Hoping to give you a little something to brighten your day.
The room seemed so still and quiet. Usually it was now when the lights dimmed and Nanny was tucked in her own bed next door that Sybil would ask one of those odd or silly questions that would lead the Crawley sisters into talk rather than sleep. From her bed Mary glanced across the room to Sybil's empty bed. She was surprised how much she missed her little sister with her ever present smile that so easily erupted in a deep hearty laugh.
Certainly it was quite a contrast to the ever dour Edith Mary thought as her glance moved to the bed next to Sybil's. She told herself she'd never again roll her eyes at Sybil's endless questions, no matter how silly they were for they were certainly better than Edith's constant whining. However was she to endure four more days alone with Edith?
Hearing the creaks of the iron bed frame as Edith tossed around Mary barked. "Must you make so much noise I'm trying to sleep!"
"I'm just trying to get comfortable" Edith replied.
"Well could you try to be a little quieter" Mary snapped. She looked up at the ceiling. Why couldn't it have been Edith who went to visit friends? That thought caused Mary to loudly snicker. Who'd want Edith to visit?
"Now who's being noisy?"
"Oh pipe down Edith. You keep me up half the night and I-"
An incredulous Edith sat up. "Half the night! It probably isn't even midnight yet."
"Well it seems like it's been hours."
Edith surprised Mary by not offering any further retort and as the seconds ticked by Mary thought maybe her sister had finally fallen asleep.
"Do you think Sybil will really stay a whole week at Imogene's?" Edith's voice was unexpectedly soft.
Mary deeply sighed as she looked up at the ceiling. "Why wouldn't she? Imogene and her brothers seem like a rather wild bunch with their mother letting them do whatever they want. I imagine Sybil's having a grand time."
"I'm surprised Mama let Sybil go. None of us have ever been away overnight before."
"You're just jealous you have no friends to visit" Mary snapped.
"What friends do you have?" Edith retorted.
"I don't need friends."
"Of course not" Edith's voice as harsh as Mary's. "You can't accept someone being your equal, you always have to be the center of attention."
"Oh at least I'm-" Mary halted. Sometimes it just wasn't worth it arguing with Edith. "I'm going to sleep" she said as she turned her body away from Edith and towards the wall.
As the motor car rounded the final curve of the long driveway, the trees gave way to an open field and the large brick manor house finally came into view. It wasn't nearly as impressive as Downton thought Cora but then Imogene's father was the third son of a Duke not the heir to the title. As she looked towards the house Cora thought how much she had missed her youngest daughter this past week.
When the motor car came to a stop in front of the house, Cora expected Sybil to come barreling through the front door gleeful at seeing her mother but when the doors opened it was only the butler that made an appearance. He ushered her into the house and led her to the large sun-filled morning room where the former Amelia Corning of Maine sat reading a book.
Rising from her armchair tucked away in the far corner of the room, Amelia, a wide smile gracing her pretty face, walked across the room to greet Cora. After exchanging pleasantries, Amelia motioned for Cora to sit on the sofa and she sat down beside her. Facing the open French doors, from the sofa one had an unobstructed view of a lovely garden currently awash in a riot of colorful blooming plants and a tall graceful fountain.
"It's been a pleasure having Sybil here this week" Amelia said as she busied herself pouring tea for the two of them. "She and Imogene get along so well and I don't think they've stopped laughing all week."
As if to emphasize that point the quietness of the room was shattered by the sounds of laughter heard moments before the two girls came scurrying through the French doors and into the room. Cora had had qualms about Sybil staying for a week with her friend Imogene since it would be the first time Sybil had been away from home but any thoughts Cora had on Sybil getting homesick were negated by the obviously happy young girl now standing in front of her.
The motor car had barely stopped in front of the tall wooden doors of Downton when Sybil, without waiting for either the chauffeur or the butler to do so, opened her door and bounded out of the car.
"Have you missed me Carson" she brightly bubbled but she gave him little time to answer as she breezed past him towards the open doors of the house.
"Papa!" "Papa!" Sybil called out as she raced across the tiled foyer and into the small library. "Papa!" she called out once again as she spotted her father sitting at his desk in the larger library. "I'm home!"
Robert face broke into a broad smile as he rose from his chair. He held his arms wide as Sybil rushed into his arms and he swept her up. "You must have eaten a ton of ice cream this week for I can barely lift you up" he laughingly said.
Sybil vigorously nodded her head. "Tons with lots and lots of chocolate sauce!"
"So did you miss me Papa?"
"Miss you?" Robert teasingly answered. "I didn't realize you were gone until Mama said this morning she was going to Laurel House to get you."
"Paaaapaaa" Sybil stamped her foot.
Robert laughed. "Of course I missed you. I can't remember when the house was so quiet."
"Oh Papa I had the funest week of my life!"
A week later and Sybil still talked of her holiday with Imogene and her family which in Sybil's telling every day was a perfect day filled with fun and laughter.
"Wouldn't it be fun to be able to stay up until you wanted to go to bed?"
"I think I'd like to go to sleep now" replied Mary.
