A/N: IDK what happened here, but this chapter started having technical issues and displaying as Ch 11 before. I had to delete and repost, so if you know you've seen this, just move along to Ch 15. Xx
22nd of December
By the time she arrives at the Abbey, Elsie has managed to clear her head of thoughts of retirement. It really isn't the right time to make those firm decisions and she knows and accepts that, but Charlie seemed delighted that she is considering handing in her notice within the year. Lord and Lady Grantham are thinking of moving to their home in London on a year-round basis, according to what Elsie has gleaned from comments Lady Grantham has made, and she is not sure she'd want to be housekeeper with Lady Mary Talbot as her direct employer ... although she has not voiced as much to Charles.
That situation also would also not bode well for keeping his Lordship's current valet. Elsie and Charles both know that the Bateses are considering the purchase of the Grantham Arms if (and, from what Charles has gleaned on several separate occasions from chats in the village, when) it goes up for sale. The current owner is aging and just lost his son to flu, and the poor man simply cannot keep going on his own for much longer. If all goes as Charles foresees, John Bates will be leaving his own post regardless of his Lordship's place of residence, and if that's the choice he makes then Anna will likely follow suit.
Elsie smiles as she pushes open the door of the servants' entrance. Things are changing, indeed. There was once a time when she dreaded the thought of people leaving, be it of their own volition or not: Mrs Patmore's eye surgery before the war, her future as cook in question; dark days when Charles planned to follow Lady Mary to Haxby and work for that dreadful Mr. Carlisle; Mr. Bates in prison, twice, followed by his wife ... too many more to mention. But now the changes seem to be more positive, depending on one's point of view. Lady Mary and Mr. Branson have taken Downton firmly into the future through changing management strategies and investment planning. There's a new generation of children padding through the halls, a new set of Christmas stockings hanging from bedposts in the nursery. Daisy and Andrew, settling a wedding; Mr. Barrow, finding his way despite his still not being able to confide in anyone else about it.
No, that's not quite right, Elsie reminds herself. He confides in Miss Baxter, and Elsie can certainly see why. She's glad he has that friendship and was happy to see it didn't become awkward or seem to change at all now that he's the butler of the house.
A cracking sound comes through the kitchen door as Elsie passes by. She smiles, knowing instantly what it is, and steps back to poke her head through.
"When the nutcracker comes out, then I know it's Christmas!"
"We use it at other times, too," the cook replies, setting the iron device aside, but she waves a hand over the counter and adds, "Not quite this much, though. Starting with the Christmas pudding and straight through until New Year. One of these years, I should count up all the nuts we end up using just in the month of December!"
The counter is littered with pecan shells at the moment, which Elsie knows are to be for Christmas biscuits.
"Any chance of making off with a few of those tonight?" she asks hopefully. "He loves them."
The cook looks up. "As if I don't know that! Yours are already in the oven. Will a dozen do?"
Elsie's face brightens. "Thank you! If you're sure it's no trouble, that is."
"Of course not! It's just a few biscuits, and you need to keep that grumbly pensioner happy, don't you?"
Elsie opens her mouth to retort that it isn't Christmas biscuits she uses to keep her husband happy, but she thinks the better of it, clamps her lips shut, and heads to her sitting room.
She'd been settled in for about half an hour going over accounts when Anna pops in, tea tray in hand.
"Do you have a few minutes?"
Elsie turns and sees the worried look on Anna's face. "For you? Of course." She gets up to close the door behind the younger woman, and Anna sets the tray down on a small side table, pouring the tea as Elsie returns to her desk. Anna takes the chair closest to the housekeeper and sits down in it, exhausted.
"Whatever is the matter?" Elsie stacks her papers down on the desk and lays her pen atop them, having set her specs aside when she'd heard the knock. She pulls her chair closer to Anna's and reaches for her tea.
Anna gives a half-smile. "I could lie to you, I suppose, but the truth is I could use five minutes off my feet and someone to tell me I'm not crazy."
Elsie's eyes widen. "Well, now I'm all ears. And for what it's worth, you're not crazy."
"You've not heard me out yet," Anna says, chuckling, and she watches as her superior raises an eyebrow and purses her lips.
"Try me." She examines Anna intently, wondering if... but, no. She doesn't think so, anyhow.
Anna sees right through her. "I'm not expecting, if that's what you're thinking."
"Well, I did wonder for about five seconds, but your color is good. As for those tired eyes and your exhaustion at half seven in the morning, I'm attributing those things to being the mother of an active little one."
"Quite right. But that's actually not related to what I wanted to ask you."
"Oh?"
"No." Anna twists her hands in her lap. "It's Mr. Bates, actually. He's been - well, not quite himself the last few days. He's disappeared a couple of times and not told me where he's gone. He's being secretive about something, that I definitely know, but it's so unlike him since ... you know. Since things have gotten better. Since Johnny."
Elsie sighs. She's promised not to reveal the small surprise about the horse, but she can't imagine that's what's got Anna worked up. Still ...
"Is it possible he's planned a Christmas surprise for you, something like that he's keeping from you?"
