Carson Can't Say No (a Downton Abbey fanfiction)

Carson Can't Say No

Seventeen bottles? No, that couldn't be right. Carson frowned, going back to the beginning. He must have made an error in his calculations somewhere. How embarrassing.

He was busy with pen and paper, murmuring numbers to himself, when he heard small pattering footsteps in the hall outside his room. Looking up, his head still filled with numerically represented wine bottles, he thought crossly that Mrs. Patmore should really discipline her kitchen maid better. The cook was relatively new, but she was still supposed to know how to run a kitchen, and that meant keeping her kitchen staff out of his hair.

But then the footsteps stopped at his door, pausing, and the door opened. A small, serious face poked itself in. "Mr. Carson?"

He couldn't have prevented the smile that rose to his face from spreading across it if he'd wanted to—and he certainly didn't want to. "Yes, Lady Mary. Is there something I can do for you?"

She let herself the rest of the way in, pushing the door closed behind her. "Fraulein Kelder got angry with us for eating all the cakes for tea behind her back ... but it wasn't us. I believe Papa's dog got in and ate the cakes when the Fraulein left them on the table."

Carson raised his eyebrows, inviting her to continue, but even at the tender age of eight, Mary Crawley knew when to stop talking. "Do you wish me to speak with Fraulein Kelder for you?" He shouldn't even have offered such a thing—he had no business putting the idea into Lady Mary's head that he could intercede for her with the Fraulein. The care of the children was not in the butler's purview. But the truth was that Carson had never been able to say no to Mary Crawley, not since her first cry had echoed through the house.

Lady Mary shook her head decisively. "No, it would do no good. But ... if I could only hide away for a little, perhaps she may forget that she was so upset?" Her dark eyebrows rose in her white face, leaving the suggestion hanging in the air. One of the few places in the house Fraulein Kelder would not dare to step foot in was his room, and Lady Mary, already sensitive to the hierarchies among the servants, well knew it.

He nodded gravely, pointing his pen in the direction of a low armchair in a corner, with a basket of books sitting next to it. Lady Mary returned his nod, equally gravely, and tucked herself in the chair with one of the books. The basket had been placed there just for her, as this was not the first time Carson had found himself her haven of refuge. The chair had a high back, and Lady Mary was hidden in it once she had sat down. Carson defied any Fraulein to find fault with him allowing the daughter of the house a moment of rest with a book.

He turned back to his wine inventory, making notes of what needed to be replenished and the vintages his lordship had indicated they shouldn't purchase again. As he blotted the bottom of a sheet, another small set of feet pattered down the hallway. Too light to be Fraulein Kelder. Carson watched the door and waited, and sure enough, there came the sound of a small hand tapping imperiously on the wood.

"Enter," he called, and the door opened to a small, upright figure with tightly wound blonde braids. Her mouth was set in a thin line, her arms crossed over her chest. Not for the first time, Carson wished young Lady Edith would smile more—her rare smiles transformed her face, providing a gentleness that was rarely evident in her.

There was no smile now as she announced, "I know Mary's here. Hiding from Fraulein Kelder."

"What would make you think so?" Carson asked. There was no movement from the little chair, and he imagined Lady Mary shrinking in it, her own somewhat rare smile flashing as she hid from her sister as much as from the governess.

"I know all her places." The simple sentence said much about the contentious relationship between the two eldest Crawley girls, and the one that followed said even more about why Lady Mary generally came out best. Eyes flashing, Lady Edith clenched her little fists and said, "It's not fair! I should get to hide in here, too!"