Chapter 6

28 years later…

Downton, Yorkshire.

There were two gates which lead into the handsome property which had once been the Dower House. It had stood on the edge of Downton Abbey since the time of Sir Christopher Wren and had served all of those who had lived within its walls faithfully.

It was a sturdy building.

But never before had it been home to a family of five.

Once the best drawing room in the house, the family living room was now devoid of the coolness and stiff interior which had once been its defining feature.

Now in place of the hard back covered seat which had been masquerading as a settee, there was a truly squishy sofa as well as arm chair in the room. It was covered with cushions and a blanket.

As well as a sofa and the arm chairs there was a coffee table in the middle of the room with a couple of half-drunk cups of tea.

There was a TV mag on the table which could tell the reader what was going to be on the television which stood in the corner of the room. Goodnight Sweetheart, Emmerdale, Eastenders…. Nothing out of the ordinary.

There were trainers on the floor and hoodies on the chairs.

It was a real family home.

And it was topped off by the fact the window seal was lined with photos. A baby boy who had just been brought home from the hospital. A young girl who had just been to a dance class. A young lad who was mucking out a stable. And all three of them at the seaside. All three of them together at a christening. All three of them together at Christmas.

A young couple who were newly in love. A more solid couple on holiday in the Highlands. An engagement photo. A wedding photo.

New parents.

Slightly older parents.

A couple who had been together for nearly 30 years. This was the scene which the young man walked in on.

He had not had a good day.

Not only had he had to watch the young woman who he loved fawn over a master chef wannabe but to top it all off, one of the horses in his charge at the stables was hurt. William Hughes had had much better days.

He sat down on the sofa and put his head in his hands with a deep sigh.

The one good thing was his sister Anna was out. If she was here then he knew she would be trying to fix all his problems and he was not sure they could be fixed. There was no quick fix that was or sure.

What he wanted was to wallow even though that was not like him. It was just as well his brother Thomas was out as well as he was in no mood what so ever to see or row with him.

All he wanted, the only person he wanted, was Daisy.

X x x

Charles sighed as he looked in on his son. William had been out of sorts for a while now but as he had learnt too well over the years since he had been a father, you could lead a horse to water but you really could not make it drink. His boy was going to talk about what was bothering him when he was good and ready and not before that time, so there was no point in mithering him.

That was not going to improve his mood.

"Where is your mother?" it was her beautiful face he wanted to see.

After he and Elsie had returned from London, which he had to admit felt like a life time ago itself now, it had soon be announced that Downton Abbey was to join the National Trust.

He had been a little upset – even then, though it had been nothing more than another stick on the camel's back (it certainly did not break it). He had been even sadder to see the family move into their smaller place, though as His Lordship had carried out baby Lady Mary – for the arrangements and the move had taken a fair amount of time to get organised - Charles had a feeling they were going to be just fine.

It seemed a long time since Charles Carson had been worried about whether the National Trust or the English Heritage were going to be the ones to take over Downton Abbey. For a while it had seemed as if it was the biggest problem in the world.

But then he had got to a point in his life where he had learnt the real meaning of the world problem…

They had stumbled through, talked about every decision and somehow made a success of things. Some members of the family and staff managed better tha n others – but that was simply life…

After all, Lady Cora was an American. She was good at adapting and as Elsie said, she might even pull Lord Robert in to the new century.

And at the end of the day they had the very most important thing.

They all had each other.

And so they were going to be fine just because of that he was sure.

You didn't need much more than your family.

When the two of them had got back to the abbey, Elsie had only been given her job back as she knew the ropes and was such a hard worker. It had been a tight run thing as the family hadn't looked to hire anyone else and for a scary moment it had looked like there was more chance of them letting people go than taking anyone new on.

Fate for whatever reason had smiled on them that day though. She had returned to work.

After the National Trust had taken over there was even better news.

While they obviously did not need staff in the same capacity that the family did, it was not as if they were going to be able to get the house up to standard for opening without people who knew plenty about the property.

They were learning everything on the job and were trying with the help of the staff and the family to do it as quickly as they could. So even when their jobs – as the originally knew them - as they knew them were gone, they stayed on.

The two of them changed roles – they were no longer a maid and a footman but consulates. A few of the other staff had decided the role was not for them but others, such as Beryl, stayed on too.

It was going to be nice easy money for a few months – however, what the three of them were expecting was for it to evolve to something else and for them to keep getting extended.

Not only did their staying when they could have gone look good to the Trust but it also looked good to the family who saw them as loyal – maybe in the case of Elsie a bit more than she actually was but that did not bother her.

