Downton Abbey Music Meme II
Another Music Meme for Downton Abbey. And again the same pairings as last time. Elsie/Charles and Isobel/Richard. And no surprises this time. ;)
Basically... the same rules as last time.
Put your music player on random, write as long as the music plays and write 10 stories.
They are all too long but... Sometimes one just has to bend or break the rules a bit. And I’m not ashamed for it. ;)
My random play seems to like OSTs... well... that’s alright with me.
Series 2 spoilers for 2, 3, 6 and 10.
One last thing: I think that the first meme was better. But I let you be the judge of that.
Enjoy. :)
~o~
1. David Garett - He’s a pirate
She’d never admit it to herself, she wasn’t even able to put it into words, but the idea of Charles Carson as a pirate was incredibly funny. And seeing that he appearred as one in her dreams, also strangely erotic.
The rough power, the breaking of rules, the will to plunder other ships, to sink them and steal whatever his crew needed was so unlike the real Mr Carson who just sat accross from her working on the account book. But still... the idea of her being on board of a ship sailing for the west indies about 100 years before, maybe bound to meet her fiancé when the ship gets attacked by pirates, led by the fearless and feared Charles Carson, the iron butler of the sea, was strangely, not appealing, but exciting. She and her maid, the beautiful Anna, captured by the brutes to exchange them for gold and silver. Her honour and virtue in danger he would save her from the dirty hands of his men and let them have his cabin. Always behaving as nothing less but a true gentleman. And she would fight the situation first demanding her’s and Anna’s freedom but in the end... well. In the end she’d fall for him and his rough ways. Letting him, and here she always got flustered whenever she awoke, have her virtue for himself.
Biting her lip Elsie looked over to where he was writing down a number in the book. Carefully she laid her stitching down on her lap and spoke before she could hold back the words.
“I think you’d have been a great pirate, Mr Carson.”
But instead of confusion there only settled light amusement on his features.
“I doubt it, Mrs Hughes.” A twinkle appeared in his eyes. “I get sea-sick very easily.”
2. Battlestar Galactica OST - A promise to return (I know... but I couldn’t stop writing...)
Richard grabbed her wrist when Isobel wanted to turn around and get into her train compartement. He wasn’t going to let go of her until it was really necessary. And because he couldn’t for she was practically everything that kept him upright while he tried to catch his breath.
His large hand found her smaller one. Calloused fingertips stoking over the back of her fingers, caressing her knuckles before he took her hand, lifted it to his mouth and pressed a kiss against them.
Maybe he had been a coward yesterday by telling her that she will be missed but not saying that he would miss her so violently. And this morning, when he had walked the wards he suddenly couldn’t bear the thought of her leaving. Halfway through the village he had realised that he had run from his duty to see her off, to tell her goodbye, to ask her to return, while he was still wearing his white doctor’s coat. Not caring about who saw him and what rumours would spread. He simply needed to see her one last time before she left to travel into a war region.
Feeling his breath washing over her hands, his lips ghosting over her knuckles and caressing her fingertips, her heart thumbed strongly in her chest. She did not want to leave but she needed to. Her wish to be valued demanded it of her. And the Red Cross had already paid for the transfer to France. There was no going back now.
Her hand cupped his cheek and she looked into his eyes. Worry for her stood in them, just like the gratefulness to have caught her before she left. And something else. Something much stronger, deeper. Something she felt for him too.
Carefully she stroked her hand over his cheek while the other one rested on his chest, close over his heart, feeling it beating for her. Hesitantly she leaned closer to him before she softly caught his lips with her own. Kissing him tenderly in the middle of the train station. Not caring about all the rumours this would cause. And then she stepped back and left, got into her train compartement and did not look back to him because she did not need to. She knew that he looked after her and if she turned around she would not be able to hold on to the tears threatening to fall. But still a small smile stole on her lips.
She had his promise that he would miss her.
He had her promise that she would return to him.
3. Victorian Romance Emma OST - William’s Love
Elsie knows that Mrs Patmore and herself should not interfere but William has demanded to see Daisy. They know that the girl’s conscience is suffering violently from leading him on but then they see what the girl does not. That while William loves Daisy dearly and with all his heart, Daisy is slowly falling in love with him. The girl does love him like Elsie loves Charles and Mrs Pamore loved Taylor before it broke and he left.
