Endless Nights | Downton Abbey

𝚌𝚑𝚊𝚙𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝟻

THE SUN WAS SHINNING THAT MORNING, WHICH IS NOT ABNORMAL FOR A SUMMER MORNING IN THE ENGLISH COUNTRYSIDE, AND THE SKY WAS PAINTED WITH CLOUDS WITH A BACKDROP OF BLUE. Quite a beautiful morning for Louise to go for a morning walk.

That morning, she woke up early, and after seeing how the day greeted her, she dressed herself and decided on walking for a bit before breakfast, not without taking her copy of Thoughts on Some Questions Relating to Women.

She was too engrossed in what Davies had to say about women's vote, that she wasn't looking where she was going, she just walked and read.

"Be careful, my Lady! If you don't look where you're going, you are going to trip and hurt yourself." Shouted Branson to her from the garage.

Frighted by the unexpected, but welcomed intrusion, she lost her coordination and tripped, falling to the ground.

Tom quickly left what he was doing, and quickly went her way. With the help of his hands in her arm, she quickly dusted her self. "Thank you, Branson." She smiled at him, embarrassed. "It seems you always see me in my most embarrassing moments."

"It's alright, my lady, I'm always happy to help." He smiled at her.

When ever he smiled at her, which were a lot of times in these two months he has been working for the family, Louise always felt something stirring in her stomach. She couldn't quite place what it was, but is something her teenage self hasn't experienced before.

Their eyes connected for a moment, green against blue, before the one with blue eyes noticed a book left on the ground and crouched to pick it up. He dusted off and motioned to her. "Here is your book, quite a reading," he chuckled, "but I'm not surprised knowing what your sentiments are from the conversations with your sisters."

Louise could feel her cheeks reddening from the way their hands connected when he handed her the book, and the notion that he paid attention to her ramblings with her sisters in the motor. "Well, it's just a light reading for the morning."

"You call this light?"

"For the type of books I tend to dedicate my time to, I consider it light." She laughed at herself. And she had to turn her eyes to the ground after seeing how Branson's eyes appear to shine when looking at her.

This type of feelings and little encounters have been happening for the last two months. Moments where theirs paths crossed at her father's library, or conversations held in the car on her way to Ripon. Those moments made her cheeks always red, and gave her a smile on her face, but also left her the question, what was she starting to feel?.

_____

Louise walked perfectly calmed and content into the dinning room to have her breakfast with her Father and sisters. She greeted her father and Carson, and helped herself to a plate of eggs and a scone.

After a calm breakfast, where her sisters ate quietly, safe for a talk abut Aunt Rosamund's letter, she continued to read her book, and her father was attentive to his correspondence. She quickly left to the bedroom corridors where she knew she could find Gwen, for Carson gave her a letter that could change her future.

Running up the stairs, Louise excitedly searched for Gwen, and when she finally saw her outside of her bedroom with Anna, she calmed her self and took her inside.