Chapter 1: A Letter from Home

Mornings at Downton occurred exactly like clockwork; the downstairs staff rose early from their beds and began their daily routine of chores. The cooks and scullery maids began preparing the family's breakfast and tea, the footmen went out to fetch the milk and also the paper which they had to iron for the Lord of the house. The maids went upstairs to make the beds, the lady's maids and valet waited patiently for the bell to ring to request their presence upstairs, and the housekeeper directed everyone around her to ensure the duties were performed. A new day had dawned upon the house and it was alive as ever.

The bell rings in for Lady Cora's room, followed by Lady Mary's. The only bell that had not rung had a new name written underneath it:

Miss Emily

"Don't you find it a bit strange that she's never actually rung for you before?" Daisy Mason asks, bringing in a basket of the produce from out behind the house. She was talking to Anna Bates, the lady's maid to all the women of the house except for Cora.

"Not so strange, she was just raised differently than what we're used to," Anna says. "I see a lot of Lady Sybil in her, the desire to be independent and all."

"An odd duck that one is," one of the maids says, passing on her way upstairs. "Even insists on making her own bed."

"We can't all be spoiled, now can we?" Anna says, scolding the maid for insulting a member of the house.

"Wonder what it's like in Canada, if it's pretty and…"

"Daisy!" a voice calls out angrily. Mrs. Beryl Patmore was the stern head cook of the house and frowned angrily at any lollygagging, especially first thing in the morning. "For the lord of heaven and earth bring in the groceries before it all rots away, and we have to feed the family table scraps."

The assistant cook rolls her eyes and brings the food basket inside as Anna ascends the stairs into the upper part of the house.

The lady's maid does wonder on occasion why she does not serve the youngest member of the household, but always assumed that was the way she was raised. She had hardly ever been in the girl's room at all since she arrived, only to gather laundry or any extra things that weren't needed at the time.

Lady Emily Atkinson, although she never went by her formal title, was now officially the adopted daughter of Lord and Lady Grantham. It had been quite the shock when the lord had received word that one of his dearest old friends from the army had passed on and the Earl now had custody of the friend's daughter.

Always considered an "out of the box thinker" Lord Anthony Atkinson was a man who helped enhance his family's wealth and name by building his own fortune as one of the main creators of the Canadian Pacific Railway. He and his wife Miriam raised a son, Marius, and their daughter Emilia in Canada. Anna only knew the details of how the Lord and his wife passed from Lady Mary and Edith, who said it was the Spanish Flu. Additionally, with Marius MIA during the war, this left the poor girl an orphan at a very young age. This also meant that Emily was the sole heir to her parents' estate. However, due to her father failing to update his will and her age, the money went to the next, very distant male cousin, leaving Emily with very little and an empty existence. She was then sent to Ontario to live with her grandmother for several years until her grandmother passed on of old age. A section of her father's will was read and the "out of the box" thinking came back into play as Emily was willed to be put under the Crawley family's care if anything should happen to her immediate family. The girl's arrival into the house sent many ripples and changes through everything and everyone. The young twelve-year-old took to the youngster of the house first, bonding and adoring them. Her fierce independence and carefree attitude took everyone by surprise but also opened their minds. She made friends with everyone in the house, upstairs and down and enjoyed simple pleasures such as a good book or dancing outside when it was snowing. Anna enjoyed hearing the girl's laughter in the house and always welcomed the girl to their home to visit her, her husband John Bates, and their son Johnny.

The house was rocked with further drama when two years ago, Emily's brother Marius reappeared having been living in France and struggling with amnesia for quite some time. He had carried on with life, getting married and expecting a family, despite not knowing he had a sister who missed him. The poor girl was angry and upset at first, but she eventually came around to embracing her brother again despite his absence. This welcomed new members into the Crawley household again.