So they became an unexpected bridge from the old regime to the new.

They could access all the keys to the old rooms when the Trust needed them too and they could also go over to the slightly smaller Downton Place and fill in the family on the good work which was going on in their former home to get it ready for the public. Robert and Cora met them at the Abbey as frequently well and overall, by the end of the project, Charles, Elsie and Beryl had done a very good job at making sure they were invaluable to the running of the place.

Charles, who had learnt and grown a lot and been more than willing to take one responsibly when he had needed to, was named house manager.

He could liaise with both family and the trust, knew when something was out of place in the abbey by radar and was more than excited for a chance to stay put.

Beryl was to stay on as cook for the café and gift shop.

Elsie had been offered a slightly different role and if the experience and the money had not been as good as they were then she did not think she would have taken it.

Social secretary to Lady Cora.

While she would have preferred to be with the abbey staff more than the house, she comforted herself that she was no one's maid anymore and she was not ever going to be again – not a ladies maid and certainly not a house maid.

And pleasantly, she found that her job crossed over to working at the abbey fairly regularly.

In spite of the fact the Crawley's were no longer living at Downton Abbey – that there residence and indeed their ownership of the property was at its end, they still used the grand old house for benefits and charity events, for business meetings when the occasions arose. They would not sleep there but they would use the down stairs rooms, if arranged properly in advance with the Trust.

Thus she was often popping over.

If it was the early twentieth century then Elsie wondered if Lady Cora would have been content to be just a lady of leisure and sit around in tea dresses all day and in her early marriage, she had indeed stayed home with the children, as many women did. Though that was hardly the same thing. There was no relaxing with three young girls about…

But as the late eighties and the early nineties had arrived, it seemed that once again she had arrived at a point where she was ready to start afresh. The kids growing up had been a new dawn for her.

She did not want to sit at home and get Robert Crawley's dinner ready for him while he went up and down to London to sit on whatever board her was part of this time and so she had begun looking for something to do.

And while she had been looking about the home she had raised her three lovely girls in, she had begun to hear all the comments she had got on the place over the years ringing back in her mind.

You have such a lovely home!

I do not know how you keep this place so tidy when you have kids!

When you are done here you could not come and do my place could you?

She had heard all of this and she had made a decision. Yes. Going and doing other people places is just what she would do.

So Crawley Designs had been born.

It had not changed Elsie's job that much on a day to day level, except meaning she had the run of the place to herself a bit more.

Cora had wanted to set her business up properly and so she had gone back to university to do a course on art and design.

It had been a lesson in time management for Cora and Elsie ultimately.

When Lady Grantham had been at home, it had been so easy for Elsie to always find her to ask her what she was doing on this night and if she wanted to go to this benefit. Then she would ask Baxter who worked in the house to cover all the cleaning and took especial care of Cora to make sure that she was dressed and had something appropriate for whatever she was putting into the diary.

But then there was the invention of the mobile phone and that made things easier.

Life was ticking along. Years passed.

The company was set up, the Crawley and the Hughes children grew up.

And what had been lost all those years ago was still not forgotten.

X x x

"Where is your mother?"

"She is in the bath," his son said without looking up at his father.

Charles scratched his head and wished his wife or Anna were down stairs before he was forced to trust his own judgement and before it came to that, he headed upstairs.

He knocked on the door.

"Darling?"

"It's me."

Knowing that Anna and Thomas were out and that William was not going to be heading up stairs or apparently moving from the couch any time soon, Charles slipped in the bathroom.

"Hello you!" said Elsie softly as she looked up at him from where she was laying in the tub.

He smiled on sight on her.

It did not seem very long since the two of them had been those teenagers who had gone on that fateful picnic but the truth was he was just as in love with her then as he ever had been.

They had grown together. First the two of them had just worked together. And then they had become friends. Then they had becomes lovers and parents before they were married.

Then they had become parents all over again and this time to children they felt they were in a position to keep.

Indeed by the time Thomas had come along, they had been installed in a little cottage and they had been able to enjoy the pregnancy.

It had been very different to how it had been with baby Shelagh.

He sent his blessings to her, where ever she was as he always did when he thought of his lost daughter.

He leant down and kissed her.

"Hello yourself, Mrs Carson," he murmured lowly through their kisses.

He could almost hear how revolted the children would be if they could hear the two of them then, but no matter.

If any one of them ever said anything of the sort, he was the first to remind them how many marriages did not work and how all three of them should be grateful that theirs did.