They want William to be happy. They want her to be happy. But it’s not going to happen anymore. The only thing they can do is to tell her to go and marry him. So when the time comes - and they try to not think about it because it will happen far too soon - she can look back with fondness to the times she had with him. And when she is older, wiser and finally realised that her feelings for William had been so much more than she had thought she may even find herself able to forgive them for forcing her into it.
4. Cliff - You can get it if you really want
When he had been young he had always wanted to be a doctor. But his family had not been wealthy enough to enable him to go to university and study medicine. But he hadn’t given up. Had worked every waking minute to earn more money when he was young. Had taken on even the most menial tasks, the most boring ones, the most disgusting - he had done everything to make his dream come true. And he had worked hard to finally succeed in the end. He had gone to university to become a village doctor who wasn’t afraid to get his hands dirty. Had lived a content life with the knowledge that he had everything he wanted.
And then Isobel Crawley had entered his life and treated him with respect and an amount of patience he slowly realised he did not deserve. The arrogance he had developed during his years in the village made her keep her distance and with a jolt he realised that he did not want her to keep it. In fact, he really wanted her scandalously closer to him.
And he tried to change his life. To become more grateful, more amiable with the nurses, to let his arrogance go. But most of all to win her heart. And he succeeded at last.
5. Pride and Prejudice OST - Another Dance
Charles strides over to Elsie. Their eyes holding on to each other. After God knows how many years he has decided that they need to dance together again. He barely remembers last time. There was some music playing and she wore a beautiful black dress. But then he realises that she always wears black dresses.
Maybe it was just a dream that he wants to be reality.
Still. He needs to dance with her.
But before he reaches her Matthew Crawley suddenly appears out of nowhere and asks her to dance. They both know that you don’t deny the family their wishes, they’re only servants after all.
With an apologetic expression in her sad dark eyes she weakly smiles at him before she takes the offered hand and gives the Crawley heir a lovely smile that does not really reaches her eyes.
Charles retreats back into a corner and watches them dance. That is the problem with them both. They put the family too often before them. And all he can do now is to wait for another dance.
6. Blackmore’s Night - Wish you were here
Isobel unwrapped her thick knitted scarf from around her neck before she pulled her hat from her hair, knocking it down while she did so. She changed into her nightgown very quickly before she slipped into the small bed she called her own in the flat she had to share with three other girls. The fire in the corner tried its best but failed to warm the room. It was so cold outside, between the barren trees and the broken land. But at least it was quiet for once.
Northern France was covered in snow. And she thought for a moment that if it was resting here over the flowers, letting them sleep to return to the war in spring, Downton Village must look just the same. Covered in snow, looking like something out of a fairy tale book. The snow resting upon pine trees and the leaveless branches of the fruit trees. The lake would be frozen and the children would skate on it when they got home from school. A pine tree would stand in the middle of the little place in front of the church yard and another one in the ward of the hospital, both beautifully decorated.
In her mind she wandered through the hospital, ending up in Doctor Clarkson’s office. Walking over to his desk where files lay scattered over its top and an empty tea cup rested beside his favourite pen. In her mind she let her fingers trail over both items, thinking about the man who these things belonged to.
And suddenly she lay in her cold bed again. Her body and mind aching for him. She missed his smile and his laugh, the twinkle in his eyes when he flirted with her without knowing how much it messed with her mind. She craved for his fingers brushing against her own when she handed him a patient’s file or when he shook her hand, paying her a call in the morning although they’d see each other in the afternoon.
She ached for his voice telling her that everything would be alright again. Missed his arms and body pressing her against him when the fear for Matthew’s life robbed her of any breath and left her sobbing in a quiet corner of the hospital garden.
She just missed him and wished that he was there with her.
7. Aladdin OST - Street Urchins
Charles walked through the streets of London in the evening. Not just any streets but the streets he had walked through as a very young man so long ago. When he had left his first employment at Downton as a shoe black and hall boy to find his way in the world as a great entertainer, a dancer, a singer. Standing in the biggest, most finest music halls in London, seeing Ladies winking at him and Lords demanding him to attend their private parties. But instead on the biggest stages he had ended up on the smallest ones that there were, thanks to his unfortunate choice of partner in Griggs. Maybe if he had found another one it could have been different.
