Daisy cleaned her eyes up as best as she could. She didn't want anyone to see her crying or even just look like she had been crying, especially Thomas. He would just take the mick out of her whenever he could and then bring it up whenever they had a fight or something! True Mrs Patmore hadn't exactly helped the situation with asking her so many questions!
"Daisy?" A voice made her jump from outside her room. It was a kind voice and she could already tell who it was. "Daisy, are you in there?"
Daisy smoothed down her dress. She cracked her knuckles and then opened the door of her room and there he was. Carson stood outside, looking very worried about her. Well, as worried as Carson could look.
"Were you looking for me Mr Carson?" Daisy tried to hide her sniffles but she knew that he must already know about what had happened.
"I heard shouting downstairs and talked to Mrs Patmore. I just wanted to check if you're alright." Carson had a slight kind tone in his voice but still as stern as ever.
"It's nothing. I guess everything just got to me. Never had anything happen to me like this before!" Daisy didn't even dare talk about the whole Mr Parmuk scandal!
Carson just nodded and soon got back to work once more. Daisy let out a huge sigh of relief once he was gone. At least Carson didn't go into everything too hard. No one could ever know what she saw and heard that night.
"Daisy! Get down here now or I'll use your insides instead of a steak for the beef Wellington for upstairs dinner." Mrs Patmore's voice came booming up the stairs.
Daisy smiled a little at this especially as she knew Mrs Patmore wouldn't dare. She made sure there weren't any more stale tears and went back downstairs.
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Mary looked out of the study window. She saw Tom with Edith and Gregson. She could only imagine what they were talking about. Probably her. She didn't care however. They could think what they wanted. She knew she was in the right. She turned her attention back to the accounts. She then heard some slight snoring coming from the chair beside her. Tony! He had fallen asleep with the accounts spread across his lap. She rolled her eyes as she nudged him back awake again.
"Sorry, I must have dozed off for a second there." Tony made his excuses but could soon see Mary wasn't impressed. "How long have I been out?"
"I barely even noticed. Just your snoring was getting on my nerves and I couldn't put up with it for much longer." Mary hummed showing her annoyance without even saying anything!
"I apologise but it seems something else is praying on your mind." Tony muttered but with Mary's excellent hearing she heard it anyway!
"And what is that supposed to mean?! At least I've actually stayed awake long enough to figure out what to do with these!" Mary threw the papers on the floor and crossed her arms like some sort of child.
Tony didn't move. He wasn't going to fall for that so stayed where he was. If Mary needed her papers then she could jolly well pick them up herself! Mary could see that had had no effect. She tutted to get his attention once again. This didn't work. She moved in her chair and made as much noise as possible.
"Mary…." Tony started to say but was quickly cut off by the door opening to the study.
"Oh you're both here." Cora smiled, easing the tension between the two a little as she came in. Tony stood up as soon as she came in. "And maybe I should get one of the servants to clear these up."
"Don't. Mary was just making sure the papers were in the right order. Weren't you Mary?" Tony sat back down again.
Mary sighed but then got a proper mum look from Cora so picked up the papers and put them to one side. Cora came and sat down between the two as she could already sense the tension.
"Robert has gone to help the servants down at the tree. Let's hope they get somewhere before dinner. Otherwise they might miss out." Cora chuckled, mainly saying it to Tony as Mary seemed to be having a temper tantrum.
There was then a silence between the three of them. Cora looked between her daughter and her suitor. Under normal circumstances the couple would have a lot to talk about before getting into an argument. Nerves had been tense since the body had been discovered though so it wasn't much of a surprise they were at each other's throats.
"It's beef Wellington for dinner tonight. So that should be nice." Cora cleared her throat as she tried to make conversation.
"Yes it should be. I suppose Lord Grantham would have worked up a big appetite." Tony had finally plucked up the courage to speak.
"I hope the servants have something just as appetising for all the work they must put in with that tree." Cora continued the conversation, very aware that Mary would like to butt in as soon as she was allowed.
"Don't talk rubbish mother. You know that the servants won't get anything like what we have! Even if they do more than us!" Mary butted in before Tony could reply.
"Mary!" Cora hissed at her daughter's impertinence.
"Well it's true. How much work do we actually put in day to day? Tony, how much work do you put in?" Mary didn't really know where she was going with this.
"I never really thought about that, I guess." Tony admitted feeling a little intimidated by this questioning from Mary.
"Mary if you don't be quiet, then I'll make sure you just get the vegetables tonight instead of the main meal!" Cora threatened knowing her daughter would be quiet at that.
Mary sat back pursed lipped. Her mother always got to her through a threat like that. She didn't usually stand up for the servants but she nearly always fell back on it when she got into a fight with her family. Tony got back one of the papers and started to read it. Anything to take his mind off of what was going on. He just hoped Blake or Edward would join him soon.