He knew how grateful he was that their marriage was working and always would be.

She giggled. "Have you come to do my back?""

The offer was too tempting to refuse.

He removed his suit jacket all the while not taking his eyes off of her for a moment.

She was so beautiful. The older she became the more beautiful she was.

He knelt by her side and picked up the flannel, soaked it in the warm bubbly water before applying it to her back.

His smile got bigger as she sighed with pleasure.

He kissed the soft warm skin on her shoulder.

"So how was your day?" he asked.

"Busy," she said as if this was anything out of the ordinary which he knew it was not. "All three girls are going to be home this weekend so her ladyship, Phyllis and I each took a bed to make up. Then I had to arrange overnight stay in New York for his and her ladyship to attend her brothers 60th birthday party next month and then – well, their own wedding anniversary is not far away "

"30 years," he murmured. Thirty years since Lady Cora had first to come to England and Lord Robert Crawley had feel at her feet.

He had to say he admired them both for sticking it out- marriage was no easy thing and they had not had the easiest of rides.

First of all they had had to put up with Lady Violet's general disapproval.

Then there had been the wedding and the culture clash. God know it had been hard for Elsie and Charles and they were both from the same side of the Atlantic, though their English and Scottish were perhaps reason enough for them to clash at times.

For an American and a Brit, Elsie thought that had to be even harder.

There had been the business of getting to know each other.

And then they had begun having their three girls which was no easy task on its own. Charles and Elsie's three had been slightly younger but of a similar age as the Crawley girls and Elsie had thanked her lucky stars that she had two boys as well as a girl. Not that she'd have minded another girl – but it seemed to her that especially as Lady Edith and Lady Mary grew up that there was more hormones in the big house than their poor mother knew what to with at times.

Thomas and William could fight and lord knows the two of them had both had their moments with Anna over the years.

But it was not the relentlessly struggle which the Crawleys seemed to have had with Lady Mary and Lady Edith.

That was never ending.

As well as raising the three girls there had been the fact that Lord Robert had wanted to go and work – well, visit the charities he was a patron of and be an all-round general philanthropist, whether they had the money for him to be one or not. Elsie made no criticism of him for the good work he did but it had been hard on Cora when she had needed him home and he had insisted on going out instead of helping with his very wilful daughters.

Then there was the scandal.

Her name had been Jane.

Lady Mary was fifteen, Lady Edith very nearly thirteen and Lady Sybil had been just nine years old when their father had betrayed there mother in such a fashion that Charles Carson had seriously believed that their lives was going to change for ever. Seeing how the two of them had known the girls since they were young, they could not have been sadder for them, Elsie thought as she remembered how grim Charles had been in that period, unable to believe what had happened to their family as he was still like to call them.

For herself Elsie had tried to do all she was able to ease Lady Cora's pain but she knew there was not a lot which she could do. Thank god Charles was who he was and she had never had to worry about any of that nonsense and nor would she.

She did not think she would cope as well as Cora did if she had too.

She had conducted herself with grace and poise when she had been in public.

In private she was sure she had had her moments – especially as the press had got hold of it – but against the odds they stayed together.

And so they had got to the point where they were able to say they had been wed for thirty years.

And all in all, Elsie thought yes – that was something worth celebrating. Especially when she remembered she too was going to celebrate the same anniversary in not too long.

"What do they want to do for it?"

"I think for one night only they want to take back over the old house. Properly. Have the rooms back, but on a real scale, have people stay over."

"Are the Trust going to allow that?"

Elsie shrugged. She really was not sure. The fact that they had always had a good relationship with the Crawley's might go some ways to getting the two of them what they wanted but whether it was going to go the full way she was not sure.

"Whatever happens, I think a lot of my time from now on is going to be setting this up. They want it to be a night to remember."

"With you at the helm my dear, how could it be anything else?" he asked as he leant in for a kiss.

He was greeted most lovingly.

"And how was your day?"

"The usual. I saw some kids reaching over the ropes you know though – it really is shocking the way some parents will let their kids get away with anything,.. Even in an environment like the abbey!"

"You have to remember that ours were brought up going in and out of a place like that all their lives. Some of the wee ones just get over stimulated."

But it was clear from the look she got from her husband that in his eyes that was no excuse.

It was best for the two of them to move on.

"Do you know where Anna and Thomas are? I saw William on the way up. He looks as if he has the weight of the world on his shoulders.

The two of them shared a pointed look.

They loved all four of their children deeply, whether they were with them or not and whether they had raised them or not.

