Chapter 27
November 1901 – Downton Abbey
Mrs Hughes was doing the final round for the night. Mr Carson was in the library waiting on His Lordship. Her Ladyship was already in bed and O'Brien had also retired for the night. The halls were quiet and the faint light of candles swallowed the bright reds of the carpets and dimmed them into a gentler shade of maroon. The air was getting cooler by the day but almost everyone was complaining about the snow being late this year. By this time on most other years the Yorkshire landscape would be a crisp thin layer of snow upon dying grasses and a rough wind howling among the trees. Back in Scotland, Elsie was used being knee deep in the snow, walking from the house to the barn and back, the cold biting against her cheeks. Maybe her upbringing among the highlands was what made her better at standing the cold than most others at Downton.
She stopped at the far end of the gallery where through a large window silvery moonlight poured into the corridor, the shadows of branches dancing across the mingling yellow and silver light. Elsie leaned against the windowsill and gently pressed her cheek against the cold glass of the window pane. The night was lonely and silent and it didn't take long for the cold to shoot through the entirety of her body making her shudder a couple of times till it registered the cold. She watched the moonlight play over the lawns at the back of the castle and on the glass walls of the greenhouse which housed exquisite roses, set up by the Dowager in the 1880s. The fairy tale like metal fittings which curled at the edges into a spiral and held a lamp, looked enchanting in the moonlit night. The lamps were not lit and Elsie imagined stories of fairies and princesses. And from the distance she eyed a few floating specks dancing across the sky. The first of the snow. A single snow flake floated along with the wind, hovered a few times over and stuck to the glass. Elsie gasped. The first snow flake. Like a child once more, she wondered whether she should make a wish.
Elsie gave her hair a final pat making sure several pins were firmly in place and adjusted the tiny brooch on her collar. Her first peak from the tiny window by the staircase revealed a vast expanse covered in a thin layer of snow. Perhaps she might get a shawl down to her sitting room later, it was bound to be cold later on.
She walked down to the servant's hall and Mr Carson arrived a few minutes behind her and they began breakfast.
"Did you see it's snowed?" Anna asked Jane excitedly.
"It looked beautiful this morning!" Jane replied equally excited and Elsie couldn't help but smile at her porridge at the excitement of the young girls about the snow.
"What's so special about it? It comes. Gives us a hell of a nightmare and then it goes. That's hardly something to be excited about," Mr Watson, His Lordship's valet sneered beside her and annoyance crept through her bones.
"But Mr Watson isn't it beautiful and so peaceful outside," Nancy asked a bit naively oblivious of the valets intense disapproval of almost anything.
"If you could call trying to keep your neck unbroken each walk to and from the village peaceful," he countered in an even more disgusted tone.
"Mrs Hughes?" Anna asked expectantly. The young girl guessed that given the Housekeeper's Scottish roots she might not have an aversion to snow unlike the London born valet.
"I like the snow," she stated her opinion plainly and simply, and watched the girls become more animated having found a fellow supporter for their cause in the Housekeeper. They knew she wasn't one to elaborate why and how or go into fascinating descriptions of snowy landscapes, dripping with romantic metaphors.
"Well, when one comes from the where there's sunshine most of the year this is hell. But to some others who are pretty much out of forests there might be some appeal to the cold and dreary," the impertinent valet remarked eyeing the Housekeeper from the corner of the eyes, an evil smirk on his lips and Elsie stiffened but not visibly, choosing to pass the comment on as if unheard. There'll be far more grave things to argue about.
Mr Watson had always been at odds with the Housekeeper over mainly her heritage and her confident command of the downstairs staff despite it. He particularly seemed displeased that the Scottish Housekeeper held a rank above his. But no one else took particular interest in his age old prejudices but his offhand comments which were not substantial enough for a reprimand were not lost on many of the staff. Mrs Hughes chose to ignore than fight a petty battle of words but the clever Housekeeper, never being one to give up, defeated the valet on many other ways.
He tried to win a supporter in Miss O'Brien, but the shrewd woman had not forgotten the times when she was called out in reference to her Irish inheritance by the same valet and therefore preferred to have her own tune. Besides though she was often at odds with the Housekeeper, she didn't consider her one of her enemies.
After breakfast of a day with its own ups and downs Mrs Hughes proceeded with her inspections. She walked into the drawing room only to be engulfed in a massive cloud of smoke and a trembling kitchen maid peeking through it at the Housekeeper in mortal fear.
"Daisy for heaven's sake! It's a fire not a coal mine!" she shouted at the young kitchen maid but instantly regretted her tone when she saw the girl's lower lip begin to tremble and eyes fill with tears from behind her soot covered face.
"Where's the sheet?" Mrs Hughes asked in a milder tone, still maintaining a trace of her stern advising and commanding.
"I f… for… forgot Mrs Hughes…" Daisy stuttered.
"Get it here," Mrs Hughes asked in a gentler tone and Daisy scurried away and fetched the sheet from her many tools.
"Give me these two corner," Mrs Hughes took hold of two corners and helped the girl lay the sheet in front of the fireplace.
"Th… Thank you Mrs Hughes," Daisy mumbled trembling in fear afraid to look directly at the Housekeeper's eyes yet peeking at her.
"Don't let me catch you again!" she warned.
"Yes Mrs Hughes," Daisy nodded.
From the drawing room to the library and dining room and then Mrs Hughes was walking along the upstairs corridors, checking the work of the housemaids. The door of the nursery was ajar and she peeped through it. Lady Sybil, still in her nightgown, was standing on a stool by the window, her hands pressed against the pane watching the snow fall. Lady Mary and Lady Edith was fast asleep, it was nowhere near the usual waking hours for the girls. A rush of wind brought a few snowflakes towards the window and the little girl softly clapped her hands in excitement, but managing not to wake her sisters. With her little index finger she traced the path of isolated snowflakes melting against the glass of the window which was warmed by the fire crackling in the nursery.
Mrs Hughes smiled as the young girl leant forward to kiss a snow flake that just landed through glass of the window. She shook her head quite happily and walked on with the adorable image of the little girl by the window still playing in her mind.
"Elsie! Elsie!" her mother called to her from within the cottage. Still no answer from the girl and her mother walked towards the door mumbling in annoyance only to see the young girl standing in the ankle deep snow with her hands and stretched out and upwards along with her face towards the sky savouring snowflakes landing on her hands and face. Little drops of white already littering her auburn hair.
"Elspeth! Ye gonnae catch yer death out there!" her mother shouted but young Elsie didn't seem to take notice.
"Elspeth lass! Are ye out of yer mind?" her mother called out angrily.
"A wee moment Mam," Elsie replied, her eyes closed and the scarf around her neck at a jaunty angle. She heard the rustling of her mother's skirts grow distant as she shuffled towards the kitchen and for a minute or two young Elsie became Princess Elspeth, only till the drunken voice of her father slurring his words as he shouted out an old bawdy ballad to the night sky came drifting on wind from the road by the fence. And Elsie scurried inside, fear creeping up her heart in anticipation of anything ranging from bad to worse.
X x x x
To be continued…
Thank you so much for your kind reviews! You make me so happy. And my apologies for the considerable delay. I rewrote this chapter several times in different settings till it felt alright to me. (But still not very sure about the outcome.) I'd love read your ideas on the story. Thank you! See you soon with a new chapter!