Chapter 24 - Thanksgiving

November 1926

"Well look at that, my precious wee lad." Elsie giggled, holding her baby boy's hands as she helped him onto his feet for the very first time. "Look at you!"

Brett gurgled with interest, furrowing his brow as he looked down, studying his uneasy, chubby feet. Elsie held on tight, knowing he would fall if she didn't hold him up right.

"There you are! You're standing up m'wee lad, just like mummy and daddy."

Brett grimaced, almost recoiling at the inhospitable feel of the cold floor against his tiny toes. "Ooooh!" He cried.

"Don't worry m'love." Elsie teased. "Mummy will always be here to make sure you feel steady." She paused sadly in that instant, her heart heavy because one day, much sooner than he needed, this wouldn't be the case.

Elsie sniffled a bit, tears in her eyes as she whisked him off his feet and held him close. Brett was relieved, having not liked this whole standing thing much. She pressed her nose against his and very softly kissed his tiny lips. Brett giggled happily, his eyes shining bright as he stared up into his beloved mummy's face. Elsie giggled through her tears, her heart soaring as she rubbed her nose on his again.

"Oh my wee babe." She beamed. "How can you be real, my wee miracle?"

"Abbababa." He babbled, nibbling on the tip of his mummy's nose.

"What's this about then?" Carson asked, coming into his wife's sitting room, surprised to find her on her knees.

"We were just trying a little bit of a walk that's all daddy."

"He's… he's walking?!"

"No, no." She giggled. "I was just standing him up on chubby feet for the first time. We've a while before he'll be ready to toddle about. Or even stand on his own."

Carson stared a beat, painfully sad that the boy could be big enough, even for this.

"It's going by so fast." He almost whispered.

Elsie looked up, smiling sadly. "I know, but the lad's still very much a wee thing, and besides, I still can't believe we've a baby of our own."

"Nor can I." He chuckled warmly. "I'm here on a related note, Mrs. Hughes."

"Oh?"

"Lady Grantham feels … Nostalgic for America." He raised an eyebrow, almost disapprovingly.

"That does sound interesting." She said, getting back onto her feet, baby in her arms.

"She wants the whole of the house to celebrate that peculiar American holiday…"

"You mean Thanksgiving?" She chuckled sweetly. "Charlie I should think it wonderful for us all to celebrate Thanksgiving. After all." She said. "Mummy and daddy have so much to be grateful for!" She squealed, tickling her baby's cheek.

Carson hadn't approved much of the idea, but his heart softened greatly as he watched his beloved wife with their baby.

"How would you like that my wee one? My lad's first American holiday."

"Don't." He warned. "Get him too used to it."

Elsie laughed. "And you wouldn't support the lad if he ever wanted to go to America?" She asked as he followed her out of her sitting room and down the hall.

"I should say not!"

She sighed, rolling her eyes.

"Tell me that can't be what you want for him!" He cried as they entered the kitchen and she hurriedly placed the baby in the highchair.

"What couldn't?" Beryl asked, feeling she had a stake in this. Neither replied.

"It's not about America, Charlie. I want him to be free. Free of obligation, able to find a way in life that he likes."

"Well that sounds rather … bohemian." Carson said with disgust. "I should like the boy to find a sound profession and…"

"It's very American, Mr. Carson." Elsie clarified. "Or…Should I say, Cheerful Charlie?"

Carson stiffened, his eyes widening seriously. He'd never considered Cheerful Charlie, not in light of his son and his future. His heart sunk and he found himself hoping his lad wouldn't be like him and go out seeking a life of adventure. He cleaned his throat, trying to hide his emotions.

"Hmmm…Bretton." He said very seriously.

The boy looked up at his dad, sucking his pacifier intently. He raised an eyebrow in just the way his father was prone to, something that made Elsie giggle, but Carson didn't notice the similarity.

"You shall find a post… A respectable post…" The butler instructed.

"For heaven sakes don't be silly he doesn't know what you mean! Brett m'lad, mummy just wants you to be happy."

"Oooh here we go." Beryl huffed sadly.

"What?"Carson and Elsie asked, turning to her in the same breath.

