Weeks after her attack, Elsie was still a nervous wreck and racked with guilt and torment about what had happened to her. She felt so violated, unclean and degraded and nothing she did could change it. Immediately after it had happened she had locked herself into the bathroom for hours as she scrubbed at her skin until she was raw and all the water had grown cold, but she still felt dirty.

Every ounce of happiness she had felt beforehand had gone and she no longer had anything to look forward to. All she could do was let her lack of self-worth consume her, as she certainly had nothing and no one to help her.

She had met with Joe Burns as she had promised him, but she was a former shell of herself and she turned down his proposal, much to his shock and dismay and she could give him no reason for her answer. She had walked away and left him in the middle of the village square, staring after her as she marched back towards the house. Once she was sure she was out of sight she finally allowed herself to sob until she couldn't shed any more tears.

She hated being in her Ladyship's room afterwards and conducted her tasks as quickly as possible. Cora noticed the difference in the older woman's behaviour and was concerned for her, but when she'd asked Elsie what was troubling her, Elsie gave her no indications of what her problems really were.

Her only relief from her painful reminders came when Lord and Lady Grantham decided to take a journey to America. She had always wanted to travel and now was her big chance. She would be gone for months, which meant that it would be a long time before she would have to face Downton again.

Everything was organised weeks in advanced and the tickets purchased for the ship. Away from Downton, Elsie felt a little more relaxed, but she still felt a little nervous. So nervous, in fact, that she felt a nauseous.

'Is everything alright Hughes? You look as white as a sheet!' Cora said a few days into the journey.

'Yes thank you Milady; just a touch of sea sickness. I've never travelled by ship before, so my stomach isn't used to it. I'm sure I'll settle in a few days once we dock.' But the sickness didn't pass, if anything it got worse.

At first she kept trying to ignore all of her symptoms, the sickness, her sore breasts and the fact that she was now nearly three months late. All the symptoms were there, but she didn't want to believe it. That was until Cora's concern grew to the point where she had to insist that Elsie saw a doctor.

'Miss Hughes, you are pregnant.' The doctor said bluntly and he emphasised her title. 'About three months I would say.' He added as he gave a very disapproving glance to her left hand, which she quickly pulled away and hid under the desk.

His bluntness towards her hurt had annoyed her the most about her new situation. How dare he judge her when he had no idea what she had been through and what she was about to go through.

When she returned to the Levinson House she made her excuses and went straight to her bed, advising that she had quite a migraine. She laid on her back and stared at the ceiling for hours, running her hand over her stomach, where her unborn baby was now growing.

She had expected to feel repulsed by this latest development, but she didn't. There was only one possible father to her child, as Richard Crawley had been the only man; but no matter how much that thought occurred to her, she just couldn't bring herself to blame her child. All she felt now was fierce maternal protection and for the first time in months, she was actually looking forward to something and her pregnancy gave her something that she hadn't felt in a long time, hope.

But her maternal instincts posed her many questions about what she was going to do about her bairn and about how she was going to protect it. The doctor's response to her summed up everything that her life would be from now on; an unmarried, single mother, a fallen woman with a bastard child. Both she and the baby would be shunned, for something that was neither fault of theirs.

'I will do anything to protect you, anything I can,' she whispered.

Over the next few weeks she contemplated several options, but none of them were feasible. For her and her child to be together, would mean her having to give up work, move to somewhere no one knew her and for her to become the widow of some unfortunate man; but that plan wouldn't work, since she would end up in the workhouse, with no money, no home and with three mouths to feed, hers, her baby's and Becky's too. But she was going to have to leave her Ladyship's employment soon, as she was beginning to show, and it was getting increasingly difficult to hide it, especially now that Cora was pregnant too and needed more attention.

Despite Elsie's efforts to conceal her pregnancy, Cora had noticed changes in her behaviour and in how she looked. She looked exhausted and didn't seem to move as easily as she once did and she also looked worried and constantly troubled, as if her mind was somewhere else. Then one day the opportunity to confront her presented itself and Elsie could no longer find excuses or brush it off.

