SIMPLY THE BEST

Hello my dear people. Good to be with you again. I have a short Chelsie story for you. Again. When will I ever stop writing? This idea has occurred to me, while I was watching season six and the rocky beginning of Carson's marriage. Hope you will like it.

Story summary: Elsie starts to question her ability to be a wife, after hearing constant criticism from her husband. Is there any chance that he can convince her to change her mind?

Legal note: I do not own any of the DA characters, I just think, that we didn't have enough stories with them in the series.

When Elsie was hesitating whether she should accept Charles's marriage proposal, she had doubts about few questions, especially things connected to the intimacy. A question that she never had to deal with before, even being in the "late middle age". She was so afraid of being with Charles that way, even, or maybe because of knowing him so well and so long.

Things that made her blush and sensations that she has never experienced, were suppose to become a part of her daily, or rather nightly routine. In the beginning, she was trying to fool herself and even Mrs Patmore, having illusions, that Mr Carson would not want that, although deep down in her heart she felt, that it was impossible.

Not that she considered herself especially alluring or seductive person, it was rather the opposite. She saw herself as plain and ordinary woman, she didn't see inner and outside beauty, that attracted Charles so much. She would have never believed, that he has been dreaming about her for many years and that she was haunting him constantly, during his lonely nights, when his dreams let him experience all the things, that he wanted to experience with her so much, but couldn't.

Now, after few months of their marriage she already knew most of her husband's secret dreams, as he was brave enough to confess it to her and she was quite pleased to find out, that she can affect a man that much, the man who was a love of her life...

She wasn't worried about the intimate part of their life now, as they already passed the awkward faze and Elsie thought, that she really didn't need to worry about it so much...As Mrs Patmore remarked, it wasn't that terrible. Even more, Elsie could brazenly admit, that it was very pleasurable, although she was too shy to express her emotions as openly, as Charles did in that sphere...

Elsie sighed, thinking that at least one thing was correct in their marriage, unfortunately she couldn't say the same thing about all the rest. If anyone would warn her before she got married, how Charles will behave and how unpleased he will be about literally everything, Elsie would have to seriously reconsider the question of getting married at all.

She has lived in this world for quite a while and she has been challenging herself in various life roles. She was already a good daughter, a caring sister, a devoted friend and a rather dutiful housekeeper.

A common thread in all her life roles was, that always, absolutely always, she has been giving one hundredth procent of herself in all those things. She has put a lot of work, to perfectly cooperate with other people, she was trying really hard, to fulfill all her duties and to make everyone around her happy, so there wouldn't be many people, who knew Elsie Hughes and could say something negative about her.

She was spreading kindness, positive energy and putting a lot of work to all the relations and all the work that she had to do. She wasn't the one who would praise herself easily, rather modest and not searching for adoration from anyone, but even she had to admit, that she knew her work pretty well and she had a good idea about running a house, even such a grand house as Downton, which certainly wasn't an easy task to do.

She was a housekeeper now, so she didn't do all those million little things all by herself, she was delegating it to others, as this was her job, but starting her career as a young house maid, she still remembered, what it meant to do a never ending house work and how difficult it felt, to keep the house going without problems, trying to avoid mistakes as much as possible.

When she married Charles, she was mostly worried about their closeness, as this was one thing that she never handled before, all the other things seemed insignificant, compared to that, she was convinced, that she will manage to run her own cottage, as well as she was running Downton.

As time showed, she couldn't have been more wrong...Ever since the beginning of their marriage, there wasn't a day, when Charles wouldn't criticize things, or didn't complain about some of her actions, regarding housekeeping of their own cottage.

Of course cooking was a relatively new thing for her, in her life she never had to face cooking, as she went straight from her parent's house, when her mother was doing it, to serving, when the cooks were managing it, so it was natural, that she didn't feel very skilled in cooking and she understood, that Charles may not have been totally satisfied, with what she had to offer to him.

For Elsie, the biggest heartache was, that she was really trying, she asked Mrs Patmore to help her, Elsie was a bright and capable of fast learning, yet Charles didn't seem to notice, how much she was trying for him.

He wanted results, immediate results, but wasn't interested with a road, that Elsie had to take to mastered in this area. He would only be happy, if she served him dishes that tasted like the ones his mother made for him, which of course was impossible, given that Elsie has never tried Charles's mother dishes.

If it would be the only thing, that he would complained about, Elsie would be more understanding, but it wasn't just that. It was everything else. Suddenly it turned out, that Elsie couldn't set the table properly, didn't know the correct way of washing the dishes, couldn't make a bed, the way that Charles considered the best one, wasn't able to make a coffee, that would gain his recognition, etc, etc...

Elsie started to feel similar to the way she felt, when she was working as a maid in her first job, when her older and malicious work colleagues, were trying to be nasty for her, letting her know, that she can't do absolutely anything. She still remembered the embarrassment from that time and those were certainly the memories, that she didn't like to go back to...

Except that now, it was even worse, as she was not in the job anymore, she was in her own cottage, with her own husband, who tended to treat her as a paid employee, to whom you can point all mistakes, making demands, which seemed more and more unreasonable...

Elsie was sweet, kind and gentle, although she could fight for her own rights, when it was necessary, but she didn't want to start their marriage from arguments, plus she felt more than disappointed, with the direction that it all went...

She wanted to be with Charles, she wanted to be his wife, she wanted to make him happy, she made a quiet promise to herself, on the day of their wedding, that she will do her best to make him happy, that she will really try to create a perfect home for him, a home that he never had before, a home which would be a safe and happy place for both of them, but now, after few months of nagging and complaints, she felt helpless, to all that's been going on and she started to wonder, if she was right starting a marriage life so late, in the light of Charles's behavior, being single, suddenly seemed like a more alluring prospect, than being trapped in the marriage where she clearly wasn't able to fill his expectations...

That's all for the first chapter. Tomorrow I will continue the story, it will not be long, probably just those two chapters, but I hope that you will want to read the rest. I love Charles, but living with such nagging husband could not have been easy. Have a good Saturday and see you soon!