Chapter 9: Taking care of you
A/N: Thank you very much for your reviews! They are really encouraging! I don't know yet if the next chapter will be the last or I will continue to write! In the previous chapter Elsie gave birth to her daughter but she mustn't get pregnant again while Charles surprised his girls with the necklaces. Each one very special for its owner. How will life continue for the Carson family? Let's find out. There's a time jump in this chapter. I hope you like it.
Disclaimer: Any situation or character that appears in the drama isn't mine.
Elsie was very busy checking her maids, checking all the bedrooms for the guests and their maids and valets, meeting with Lady Grantham and Beryl for the menus and the ingredients that needed to be ordered, so she instructed her three daughters to stay in their bedroom to play because of the chaos downstairs. Charles was very busy checking the wines with Lord Grantham, checking all the silver, supervising and instructing his footmen and serving the family and their guests. Beryl was busy with instructing her kitchen maids for the preparations of the menus.
Rose and Christine had seen something like that in their first six months at Downton but the almost four years old Charlotte hadn't seen something like that before and wasn't very happy to stay in her bedroom all day with her sisters. It was July and it had a very nice day outside, so she wanted to go outside to play. The girls had forbidden to their sister to get out of the room without their permission or their mother's permission. They were sitting in Rose's bed while Charlotte was jumping up and down on her bed without listening to her sisters' about stopping it. They were reading a very nice book to keep themselves busy when they heard a cry. As they turned her heads towards their sister, they found her bed empty and someone crying. They stood up quickly and walked to the other side of the bed where they saw Charlotte lying on the floor crying while she had hit her forehead with the result of a bleeding.
"Oh my God! For heaven's sake, Charlotte.", Christine shouted as she gathered her little sister in her arms and sat on her bed.
"We have to take care of her, Christine. We can't call mama because she will shout at us for being careless with Charlotte. What are we going to do now?", the two girls started thinking while Charlotte continued crying in Christine's arms.
"We have seen mama to take care of small injuries that we or Charlotte or someone else had. Go down to her sitting room and bring her first aid box. Make sure that papa and mama won't catch you.", she was rocking back and forth her sister to calm her down.
Rose nodded her head and left quickly the room to go downstairs and get her mother's first aid box. She was sure that they would get in trouble later after their parents found out about Charlotte's little accident but if they helped her then they wouldn't get a very hard punishment. She returned a few minutes later without her parents seeing her. "I brought it.", she placed it on the bed next to her sisters and opened it. "Charlotte, this will hurt a little but I have to clean it to see if it is deep.", she started cleaning her sister's forehead while Christine tried to make her thing something else. As Rose finished she sighed in relief. "Thank God it isn't deep. I will take care of it and we can tell them later on about what happened.", Rose finished with her sister's forehead with placing a small bandage on the cut.
Charlotte leaned in her sister's arms because she felt a little dizzy and closed her eyes. The girls noticed after a while that she had drifted off to sleep and knew that they had to let her sleep but they didn't want to leave her alone. Slowly Christine picked her up in her arms and the three sisters lied down on Rose's bed. Soon the twins drifted off to sleep as well while making sure their sister was alright between them.
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It was afternoon by now but Elsie was already feeling tired with all that crazy chaos downstairs. She opened her sitting room's door and closed it behind her again. She sighed tired when she noticed her desk and that she had a lot of work to do yet. She let herself sank gratefully in her armchair and closed her eyes. She was trying to remember what she had forgotten all day but she couldn't.
As she began relaxing she heard a knock on her door. Knowing very well that it was her husband she called him to enter. He was tired as well and was wondering where she could be when he hadn't found her in the servant's hall or in the kitchen. He saw how tired she was because she had sank in her armchair, something she didn't do very often. "Elsie, are you alright?", he asked her softly as he sat down in a chair next to her.
She opened her eyes to look at her husband and started crying. He was at her side in an instant and pulled her in his arms. She continued crying in his arms and getting comfort from him. After a few moments she pulled away and wiped her eyes. "Oh, Charles. I feel so tired. Organizing this whole crazy party is very tiring and on top of everything having three daughters to take care.", suddenly realization came down to her. She had forgotten her daughters as she was running up and down so organize everything. "Oh my God! The girls, Charles! I have left them in their bedroom from the morning when the guests and the staff arrived. I completely forgot them.", she started crying again as she buried her face in her hands. "How could I forget them! I'm a terrible mother, Charles!", she didn't lift her head to look at him.
His heart sank at the sight of his wife and her words. He had also forgotten them but it was natural because they had so much to do and they were tired. He pulled her in his arms once more. "You are not a terrible mother, Elsie Carson! We have three wonderful and lovely daughters and we love them very much.", he was rubbing soothing circles on her back. "I forgot them as well but it's natural with all this that we had to organize and check. We are tired, love.", she kept crying in his arms. "You are not a terrible mother, Elsie Carson! The girls love you very much and they are very lucky to have you as their mother.", he kept rubbing soothing circles on her back to help her calm down. "Why don't we go upstairs to check on them? We could stay for a while with our daughters and then come back down, with the girls, to have dinner.", he noticed how her face lightened up.
