Chapter 2
One day, when your mum gets better and we save up enough pennies, we'll live in Sidney, by the sea, there'll be lots of boats and…
Bolocks, mum didn't get better, there was no way on earth they could ever save enough 'pennies' and they didn't move to Sidney.
It was the 8th September 1911 and a older and more cynical Thomas stood in the kitchen of Downton Abbey, polishing a gold plate. Anna had come downstairs with her ladyship's tea tray and news of overhearing a conversation about a trip to the seaside for a few days. This caused great excitement in the kitchen as it meant a few servants would get to go with the family to a house belonging to a relative of the Grantham's, and the rest would have the days off.
However, Thomas was not excited, if it wasn't bad enough that it would have been his father's birthday (had he not died four years previously) but it was also likely that he would have to spend it at the beach. And all that did was bring back bad memories. Memorise of his old home in Manchester, where they decided to move from when his mother had first become ill. Of how his dad told him of the vast luscious fields of Yorkshire, which they move no were near, and how much better it would make his mum feel.
He scolded himself for believing such fairy tales, even at that age. He scolded himself to think he believed she would get better, his father could actually get a job (he was a clockmaker by trade but there was no work for him there so out of desperation he went into service half time as a butler to an elderly woman. He then got two other part time jobs, and it still wasn't enough to cover the medicine costs, the doctor was kind enough to visit for free; but by the time Edward Franklin had practically worked himself to death, they were still in major debt.
These thoughts brought a tear to his eye. He didn't like it, how can he be so weak? He was so angry at himself that he decided to put the plate back in such an awkward position that it was bound to fall out all over the floor when Daisy next opened the cupboard, knocking all he other plates with it, and scurried off to his room upstairs to hate himself in peace.