She gazed at them both uneasily before continuing. "Y-you're both strong people I don't mind saying that."

Elsie gave a satisfied, sweet smile, but Carson almost huffed with pleasure over the compliment, neither of them seeing it wasn't really a compliment.

"Don't put the lad between you, heh? I never thought it'd come to this?"

"Come to what?" Carson questioned, but Elsie paused, starting to get it.

"That you'd quarrel over how to raise the lad."

"We're not…"

"Yes Charlie, I think we are." Elsie sighed sadly.

"Well. I am the boy's father Mrs. Hughes…" He observed pointedly, aiming to remind the women that the position endowed natural authority.

"And I'm his mother." Elsie countered.

Carson raised an eyebrow, gazing over at Beryl disapprovingly. "Mrs. Hughes, I think we should take this up later." He said, almost storming out of the room.

Elsie sighed, rolling her eyes as she Beryl handed her a bowl of baby food, the cook gazing out the door angrily. Brett looked up at his mother, confused.

"If there's one thing I didn't consider when Mr. Carson asked me to marry him, it was how we'd raise the baby!"

…

Elsie went home early that night. She was mad at Charlie but had already planned on making dinner at the cottage and didn't want what she planned on preparing to spoil. She started a fire in the hearth, and laid the baby on a blanket with his toys, kissing his head gently as she did so. Brett was not yet able to crawl, but could pull himself up on his hands, or bring himself to a sitting position and back down again (often because he just simply fell over).

She was still a little mad, but went to work on the cooking (which her testy husband still didn't like much) with joy in her heart as she listened to Brett babble to himself happily as he played with his toys.

As much as they were saddened by his fast growth, Elsie found she couldn't wait to have a real chat with him. To teach him and talk to him, and know what he thought about things. She was impressed that he was 'saying' so much, having always heard that little boys were often slower to talk than girls.

"What's mummy's chatterbox talking about?" She questioned.

"He's talking now?" Carson asked, shaking little flakes of snow off his coat as he came into the cottage.

"He's babbling up a storm." Elsie came to greet him. "No doubt he's got his own opinions on how he's to grow up."

"His own opinions?" He asked, intoning that he thought this preposterous. "Dare I say, it is for me to have an opinion on that score, not him."

Elsie sighed, "Yes. And for you to have an opinion on dinner, and how the bed's made… And what we get up to in the bed."

"Elsie! … Please don't speak of the marriage bed in front of the baby…"

Elsie bit her lip, not wanting to say it. She'd wondered how they'd function as a married couple when he'd proposed, sure, but had figured they'd get on well (eventually) as they did in everything else. She knew everything would be a struggle from the start and that she'd soldier on and get through it to better times because she was in love with him, and he with her and that met more than anything else. So far, that had been true. Their spats over food were mostly better now, they were far happier in each other's company than not, and their intimate life had become something they both looked forward to… When Brett would allow them to have one.

But today's conversation took Elsie back to a sensitive place, to a realization she'd had during her lonely pregnancy and she found herself wanting to tell him that if she'd known there'd be a baby she might have thought twice about this union. Not because she didn't want to have his child, because she did, and having him was a miracle. Only. She didn't think it fair for Carson to battle her every step of the way, on everything about their baby. It had a mother, and a father, and a mind of its own for a reason…

She paused, not really meaning what she felt. Part of her felt the fool, but she knew she'd have chosen him no matter what. Still, she thought it best not to say any of that. She sighed, still wanting to be the reasonable partner. For this not to be a fight when it didn't have to be.

"Mr. Carson… As you can hear, he's a very spirited lad with a lot of ideas. He's already trying to talk."

Carson paused with amazed interest, now really listening to Brett who babbled on and on, about nothing in particular. A proud smile spread across his face after a beat.

"He-he's…"

"Our little chatterbox has got a lot on his mind Charlie. Why don't you settle in, warm up, then we'll talk?"

…

"Your right." He said sternly as they sat down to dinner. "As much as I have my opinions and trust me I have opinions that will be heard, and obeyed Mrs. Hughes."

