A/N: Here's chapter two! I'm sorry that it's only a short chapter again! Thank you to everyone who reviewed and followed!

Merry reading!

Elsie busied herself for the rest of the day. She didn't really have anything important that needed doing but she ensured that she had little tasks here and there. She needed to keep her mind occupied. She needed to keep her mind off of Charles.

However, avoiding him in her mind was far easier than avoiding him in person. As housekeeper and butler at Downton, there were naturally things that they needed to discuss. She would have to see him sooner or later.

Elsie closed the last window in the library and headed towards the door. She sighed, opened it and stepped out of the room, right into Charles' path. He, however, was too interested in the piece of paper he was holding to notice where she was stood and so walked straight into her.

"Mrs Hughes!" Charles grabbed Elsie's arm as she stumbled backwards. "I do apologise!"

She pulled away from him and straightened her dress, "It pays to watch where you're walking, Mr Carson."

"Again, I apologise Mrs Hughes," He sighed.

Elsie motioned towards his note, "Not bad news, I hope?"

Charles looked at his hands before back at her, "I was actually hoping you'd be in your sitting room."

"Oh?"

"There's something that I want to talk to you about."

Charles placed a bottle and two glasses on the table next to Elsie. As he sat down, she poured the wine into the glasses. She handed him his and waited for him to speak.

"As you know, Lady Mary wished to speak with me this morning." He took a sip of wine. "Sir Richard Carlisle has proven to be an even more devious man than we first expected."

Elsie raised an eyebrow, "I didn't think that possible."

"He asked Anna to do a little job for him."

"Anna? Our Anna?"

He nodded and handed her the note that she'd seen him with earlier. As she read it, he explained, "It would seem that Sir Richard doesn't believe that Lady Mary's feelings for Mr Crawley are quite as quelled as he would like to think and-"

"Therefore thought it acceptable to ask Anna to spy on her." She finished for him.

"Well, I'm not certain exactly how acceptable he thought it was but he did it nonetheless." He took another sip of wine. "As soon as Anna found the note he had left her, she took it straight to Lady Mary."

"And so she should have done. I know Lady Mary is no angel herself but nobody deserves to be treated like that."

Charles started to slowly spin his wine glass on the table.

"Mr Carson?" She spoke softly.

He shook his head and sighed, "I cannot make myself work for a man like Richard Carlisle, Mrs Hughes."

"Then don't." She said plainly.

His gaze met hers and she could see how truly torn he was just by the look in his eyes. He sighed again, "But she needs someone to guide her, to help her."

Elsie startled him by heavily placing her wine glass on the table. "Why can't you just forget about you precious Lady Mary and think about yourself for once? Or even those others around you?"

Before he had chance to speak, she had said goodnight and left.