A/N: Oh my! All of your responses to the last chapter just blew me away! Thank you all so much. I couldn't kill Mr Carson, he's much too fun to play with and I think Mrs Hughes would have come after me if I had. Now, for a little Mrs Hughes moment before Mr Carson turns up. I'll post the last installment in a couple of hours after I've cooked and eaten my very English dinner. Enjoy!
_the man in the moon_
Dinner tonight is shorter than usual. They are still on rations and will be for some time, but this week they have tried to make the food closer to the meals they had before.
Mr Matthew has taken his first steps, even though his doctors were not sure he ever would, and insisted he was well enough to join the family for dinner.
He could not - Mrs Crawley, Lady Mary and Miss Swire had all insisted on separate occasions to herself and Mrs Patmore - stay at the table for very long. Doctor Clarkson added to the instructions with a list of foods Mr Matthew is encouraged to eat.
She had served, as did her maids and The Dowager sneered only the once before biting her lip. It is their luck that the old bat adapts just as the times change again.
But now she is finished, the dishes are cleared and washing and she has a moment spare to sit outside before she must see to the ledgers and books.
The moon is bright tonight, keeping it lighter outside than it should be in November. The world seems quieter, as though it knows that a war is over and peace is coming.
She thinks of him now, pulls out her memories of him from the places she has been tucking them away all day. He would like that Mr Matthew is showing so much improvement. He would not like Miss Lavinia Swire and the way that Lady Mary watches them together, her breaking heart in her eyes. She wonders what he might say about Mr Matthew's own wandering eyes.
"Someone is going to get hurt in the end." She whispers to the moon - to him -, the words leaving her lips in white wisps of warm air. "I don't think it's going to be your blessed Lady Mary."
She has a few more moments before Mr Bates or one of the maids comes for her. She will talk to him for just a little longer.