Elsie and Sybbie were in the kitchen, making cookies, when the family came downstairs.

"How does your cook let you use her kitchen?" Robert asked, looking around the room. Elsie and Charles looked at each other, smiles on their faces.

"Well, she's no Mrs. Patmore," Elsie replied, laughter in her voice. The family laughed aloud. "Once a week, we give the entire staff the day off, so we have the run of the place, as it were."

"And they accept this?" Violet asked, sitting at the desk in the corner of the room. Charles nodded.

"We have a relatively small staff. No butler, an under butler, no housekeeper, two housemaids, a cook and a cook's assistant.

"The cook and the under butler are in charge of the downstairs, while Charles and I run the house. I couldn't have a housekeeper in my own house, so I still do that part of the job, although I do use the head housemaid quite a bit," Elsie said, helping Sybbie frost the cookies.

"I repeat, they accept this?" Violet asked again. Elsie looked up and nodded.

"They do. When we arrived, we discovered that the butler and housekeeper had taken off together, and left the place in disarray. Actually, it was Mrs. Fielding and Samantha's idea to use us and not hire anyone else. It has worked so far."

"Well, that's because you haven't had any parties yet."

"Yes, we have. We had one the weekend before you all arrived," Sybbie said, still frosting her cookies. Robert and Cora looked at each other, knowing looks on their faces.

"How about I make some tea and we could move to the library?" Tom asked, jumping into the conversation. Elsie looked over at him, thanks written on her face. He nodded, before heading to the sink to fill the kettle.

"I'll bring everyone back upstairs," Charles said, moving around the table, behind his wife, to lead the way. While he passed Elsie, he pressed a kiss to the back of her head, squeezing her hip gently.

"Sybbie and I will be right up. As soon as we're finished down here," Elsie told him quietly. "Although, I think I might go have a lie down instead of tea. I've got a bit of a headache coming on. I should be down by 1:30."

"Alright. I'll make your excuses."

"Thank you, darling."


After Sybbie and she had cleaned up, and Sybbie had successfully brought the cookies to the library, Elsie went up to her bedroom. She had a had all day, but at the moment, it was starting to knock the wind out of her sails. She felt that if she didn't lay down soon, she'd fall over. Little did she know.


Cora had told Charles she would go check on Elsie after seeing the look of concern on his face after checking his watch for the third time.

As she made her way down the hall towards Charles and Elsie's bedroom, a bad feeling rushed over her. She hurried down the hall, rushing through the slightly open door, to find Elsie half on the floor, half on the chaise lounge in the room. She gasped, and ran to the stairs, shouting down.

"Charles! Isobel! Come quickly!" Charles ran through the doors of the library so quickly, Cora was surprised the doors didn't fly off their hinges. He ran up the stairs and down the hall, Isobel not far behind. She watched them until they disappeared, before turning back to the stairs, seeing the rest of the family standing at the base of the stairs, concern and confusion written on their faces.