LIFE IS THE ART OF CHOICE-13

Hello my friends. I'm here again to update. As I told you yesterday, chapters are shorter now than before and it will probably stay that way for a while, but I'm trying to give as much content to each chapter as I can. In this one, Elsie will have an interesting conversation with Isobel Crawley and she will pass the informations that she received to Charles later...Hope you will like it.

Elsie was really enjoying her new job. Helping the doctor seemed so much useful thing to do for her, than serving the aristocratic family. She never said that out loud, but deep in her heart, she always believed, that the way the Crawleys lived was outdated. She saw how the world has changed recently, how a way of life has progressed, how differently people were living now and yet, the aristocratic families, still wanted to function the same way as ages ago, pretending that the world has stopped.

Elsie often thought about those matters while she was still at Downton, but she never shared those feelings with anyone, even Charlie...Above all with Charlie. Even now, when they were married and shared their most intimate thoughts, she would still be careful about speaking such matters with him. She knew his way of thinking. He didn't embrace changes as fast and as willingly as she did. Elsie understood and respected his attitude. After all, people are different and what is obvious for one person, can be quite unthinkable for another.

Working for the doctor, she felt that her life had new meaning now. Of course her position was lower, than when she was a housekeeper, but she really didn't mind. Elsie was not a woman craving for honors. Her new job was much more flexible. Not only did she organized the office, which she has done with perfection, but also she was a kind and understanding guardian angel for the patients, who were attending their visits at the doctor. For most of them, those visits were uncomfortable at some level, sometimes they received bad news and they were devastated-Elsie's natural instincts-as warm heart and compassion for other people, were a tremendous help in this job. She was doing all she could, to make it easy for the patients, to get trough the visit. Her smile, her nice words and her will to help people, made her a perfect employee and Dr Clarkson thanked heaven above for his decision.

Also Mrs Crawley, who was a medical caretaker, found Elsie to be the perfect person for the job. They often shared nice conversations not only about work, but also about life in general and with each of those conversations, both Elsie and Isobel gained much more respect and admiration for each other.

In one of the rainy days, when the weather was simply dreadful, from morning till the afternoon, Elsie and Isobel shared their afternoon tea, after they finished sorting out the medical files of the patients. They could do it in peace today, as their were no patients scheduled this day, because Dr Clarkson was attending a one day medical conference in York. After they managed to sort everything, they decided to have a quiet moment with tea, biscuits and a moment of gossips...Especially Isobel had something interesting to say to Elsie and even though she was hesitating before, whether she should give this news to Elsie or not, she ultimately decided to do that after all...

"I'm so glad that we finally got a chance to sort things out. Those kind of days are the best for sorting papers, when the doctor is not here. He will be very contended about this new order. You are a real treasure Mrs Carson. I'm not sure how could I manage without your help."

"Thank you Mrs Crawley. It's no nice of you to appreciate me that way. I agree with you-the doctor will be pleased. He is really obsessed with the order in the office, just like me...I also like when all things are on the right spot. I guess it's a part of our Scottish heritage"-Elsie smiled and Isobel replied with a smile too.

"Ever since you started working here, this place is so much nicer...Earlier, we had few conflicts with the doctor, but as you came here it has stopped. You are a perfect conciliator, you know that?"

"Well, I guess that's a remain from my work at Downton, you have no idea how many conflicts I managed to compromised there."

"I can imagine. I always admired your work, when you were at Downton-I often repeated that upstairs, that they have no idea, how lucky they are having such person like you, who is practically running the whole house, but I'm not sure that they appreciated it enough..."

"I'm not sure about that too..."

"Can I ask you something?"

"Of course Mrs Crawley...You can ask me anything."

"Do you miss the old life at Downton? Do you find it difficult to be away from the house?"

"Would you be surprised if I tell you that not particularly? I don't want to seem ungrateful to you or anything, because without a doubt, that house and this job gave me a solid background in my career, but I do not miss it so much...Downton couldn't accept my new way of life...Our new way of life...Me and my husband and we can't imagine being apart anymore..."

"I understand...It's quite obvious, that you have a very loving husband Mrs Carson. I see how he looks at you in the church, but I sometimes wonder, is he not the one who misses that style of life more than you do?"

"Oh, he definitely does miss it a lot more...He doesn't say much about it, but I know him so well...He would never admit it..He likes his new job very much and he is appreciated, but it is impossible to compare it with being the butler of the house like the Abbey..."

"Still, he gave it all up just for you..."-Isobel smiled and there was a warm expression in her eyes...

"He did. Just as I gave it all up for him and so far, neither of us regrets this decision.."

"I'm glad to hear that...I was asking about it, because I have some news from the house and I was wondering, if I can pass them to you, would it not hurt you too much, but you seem to be ok with the situation, so I figured you would want to know this..."