He held his hand out to her and she took it gladly. They informed Beryl and Anna that they will be upstairs with the girls for a while and made their way upstairs. Charles knocked softly on their door but didn't get an answer, so they entered the bedroom. They had smiled on their faces when they noticed their daughters sleeping and that the twins had put their hands protectively around their little sister. They walked towards the bed to wake them up. As Elsie leaned down to kiss Christine on the cheek she noticed that Charlotte had a small bandage on her forehead. "Oh my God!", she said in a loud enough voice that woke up the three girls. "What happened?", she asked worried.
Rose and Christine had noticed that their mother must have seen the bandage on Charlotte's forehead. "It's our fault, Mama. We didn't take care of our sister very well.", Rose said immediately as she wanted to protect the little girl.
They noticed that Elsie didn't believe that at all. She fixed them with a glare that had for her maids when they were keeping something from her. "I know you very well, girls and I know that you are always taking care of you sister very well.", she looked all three of them and then fixed her gaze on her youngest daughter. "Elisabeth Charlotte Carson, what happened?", she was getting upset now.
Charlotte knew that she was in trouble now. It wasn't a very good sign when they would call her with her full name. She knew that her sisters would try to protect her but their mother always seemed to know who fault was every time. "I was bored being in her, so I started jumping on the bed. Rose and Christine told me many times to stop but I didn't listen to them. I fell from the bed and hit my head.", she was looking down on her hands as she explained to them what happened. Then she lifted her head and looked at her parents. "I am sorry.", she started crying and looked down on her hands again.
Elsie looked at Charles who nodded at her and she took her little angel in her arms. Charlotte continued crying in her mother's arms and started shaking. After a while the sobs had subsided and she pulled back to look at her mother. "We are not angry with you, Charlotte or with you, girls.", she looked at the twins who were worried about their parents' reaction. "We are very sorry to keep you in here all day but we were so busy and we didn't want any of you to get hurt or in problem with any of the guests or the maids and valets. Although, we are a little upset that you didn't hear your sisters and stop jumping on the bed.", Charlotte leaned back in her mother's arms and she started rocking softly back and forth. Elsie lifted her head to look at the girls who were sitting opposite of her. "How did you manage to take care of her injury, girls?", she was very curious to know about that.
The girls looked each other before looking at their father and then at their mother. "Christine took Charlotte in her arms to calm her down because she was crying while I went to your sitting room to get your first aid box.", Rose said and pointed at the box on Charlotte's desk. "We have seen you taking care of our injuries or the maids or the footmen's injuries, so we decided to take care of our sister's injury. The cut on her forehead isn't deep, so I simply cleaned it and put the small bandage on top.", Rose explained to her parents.
"Then Charlotte leaned in my arms and fell asleep. We didn't want to wake her up, so we moved to Rose's bed and slept there all three of us.", Christine finished and looked at her twin sister.
Charles and Elsie looked each other with surprise upon hearing their daughters. They turned their heads to look at the twins and smiled to them. "We are very proud of you, girls. You did an excellent work with taking care of your sister.", Charles was very proud of them because they had always taken good care of Charlotte since the day she was born. "Although, we don't understand why you didn't come to use once Charlotte was injured.", he was curious to know their answer and a little upset of being informed later.
"We didn't come to you because we knew you were very busy with the party. We didn't want you to think that we couldn't take good care of our sister. We are doing it since she was born and we didn't want you to think that we are not capable anymore.", Christine told her parents and looked down at her hands.
Charles and Elsie finally understood the reason their daughters didn't inform them immediately about what happened. They had reassured them that they loved them as their real daughters and as much as they loved Charlotte. They didn't want them to think that they had any obligation towards them or Charlotte because they had been kind enough to adopt them. "Girls, how many times have we been through this?", Charles asked them with a low and soft voice as he stood next to his daughters. "You don't have any obligation towards me or your mother or your sister because we were kind enough to adopt you and take you from the orphanage. We loved you as our own daughters from the first time we met you and no one can change that. We love you as much as we love Charlotte. You are our daughters as much as Charlotte is.", he kissed them on their cheeks and caressed their hair.
"We are very proud of you because you took excellent care of your sister but you must inform us when something like that happens again in the future. If the cut was deeper we would have to get the doctor for your sister. Fortunately, everything was fine but please next time come to us immediately. Alright, girls?", she offered them a warm smile as they nodded their heads. "And you, young lady", she started as she looked at the little girl. "You must listen to your sisters when they tell you something. They don't want you to get hurt but to protect you from any hurt. Do you understand, Charlotte?", she kissed her hair as she nodded her little head.
They stayed in the bedroom for an hour playing, reading and laughing together. After that the girls washed their hands in their bathroom and followed their parents downstairs. They stayed in the sitting room talking and drawing until it was dinner time for downstairs. After they finished the dinner Beryl surprised the girls with their favourite desert which they could eat in the sitting room. Charles and Elsie decided to have an early night and leaded their daughters to their bedroom. After the girls changed into their night clothes they lied down on Christine's bed. Their parents read them two stories and soon the three girls were asleep snuggled together. They didn't want to move them as to not wake them up and covered them with a soft sheet.
That night Charles showed Elsie how much he loved her until the wee hours of the morning. They fell asleep with their naked bodies pressed together and wide smiles of happiness on their faces.
Please, please review! I would like to know what you think of this chapter! As I am not ready to finish this story in the next chapter, I will write three more chapters and end this story in chapter number 12!
To Be Continued…