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"My lord you don't have to do this." Drewe mentioned as Robert and Blake got into position to help the servants and firefighters lift.
"Don't be silly, Drewe! Now come on, Barrow, give us a hand here." Robert rolled up his sleeves before bending down. He knew this might not be the best idea for someone of his age and size but he wasn't going to let up that easily!
Barrow mouthed over to Jimmy and Alfred to get into position. As Robert was taking out quite a bit of space, Blake went to the end of the tree. It was lucky he wasn't wearing his best suit! Drewe and his men also got into their positions knowing they would probably take up most of the strain of the lifting.
"On three. One, two, three." Drewe called out to everyone and they all lifted as one. The tree was very heavy and many of them struggled but they finally managed to lift it to a more manageable height.
Most of the moans of the lifting came from Robert and Blake but that was to be expected. The servants always had to lift things in and out of the house and the fireman had been called out multiple times that day already! Robert tried to quieten down his moans so that he didn't look too weak but he couldn't help some of them. Blake didn't really care as long as he was helping he didn't care what others thought of him.
They manipulated the tree so it was out of the main part of the road. Drewe counted down again and then they put the tree down. Jimmy fell to the ground once they had put it down. Alfred bent over nearly choking as he was losing breath. Barrow on the other hand stood straight up. Probably showing off to the firefighters but behind the mask he was completely out of breath like the other two. Robert coughed most of it off and patted Blake on the back.
"Well we know who to call if we ever need a tree moving out of the way." Drewe joked to make them all feel better for being out of breath.
"Thanks for the confidence Drewe but I think we might pass. Now come on we'd better be getting back to the house. Hope the police can get through." Robert turned back to Drewe.
Drewe waved his helpers off and then turned back to his men. He could see all of them hiding sniggers and laughs at how out of shape Lord Grantham and Blake had been.
"Don't start! Someone get a message to the inspector that he can get through." Drewe said getting his crew back on track.
His men gave varying responses of agreement. Drewe looked back towards Downton. He had no idea what had happened in the big house but by the looks of it, it was something very bad.
"Atkins!" Drewe called back to his men.
"Yes guv?" Atkins replied, coming to his side.
"Follow the inspector up to the big house will you. I want to find what's going on up there." Drewe asked, knowing he could trust Atkins the most with this mission.
"What if the inspector or the family for that matter don't want me there guv? I mean if it's anything bad…." Atkins had never been a fan of the big house. He didn't hate it or the people that lived in it per say but had always tried to get out of anything to do with the house.
"Then just stay out of their way. Say to the family that you're helping or that you're checking the rest of the grounds for any storm damage." Drewe shrugged.
Drewe could see the doubt in his crewmates eyes. He patted him on the back and got back to the engine. Atkins could do this. He just needed to believe in himself a bit more.
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"I think we did well all in all." Robert rubbed his hands together as the helpers walked back to the house.
"Drewe seemed happy with the help at least." Blake agreed looking back at the now open road. "I don't think they would have been able to move it without us."
Jimmy smiled over at Alfred without the others looking. He was still getting over the tree moving however, so didn't completely get away scot free as a coughing fit managed to gain Barrow's attention as he smiled. Barrow nudged Jimmy in the ribs. Jimmy coughed and gulped at this but soon got why Barrow had done it.
"Something going on back there?" Robert heard Jimmy struggling. "Getting over it are we?"
"Yes my lord. Just need to work on our muscles a bit more. Hey Jimmy?" Alfred spoke up for all three of them.
Jimmy rolled his eyes at this from Alfred. Alfred always liked to suck up to the family just to make sure he was in a good light. Jimmy on the other hand, would only suck up if it meant anything good for him. Once they had made it back to the house they all went their separate ways.
"Nice job Alfred." Jimmy punched Alfred in the arm. Alfred just took this in his stride however. He was used to it by now.
"Don't take it out on Alfred!" A familiar voice shouted from the door. Anna stood in the doorway, waiting for them to return.
Jimmy listened to her and went back inside. He didn't want to cause more trouble, especially with the Bates. Anna welcomed the others back inside.
"Well we moved the tree at least." Barrow yawned as he took his usual seat by the fire. "Not that Lord Grantham seemed to appreciate our help."
"I'm sure he did. You just took it the wrong way!" Anna said getting back to her sewing she had been working on.
"So we're going to have a police officer within the walls." Alfred just had to mention and made the mood bad again. "How do we feel about that?"
"If it's one of the ones from the village then we won't have anything to worry about. They know us too well to question us." Barrow sounded very sure about that.
Alfred looked over to Anna at this sentence. He hadn't been in the house that long but he wouldn't have said that the police had been to the house that many times in their history. Did they?