"One night we stayed up till midnight playing cards with Harry, Jack, and Imogene's cousin Evelyn." Sitting up in her bed, her back resting against the pillows, it was obvious Sybil wasn't ready to go to sleep. "And then we were served a midnight snack of cheese tarts and ham sandwiches right there in the playroom before we had to go to bed."
"And of course the night we camped outside-"
"I still don't think I'd like sleeping outside on the ground" Edith murmured. "I can't imagine it was very comfortable and weren't you afraid of animals?"
"Oh please Edith must you keep encouraging her? It will be dawn before we get to sleep."
"So what would be your perfect day Mary?" Sybil asked.
"It certainly wouldn't include sleeping outside on the cold hard ground or playing cards at midnight with Harry and Jack Winstone."
"No Mary wants to sleep in a bed of roses" Edith said to which Sybil began laughing.
"But a bed of roses would hurt unless of course it was the kind of rose without thorns."
"I'm not sure of my perfect day" Mary began "but I know it would end with me sleeping in my bed in my own room."
The nursery was just getting the first rays of morning light when Sybil quietly slipped out of her bed and headed for the playroom. There she walked across the room, the wooden floor cool to her bare feet, to one of the window seats. As she so often did on these early mornings, she sat on the cushioned seat and watched the sky lighten bathing the grounds outside with a warm glow. To her delight a few deer stood at the edge of the woods enjoying the lush summer grass.
"Ah there you are Lady Sybil"
Sybil looked away from the window to kind and gentle woman who had been her nanny since birth. "It looks like it will be a beautiful day Nanny."
"So we'll spend some time in the gardens this morning."
"I think that will be wonderful" responded a smiling Sybil.
As she often did the nanny had brought Sybil's day clothes with her and dressed her young charge there in the playroom.
"Oh I forgot your hairbrush miss. We'll have to go back to the nursery."
The nursery which only minutes before had been a tranquil scene was now one of chaos with clothes scattered about on the floor.
"That's my hair ribbon!"
"Must you dress in the same color as me?"
"I put this dress on before you had even gotten out of bed" came the harsh retort.
From the doorway their nanny looked to Sybil's nanny, shook her head, took a deep sigh, and quietly said "it's going to be one of those days."
Unlike the nursery the Downton dining room was quiet with only Robert sitting at the table eating his breakfast while reading the morning newspaper with Carson standing guard over the sideboard. Although the sideboard was covered with several dishes it seemed rather wasteful since only Robert ate breakfast here.
Engrossed in The Yorkshire Post Robert didn't hear Sybil tiptoe into the dining room. Swatting his forehead and then behind his ear, he tipped his newspaper forward. "Carson I think there's a bug in here!"
"You may be right sir" came the stately butler's reply. "A rather big bug I think."
"I think you're right Carson" said Robert as his hand latched onto the small hand that was touching his neck causing Sybil to giggle. "It's just me Papa" she managed to say between giggles.
"And what brings you down here this morning?"
In reply Sybil sighed deeply in a rather dramatic gesture. "It's one of those mornings."
"One of those mornings?" Robert peered at his youngest daughter.
She shrugged. "Mary and Edith. Oil and water." The nannies often said those two didn't mix just like oil and water, a phrase Sybil wasn't quite sure what it meant the first few times she heard it. She tried a few experiments mixing oil and water to rather disastrous results followed by, in her mind, quite unjust punishments.
As Carson and Robert exchanged looks, Sybil took a plate and began filling it with eggs, crisp rashers of bacon, three sausages, grilled tomatoes, and two pieces of toast. Taking her rather full plate she sat down at the chair on her father's left so she could look out the windows while enjoying her breakfast.
Robert, lifting a brow as he looked at Sybil's plate, remarked "Didn't you have breakfast in the nursery?"
"Not this morning." Leaning in towards her father she whispered "Mary and Edith." Then leaning back she looked at her plate. "We only get oatmeal and toast … it's quite boring."
Robert turned again towards Carson, trying to hide his smile.
Halfway to clearing her plate Sybil set her fork down and looked at her father. "Papa don't you get lonely eating breakfast every day by yourself?"
"Well I have my papers to read and usually the post comes around now and-"
"But" Sybil interrupted her father "wouldn't it be better to have someone to talk to, say if you read something amusing or especially interesting."
Once again she leaned in towards her father. "I think I have a …" her brow furrowed "a … oh drat what's the word."
Perplexed as he often was in dealing with one of his daughters Robert couldn't imagine, and in truth a bit leery, of what word his daughter was trying to remember.
"You have a problem Papa and I have a problem."
"I have a problem?"
"Yes Papa. You have a very lonely breakfast every day and I have … well you know Mary and Edith. I think if we ate breakfast here with you then you wouldn't be lonely and the day would get off to a better start for Mary and Edith.
"You want to join me every day for breakfast?"
"Oh yes Papa. And for luncheon too."
"Luncheon?"
"Imogen and her brothers, not her sister because she's still a baby, eat with their parents for every meal unless there's a party or company."
"Have you talked to your mother about this?"
"Oh!" Sybil clapped her hands. "You think Mama would like to join us too?"