By the beginning of November life for the Crawleys, Elsie and Charlie had returned to some level of normality, with Ella, Elsie and Charlie finding a new "normality" for themselves, turning their tete-a-tetes into an evening ménage et trios, the perfect little, secret, family below stairs, whilst maintaining the utmost professionalism upstairs. Ella had finally found the perfect balance between her two families.

David had disappeared as he had promised, almost the very next day after he had discovered his true past, and he had also done as he was instructed and had made no attempts to contact or acknowledge Ella in any way. She had asked her grandmother once if she had received any correspondence from him, to ensure he was at least keeping in contact with his mother, and was satisfied with the simple "yes" that Violet gave her.

Of course Violet never said very much about how she was coping or feeling about the situation she now found herself in, but Ella had tried to reassure her, that she held her no ill will for wanting to keep in contact with her son; if anything, she actively encouraged her to.

The only concern that Violet did raise, was the matter of the entail on Robert's death; Robert had set Murray to work on it immediately and the whole family were relieved to discover that there was a loop hole built into the original entail.

'Most entails clearly state that fortunes, titles, and estates can only pass directly from male to male through his blood line; however, rather unusually, this entail does allow everything to be passed through a female directly related to the current Earl and/or holder of the title, fortunes and estate. Therefore, providing Lady Mary has a male child, he will become the next Earl of Grantham.' Murray had explained much to the delight of the whole family, but to the slight dismay of Mary, who realised, that this would mean that she and Matthew would never inherit the title; but this was an added bonus for Matthew, who of course never wanted any of the fuss in the first place.

With David gone and out of her life forever, Elsie felt that she could finally move on with her life and truly allow herself to be with the man she loved. Ever since that night in the library, Charlie had changed so much towards her, that he was almost unrecognisable as the once stoic, professional to the last, man she had known several months earlier. He was still very much the gentleman and never conducted himself in an improper manner, that was promised for when they were married, but he did allow himself to be more carefree with his feelings towards the love of his life. He never failed to tell her daily that he loved and adored her and every now and then she would find a love letter or simple note hidden in one of her ledgers on her desk, or in between the pages of the book she was reading. She had even found herself writing back to him as if she was a lovesick teenager.

They hadn't yet announced their engagement to any of the staff, they weren't entirely sure if they even wanted the staff to be involved but they had started discussing a date for their union to finally become official. Mr Carson hadn't wanted to push Elsie so soon after what had happened with David. She hadn't been unwilling in any way, but he could see that her experiences had unsettled her and had obviously brought back a lot of bad feelings for her. He wanted her to walk down that aisle as his Elsie and only as his Elsie, the Elsie that only he ever got to see when she allowed herself to be at her most vulnerable with him. He didn't want the Elsie that had felt trapped for so many years or the Elsie that had almost been destroyed by what had happened to her.

No, he wanted the Elsie that sat curled up into his side, night after night in her sitting room and the Elsie that wasn't afraid show him affection and brush that loose curl from his forehead, the one that he had always hated in the past, but since she commented on how much she loved it, he too now fell in love with it.

That was exactly as they were sat now; late into their evening, when really they should have been going to bed, but enjoying each other's company too much to move.

'Perhaps we should wait until the New Year before we marry Mr Carson? You know how stressed and busy we both get before Christmas and I don't want our day to be overshadowed by all of that.' Elsie said as she sat on the sofa, which Ella had insisted on moving in to her sitting room for them.

'Perhaps you are right Mrs Hughes; but, well, I do beg your pardon at being so forward, but I do so wish to be your husband and to be, well to be with you as your husband, sooner rather than later.' He explained in a forward fashion that would previously have been very out of character for him, but within the sanctuary of these walls, he no longer felt any fear in being so honest with the woman he loved. She gave him a very knowing smile and felt sure she knew how to answer him, but there was a slight hesitation behind her eyes. 'What is it Mrs Hughes?' He prompted.

'Well, it's just, I do very much want that too, to be with you as your wife I mean, but…'

'But what?'

'Well, I've been able to disperse much of my guilt Mr Carson, that much is very true, but I won't be pure for you on our wedding night and I do still have such great difficulty with that.' She whispered a little teary and now he understood her hesitation.

