Once again thank you to all for everything. It's very much appreciated. :)

Chapter 5

Having said goodbye to Mrs. Field, Isobel left Crawley House finding Violet's chauffeur Thompson in the middle of loading her luggage onto the car. Lucy was there as well watching him, but Isobel noticed that she didn't seem all that well.

"Lucy? Are you alright?"

Lucy blinked a few times realizing that someone was speaking to her. "Pardon, Ma'am?"

Isobel smiled at her gently. "I asked if you were alright."

"Oh yes, I'm fine, Ma'am. Thank you," she said giving only the hint of a very small smile.

"Are you sure?" she asked worriedly. "I thought you were looking forward to going home to visit your family, but you seem almost sad."

Lucy willed herself to smile even more. "Oh no, I'm still looking very much forward to going home, Ma'am. I suppose it's just going to be a bit odd being away from here for so long."

Isobel chuckled at that. "Well, you should enjoy it while you can. I'll be home soon enough, which means that so will you. Before long everything will be back to normal."

"Yes indeed, Ma'am," Lucy said forcing herself to smile a little wider, so that Isobel wouldn't get suspicious.

Isobel sensed that something was still off, but decided not to press the matter any further.

"Seeing as everything is under control here, you can go back inside and get ready for your own trip."

"Yes, Ma'am, thank you. Enjoy your stay in London."

"Thank you, and enjoy your trip home." Lucy merely smiled a little at that and nodded before leaving. As Lucy left Isobel made her way to the car waving a dismissive hand at Thompson, who was ready to go and open the door for her. "It's alright, I can manage."

"Honestly, Isobel, you could at least let Thompson do his job. It's one thing to do things yourself privately. But would it really be that terrible to have some proper manners in public?"

Isobel rolled her eyes at that as she got settled in the car next to Violet. "Well, hello to you, too," she commented dryly. "I really don't know why you must make such a big fuss about it. I'm perfectly capable of opening the door myself."

"Be that as it may, I still have a reputation to uphold. How will it look to everyone, if they see that you're opening the door yourself to my car, when I'm sitting inside?"

Isobel took a look out the windows and then looked at Violet. "What people? There are no one about but us and Thompson."

"Still, someone could have noticed."

Isobel rolled her eyes at Violet. "If this is the conversation we're going to have, I'd rather we didn't speak at all!"

"Fine! If that's the way you feel about it, I'm perfectly fine with nothing but silence!"

"Good!"

Both women huffed slightly turning away from each other to look out of their own window. However, seconds later Violet heard Isobel sighing a little sadly, and she couldn't help inquiring about it.

"Is there something wrong?"

Isobel turned her head slightly to look at her. "What happened to silence?"

Violet swallowed the retort, she would have normally given, and spoke gently instead. "Something just seems a bit off with you."

"It's nothing," Isobel replied quietly.

"Clearly it's something, or otherwise you wouldn't act like you do. Does it have something to do with your maid?" Violet asked. Normally she wouldn't bother asking about such a matter, but she knew that Isobel cared enough, so it seemed the right thing to ask. "I couldn't hear everything you said, but it sounded as if something seemed off."

"No, it has nothing to do with Lucy, although I do think something's wrong with her. She seemed much more cheerful this morning," Isobel explained.

"Ah, then something is wrong. With you," she said a little triumphantly.

"Not with me exactly."

Violet arched an eyebrow in curiosity. "Then with whom?"

Isobel sighed turning in her seat, so that she was turned slightly towards Violet.

"It's Dr. Clarkson."

"Dr. Clarkson?" she asked a little surprised. "Why? What's wrong with him?"

"I don't know. But something just seems off with him, and I fear I may be the cause of it."

"Why do you think that you'd be the cause of it? Has he implied that you are?"

"Oh heavens no!" she said with a slight chuckle. "He'd never do that," she replied and then turning her head away from Violet, she added more softly, "He's much too kind for that."

Violet furrowed her brow in surprise at her comment. "Then if he hasn't said so, why do you think that you've done something to him?"

"Because, I saw him in the village earlier. He fell off his bicycle, and when I went to offer my help, he seemed a little abrupt with me."

"He fell off his bicycle?" She blinked in surprise. "You didn't by any chance see him and call out to him, which caused his fall, did you? I can see that he'd be a bit abrupt with you, if you'd done that," she said with a chuckle and imagined that scene clearly in her head.

"No, I was with Lord Merton at the time. I didn't even see Dr. Clarkson at first. It was his bicycle crashing to the ground that got my attention."

Violet raised an eyebrow at that. It seemed that her suspicion of late that Richard had feelings for Isobel was possibly just confirmed. However, not wanting to say anything about her suspicion, or the fact that she'd seen Lord Merton herself earlier, she merely acted nonchalantly.

"Lord Merton came to see you again?"

