The very next morning Elsie walked to the post office to send a telegram asking for her things to be sent over from the big house. When she was back at the farm, she would write letters to his lordship and Mr. Carson and come up with a reason for her resignation. No one there had known of Becky's existence, and going there with the truth would only start up drama about her resignation and whispers about her sister. Besides, it wouldn't cost much to have her things sent over; her possessions were few and meager and it reminded her that there was another conversation she would have to have with Joe. Becky still needed care and it would cost more than the farm could make to support the farm hands and her new family -if she could even refer to Joe, Charlie and herself as a family. It was only right that Elsie find a job alongside working on the farm to earn her keep.
"Absolutely not! You're staying here with me and Charlie. We need you, you know." As predicted, Joe was against the idea of her taking on a second job and thus began their first fight.
"This isn't up for debate Joe. It's something I need to do if I don't want to bankrupt you and the farm. I can handle myself very well and have been doing so since I left, thank you very much."
"I think you've forgotten what it's like to live on a farm. You'll be exhausted at the end of the day…"
"I'm already exhausted every day! It won't make a lick of difference if its due to housekeeping or farming or anything else." She interjected
"Aye, but now you're responsible for a child who will keep you up all night. And they don't get any easier as they grow, take it from someone with experience on the matter. First, they keep you up all night needing to be fed and changed every few hours. When you get used to that they start moving around and getting into things and hurting themselves the moment you're not looking. Then they have thousands of questions you want to answer but can't. Then they need new clothing they can wear to school because they've outgrown what they've worn, and you can't see to that till you show them how to help out around the farm and the house. Children are a twenty-four-hour job where the rules are constantly changing with no warning or guide."
"And how do you propose we pay for all this? I'll tell you this right now, I have no intention of letting Charlie or Becky suffer in the slightest while these hands of mine can still work."
Joe went quiet, blowing air out his nose. "Marry me." How on earth was marrying him going to solve her financial problems? Elsie opened her mouth to protest when he held up a hand to silence her. "If you love me enough to marry me, we will share a bed. Charlie is too young for his own room now, but when he is old enough, he can share Peter's room. That leaves an open room for Becky. The farm is more peaceful than where she is now, and she will have us to care for her. The adjustment will be hard on her at first, but she was raised on a farm just like you were." Joe softened his tone "You've been gone too long if you think money can solve all your problems Els, family can solve them too if they all pull together."
Elsie sat in her room that night lulling Charlie to sleep in the rocking chair Joe and Ivy had once used for Peter. Their argument from that afternoon was playing over and over again in her head. On the train she thought it would be easy to slip back into life on the farm, but perhaps life at Downton had changed her more than she realized. On farms families pulled together, no matter what. Even Becky had learned to feed chickens, set up jam tables and other simple chores when they were young. Elsie closed her eyes for a moment and envisioned what such a future would look like. Joe would be out in the fields with Peter ordering about the farm hands. Charlie would join them when he was old enough, but until then he would stay with Elsie and his real mother, tending to sheep with soft, warm wool and licking dirty spoons after they were finished baking pies and cakes in the kitchen. Then at night Elsie would kiss her sister and Charlie good night and crawl into bed where she would drive out the cold by cuddling up next to her man. Elsie opened her eyes to look at Charlie who was now asleep. She couldn't fathom a sweeter picture than the one that played out in her head, but one question plagued her mind: Could she marry Joe?