corridor she really saw that Alex was fully dressed, coat, scarf, and gloves told her that what she had dreaded for a while had now happened. "You're leaving then."

"Yes. I'm sorry. It's Sebastian, he was a footman for Lord Bycroft-"

"Yes. Thomas said." Victoria smiled falsely. "What is he going to do?"

"It doesn't matter. I need to confront this, and Stephen has agreed to help me… I've called the police."

"What? Why?"

"Vic," Alex took her hands in his, "Thomas is going to tell you something, something terrible about me. I want you to know that it's not a lie. I have done something for which I harbour the deepest regret and shame, and I know Thomas will want to do something about it, you must help him. He will need you now."

"Why? What is it? Why can't you tell me?" She implored, digging her thumbs longingly into his palms.

"I can't. I need your last thought of me to be a kind one, for me to just be able to tell you that I love you, and if all this goes away then I will come around that back door and get down on one knee for you. I need you to know that no matter what you think of me, I never lied to you, not about this… about us."

"Are they on their way? Can I come and wait with you?" Victoria sniffed, her eyes welling, she did not want her hands to let go of Alex so let the tears just fall.

"Yes, but you have to stay here, I can't let you watch me get taken away like that. I won't." He choked.

"Don't be afraid, my love," She stroked his cheek, taking with it all the doubts he had that he wasn't doing the right thing by not jumping out the back window and taking her with him, "all will be well."

"I know. I know it will."

"You know that I love you, but I'm so proud of you for this. I always knew you could do it."

There was so much to be said, but there was no time, the police would be arriving shortly and he couldn't drag this out any longer. "Oh, my darling." He moaned, taking the weeping form of the girl in his arms and weaved his hand through her blonde locks, then whispered into her ear, "Forget me, and if I should return we may start anew." Lips grazed the maid's cheek, she followed the feel of skin pull away from her but her lips did not give the same gift she had received. She opened her eyes and there was no one there, Alex had gone, and she was left alone in the dark, hoping that if she went to bed then when she awoke she would find Alex still there the next morning, and it was all just a terrible dream.


Alex met Thomas outside, dragging his suitcase with a greater weight than before he had gone to the women's quarters. He said nothing to Thomas, and Thomas did not ask anything. They waited just outside the front door for the police to come, blowing dusty clouds from between their lips as the cold bit at their noses. In the distance a pair of lights shone brightly in the dark, and the two men heard the car they belonged to rolling along towards them in the distance. Alex turned to Thomas, now his time was up, and said; "You say we're not alike, but I think that in my position you would have done exactly as I did. The reason you can't forgive me is because it's Jimmy, and if that's the case then for both of your sakes I think you need to ask yourself why." The car squeaked to a stop in front of them. "Goodbye, Thomas. Take care of her." Alex walked towards the car and offered himself up like a sacrificial lamb, and the policemen who disembarked from the vehicle read him his rights. The nobleman lowered his suitcase and tipped his hat respectfully to them, before outstretching his arms ready for the cuffs he had dreaded for so long but now hoped would bring him his salvation, and he felt something he never expected, and he gave a great sigh filled with this feeling; relief. The policemen opened the door for him and he thanked them so very kindly, even giving a warm smile to them, and gave Thomas a nod through the window of the car, which the under butler had no heart to return, his mind was warped… for he must get to London, as soon as the next train would allow.