A/N Thank you so much for your wonderful reviews so far! (and thank work for being not so buys today so that I could finish this chapter ;))
Have fun reading and let me know what you think! (suggestions, critique, anything)
Chapter THREE
She had only brought a few of her belongings with her. A picture of her parents, a smaller one of herself and her sister, a few books that were in her possession for years, the covers already worn and the pages yellowed and a little white rather fragile looking ivory elephant her father had once given her as a birthday present. She arranged those items on the bureau until they looked as if they had always stood there, making this room her room now.
Her two dresses she put in the wardrobe next to the door, a black one for church on Sundays and a dark blue skirt with a matching blouse. Then she finally took of her coat. She had bought this piece of garment before she had left for Yorkshire and spent a month's wages on it. The dark green colour of it reminded her of the hills that surrounded her parent's farm and it felt so wonderfully soft when she touched it. Her mother had called her a sentimental lassie for spending so much money on a coat just because it reminded her of her home and country. Carefully she hung it next to her black dress and then began to remove her travel clothing. It was all dusty and the seam wet from walking across the lawn earlier that day.
Only wearing her thin shift and her corset now she took the pins out of her hair and let the dark brown curls fall down onto her shoulders. A small mirror stood on top of a chest of drawers next to the window with a pitcher and a porcelain bowl next to it. She would just wash her face and her neck before stepping into the starched black dress and become the head housemaid of Downton Abbey.
The cold water felt good on her skin, like washing off the old Elsie Hughes and changing into Ms Hughes the head housemaid of one of the grandest estates she had ever been privileged to work at. An old song from her childhood came to her mind and she quietly hummed it, her mind travelling back to the few happy and carefree days of her childhood causing her to miss the soft knock on her door.
"Ms Hughes I forget to…" she shrieked and he shut the door with a loud bang.
ooooo
PRESENT
"I am still utterly sorry to have caused such an embarrassing situation on your first day." He furled his brows in genuine concern now. She had tried to distract him from the actual matter to avoid having to talk about all the things that burdened her heart. It had not worked. Charles Carson had never been a man one could easily fool when it came to worry. He was like her in such situations. "But that was not what was bothering you, wasn't it?"
He was still standing behind her chair looking down at her. She could not decide if she should offer him to sit down or stand up herself. "Would you mind if I sit down for a moment?" It solved the open question she had on her mind but it did not solve the fact that she was not ready to tell him what had caused her distress.
"Of course not Mr. Carson." So he took a seat in the chair next to her.
"Now, whatever is the matter? I haven't seen you look so sad since your mother died a few years ago." His voice was so soft and gentle. Somehow he was the only person she confided in. Since her first day at Downton she knew she could trust him. And he always managed to make her open her heart, though never completely. There was one thing she had always kept hidden from him. With good reason.
ooooo
Lord Grantham was a very kind man, slightly older than her but a bit younger than Mr. Carson who stood behind her while introducing her to his Lordship. His deep and penetrating voice had adopted that unemotional tone again and he continued to talk to her like that during the rest of the day. It was apparent that since he had walked into her room and caused that awkward situation he tried to act as though it had never happened.
She was introduced to the other housemaids, all young girls from the ages of fifteen to twenty-one, the footmen, young tall and good looking lads that sure turned a few heads, and a ladies maid. All welcomed her with a warm smile.
"I will introduce you to our cook, Mrs. Patmore, and his Lordships valet, Mr. Watson, later. We will serve dinner now to the family. You may stay downstairs for the time being."
The table in the servant's hall was almost deserted while everyone was upstairs and busy with attending to the family. Only a young kitchen maid and two of the hall boys sat at the far end of the table, casting her shy glances from time to time. Before she would sit here for another hour, Elsie decided to make herself familiar with the rooms downstairs. She knew where the butler's pantry and the housekeeper's sitting room where located. Across from that were parts of the large kitchen, now busy with the footmen running in and out of it carrying plates full of delicious looking food. She could hear the demanding voice of the cook, ordering the kitchen maids around. Along the corridor she found the door that lead to the linen cabinet and another one where they kept the liveries. Every room had a label at the door indicating its purpose. That was another huge difference to the houses she had so far worked at. There she had to work from the moment she stepped through the door. They had not given her time to settle in or even introduced the rest of the staff to her. Downton Abbey was indeed different.
ooooo
It took her two weeks to get used to the daily routine that was expected of her. She knew her way around the house by then pretty well and that one moment on the day of her arrival was obviously forgotten. Mr. Carson was still stern from time to time when he talked to her but when she met him somewhere in the endless corridors and staircases of the house they could talk about everything – from the nice spring weather that had turned the gardens into a blossoming paradise to stories about Downton and the current inhabitants. He had a font of anecdotes to tell and she enjoyed listening to them, watching him talk, how his face changed from that stern and controlled look to a one with wrinkles around his eyes and a smile upon his lips. Mr. Carson had been employed at the estate for a good 12 years now, starting as a first footman and making his way to the top position he held now very fast. And she could understand why. He was efficient, a master of delegation, stern yet fair to the servants he had under his jurisdiction. Elsie was not used to work so closely with the butler. In fact she had always avoided it at her previous employments since that one incident when she had started working in service as a young, inexperienced housemaid of twenty two.
He had been much older than Mr. Carson, at least fifty. She had been introduced to him at her first day by the housekeeper and then started work right away. Only in the evening did she see the butler again while the staff gathered for their dinner. He had talked to her, asked her about her family, had smiled at her broad accent. Just like Mr. Carson now. But then, after two months, she had met him alone one evening when she was busy preparing one of the larger bedrooms. He had closed the door behind him and before she knew what was going on she had felt his lips on hers and his hands on her bottom. She still could not remember how she got out of the room and up to her room where she locked the door behind her and sank to the floor, crying and sobbing for the rest of the night until the housekeeper sent out one of the other housemaids to look for her. The man was dismissed a few days later but it took Elsie a year to get over this one incident and come to trust the new butler and men in general. Mr. Carson was different.
ooooo
When she was alone in her room at night, though exhausted after a sixteen hour day, running up and down the stairs constantly, she had problems falling asleep. Her homesickness kept her awake and it had hit her so unexpectedly that she often cried herself into sleep. She could not tell what she missed in particular, maybe it was the landscape, the familiarity of her surroundings, her family, the smell of the air after a rainy day. But it was not only the feeling of having no real home anymore there was also something completely the opposite that made it hard for her to close her eyes at night and grant herself the rest she so desperately needed. His face. His smile. The sound of his voice. And she did not think about Joe anymore. Her mind was occupied by Charles Carson. One thing she had always tried to avoid had happened to her, her wall had not been strong enough. She had fallen in love.
A/N sorry... "present" will have to wait until chapter four!