She moved to speak, but he continued.

"You are his mother and should also have your opinions be entertained and respected. As for his…"

"Charlie, just listen to him. He's a clever lad. Don't you see, he's very special?"

"Well of course…"

Elsie dropped her anger, even as it still lingered, overcome with emotion about her baby. "Charlie we both have a lot of stake in him. Remember when I asked you if you wished you'd gone another way?"

"I take it you had?"

"I wished I had. And that I'd done it with you, you old boobie."

He looked at her in surprise as they picked at their dinner, each turning to the baby when they heard him squeal to himself as he lie on the floor, cuddling one of his toys.

She gazed at her husband, tears in her eyes. "I married you because I'd been waiting. I loved you Charlie and I'd wanted to build a life with you. I wanted to be the mother to your children. I never dreamed, when you finally asked me that I'd get the reward of that second part."

He looked down, actually blushing, touched that she said this. "I…I also wanted to go another way with you. In just that manner."

"We didn't have the right to expect to have a baby together, and somehow we do. Twenty-years after we should've."

"Yes." Carson sighed, his breath heavy. In that instant it hit him that fate had intervened, causing his precious son to miss the great war.

"He's so many chances you and I never had. I never got the chance to have fun, Charlie. I never got the chance to do something that I didn't just have to do. I know you did and I envy that."

"I…" He tried to protest, but she continued.

"I know you had a life of adventure that ended up hurting you so much." She confessed, not having said this before.

She'd known about Alice before. But she'd found out about Alice in greater, more painful detail after they'd married, and knew right away that she, and her rejection of Charlie were part of his reasoning for wanting their son to have a very strict, regimented life.

"I want him to be free to explore, to find out what life lies out there for him, Charlie. I know that causes pain, my darling but it also leads to great joy… Like marrying your love… And going another way after all."

Carson stared at her, tears in his eyes, amazed with her eloquence. "Yes. I…I want him to live a respectable life, but I also didn't want him making a fool of himself and getting crushed like I did."

"And he can't get his heart broken in a school or an office? Charlie. Life will happen to him. It's not what we teach him to be, but who we teach him to be that'll get him through."

"And we're the perfect people to guide him as he enters this brave new world?"

"At that we are Charlie." She promised, kissing his cheek as she stood, collecting the plates. "Because daddy is strong, and noble, and mummy is kindhearted and level-head…ed."

The two stopped, stunned when they saw movement out of the corner of their eye, suddenly realizing that Brett had managed to crawl, just a few inches.

"Well look at that!" Elsie cried, putting down the plates before she could drop them, "He's taking over the world already!"

"Indeed he is!"

Elsie and Carson stood, on pins and needles as their son made his way across the floor, very slowly, trying out his new skill with extreme curiosity.

"See Mr. Carson?" Elsie questioned, noting the awe in her husband's eyes. "Isn't it better, to just find joy in what he decides to do?"

…

"M'lady?" Carson asked.

He stopped cold at the sight. First, he hadn't realized that Lady Grantham was in the library at all, much less that she was spending time with all the children. Including his.

Cora smiled up at him, Brett on her lap, Sybbie and George at her feet as she read to them.

"I hope you don't mind Carson." She smiled, cuddling the baby. "But the children have been so wanting him to come and play and Mrs. Hughes thought he was finally just big enough."

"Not at all, m'lady." He raised an eyebrow in surprise, watching as George stood, whispering to Brett and playing with his fingers.

Brett giggled, growling at the older boy and Carson was surprised to see George do the same, the two in on some kind of joke.

Cora beamed down at the boys, running her fingers through Brett's hair.

"Master George is very happy to have another little boy to play with." Cora remarked. George nodded soundly, a big smile on his face.

"May we be friends Carson?" The older child asked.

Brett didn't pay attention, instead trying his best to manhandle the book Cora held.

Carson paused, slightly aghast by the consideration, but then he supposed that somehow, it made sense. Even so, Carson found himself slightly rattled by the idea. Perhaps Elsie was correct, that Brett really would have very different chances, and a different life than they had.

"Yes Master George. Yes, you and Bretton may be friends."