The drama continued when Marius was arrested and charged for murder and rape; this was due to him having come to England several years back and ending up in bed with a dead prostitute with no memory of how he got there. The fierce nature of Miss Emily shone through again as she worked hard to free her brother just in time for Lady Collette to give birth to twins, Jacob and Joy. The family visited as often as they could and Emily spent summers at her brother's home, which led to her being absent when the royal family came to visit last year.

"Good morning Anna," the young girl says, coming out of her room, fully dressed and ready to take on the day. "How is little Johnny?"

"Happy as ever milady,"

"Anna, for the hundredth time, please call me Emily," the girl smiles in good humour.

"So sorry Miss Emily," the maid winks before going off to tend to Lady Mary.

Emily walks downstairs to the dining room.

"Good morning Papa Grantham," she says cheekily, hugging him. Her term for affection for him was comforting to both parties.

"Well, I could never replace your real one, but I do appreciate you not calling me 'Donk' as Sybbie did," Lord Robert Grantham says, putting down his paper to greet his adopted daughter.

While he felt as though he couldn't be responsible for a fourth daughter when he'd received the news; young Emily's love and spirit had grown on him immensely and subconsciously allowed her to become a new part of their family. He always felt a small glow of love every time she called him "Papa." She reminded him of all his daughters when they were that age, the light and hope in her eyes was often intoxicating.

"You know she always meant it as a term of endearment," Emily says before heading over to her seat at the table. "Good morning Barrow."

"Good morning milady," Thomas Barrow, the butler of the house said politely.

Emily rolls her eyes, wanting to remind him to call her "Miss Emily" but decides to serve herself breakfast as she always did.

Soon Henry Talbot and Lady Mary came down to the table as Lord Grantham read out the headlines of the day.

Andrew Parker, the footman comes in with the mail, giving it to Thomas.

"Mail has arrived My Lord," the butler announces, bringing the stack of envelopes over.

"What's in the mail today Barrow?" Lord Grantham asks, putting down the morning paper to pick up the post. Thomas helps him sort through the letters, seeing if anything would pique his interest. The butler was well-known in the house for gossiping with the staff if anything interesting happened upstairs.

"The usual sir, but there appears to be a letter from Canada My Lord."

"Canada?" Henry says, spreading marmalade on his toast.

"If the postmarks are correct, it is from that region. To which I believe is meant for Miss Atkinson," the butler responds, holding out the envelope to the newly seventeen-year-old girl.

"For me?" Emily says in surprise. She puts down her knife and fork to receive the envelope presented by Mr. Barrow. She hardly ever got mail, and if she did, it was usually from Marius or a friend out in Saskatchewan.

"There appears to be a legal seal on it, so I assume it must be important." Barrow continues before taking a step back, despite his curiosity of the situation.

"How often do you get mail from Canada Emily?" Mary asks, sipping on her tea. Intrigued that something interesting was going to be happening at breakfast today.

"Not very often," the young girl answers, using her fingers instead of her adopted father's letter opener to open the envelope. "I usually only get Christmas cards from relatives once a year and once and a while my friends in Saskatchewan and Nova Scotia will send me letters, but that's it."

"If it's a legal letter, it might have to do with your father's estate," Robert says. "If anything has happened, we can always get Murray involved."

"Thank you, Papa," she says as she pulls the pages out.

She reads quietly to herself. Her brow knits together the further her mind absorbs the words on the paper and from the looks of it, her blue eyes begin to fill slightly with tears. The once plastered smile on her face has vanished, leaving her with a face of worry.

"What's wrong Emily?" Mary asks, beginning to feel concern for her adopted sister.

The girl doesn't respond at first. She continues to stare at the papers with fretful eyes. The entire table is quiet and the suspense builds in that silence.

"Everything all right Emily?" Robert asks more loudly, which snaps the girl out of her distressed trance

She looks at her adopted father and then at the rest of her family. "Y-Yes, excuse me, I have to go call Marius."

She gets up abruptly and leaves everyone else in shock and confusion about what had just transpired.

…

"Emily, are you sure it's from him?" Marius asks over the phone.

