Barrow's Boy - A Downton Abbey Fanfiction

Ruth, The Getaway Pig

     Teddy spent the start of his summer pestering Ms. Patmore. Now that he had his mother's recipes, he was eager to learn how to make them. To taste the flavours that she had put together.

      He had never been interested in cooking or baking before, but this was a whole different situation. With the recipe book in his collection of Eliza's belongings, he felt another step closer to her. He had even opted to put her journal aside for the time being to read through it, laughing to himself at the notes in the margins and becoming amazed at how her mind worked. Who else would think of using baking as stress relief, as Eliza seemed to have done?

     Ms. Patmore, however, was highly against Theodore being in her kitchen. In her words, he, with his lack of experience, would get in the way more than anything else. Despite this, he continued his attempts at getting her to teach him.

     He had been reading it in the servants' hall one day, looking over the conversation in the margin between Eliza's penmanship and Thomas'.

     "Stop stealing my cigarettes."

     "I will when you stop stealing my son."

     "I'm not stealing him. He just likes me better."

     "I call your bluff. I am his mother and he loves me."

     "But do you give him cigarettes when his mother isn't looking?"

     "EXCUSE ME?"

     "I'm joking! Stop stealing my cigarettes!"

     "Eliza, stop giving me the silent treatment. I promise I've not taught the three-month-old to smoke."

     He was considering giving up on Ms. Patmore. Just reading would have to do. And, with conversations like these, it was worth it. But then, the subject of his thoughts interrupted him.

     "What's that you're reading then? You've been enthralled with it for over a month now."

     Teddy had looked up from the book, then held it up for her to see.

     "A recipe book my mother wrote. I got it from an old friend of hers last month. She-"

      "Why didn't you mention that sooner?" Patmore asked, a slight look of understanding appearing on her face.

       "I'm sorry?"

      "That's why you wanted to learn to bake, isn't it? So that you could make something from it."

      Teddy quietly nodded, his heart starting to race. Was she finally going to give in?

      "Well, come on then. We can look through it for something easy to start with."

     With a grin, Teddy followed, eager to finally put these words to practice.

     The return of summer had meant the return of Everett, who arrived dragging a curious French boy with him. The infamous Nicholas.

     Through a series of phone calls and letters over the year, Teddy had learned that Nicholas was, most certainly, a lady's man and that poor Everett likely had no chance. Though, through observing them together, Teddy had a feeling that Everett was less in love with the boy and more fond of Nicholas' tendency to physical touch.

     Teddy knew enough about the aristocracy to know that Everett rarely got that at home.

     Of course, there was another new arrival to Downton village that had affected the Levellers, as they still called themselves, as well.