Anna shakes her head slowly. "I'm not sure. Maybe."
"What are your plans? Johnny is old enough now to see some of the magic in the gifts and the lights."
Anna brightens at that. "He is. We'll all be here on Christmas Eve, of course, but we've been given the morning off."
"Have you? That's funny. So have we."
Anna grins. "I know. Lady Mary mentioned that to me, actually. It seems she and Mr. Talbot are planning a small, casual family gathering with the others."
"I was just thinking as I was walking here this morning about how much things have changed around here, but that one may be one of the best changes of all."
"Well," Anna confides, "Mr. Talbot grew up differently - as did Mr. Crawley, of course. I think that influence carries some weight when the holidays come around. One needs to compromise and incorporate a bit of both. And it's nice to see Lady Mary and Lady Edith* getting along for a change."
"That's very true."
Elsie looks at the woman before her, so much a part of her life and her heart that she suddenly can't imagine not seeing her every day.
"Mr. Carson tells me the Grantham Arms is likely to be up for sale in the next four months," Elsie says. "Could that be what's got Mr. Bates so preoccupied?"
"It could be, and I did think of that. But that's an exciting prospect, not a secretive one. His Lordship knows we've been discussing it and has even offered to put in a word."
"He's helping himself into needing a new valet, then," Elsie observes.
"I know. And it's strange on the one hand, but on the other ..."
"They have a mutual respect, those men," Elsie says, nodding. "I know a bit of what that's like."
"Of course. And if it were you and Mr. Carson in our position, I'm sure the offer would be the same, regardless of the loss it would mean for the family."
"I'm sure it would."
They're quiet for a few moments, and Anna visibly relaxes the longer she sits.
"If you ask me, all you needed was a quiet space to gather your thoughts," Elsie advises kindly. "My door is always open to you, and although I cannot promise no one will ever disturb you when you're in here, it does tend to be a bit of a respite from the noise in the rest of the house."
"Perhaps you're right. I still think my husband is up to something, though."
"Well, you know it wouldn't be something nefarious. The two of you have had three lifetimes' worth of trouble; he'd certainly not go seeking anything resembling more."
"That's true, I suppose. Especially not now that we have Johnny."
"Precisely."
Elsie is thoughtful as she finishes her tea. "Do you think it'll be hard, leaving? Will you miss it?"
Anna appears taken aback. It was a question she definitely had not seen coming.
"I suppose. Downton was the first good home I ever had."
"You met your husband here. Made friends. Lots of memories." Elsie's voice is soft, her tone thoughtful.
"The same can be said for you," Anna observes, and her eyebrows rise; the inquisitive look has been turned upon the housekeeper, now.
"That's true."
"To answer your question, yes. It'll be hard in some ways, not seeing the same people every day, not having the same routine. There will be people we'll miss, of course." She stops speaking, hesitant, before holding her hand out; Elsie, emotional, clasps it. "And people we hope will visit regularly," Anna continues. "Particularly once they ... retire?"
Elsie nods, swallowing no small amount of emotion. Anna's words could so easily have been her own - all of them but the first ones; Elsie, after all, had a good life at home when she was young.
"I think ten months," Elsie confides. "But please don't say anything to anyone else - especially Lady Mary. But I think I'd like to retire before the cold weather sets in next year. I'm not cut out for these walks through it every morning, I can tell you that."
"Worth it, though, I bet." Anna gives her a knowing smirk.
Elsie thinks back to earlier, to the easy morning at home, pottering about in her robe and seeing the sun come up, being able to give her husband a gift and see his joy as he opened it - emotion he'd not as easily have shown were they both still living at the big house. The ability to cuddle and touch him openly without being surrounded by others who might see.
"Very," she replies.
There's an uptick in activity in the corridor, and Anna and Elsie sigh in unison.
"I'd better go. Lady Mary will be up soon and I need to touch something up on her dress for Christmas Eve."
"And I need to get back to these invoices and sort which still need paying. They all come in at once this time of year and it's positively maddening."
"You know," Anna says as she arranges their cups on the tray again, "there used to be many days when my greatest dream was for you to pass that chatelaine over to me one day. It's funny how life is."
"Life alters us all, as someone once told me," Elsie answers. "What's your greatest dream now, if I might ask?"
Anna lifts the tray and makes her way to the door, then turns back to answer.
"For my son to go to university," she says. "None of my family ever made it very far in school, but life is different now."
"It is at that."
Elsie watches as Anna leaves, and her fingertips brush the chain of her chatelaine.
"There were many, many days when I thought I'd be passing it to you, dear girl," she whispers. "But you don't need its protection any longer."
She turns back to her invoices and notices the scent of the pecan cookies has made it down the corridor to her room. She can't wait to see the look on Charlie's face when he opens the box and sees them.
Christmas isn't just for children, she knows; sometimes, small bits of its magic touch curmudgeonly, retired butlers, too.
*I know she's not technically "Lady Edith" anymore, but I do believe Anna would still refer to her that way when speaking with Elsie.
Thanks for checking this one out, friends. I'd love to know what you thought. xx