So instead of dancing in front of Lords he had sung in front of tired workmen and Ladies of the night, tapped the line regularly between a broken roof over the head or the nagging feeling of emptiness in his stomach.
He had sat on the street once, too, asking for food or employment, while Griggs organised them their last employment. The one he couldn’t keep his hands out of the till and Charles decided that enough was enough. Or maybe it had something to do with the girl that had once smiled at him. Young, with kind brown eyes and brown locks she had given him a sixpence and told him with the most beautiful scottish lilt to not give up hope.
8. Pride and Prejudice OST - The militia marches
Isobel shook her head at the show of military protocol that the soldiers of the house displayed when the general arrived. Wounded, broken men putting on new dress uniforms to look presentable. Those who still could saluting and standing to attention.
It was a show of national pride. Pride that had gotten fine cracks and blemishes when they had returned from the front and the horror in the trenches. Changed men for the rest of their lives.
But still she smiled and bore the game of pride and helpfulness that Cora played and everybody seemed to follow. Someone had found a drum and a flute and played some marching music outside. Oh, the irony when she saw who it was. One of the recent additions to the house. One soldier blinded because of a mustard gas attack and another one who had lost both his legs when he had tried to save a friend.
The militia was marching around the house, inspecting it and pouring praise over people who could have done much more, much sooner.
The militia was marching nowhere in the wards. It was broken. And the sound of the drum faded into silence when the general left.
9. Coldplay - Postcards from far away (so short - so beautiful)
Hard and cold felt the edges of the postcard when she slowly stroked her fingers over it, so different from the way Charles’ skin, his cheeks, his hands, his body felt beneath her hands. So different from the way he softly whispered her name, how he pulled her closer to him. But with him away for the summer, spending three months in London she was happy to have every little thing of him she could have. Even if it were only the hard edges of a postcard.
10. Mozart - Requiem
She watched the the second footman, that poor young but awfully tall boy suffer from home sickness. Missing his mother while slowly her heart betrayed her into loving him as her own child.
She watched him suffer through all the bullying, all the hurtful actions Thomas did to him and she did nothing. Could only ever call the first footman to disciplin when she saw him misbehave. But there was so much more she did not see. So much more she could not keep William save from. And it pained her to know.
She listened to him playing the piano after Daisy again had followed Thomas around like a faithful puppy. And her heart slowly broke when he found comfort in pressing the black and white keys and did not come to her. Still she denied Joe’s offer. But she did not only stay for him, though her heart made him one of the main reasons.
She watched him punch Thomas in the face when the sneering boy said too much. And she could not stop the happy smile from spreading over her face when she sat in Mr Carson’s pantry that evening, finding herself teasingly reprimanded for favouring the boy.
She watched him leave and return to go to war. All the while wishing that it was just a bad dream. That he would not go in the end. But then he left for good and all she could do was hope. Hope for his save return. She tried to not think ‘back to me’ because after all she wasn’t his mother.
She found him sleeping after the Dowager had arranged for him to return to Downton. Took in his scrapes, all the little cuts, the bruises and thought that he looked perfect. But then she knew not to be fooled by it. As much as her heart refused to admit it to herself, his lungs were beyond repair and his raspy breath signalling how fast his life was slipping through her fingers.
She watched him smile at Daisy when the girl said “I do”. Saw him holding her hand when the girl lent down to gently kiss him and felt her control slowly slipping away from her but she held on. She wasn’t his mother even if her heart had decided that she was years ago. She had no right to cry at his wedding. But then she wept with all the other girls in the house when he drew no more breath.
And now she watches him being laid to eternal rest in the deep dark mud of the grave yard. No more tears running down her face because there are no more left to cry. They all have found their way into Mr Carson’s shirt when he pulled her into his pantry and held her to him the night before, letting her grief when she refused to allow it herself again.
And now he presses his handkerchief in her fingers and gently holds her hand, not caring if someone sees. Knowing that she loved the boy like her own. Knowing that she has accepted in her mind what her heart has told her years ago. That William is her child - was her child - even though she never gave birth to him. And all he can do now is to offer comfort to the woman he has come to see as his wife.
~o~
Well... tell me what you think about the third part of my birthday master post. :D