Endless Nights | Downton Abbey

𝚌𝚑𝚊𝚙𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝟺

She thought in confiding in Sybil, her favourite and slightly older sister would surely know how to describe what she was feeling, but she decided to keep these feelings to herself.

"Darling, are you ready to go?" Her mother asked her when she entered her room. Louise quickly gathered herself and took her pouch and got off her bed.

"Yes, mama. I'm going down already." Her mother embraced her over her shoulder and the two of them walked from Louise's room, to the motor waiting for them and her sisters.

When she approached the motor, her eyes instantly went to Branson, their eyes connected. She felt how her cheeks became red, and she adverted her eyes to her side. She got in the motor without speaking.

Louise really wasn't paying attention to the conversation her mother was having with her sisters. So when her mother said her name, she moved her head too quickly and looked up at her with her doe eyes.

"Sorry mama, I wasn't paying attention. What is it that you said?". Cora laughed a little, Louise had the tendency to have her mind in the clouds.

"I was just telling Branson that he is to take you to Ripon tomorrow. You will meet with the modiste for your new frock, and to take you to the library. We'll kill two birds with one shot."

Ripon, she had forgotten about it. Thank the lord she had a story to present tomorrow, with the frustration of her book she could barely make herself write the stories for the newspaper, but she digged in her notebook and found one worth the publication. Thinking about her travel to Ripon, made her realize she would be alone with Branson. She calmed herself down before she started panicking.

"Oh yes, I almost forgot. We will leave after luncheon, is it alright?". She asked Branson, and their eyes connected through the mirror.

"Of course, my lady." He smiled at her, and for the rest of the trip she could only think about how much she liked his accent.

-----

Friday couldn't come quicker for Louise. Dinner had been a disaster last night, with her father, and grandmother fighting yet again about the entail and dragging poor Matthew in the middle. While they were fighting, she was imagining the kind of frock she would like to order, something simple yet beautiful. She knew that she only got another year of freedom before she was to be launched into the marriage market, and she wanted to still have the opportunity to decide what to wear.

Miss O'Brien was finishing with her hair when Gwen entered her room. Looking at her through the mirror, she could see the excitement in Gwen's eyes.

"That will be all O'Brien, I can manage from here, thank you." With finality in her voice, she dismissed O'Brien. When she was sure she wouldn't hear, she asked Gwen to speak the news.

"This came today." Gwen excitedly shows Louise the letter and when she read it she stud up and hugged Gwen between cries of joy.

"I knew they would want to see you." She told her friend, well she considered her a friend, she just wasn't sure if Gwen thought the same.

"Well, it's your reference what's done it." Gwen told her with a smile on her face, but her mood quickly changed. " But how am I going to get there? They won't let me take a day off."

"You're going to be ill. They can't stop you being ill." Her mind quickly set into motion a plan to get Gwen and herself out of the house and back without arising suspicion.

"What?" Gwen said.

"Look at Anna, no one has seen her for a whole day. They won't notice if you vanish for a couple of hours." She told her with a wicked grin, already set to put her plan into motion. She will get Gwen that secretary job.

-----

Louise approached the motor with caution, she could already feel Branson's eyes watching her, and she really hoped to everything holy to not trip and fell in front of him. She took two steps more, and she was facing the door, when a gloved hand came into her view. She took two seconds to make her mind and she took it to help herself into the motor. When she felt her hand entwined with his, she felt chills in all her body, a kind of electricity sparked in her.

"Thank you, Branson." He just smiled at her, and god, she thought, that was a beautiful smile. When they were already driving to Ripon, she kept thinking of ways to start a conversation with him, she wanted to hear his voice and get to know him better than knowing just his nationality and occupation. She was ready to ask him about his move from Ireland to Yorkshire, when he beat her to it.

"You read a lot, my lady?" His eyes connected to hers through the mirror. She wasn't expecting to hear him address her directly, and her cheeks got flustered for a moment, but she cleared her throat and quickly got back her composure.

"It is my favourite thing to do-well, it's the second thing." She replied shyly to him. Louise was never shy, but this man brought a new side she never knew she had. He just chuckled at her response.

"I saw that your name was basically the whole ledger of his lordship's library. And I got curious of the amount of books you must have read. What type of book you enjoy?" He wanted to know her better, in his mind all aristocratic girls passed their time gossiping and finding husbands, not reading about the "Turkish empire". When he read Louise's name next to that book, he was pleasantly surprised and his curiosity for her sparked.

"Well, everything, pretty much. I love knowledge, and books are the only way I can acquire it, it is not like I can go to Oxford or Cambridge." He smiled at her again through the mirror. "But, history, medicine, and romance are my favourite genres. What about you?".

"What about me?"

"What do you like to read?" She chuckled and smiled.

"Politics and history, my lady. I like that the most." That caught her attention. She started to make use of her mind and came to the conclusion that the new chauffeur must be an Irish republican.

"So you are a republican then?" He laughed, he genuinely laughed at her, or more so at the situation. "What? You are an Irish man, who likes to read about politics. Chances are, you are a republican. I just deduced it."

"Well, great job in that. I am a republican, my lady. I love my country, I just wished we were independent, no offence." She could see how his eyes sparkled when he mentioned his love for his country, she found that noble of him.

"Non taken. I don't know what it is like to live under the reign and control of another country, but I can tell you that I do sympathize with you, Branson." She told him with sincerity in her eyes, and she could see his blue eyes sparkle more. "Even if my grandmother thinks I can't have opinions for myself." They both laughed at that final comment from her.

"You said that reading was the second thing you loved doing the most, what is the first?" He asked with such intensity in his eyes, and the whole ambient in the motor changed.

She didn't even think about lying to him, for some reason she felt she could completely trust him. So she answered him. "Writing. That is the first thing." They smiled at each other and continued their drive.