Sweet Daisy
Title: Sweet Daisy
Fandom: Downton Abbey
Rating: G
Characters/Pairing: Mr Mason/Daisy, unrequited (?)
Summary: Daisy brings new joy to the life of a lonely man
Word count: 581
Spoilers/Warnings: Vaguely end of S2 and Christmas special/hints of age gap relationship.
Notes: When I watched that scene with the two of them, this was what I thought must follow, because that’s how weird I am.
Daisy was such a sweet, gentle girl. Kind, almost too kind, and when she got to know him better and relaxed a bit, he also discovered - they both discovered - that she had the talent to make him laugh.
Like, really laugh, from the bottom of his heart.
Sweet little Daisy brought new joy to his life; it was an unexpected gift from life and he had never thought himself capable of feeling something like that, especially not since William died.
Wasn’t it all just for William’s sake, to keep his memory alive, to remember him together, the only two people in this world who had truly loved him?
‘I am an old, foolish man and I should be ashamed of myself’, he mumbled silently, thinking about what his wife would have said, and yes, that judgment was true and fair.
And yet he couldn’t be sorry about it.
To see her come walking on the road that led to the farm, whenever the kitchen and Mrs Patmore could spare her and give her a day off, made him forget, if only for a moment, that he was an old man. He believed, when she smiled at him so warmly and openly, that he was young again.
‘I’ll never say a word about it, I’ll never touch her,’ he promised as he knelt by his son’s grave. ‘I don’t want to see her run off all screaming and scared of an old ogre like me.’
She agreed to step into his life, shyly at first and maybe not entirely sure why she did it, as his new daughter. She let him make her special, and that should have been enough. It should have been more than enough.
One day she told him something, blushing and with sadness but also a deeper ring to her voice, that she had loved William, but that she had not loved him the way a woman ought to love her husband.
Well, she didn’t need to explain to him what she meant by that. She was young, just a girl, really, and his son had been young. Not that young people couldn’t love - hadn’t he been her age when he got married? - but it was understandable, after all.
“Dear Daisy,” he said, “don’t be sad. You are young, you have your whole life ahead of you and no one would expect you to mourn forever. If you find a young man… well, don’t think that’ll change the way I feel about you.”
It was true, just not in the way she thought. She would never know how much it would hurt to see her remarry, although he would wish her well as passionately as he had ever wished for anything.
If Daisy found love - and she should, she really should - she would leave him. She was too young to just sit there at his farm and keep him company and keep his heart warm.
But she looked at him so gently, though. She looked at him as if she was perfectly happy doing just that, and he got the absurd idea into his head that if he took her hand she wouldn’t shy away.
It was just a dream of a passing moment, was it not? Perhaps nothing more than that, but that didn’t make it any less important. He didn’t know for how long sweet Daisy was going to stay in his life, but he knew that she was going to be special to him forever.
Fandom: Downton Abbey
Rating: G
Characters/Pairing: Mr Mason/Daisy, unrequited (?)
Summary: Daisy brings new joy to the life of a lonely man
Word count: 581
Spoilers/Warnings: Vaguely end of S2 and Christmas special/hints of age gap relationship.
Notes: When I watched that scene with the two of them, this was what I thought must follow, because that’s how weird I am.
Daisy was such a sweet, gentle girl. Kind, almost too kind, and when she got to know him better and relaxed a bit, he also discovered - they both discovered - that she had the talent to make him laugh.
Like, really laugh, from the bottom of his heart.
Sweet little Daisy brought new joy to his life; it was an unexpected gift from life and he had never thought himself capable of feeling something like that, especially not since William died.
Wasn’t it all just for William’s sake, to keep his memory alive, to remember him together, the only two people in this world who had truly loved him?
‘I am an old, foolish man and I should be ashamed of myself’, he mumbled silently, thinking about what his wife would have said, and yes, that judgment was true and fair.
And yet he couldn’t be sorry about it.
To see her come walking on the road that led to the farm, whenever the kitchen and Mrs Patmore could spare her and give her a day off, made him forget, if only for a moment, that he was an old man. He believed, when she smiled at him so warmly and openly, that he was young again.
‘I’ll never say a word about it, I’ll never touch her,’ he promised as he knelt by his son’s grave. ‘I don’t want to see her run off all screaming and scared of an old ogre like me.’
She agreed to step into his life, shyly at first and maybe not entirely sure why she did it, as his new daughter. She let him make her special, and that should have been enough. It should have been more than enough.
One day she told him something, blushing and with sadness but also a deeper ring to her voice, that she had loved William, but that she had not loved him the way a woman ought to love her husband.
Well, she didn’t need to explain to him what she meant by that. She was young, just a girl, really, and his son had been young. Not that young people couldn’t love - hadn’t he been her age when he got married? - but it was understandable, after all.
“Dear Daisy,” he said, “don’t be sad. You are young, you have your whole life ahead of you and no one would expect you to mourn forever. If you find a young man… well, don’t think that’ll change the way I feel about you.”
It was true, just not in the way she thought. She would never know how much it would hurt to see her remarry, although he would wish her well as passionately as he had ever wished for anything.
If Daisy found love - and she should, she really should - she would leave him. She was too young to just sit there at his farm and keep him company and keep his heart warm.
But she looked at him so gently, though. She looked at him as if she was perfectly happy doing just that, and he got the absurd idea into his head that if he took her hand she wouldn’t shy away.
It was just a dream of a passing moment, was it not? Perhaps nothing more than that, but that didn’t make it any less important. He didn’t know for how long sweet Daisy was going to stay in his life, but he knew that she was going to be special to him forever.