"From all the times I had to watch him sign the papers that took away our home; I'm positive that it's his handwriting."

"Why is he contacting us now?"

"That's the question," the young girl says, continuing to look around to ensure that no one is listening in, especially Thomas, whom she knew liked to listen and then gossip downstairs. "And why me? If anything, this letter should have gone to you. You are the male heir"

"You know Father wanted to split the estate and money equally between us, he didn't care about male heirs."

"Well you know that split was thrown out of court and went to Eli, the only male heir at the time."

"Maybe he contacted you because he knew your address and not mine."

"But everyone in the family knows you're alive and where you live now, something doesn't seem right here."

"Collette and I will bring Jacob and Joy to the house next week and we'll discuss this further."

"Papa Grantham offered to get his lawyer involved if we need him too."

"Let's not count the chickens before they hatch Em, we have to be smart about this."

"I know, but the idea of going back this summer does sound appealing," she sighs. "Don't pretend that you don't miss it."

"I've always missed it," Marius says, smiling at the other end. "Not a day goes by that I don't think about our time on the beach, building sandcastles and digging for treasure."

Emily giggles, smiling warmly at the memory. "Should I tell the family?"

"I suppose; I know you can't keep secrets very well, just don't build their hopes up,"

"I'm not that bad," Emily playfully pouts. "I love you and I'll talk to you tomorrow."

"Love you too Emily."

The girl then hangs up and sighs deeply wondering how to frame this complicated situation for her family.

…

That night Isobel Grey and her husband Richard, along with Violet Crawley come over for dinner. Violet was struggling more and more these days, considering her diagnosis last year that she didn't have long left to live, but she never showed it to her family. She was a strong woman and would continue to do so until she was bed-ridden and unable to walk. She also kept her wits about her, always having something clever to say no matter the situation. Known as "Aunt Isobel" and "Grandma Violet" to Emily, the girl hardly spoke to them or anyone else the entire evening. She is quiet all through dinner, pondering the dilemma in her mind while picking at her food. Everyone notices her changed demeanour and even after dinner when the children are brought into the library to play for a little while before going to bed, she does little to interact with them. This visit was a tradition that Emily had started after insisting that the children needed more time with their parents like she had growing up. Never having nannies or tutors; Marius and Emily grew up close to their parents and Emily wanted this to be the same for her adopted family.

Emily sits at her adopted father's desk, the letter still in her hand, deep in thought.

Even when Sybbie insists that she play with her, Emily says she will soon and brushes the request aside.

After what felt like an eternity, the young girl stands and goes to the front to finally address her family, apparently having mustered the courage to speak in front of them.

"I have a proposal for everyone," she says, standing in front of the hearth.

"A proposal, please Emily dear such things are only meant for business deals, charity events, and engagements. Please tell that you have not bought rings for all of us."

Emily smiles at her adopted grandmother's wit and then clears her throat.

"I know you've all been dying to know what's happened. So, the letter I got today was from my cousin Eli Atkinson, he's the one who inherited my father's estate after he died."

"Wasn't that because the court threw out your father's desire to split the inheritance equally between you and Marius?" Cora asks, glad that her adopted daughter was speaking about what was troubling her. She'd heard about what had happened at breakfast and wanted to ask Emily about it, but the girl had disappeared for most of the day.

Emily nods.

"And isn't he the one who insisted you come here after your grandmother passed on?" Isobel asks.

Emily nods. "Part of me believes that he wanted any other heirs gone so he could have everything."

"Shouldn't Marius be the one who inherits the estate now that he's proven to be alive?" Mary asks.

"That's what I thought too," the young girl says. "But both he and I agree that we're happy here in England too. We have families now. We always assumed that Eli would never even answer our letters if we tried to bring it up in court."

"Until now?" Tom Branson prompts as Sybbie brings her father a picture that she's drawn for him.

"Until now…" Emily bites her lip and inhales sharply. "How would all of you feel about vacationing in Canada this summer?"