"Yes, he came to make arrangements for our luncheon in London. Apparently he's taking me to The Golden Duckling."

Violet was glad that Isobel didn't make any remarks to her asking about Lord Merton again.

"The Golden Duckling? My, my, my, that's extravagant."

Isobel smiled a little. "Yes, it is rather."

It didn't go unnoticed by Violet that the smile didn't reach Isobel's eyes at all.

"So when are you going to The Golden Duckling? Did he happen to mention that?"

"Not until two weeks from now. I wanted to concentrate on Rose, since she's the reason I'm going to London. And Lord Merton was fine with that."

"That's good," she mumbled a little to herself, but at Isobel's curious gaze she quickly clarified. "I mean, it's good that you're going to wait a while. It will give you something to look forward to."

Isobel nodded absentmindedly at that, turning her head from Violet again in the process. "Yes, it's one of many things to look forward to while in London," she said seemingly not even giving the lunch a second thought.

When Isobel remained silent after that, Violet took in her countenance. She seemed rather sad or even slightly broken, and Violet suspected that Isobel had feelings for Richard as well. They had been spending a lot of time together during the months after Matthew's death, which Isobel had told her about. But lately Violet hadn't heard from Isobel that she'd spent much time with him.

However, not being convinced of her suspicion, she decided to dig a little further.

"But still you don't know, what might be troubling Dr. Clarkson?" Her suspicion grew a little stronger as Isobel seemed to get a spark in her eye at the mention of his name.

"No," she murmured. "I went to see him at the hospital, but he told me I hadn't done anything wrong. He said, he was just a bit stressed out, and apologized as he hadn't meant to be so harsh." She then sighed. "But I'm still not entirely convinced that I haven't done something. I definitely think that there's something troubling him. I just don't know what," she said sighing a little sadly.

"I would've thought you'd know better than anyone, if something was troubling him, since the two of you spend so much time together."

"We haven't spent much time together lately actually."

"Oh?" Violet responded without sounding too curious.

"No, it seems we've both been rather busy. We've seen each other at the hospital of course. But spending time away from the hospital has proven rather difficult."

"Why is that?"

Isobel shrugged. "I don't know really. He's been away on housecalls many evenings, when we've had plans, so we've had to cancel many times. And when he was finally free, it seemed I was either at the Abbey or having other guests for dinner."

"That's seems like a shame," she offered gently.

"It is. We know each other so well and have so much in common that there's never a lack of things to talk about," she said smiling wistfully, but then added sadly, "But lately it seems we don't quite know what to say to each other."

Violet was about to make a further comment, when Thompson got in the car. He looked over his shoulder.

"All set, Your Ladyship."

"Well, it seems that London here we come," said Isobel trying to sound a little more cheerful.

Thompson smiled at her before looking at Violet.

"Will there be anything else, or should I go straight to the Abbey, Your Ladyship?"

Violet took another long look at Isobel, but then directed her attention at Thompson. "To the Abbey."

"Very good, Your Ladyship."

When the car started to drive off, Violet noticed that Isobel had her eyes fixed on the hospital. Even as they drove passed it, she still looked over her shoulder to look at it. And when it was no longer in sight, she noticed that Isobel just stared blankly out the window.

"Stop the car!"

Isobel blinked at Violet's slight outburst as the car came to a halt.

"Good heavens! Whatever is the matter?" Isobel exclaimed.

"Did you forget something, Your Ladyship?"

"Yes, I did, and I need to go back and take care of it."

"Should I turn the car around, Your Ladyship?"

"Oh no, there's no need. It's something here in the village that I need to take care of."

"What do you need to take care of here in the village?" Isobel asked curiously.

"Oh, it's nothing of importance really," Violet answered with a slight shrug.

"But it can't wait until we get back home from London?"

"Oh most definitely not! No, this matter needs to be taken care of this instant!"

Isobel creased her brow in confusion. "But I thought you just said that it wasn't important."

"Well, yes but…" she trailed off not really knowing what to say to that. Instead she turned her attention to Thompson. "I'll be getting out here."

Isobel blinked at that as Thompson got out and opened the door for Violet. As Violet stepped out Isobel leaned forward towards the door.

"Would you like me to come with you, to help take care of whatever it is that you need to take care of?"

Violet offered her a quick smile and shook her head. "Oh there is no need. I'm perfectly capable of taking care of this matter all on my own. But thank you," she added quickly forcing herself to smile a little more brightly. She then looked at Thompson. "Take Mrs. Crawley to the Abbey, and then come pick me up on your way to the train station."

"Yes, Your Ladyship," Thompson said giving Violet a nod in the process.

Violet took a quick look through the now closed door, and found it rather amusing to see Isobel looking quite dumbfounded.

She watched the car leave, and when it was no longer in sight she turned on her heal making her way towards the hospital.

TBC