From this evening I must give the British people a very simple instruction - you must stay at home. Boris Johnson, 23rd March 2020.
Chapter 7
Elsie Hughes sat at her desk.
She had been out that morning and done a quick shop – got in all the essential treats she felt as if she was going to need over the next few days.
She had also written a to do list. If they were going to be stuck in for a while, she thought she might as well get on with a few jobs which always got forgotten about in the busy seasons at the house. If she was going to have time on her hands she may as well use it well.
And Beryl and the kids were here and settling in.
Therefore, her lock down prep was done. She could do no more… And that, she thought, was something.
She could not imagine what it was going to be like, without the public in and out of the house. As much as she complained about them, she could not picture what that summer was going to be like without them.
Ultimately, she was a people person, and she was going to miss them.
A clatter occurred outside her room – something had been dropped, causing her to rise from her desk.
A wry smile appeared on her face. It was bound to be one of Beryl's girls she thought to herself and so she would be gentle. If they were all living together for a long time, all urges of irritability were going to have to be curbed.
As she emerged from her office she swore she could hear feet pitter patter up the stair case and upon arriving in the hallway she was surprised to see Lady Sybil Crawley in front of her.
Apparently she was just as much as a surprise to Sybil who looked as if she had got her hand caught in the biscuit barrel.
Elsie did not think she had ever seen her down here – especially not mid-afternoon.
"Are you quite alright?" she asked with a smile. She had to say, if Charles's favourite of the Crawley girls was Mary then Elsie had a soft spot for Sybil.
She was quite the kindest and the sweetest of the three of them.
"Oh yes – yes I am fine," she said with a smile.
"Is there something I can help you with?" she asked and raised her eyebrows just slightly. She didn't want to be seen to have a go at her for that was not what she was doing.
But this was curious.
"Umm… no, no thank you Mrs Hughes," she said as she gave her a smile.
Then without further ado she ran up the stairs – after someone, or so thought the manager – leaving Elsie in her wake.
With nothing to do, she walked back into her office.
She was still trying to work out what was going on exactly when Charles popped his head around her office door.
"Did the move go well for Beryl and the children?" Charles asked.
"Oh, I think so." She said with a nod. Whether it had or not though, they were here and that was the main thing. "I dare say that we are going to have to help her with a bit of home schooling over the weeks to come," she said with a grimace. She did not think she was made to teach but if she was called into action then she was going to give it ago.
She had a feeling that was going to be the rule of the day now – they were going to have to give it ago.
"There does seem to be some sort of blitzed spirit about all of this," he said. "Yes – yes I dare say we will," he said.
Elsie had to smile. Trust Charles to romanticise this.
She had been about to get back to work, when the question returned to the forefront of her mind. What had Lady Sybil been up too?
"The most bizarre thing just happened," she said as she looked at her colleague.
He shrugged, "We are living in strange times," he said as way of explanation.
She thought it unliked him to show any further interest, but then he was right. They were living in stranger times indeed. With that he wondered off, leaving her to wonder just who Lady Sybil had been with.
X x x
When Cora got hold of Robert, she had to say she felt rather ratty and tired. It had turned into, quite unexpectedly, a long day of checking her phone. He had had no right to keep her holding on for an answer as he had done all day.
Sybil had got back from the hospital in good time to watch the announcement with the rest of them, she had been assured by Edith, though her youngest was yet to present herself in the drawing room. Robert was now the only member of the family they were waiting on. She would be so glad to go and collect him, despite of everything. They could thrash this out when he arrived.
"Oh, thank god this is your father," Cora said as she looked around at her two eldest girls as her phone rang. Both of them smiled at her as she left the room is search of a little privacy.
"Darling, what has been going on with you?" she said at last. "I have been trying to get in contact with you all day."
"I am so sorry - I have not been in contact – I have had meeting after meeting, and I have not long got out of them."
"Well then you had better get yourself together and get yourself to Kings Cross." Whilst there was still time…
There was then a silence which she did not like and she almost did not need to be told what it meant. What he was going to say…
"I am not on a train…. And I won't be getting one tonight. I am going to lock down here in London. I am so sorry."
Cora felt as if everything she had ever known of her husband was up in the air right then.
When they had spoken about it she had been sure the two of them had agreed that they were going to lock down in Yorkshire. At least that was what she had heard.
Now, she knew they had not said the words. Surely that didn't matter though.
"But – but the rest of us are up here. I do not understand." she said.
If he did not come up and lockdown with them then she had no idea when she was going to get to see him once more.
"I can't leave government right now. I need to be here in case I am needed." He said and she felt as if she wanted to scream. He could not leave the House of Lords but it had been presumably easy for him to see her leave for Yorkshire. It did not matter what he said – she had a feeling that he knew he was not going to follow her up. And yet – well, as not to make it obvious - he had not given her any great goodbye. He had not come to the station to wave her off.
He had not held her for especially long to savour the moment with his wife.
"You are needed here." He had to be safe here with them. He was needed by their family and he was always going to be. Or so she had thought she thought to herself.
"Darling, it is not going to be for so long and we'll be back together."
"You don't know that. No one knows that," she said and for the very first time in her life, she put the phone down on her husband.
