Downton Abbey Fanfiction

¤Twenty¤

Downton Abbey, The Entrance

Mrs Maura Branson and her young cousin Miss Áine Murphy, stepped out of the car. Maura had never imagined that she would be staying as a guest in a grand English country house, the place that her socialist son called home. None of it made any sense, but she was glad to be there, she had always wondered what it would be like to be a member of the aristocracy. And now she would see.

Tom rushed over and embraced his mother, "Ma!" Áine stood uncomfortably and waited for her cousins to break apart. "Áine! You're so grown up now, I remember when you were only a baby. Come here!" Tom laughed and hugged his cousin. Despite her colouring she was very like her mother. After a moment he drew away and introduced them to the others.

The new footman, Walter Smith, stared at her. She was beautiful. This cousin of Mr Branson's was perfection itself. Her smile gave him butterflies and accent was one he could listen to all day. She wasn't very dark skinned, but her hair was almost ebony and her eyes a deep chocolate. Even from the slight distance between them, Walter could see her long thick eyelashes. Áine. What a beautiful name, he thought. He had never heard that name before, but felt that it suited her perfectly.

Then, she glanced over. Lady Grantham introduced the guests to the main servants, and this time that included him. "These are our footmen, Mr Moseley and Walter." Lady Grantham smiled. Áine smiled at Walter and blinked her chocolaty orbs. He thought that he was going to faint. She walked slowly away as she was led inside. But her eyes lingered on him for a bit longer than was entirely proper.

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Upstairs, Downton Abbey

Mrs Carson led Áine to her room. She was a pretty young thing, but had a curvey figure better suited to the older fashions of s-bend corsets. She seemed polite, and looked a bit uncomfortable being waited on. Poor child, she wasn't used to all this special treatment or upper class living. Of course, she could have been in many a worse situation. "Mrs Bates will be up in a while to help you get ready for dinner." Elsie smiled and left the room.

Áine sat on the lavish four poster bed, so different from her own small bunker back in Bray. She sighed. Coming to Downton had been a good idea in theory, but she hadn't taken into account the cultural and class differences between her and the Crawleys. As a trained lady's maid, she was used to being in such a grand room, but from a different side as such. Dressing a Lady was so different to being dressed. Áine glanced in the mirror. How plain she looked, such poorly adorned clothes. She made all her own outfits by hand, but good quality, pretty, cheap fabric was difficult to come by.

Suddenly, there was a knock on the door. "Come in", Áine called. A blonde, small woman walked in. She smiled. "Hello, I'm Mrs Bates, but you can call me Anna. I'm  Lady Mary's lady's maid but I'll be taking care of you for your stay". Áine nodded, "Hello, I'm Áine. But you already know that. I won't be needing too much help hopefully, except with my hair." Anna smiled again. "That's fine Miss. Do you have anything specific for dinner?" Áine shook her head, "Not really, I have to make everything myself and therefore don't have much."

Anna rose her eyebrows slightly, "You made that?" She asked, gesturing towards Áine's dress. She nodded with a grin, "my mother taught me how to make clothes. This dress was quite easy really." Anna was impressed. She looked at the girl carefully. "Wait here, I'll see if I  can find anything for you." And with that, she left.

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The Nursery, Upstairs

Tom took his mother in to see Sybbie. "Ah, sure look at the size of her now! A beautiful big girl altogether." Maura exclaimed gleefully. Tom smiled. "Sybbie, come and meet your Grandma Maura". Sybbie was prepared for this, but still felt a little bit shy. This Grandma of hers was quite the character it seemed. Maura Branson had greying brown hair, soft green eyes and a jolly face. Her hair was scrapped back into a tight bun as apposed to the elegant Marcel Waves of Granny Cora. She was fairly short, thin  and not dressed as sophisticatedly as the ladies of the house. She had a thick Wicklow accent, again so different from Cora's American one.

Nanny Baxter was tidying the Nursery with George. George frowned. Sybbie's other grandmother was a bit odd. She was certainly very different to both Granny Cora and Granny Isobel. She was spoke a bit like Uncle Tom but stranger than him, George thought. Marigold sat in the corner with her ragdoll. She surveyed the scene carefully, squinting her three year old eyes in suspicion. After a moment, she got up and grabbed Nanny Baxter's skirts. Phyllis bent down to the child's level. "What is it Miss Marigold?" Marigold frowned a little, "Why don't I have another Granny? George has one and so does Sybbie. Why don't I?" Phyllis's heart melted. She didn't know what to say.

Luckily she didn't have to. Edith walked in and went straight to Marigold, picking her up and introducing her to Mrs Branson. Still no sign of Mary. Cora came up after a moment and the two grandmothers set up a game with the children. George wandered over to his Nanny and seated himself on her lap. "Where is Mama?" He asked. Phyllis swallowed, why were all these children so lost? Why was there someone missing in each of their families? And in the case of George, Mary wasn't doing much to make up for not having a father. Phyllis smiled, "She'll be up when she can, you know how busy your Mama is." She lied.

Where was Mary? She had been there when the guests arrived, but had now seemed to dissappear entirely. She was almost as suspicious as Thomas these says, sneaking around, hiding in her room, all that sort of thing. She drank a lot more also, and Mr Carson was worried about his favourite Crawley.

George was satisfied with that excuse, for now. Phyllis put a stray teddy back in it's box, as her charge rushed off to play with his Granny Cora. Mrs Branson was getting on well with the children. Soon the four would be inseparable.

THANK YOU FOR READING!!!!!!
I f you have any suggestions please tell me! I need some help and would like to include more of what you like.

Hope you enjoyed this little shorter chapter, lots more to come!!!

Lots of grins,

Ps. The media was drawn by me

{SaskatFishcakes}xxx

CAST
Lady Grantham ~ Elizabeth McGovern
Mr Bricker ~ Richard E Grant
Lord Grantham ~ Hugh Bonneville
Charlie Carson ~ Jim Carter
Elsie Hughes ~ Phyllis Logan
Thomas Barrow ~ Rob James-Collier
Miss Baxter ~ Raquel Cassidy
Mr Moseley ~ Kevin Doyle
Mr Bates ~ Brendan Coyle
Anna Bates ~ Joanne Froggatt
Lady Mary ~ Michelle Dockery
Denker ~ Sue Johnston
Spratt ~ Jeremy Swift
Lady Edith ~ Laura Carmichael
Henry Talbot ~ Matthew Goode
Daisy Mason ~ Sophie McSherra
Mrs Patmore ~ Leslie Nicol