"I would...What are those news?"

"You know that Lord Grantham found your replacement rather quickly?"

"Yes..He was so impatient for both of us to leave as soon as possible...We had to hurried our wedding and rent a room at Mrs Sanders, because it was impossible to find a cottage in such hurry.."

"I see..I wasn't aware of that...Anyway, he found your replacement..Some old comrade from the army recommend those people to Lord Grantham for the positions of the butler and the housekeeper. They are actually brother and sister-Mr and Mrs Flowers."

"Brother and sister? How very unusual...I never heard of anything like that before...And is His Lordship ok with that? He is reluctant to such revolutions usually.."

"He was a little surprised with it, but then he said, that although it's unusual, he doesn't see anything inappropriate in this, so he hired them, based on the opinion of his old friend and he already regrets his decision.."

"Is he really? Why?"

"Apparently, they have no idea about running a house, at least not such a big house as Downton...From what I've heard from Lord Grantham, there is a terrible mess in the question of the staff management..It seems that nothing is done as proper as it was before, when you and Mr Carson were in charge..."

"Well, I don't want to be harsh or anything, but he has no one but himself to blame for that.."

"Bu that's not all...Lady Grantham also mentioned, that when she visited the servants hall, she found it messy and untidy...She was shocked, as she never knew such situation..When you were in charge everything was working as it should be...But the worst part is...I'm not even sure if I should tell you this..."

"Please tell me..I promise that I won't repeat that to anyone..."

"All right...I believe you won't..Lady Mary confessed to me, that ever since they came to Downton, few valuable things are missing...In the beginning, they didn't notice, but later on, it started to be very suspicious...She never admitted anything openly, but I think that deep in their hearts, they are suspecting that the new butler and the housekeeper have something to do with it..."

"Now, that's an interesting information...Would you be very angry if I shared it with my husband?"

"Of course not. I rely on your discretion. Both of you...That's why I told you about it..."

"Thank you Mrs Crawley...I promise that besides my husband, I will not reveal it to anyone else..."

"I trust you Mrs Carson..."

Later, in the evening...

Charles and Elsie were sitting on the wide window sill. It was already a late evening, they were both after dinner and they sat in silence, enjoying their mutual evening together, listening to the sound of a falling rain...

Charles wrapped his arms tightly around Elsie and she snuggled into him, resting her head on his chest...She felt so calm, secure and loved...Every now and then, she rose her head and looked Charles in the eyes with love...He responded to those looks, by giving her a sweet kiss on the lips.. It was a magical moment and Elsie wondered, if it was ok to break it with news, which she received from Mrs Crawley...After a while, of the constant battle of her thoughts, she figured, that it would not be ok to hide it from him...So she started talking and she told him everything what she heard from Isobel earlier...Charles was so shocked, that he didn't say anything for a while, processing all her words...

"Charles...Will you please say something, because now I'm beginning to worry, if I did the right thing telling you this..Maybe it was better to keep those informations to myself?"

No Elsie..You did the right thing...I wanted to know this...I'm just so shocked and so surprised, that I found myself speechless for a while..."

"If you want to know what I think-he got what he deserved...He had the best butler in the world, but he wanted a change...So now he has one.."

"Elsie...You shouldn't say that..You know that he couldn't accept the idea of our marriage, but that is not the reason to disrespect him.."

"He disrespected you..And me..."

"But he is a Lord.."

"But that doesn't mean that he deserves more respect than we do...Anyway..I bet he regrets his decision now..."

"Maybe he is, maybe he isn't..I guess we will never know that..."

"One way or another..It's not our problem anymore...We should not even talk about it any longer..."-Elsie was worried, when she saw the pain on Charles's face.."Oh my darling, I'm sorry...I hurt you with it...I knew I shouldn't say that..."

"It's all right Elsie...Everything is all right now...I have a new job, a nice place to live and my wonderful wife in my arms..Could I possibly want more from life? I don't think so.."-Charles kissed Elsie's temple few times and tightened his embrace..

Elsie sighed deeply and she put her head on his chest again..He was now rocking her gently and after a while, she felt like she was slowly driffting off to sleep, in the safest place in the world-her husband's arms...Her last thought was, that she was glad that Charles took it so well, after that thought, she was sleeping deeply...She didn't see that Charles's eyes were still wide open, she also didn't see two large tears running down his face...

It got a little soppy by the end, I don't know why...I never plan these things, but sometimes they just happen...Anyway, I hope you liked this chapter, it was much longer than I thought it will be, but I guess that's because of Elsie's conversation with Isobel. That's probably the first time, that I had Isobel in my story and I'm happy, because she is one of my favorite upstairs characters...If you liked it, you know the drill ;-) Sorry ofr errors..Stay safe and see you soon!