Princess Darrel Crawley | A Downton Abbey Fanfiction

Chapter Nineteen | Planning

The next day, Thomas arrived at the shed, where Darrel was already waiting, rather impatiently.
"I'm not late, am I?" Thomas inquired.
"No," Darrel sighed, "I'm just...irritated with all this."
"We don't have to do this."
"Yes, we do."
Thomas took a seat next to her.
"What's the plan?" Thomas asked.
"Do you remember Mr. Jacob's farm. It's about an hour away?" Darrel replied.
"Isn't it abandoned?"
"Exactly."
Thomas groaned.
"What?" Darrel exclaimed.
"I know I'm not gonna like this," Thomas deduced.
"It's fine."
"Okay, continue."
"I'm gonna head there tomorrow..."
"Tomorrow?"
"The sooner we leave, the better."
Thomas sighed.
"I thought you wanted to help me!" Darrel snapped.
"I do," Thomas assured, "it's just...are you sure you want to throw away your life?"
"Thomas, my current life is not worth living."
The under butler was stunned by the girl's response. He knew she wasn't happy in her current situation, but he didn't realize she was that miserable.
"I'll head out to the farm shortly after breakfast. Wait about twelve hours, then join me."
"What are you going to do for twelve hours?" Thomas exclaimed.
Darrel shrugged, causing Thomas to sigh again.
"What'll happen after?" Thomas asked.
"We'll head up to Ireland. We should be able to get there without being stopped by anybody," Darrel replied, "then, we'll catch a boat to America. We can stay with Rose and Atticus."
Thomas groaned.
"Just until we have a better plan!" Darrel cried, "She doesn't care about all the titles and stuff like that. She won't try and convince us to return, she can help us."
Thomas didn't say anything as he took a cigarette out of his pocket and lit it.
"Well?" Darrel asked, "Is that a plan?"
"They'll worry about you," Thomas pointed out, "we have maybe a day, tops before police come looking for you."
"They won't find us. Besides, I'll call them when we make it to Rose's house, once they can't pull me back home. We'd be able to leave America before they came over."
"And you're sure?"
"Tommy, I haven't been so sure about anything in a long time."
Thomas nodded, still uneasy about the plan, but by then, had given up with arguing with her.

That evening, after the rest of the household had gone to bed, Darrel had started packing. She packed some farm dresses and other clothes that were more common, to avoid her being recognized. She also added two books, toiletries and pictures of her family (adoptive, not biological). Once she had finished, she hid the bag at the back of her closet, then went to sleep, dropping off quickly, knowing that in a few hours, she could escape the role she was born to play.
Meanwhile, in the attics, Thomas had already finished packing (since he had much less options than Darrel) and was lying awake on his bed, staring at the ceiling. Part of him wanted to go with Darrel, to help her with her plans, keep her company and be with the one person who accepted him. However the other part of him realized how foolish the entire plan was and was considering going to Lord and Lady Grantham to inform them of the plan, in hopes of them putting an end to all of it. After many hours of debating with himself in his mind, he managed to drift off into a sleep.