But William was there youngest – so he had a special place in their heart. But then did Thomas as he was their oldest boy. Shelagh, of course, had been there first born and the one the two of them worried about the most as they had no idea as to where she was. And then Anna had been the first girl they had been able to keep – their baby girl.

All of them had their special place. But William was the one who was in trouble now.

"He does. He is upset over Daisy."

Why she had stolen the heart of his son Charles had to admit he was a loss to know. Maybe it was cruel but he did not see what his son thought so special about the girl when she could not see for sure what was so special about his kind hearted and gentle son.

"If she had half a brain then she would see he might just be the best thing that is ever going to happen to her."

"Said the protective father."

"Of course."

"Darling, you are not meant to know what is good for you when you are their age. You are meant to experiment and as much as I hate it, you are meant to get hurt once or twice. I wish we could save him from this but we cannot wrap up any of the kids in cotton wool for their entire lives."

It struck him just then that they could wrap up some of their kids more than others. His heart ached a little more than usual for the daughter the two of them had given up that day and he was not sure why.

He cleared his throat.

"And Anna?"

"She has gone to spend the evening with John," revealed Elsie knowing that was going to please her husband as much as William sting down stairs on the sofa with a face like a smacked arse…

So the women who their son loved did not want him. On the other end of the scale, the man who their daughter loved finally felt the two of them could be together and be happy… and her husband was still not content. She did not know if she disagreed so much. After all, if she had had to pick someone for Anna then she did not think she would pick a divorcee who was rapidly heading towards middle age.

But the heart wanted what the heart wanted and it was there job as parents to be a little frustrated by the kid's choices.

"If it is not going to work then it is all going to come out in the wash in the end," she reassured him.

"He should be with someone his own age. Let Anna find someone young and good and strong."

"But they want to be with each other."

He made a noise which told her what he thought of that as he washed her back, trying to keep his cool about the situation. He had made it clear to Anna what he thought. He hoped her heart would not be broken but at that point, all he could do was be there to pick up the pieces if she needed him to.

"Thomas and Jimmy are out as well."

That didn't make Charles smile either. Jimmy was smarmy... Charles would rather things with young Edward had worked out for Thomas. That boy had been from a higher social class than them, that was true and he knew that might cause a bit of awkwardness from time to time but he could also see how much Edward had cared for Thomas and vice versa.

Whereas Jimmy – well, he was not too sure that he cared for him at all.

"If only we were back in time then you might pick the kids partners for them."

She knew that was the only way he was ever going to be happy. If he had handpicked them so he was sure they were good enough for his babies.

She smiled, leant forward and gave him a kiss to sweeten the pill of having grown kids who knew their own minds.

"Well I think I am very good at picking life partners."

In the end she had to agree with that statement. It was with another smile on her lip that she received his on to hers.

"Now I am wishing there was room for two us in this tub." He murmured, knowing perhaps that the very early evening was maybe not the best time for him to get amorous about her but not really being able to help himself.

"And whys that?"

The answer made her laugh out loud when he whispered it in her ear.

"Tonight," she murmured with a promise in reply as he got on with the business of washing her. "I would say right now but we have a very sad lad who needs his dinner cooked for him."

She was well aware she might have to force it down his throat to get him to eat it but she was William's mother and she was sure she still knew what was best for him every now and again.

He nodded as he rewetted the flannel and came round to the front, brushing her skin with his other hand as he did so. She looked up at him lovingly and soon she was to wish she had not for she saw the moment his face changed.

Ii was a memory which lived in her memory long after everything else about that day had been forgetting.

She placed her hands where his was. The two of them didn't speak – they didn't need too.

It was obvious what was there – a lump in a place where there should be no lumps.

But then there was a need to talk.

To keep the fear at bay. Elsie told herself that your mind always spring to the worst possible conclusion. That was human nature.

"It might be absolutely nothing." She said to him with a hopeful smile.

She was telling the truth, nothing less and nothing more. It might be fine.

But it was that 'might' which he could not say he was very fond of.

"Best get it checked out just to be on the safe side," he said as he recovered himself and leant down to give her a kiss.

He was being silly – it had given him a scare but – but it was all ok.

"I will ring and make an appointment with Doctor Turner tomorrow." She knew that was the best course of action and did not need to be told that.

After what he had found though, she had to say that the joy of being washed had rather dimmed for the evening. "Why don't you go and start peeling the potato's for me?" she suggested gently..

It would be a head start and then they would all eat a bit sooner when she did get downstairs.

He nodded, went downstairs and left her alone for a moment with her thoughts which she then realised was the last place she wanted to be.

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