Chapter 4
Upstairs after leaving the nursery, Cora was terribly alarmed. Sybil was nowhere to be seen. She's even searched under her bed and everywhere in Robert's dressing room. That left the countless guest rooms and several other nooks and corners that she barely knew about. For a moment she wondered whether she should ask a maid or a footman to help her, but she shook her head and decided to look by herself. She knew Mary and Edith had been mean towards Sybil which made her very upset. She had already given Mary and Edith a good talking to. But Cora had to find Sybil by herself, cuddle her in her arms, hold her tight and tell her daughter that she loves her very much. And Cora started from one end of a corridor of guest rooms, one of many and many more.
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Very soon Cora realised the futility of her attempt. Even before she had covered half of the guest rooms, Cora felt exhausted. Leave out the rooms and still there's plenty of other places which she couldn't even guess the existence. Tired and miserable, Cora was almost about to find a footman when an idea sprang to her mind. She had completely forgotten downstairs! She had often heard of tales of Robert hiding downstairs and Rosamund's futile attempts to find him. With a flicker of new hope alight in her heart, Cora opened the almost invisible door to the staircase that led downstairs for the first time in two months.
There was quite sometime more for luncheon upstairs and the downstairs corridors were almost isolated. From the foot of the stairs Cora heard Mrs Patmore's voice from the kitchen. Instead of the usual frightening frenzy that was Mrs Patmore's voice when she was angry or busy, what now drifted from the kitchen sounded like a friendly and amused banter with the kitchen maids, probably some watercolour of an interesting experience painted into a colourful oil painting of a tale by Mrs Patmore's hilarious choice of words. Almost inaudible voices came from the servant's hall, one which Cora recognised to be Anna's. Carson was probably still upstairs, she had last seen him in the library discussing something with Robert. Cora walked gently across the corridor trying to make as less sound as possible with her pointed heels striking the stone floor. For a moment she wondered what mayhem it would be downstairs, especially in the mornings when everyone was running around with rushed footsteps across these hard and unfeeling floors.
She peeked into the Kitchen. Her first assumption was right. Mrs Patmore was entertaining some of the kitchen maids in a highly animated manner at the small table in the corner. They were all too preoccupied with their conversation that none of them seemed to notice Cora's presence, something for which Cora was grateful, now that she had concluded that Sybil was not in the kitchen. The last thing she wanted was for the servants to go looking for Sybil which would only result in the little girl disappearing into another place if she was present here.
She was about to make her way to the Servant's Hall which seemed to be the only place currently inhabited when a loud laugh of a child echoed from somewhere between the Butler's pantry and the Housekeeper's sitting room. Cora slowly stepped toward the Housekeeper's sitting room which was closest to her and peeked in through the door which was slightly opened and the sight that greeted her completely melted her heart.
TO BE CONTINUED…
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