Downton Abbey Comment Ficathon
With the new season upon us, and fandom all extra-enthusiastic, I figured now would be a great time for this. Because there can never be enough Downton Abbey fic, and there certainly isn't enough now!
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Hoping you enjoy anyway :)
When everyone else is bustling over dinner, laying the table and polishing silverware as if it’s England’s last defence, he sneaks into Mister Carson’s study. Cradles the telephone mechanism in his hands, feeling the weight of it. His voice cracks in his throat even when the telephone operator’s tinny voice comes through on the other end.
‘I’m sorry.’
“Hello? Hello, can I help?”
He mumbles the name of the hospital she’s training at, the words stick in his throat. Outside the door the clatter of evening activity continues, the sound of Ethel flirting with the gardeners.
‘I’ll leave, if you want me to. I’ll hand in my notice, and you’ll never have to see me again. If I ever made you feel uncomfortable, or ill at ease, or unhappy in your own home - you only have to tell me, and I’ll leave, I swear.’
The whirring sound of connections being made, the clunk and spin of tiny electrical signals being flung over miles, travelling over a distance unable to be made with a few words.
‘You’ve no idea how brave you are - how brave I think you are. Every other high-born woman in England is sitting at home fussing over party frocks or worrying over their menfolks’ well-being, but you…you’ve gone out there with your head held high and you’re making a difference. And I know you’re scared. I know that. I saw your face as we drove away from your home. And that’s - well, that’s alright, you know, because you can’t have bravery without being frightened first, and you’re so, so brave for everything you’re doing. And so strong. So I just wanted to say - good luck.’
“Hello?” Another click and the whirr of machinery, a muted voice calling down the lines and coils of the telephone, and he nearly drops the entire contraption, thinks of young women with soft wisps of brown hair and bright, kind eyes. “This is Nurse Crawley; I’m afraid Doctor Pierce’s secretary isn’t here. May I take a message?”
‘You’re stronger than me, any road.’
He imagines a young woman in a stark, strange uniform alone in an alien office, so many miles from home.
“Hello? I’m sorry, can you hear me? Is there someone I can fetch - someone you need to get a message to?”
‘I understand - why what I did was so stupid, I mean. I know that now. There you were about to start a whole new life and I - I just blundered in. Like a bull in a china shop. I’m sorry. I’m really sorry. It was so stupid. I just wanted to tell you that. I don’t want you thinking that I was trying to make life difficult for you, or anything like that. That’s the last thing in the world that I want.’
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