She had been brushing Cora's long hair when she had accidently dropped the brush and she must have bent down too quickly or done something, because she suddenly felt a very sharp pain in her lower tummy and almost keeled over in shock. She just managed to sit herself down on the blanket box at the foot of Cora's bed before she fell to the floor and she felt as if the wind had been knocked out of her.

'Are you alright Miss Hughes?' Cora asked with great concern as she rushed from her chair to her maid's side.

'I'm perfectly fine thank you Milady; just a little dizzy, that's all.' She replied, but she was very breathless and fairly shaken up by whatever had happened.

'No you're not fine and you haven't been for some time now. Miss Hughes I demand that you tell me at once what it is that has been troubling you and I won't take no for an answer this time.' Cora said emphatically and was relieved when she saw all the emotions that Elsie had clearly been bottling up, came to a head as she began to weep.

'I'm so sorry Milady; this is terribly unprofessional of me.' Elsie said once she had calmed a little and dabbed her eyes with a silk handkerchief handed to her by Cora.

She explained everything to Cora about Richard; the comments he had made, the inappropriate contact and, finally, she told her about the night he had attacked her. Cora listened intently to the poor woman's story and she could see that she was in hell, which was only made worse when she went on to tell her of her pregnancy.

'I was hoping that I could have done this once we returned, but I see that I now have no choice. I will hand in my notice now Milady and I will leave in the morning for home.' Elsie said.

'No you won't. You have given me no cause to sack you and I feel that you have been treated unfairly as it is.' Cora replied, much to Elsie's shock.

'But you see, I must hand in my notice Milady; I won't be able to work for much longer before the baby is born and then when it is, I will need to find a family to adopt it, so that I can go on working in another house, somewhere I might be able to start again and try to forget…' But she couldn't bring herself to finish the sentence, which Cora thought meant that she wanted to forget about what Richard had done to her, when in actual fact, she really wanted to say "try to forget my baby is out there without me".

'Miss Hughes, don't go making any rash decision that you will later regret; at least let me try to figure something mutually beneficial to us all, alright?' Cora said kindly, but it wasn't until nearly a week later that she finally returned to Elsie with the answer, which had taken Elsie completely by surprise.

'I'm sorry Milady, but I'm not quite sure I understand you. You want to keep me and my baby at Downton?' She asked absolutely stunned.

'That's right; Lord Grantham and I will take your baby on as our own and bring it up as the twin of our baby and you can be their nurse or nanny until they are old enough. After that we can find a more suitable position in the house for you, so that you can come and go as you please and be with your child without any of the shame you would otherwise have had to bear.' Cora explained.

'I don't quite know what to say Milady.' Elsie replied quietly as she felt the tears spring to her eyes again and then she felt something else. She felt her baby move inside her, giving her a gentle dig in the ribs as if to say that she was alright with that arrangement.

And that, of course, was what they had done. With all of the excitement of Cora going into labour with Lady Sybil the day before, Elsie soon found herself in the midst of her labour pangs. She was a little earlier than they had expected, but the doctor on hand told her that everything was alright and that he had no reason to believe that she wouldn't have a healthy baby. So she pushed Ella into the world on a warm morning of April 14th 1896 and that was the last day, so she believed, that she was allowed to be mother to her baby girl.

As she held her in her arms and looked down at the tiny bundle wrapped in her blankets, Elsie smiled with genuine joy and looked closely at every one of her features. Her baby was gorgeous and stunningly pure.

'I hope you will never find out the truth, but if you ever do, I hope you will forgive me for what I am doing and I just hope and pray that it's the right thing. I love you more than anyone else in the world ever could and I hope you will always know that. I will always watch over you and always be there for you.' She had whispered and then she enjoyed the remaining, blissful hours that they had together.

Once Cora had taken Ella into her life as her daughter she had fallen in love with her instantly, but she never quite forgot the sacrifice that Elsie was making and she wanted to try and mark that in some way.

'Miss Hughes, what was your mother's name?' She had asked out of the blue one day.

'My mother's name was Rose Milady; why do you ask?' Elsie had replied.

'Well I would like to name her Aurelia Rose, so that you will always know that a little part of you lives on in her, always.' Cora had said.