Later that day, as all the staff sat down together for lunch and were chatting noisily to each other, Elsie lent in close to her husband and spoke to him in almost inaudible whispers.

'Ella was wondering if I might be able to take my half day tomorrow afternoon.' She whispered between mouthfuls.

'I'm sure that'll be fine; tomorrow is to be a quiet day. Are you up to date on everything or do you need me to take anything over for you?' He whispered back and Elsie was so grateful to him for being so accommodating to her situation most of the time.

'I should have everything up to date by the end of the day; it's just a shame that you won't be able to join us tomorrow.'

'Is there are particular reason as to why she wants you to take a half day?'

'Well, it'll be one year tomorrow since the day she found out the truth and she wanted to mark it in some small way. It's actually very nice that she wants to celebrate rather than commiserate.' Elsie joked, but she received a small disapproving glare from her husband. He hated how hard on herself she was sometimes.

'Of course she wants to celebrate; she loves you very much and after everything that she's been through lately, she wants to be with her mother.' He said and once again, one of them had made a comment that reiterated Elsie's fears about leaving her daughter behind when they moved out. Charlie realised this as soon as he had said it and soon stopped talking, but he could see that the seed of doubt had already been sewn in Elsie's head, again, and it was rapidly growing. 'I'll go up and see her after lunch; has she had a tray yet?'

'Not yet, but I think Mrs Patmore has made her some soup to take up once we've eaten.'

'Good; I'll take it up to her just now then.' He said as he finished his own soup.

As he stood up, all the other servants stood with him and waited to sit down again until he was out of the room, before continuing with their own lunches. He walked from the servants' hall into the kitchen, where Mrs Patmore was just putting the final touches to Lady Aurelia's tray.

'This is ready to go up Mr Carson; where's Anna or Madge?' She said irritably.

'I'm going to take it up to her Mrs Patmore.' He replied as he took hold of the tray and headed upstairs.

The gallery was completely silent when he went up and he was glad to see it. He was so worried about his daughter that he wanted to make things as easy as possible for her. So when he got to the door, he knocked ever so softly before entering Ella's bedroom slowly, worried of disturbing her in case she was asleep.

'Dad!' She exclaimed with delight when she saw him. Clearly she wasn't asleep.

'I'm sorry that I haven't been up to see you before now, but I couldn't get a moment's peace to spare even a few minutes, more the pity.' He said as he placed the tray on the bed for her and gave her a light kiss on the cheek.

'That's quite alright, you're here now, that's the main thing; although I was beginning to think you might have been avoiding me.' She replied as he sat beside her.

'Of course I'm not avoiding you. I just don't want to overcrowd you with people, that's all. Doctor Clarkson has been very clear about the kind of care that you need my girl and I intend to make sure you stick to it.'

'Oh I do wish you would all stop fussing so much. My baby and I are perfectly fine and healthy and I am not an invalid.' She said with a small sigh, but she wasn't cross and she made sure he knew that by giving him a small smile and patted his hand. She feared that her parents were more likely to overdo things, more than herself. 'So please, Dad, give yourself a break. With the amount of care you and Mam have been giving me, you mustn't have much time for yourselves.' She added with a small laugh, but her face fell when she saw the, albeit fleeting, look of awkwardness in her dad's eyes, as he tried to avoid hers.

'You are just as important as your mother and I spending time together and I am sure that we will have plenty of time for that in the future. But for now, we need to concentrate on you and that grandchild of ours.' He said as he tried to shuffle the conversation onto more comfortable territory, but, like her mother, Ella never could let something go when she knew she was right.

'Dad, is something wrong, between you and Mam I mean?'

'No, there's nothing wrong with us, we are perfectly happy.'

'Are you sure? Perhaps she should spend her half day with you rather than up here with me; it sounds like you're missing her more than you are letting on and I don't want to get between you.' Ella said. She was a lot more perceptive than either he or Elsie had thought.

'I'm sure she wouldn't want that; she wants to spend the afternoon with you, so that you can celebrate your first anniversary as mother and daughter.' He replied, but there was something in his tone, a certain degree of sadness, that Ella noticed and it concerned her. 'I had better be returning downstairs; I believe Mrs Crawley and the Dowager Countess are coming to tea soon with Lady Grantham.' He added as he kissed his daughter on the cheek and left, but he left Ella feeling really worried by his answers.

It was something that troubled her for the rest of the day and even a visit from Sybil couldn't appease her concerns.

'I'm sure that there's nothing wrong Aurie; Charlie and Elsie are so in love with each other that I'm certain that there can't be anything seriously wrong, but we can't expect them to get on all of the time. You can't tell me that you and Henry have never had a disagreement, because I know that Tom and I certainly have; it is the joys of being married.' Sybil said as she tried to offer Ella some words of reassurance.

'I know that Sybbie and I do know that they love each other, very much; I mean, heavens above, it took them twenty five years to admit that they loved each other and I'm most certain that they wouldn't let anything break them apart, but…'

'…but what?'

'But there's just something about the way that they've both been in the last couple of days. I know that they're keeping something from me and I do worry that I might be the cause of it.' Ella explained.

'How could you possibly be the cause of anything Aurie? I don't think you've ever caused an argument in your life!'

'I don't know Sybbie, it's just a feeling, that's all.' Ella replied with a niggling feeling that wouldn't go away, but she could see that Sybil wasn't convinced by her sister's argument, so Ella said nothing further about it. Perhaps she would say something to her mam later on.

But Ella wasn't the only one who was plagued by niggling thoughts, as Elsie was wracked with them. As she carried out her rounds around the house, scolding maids for making too much noise in the gallery, sending letters to the linen suppliers, opening the store cupboard and going through the rooms the family weren't in, to ensure that they were all clean, she could keep nothing else on her mind except the pull she felt towards her daughter.

She had always known that leaving Ella to move into her own cottage with Charlie would be a wrench for her, but the recent events just made that wrench even harder. Of course she really wanted to be alone with Charlie in private, but she'd spent so long watching Ella from afar, that now that she had her there to love and to hold like she'd always dreamed, she wasn't sure that she could give that up. But by holding back on the move, was she jeopardising her marriage, which had taken such a long time to come to fruition in the first place.

She was torn between the two people she loved most in the world, everything in life that she had ever wanted and it caused her so much heartache, she wasn't sure how she could bare it for much longer; but at least she had her afternoon with Ella to look forward to.