He wasn't coming. Robert did not know when he was going to get to be with her and his daughters once more and that had not been enough of an incentive to come and be with them.
She wasn't sure what she felt except a disappointment beyond disappointment, as she went back into see her girls.
She might as well tell them straight.
"So what time are you Papa picking up?" Mary asked as she looked at her mother who looked paler than she had been when she had left the room. "Mama, are you quite well?" asked Mary following up her first question quickly.
But it was then Sybil came in with a bowl of crisps, before her mother could reply.
The young midwife was glad to see her mother, sisters and brother in law. "It feels as if we are getting ready to watch a very strange version of the queen's speech. "she pronounced.
"God save our gracious Bojo?" asked Matthew, laughing gentle at his own joke as Sybil plonked herself down.
"You look like the cat who has got the cream," said Mary as she looked at her littlest sister, attention diverted temporary.
She had to say she did not know if she trusted that look when it was on Sybil's face.
Sybil shrugged and turned on the TV, not meeting Mary's eyes.
Mary had been about to turn her attention back to her mother, when she suddenly realised the moment they had been waiting for had come…
Boris Johnson appeared on the television, with a Union Jack to the right of him and a red room behind. Sybil vaguely wondered where he was in Downing Street – what floor was that room on?
But then she focused on what he was saying, and all such little, frivolous thoughts fled her mind.
'Good Evening,
The coronavirus is the biggest threat this country has faced for decades – and this country is not alone.
All over the world we are seeing the devastating impact of this invisible killer.
And so tonight I want to update you on the latest steps we are taking to fight the disease and what you can do to help.
And I want to begin by reminding you why the UK has been taking the approach that we have….'
When at last the broadcast stopped, there was a moment of silence in the room as everyone tried to digest the magnitude of what had been said.
"I can't believe this is actually happening," said Edith out loud. She felt as if she had been hit by and ten tonne truck. So this was it. She was truly not going to be allowed to see Bertie for weeks and weeks. And he couldn't come and see her either.
She felt heartbroken and yet desperately relieved. She knew she should not be and she wasn't – but the truth was she didn't know how to feel.
"You did not think this was going to happen at all - would you like to take a guess at how long we will in lockdown?" Mary bite at Edith. She had been wrong about Brexit too.
Cora had to say she wished Mary would not be so spikey right then, she knew it was due to the fact she was as worried. Yet she was ready to step in.
"Mary I really do not think that is helpful right now," said Cora. She was not going to let her get at Edith without at least trying to help her.
"Well - we all could see it coming, save Edith as normal," Mary jabbed, looking at nothing before she turned to her mother.
If anything with every word Boris had said she had lost more colour.
"Mama – what is it? What's wrong?"
"Do you not feel well Cora?" Matthew asked. "Would you like me to go and collect Robert from the train station after all?"
"No thank you." she said a little coolly.
"Mama, you do not look in any state to go yourself."
"I am not – but there is no need for any of us to go. He isn't coming."
Focused as they were on Cora, Mary and Matthew did not notice Sybil slip out the room once more. That was it. Lockdown was coming into force. No one could move in. And no one could move out. She smiled, and went up to her room.
X x x
Crawley House
'Each and every one of us is now obliged to join together.
To halt the spread of this disease.
To protect our NHS and to save many many thousands of lives.
And I know that as they have in the past so many times.
The people of this country will rise to that challenge.
And we will come through it stronger than ever.
We will beat the coronavirus and we will beat it together.
And therefore I urge you at this moment of national emergency to stay at home, protect our NHS and save lives.
Thank you.'
Isobel turned off the tv.
So this was it. They were going into lockdown. And that meant everything was going to change.
When she thought back even a couple of weeks, she could not have seen this was coming. And now – now the wedding, which was mere months back, seemed as if it was years ago.
Thank god they had got it in before all of this.
She felt a hand on her shoulder and covered Dickie's hand with her own.
The truth was what was immediate concern in her head was the two of them. His health was not good and she was not going to – could not - give up working in the care home.
She did not know how they went forward side by side.
"I love you," said Dickie.
It felt to him as if they had not married any longer than Mary and Matthew. He did not feel as if she was any less his sweetheart and they did not want to be together any less. Age was no impediment to love or feelings.
"I love you as well," returned Isobel. That was so easy for her to say.
She scratched the back of her neck and stood up. Right.
She had had her moments and there was no good in self-pity. Now it was time for them to say the less easy things.
"I think we will have to wait and see if you do get a shielding letter in the post - but if that is the case – then we have got a few decisions to make." Isobel declared as she tried to be as practical as she could.
"Darling-"
"I can't give up work right now." She said, for she was not the kind of woman who ran away.
From anything at all.
Ever.
No, she knew her role here was to stand by the care home she loved and those who lived there.
But if she did that, then she was not sure how she would stand by her husband, physically, simultaneously.
"No and I would never ask you to," he said.
When they had married, he had known they were not going settle in to a cosy retirement. She may be getting older but that was not what she wanted from her life. She was going to carry on working for as long as she could – not to a number, a pre-set age she worked towards. She'd give up work when she ready, neither before nor after.
No one would put her out to pasture for it was such a big part of who she was.
But then he was a part of her as well and he was always going to be.
They looked at each other, trying to find an easy way around this. The trouble was, there wasn't one.
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