'Ah, I see,' he replied as he sat up a little straighter in his seat, still holding tightly on to Elsie, but buying himself a few moments to gather his thoughts. 'Mrs Hughes, you having nothing to fear about that. You will be as pure for me on our wedding night and nothing will change that fact, not for me.' He whispered and placed a very tender kiss to her forehead, but she still had a look of uncertainty in her eyes that he didn't hesitate with his next move.

He tilted her chin up slightly with his finger and placed a very delicate kiss to her lips, which she reciprocated and they soon became very lost in their embrace with their caresses. That was until a knock came to the door. They straightened themselves so that they looked respectable once more, before Elsie allowed the person in, but was delighted when it was Ella who walked in, even if she had just interrupted a rather intimate moment.

'I'm sorry to call so late, but I've only just finalised the details and I wanted to come and see you both as soon as I knew. I have the most thrilling news for you both!' She said with hastened excitement and received a rather excited look from Elsie. 'No Mam, before you go getting THAT kind of excited, I'm not pregnant.' She explained and stifled a giggle at the look of disappointment on her mother's face. 'No, the news I have for you is regarding a gift that I have for you. Now, I don't really know how to explain this to you both, but I know you've been talking about what would happen to you post-wedding and I know mam that you've had certain other concerns regarding, well, regarding your financial situation. So I hope you don't mind, but I had already taken the liberty and had started this process a long time ago. The house in which you stayed in, albeit briefly, well, I actually started that refurbishment process myself, as I always intended to offer that to you both as your home. The deeds are in your name, it is rent free and mortgage free, you don't have to worry about any of that.' She said.

'Wait, you mean the house we stayed in all those months ago, that's our house?' Elsie said with astonishment. She had never owned a house before or even imagined she ever would and it was the most beautiful gift but, 'that's an awfully big gift to give away Ella. Surly you and Henry would be much better putting that money towards starting your own family!' She exclaimed.

'Don't you worry about that Mam; I can assure you that I have plenty of money for my family, when it eventually happens. But it's part of the reason why I want to give you this gift. I so enjoyed our time together in London, with no one to hide from or for me to feel embarrassed in front of, because I didn't have to call you Mrs Hughes. I was free to call you Mam and I loved every second of it. And when Henry and I do have a family of our own, they will be your grandchildren and I would very much love for them to be able to visit their granny and granddad freely.' Ella explained and both Elsie and Charlie felt so touched that she had thought of them in such detail regarding her future plans.

'I also have something else I would like to give you and I know you really will put up a fight regarding this one, but let me explain first before you start to object. I never knew that you had any family other than me Mam and I rather selfishly thought that you only ever stayed here at Downton because of me; it never occurred to me that it may have been because of anyone else. So when you eventually let me in on our family secret, all I want to do is help, well I want to help both you and my aunt.' She explained with a slight, shy, smile as she handed Elsie a cheque, to which she gave a loud gasp.

'Ella this is far too much I cannot, no I will not accept that!' She said and then instantly felt a little guilty at the sharpness of her tone. 'I'm sorry, I didn't mean to sound ungrateful.' She added quickly.

'You don't sound ungrateful, I know what I'm giving is probably a lot, but there are reasons as to how I came to that amount. See I'm rather ashamed to say that I never realised how little you all get paid until I started looking into it, so I have actually managed to secure a small pay rise for all of the long term staff; but I calculated roughly how much you should have had saved for your pension, based on your years of service and then I doubled that amount. That cheque is to ensure that you are both comfortable after you are married, so that you can decide whether you want to stay here and work, retire or go on an extended holiday, I don't know, it's now you're money to do with as you please; but it is also money to help pay for my Aunt Becky's care.' Ella explained and Elsie really didn't know what to say to her beautiful girl and her sweet offer.

'Well then, I guess we just have to settle on a date now, don't we Mr Carson?' She said tentatively as he gazed in astonishment at the cheque she had given to him.

'Ah well I had an idea about that as well!' Ella exclaimed.

Thank you so much to those of you who have stuck by me through my stories so far. Your comments and feedback is always greatly appreciated and I want to give a really specially HUGE thank you to Mona Love, as she has reviewed every single chapter I have written so far and stuck by me. So after this rather angsty fic, my next one is going to be so Chelsie Fluff filled that it'll burst at the seams lol xxx