Amusing Thomas and the Earl of Findlater follow-up
Poking through the old hard drive, and found this little tidbit that I thought people might enjoy. Set several years after "Thomas and the Earl of Findlater," Edith has married Thomas and shacked up with Lizzie Chatham (the shooting, trousers-wearing neighbor who appears briefly in Thomas and the Earl). Edith is now expecting their third and fourth children (yes, fic!twins, deal with it) and Robert and Cora are visiting. Fluffy little domestic snippet; Robert's POV. (Note that in this universe everyone is still alive, because when I wrote it, everyone still was.)
“Robert, do come in,” Cora said from the doorway to Edith’s bedroom in Huntingtower Castle.
Grantham didn’t think it was entirely proper for her to receive guests in her bedroom-even if they were family-but he supposed that, given Edith was under doctor’s orders to remain in bed until the twins were delivered, he had better get used to it. Fortunately, it was just Edith there-Thomas had greeted them on arrival, then dashed off on some mysterious errand. Lizzie Chatham, Edith’s “special friend,” they hadn’t seen yet. “Edith, you’re looking well,” he said. She did-she was propped up on a nest of pillows, and wearing a sort of mannish bed-jacket, but her face had the glow Robert remembered from Cora’s pregnancies.
“Thanks,” she said. “It’s awfully boring being stuck in bed, but it should be over soon.” She rubbed her belly; Grantham averted his eyes.
“I was confined for three months with each of you girls,” Cora reminded her.
“I’m glad we don’t have to do that anymore,” Edith said. “Lizzie’s been a real brick about keeping me entertained, but if I’d had to do this every time, I might have stopped after Tommy.”
“How is Lizzie?” Cora asked.
“Oh, she’s fine-walking around, being able to see her feet, not looking like a hippopotamus,” Edith said. “Very excited about the babies, of course. I’m sure she’ll turn up soon.”
True to her word, within a few minutes, Lizzie came in carrying little Lucy in her nightdress, followed by Thomas with Tommy. “Look, darlings,” Edith said. “Grandmamma and Grandpapa are here.”
Both children looked at them with suspicion. Lucy put her thumb in her mouth and clutched the collar of Lizzie’s riding jacket with her other hand.
“Well, perhaps they’d better meet you tomorrow,” Edith said tactfully. “They haven’t seen you since Lucy was a baby. Let me kiss you goodnight, darlings,” she said.
Lucy took her thumb out of her mouth and wailed, “No!”
“Yeah, Dad hasn’t said it yet,” Tommy pointed out.
The three adults all seemed to understand the objection. “I think you’d better, Sergeant,” said Lizzie.
Thomas sighed, shot Grantham a look of profound embarrassment, and said, “The troops are bathed, pyjama’d, and storied, Captain.”
“Present son,” Edith responded, and Thomas brought Tommy within range for her to kiss. “Present daughter.” Lizzie repeated the procedure.
“Dismissed to dreamland, troops.”
Thomas and Lizzie took the children out. A few minutes later, Lizzie returned, and she, Edith, and Cora began discussing subjects about which Grantham had no wish to broaden his knowledge. He made his way downstairs, a little uncertainly. This was the first time they’d been guests at Hightower-on their previous visit, they had stayed at the Dower House, where Edith and Lizzie lived. Edith had come to the Castle for her confinement-presumably since to do otherwise would have caused comment-and brought her children and…special friend…with her, so here they were staying, as well.
“The other gentlemen are in the library, your lordship,” said the butler, who found Grantham wandering around and pointed him in the correct direction.
Joining Thomas and Lord Findlater was, at least, preferable to participating in the frank discussion of childbirth going on upstairs, so there Grantham went. As he entered, Thomas was saying, “-asking why the Captain didn’t have the babies one at a time, if having them as twins means she got sent to bed for a month.”
“What did you tell him?” Findlater asked. “Grantham, something to drink? No? Help yourself later if you want something.”
“I said I wasn’t party to the decision and he should ask her tomorrow,” Thomas answered. “I’ll have to warn her.”
“Don’t those children have a nurse?” Grantham asked. Sibyl’s didn’t-a situation she claimed was as much a matter of choice as finances-but surely Edith had insisted on one.
“They do, and another one waiting in the wings for the twins,” Thomas answered, lighting a cigarette. “But Edith likes to put them to bed herself, when she can. Since she can’t do it now, she’s worried they’ll get an inferiority complex, or a jealousy complex, or some other kind of complex, about the babies. She feels better about it if we do it.”
“Some mad idea of Sibyl’s, I suppose,” Grantham said.
Thomas shook his head. “Sibyl favors scientific child-rearing. We’re against it.”
Against his better judgment, Grantham asked, “What’s that?”
“I have no idea,” Thomas answered.
“When he says we’re against it,” Findlater explained, “he means that your daughter has informed us that we’re against it, and the rest of us have said, ‘Yes, ma’am.’”
“That’s why we call her the Captain,” Thomas said philosophically.
Grantham had to admit, he’d wondered about that.
end scene
That's really all I've written in this universe--I got about two sentences into the next scene and then started writing something else. As is hinted at in this scene, the Crawleys are fully aware of Edith's unconventional domestic arrangements; Robert is handling the situation by thinking about it as little as possible.
The backstory is that Edith and Lizzie fell in love and decided to set up housekeeping, figuring they could live simply but happily on the income from their marriage portions. However, one or both sets of parents refused to cough up the dowry, and they were realistic about the fact that neither of them has any marketable skills through which they could earn a living. At some point, they're at the same ball or dinner or something as Thomas, and he happens to stumble across them kissing or something, and he's all, "No, ladies, don't panic, I'm the same way...."
Eventually they get to talking about their respective situations, and they realize that a marriage of convenience between Thomas and one of the women will solve everyone's problems, providing him with an heir, them with a place to live, and all with a paper-thin veneer of respectability, which should be just enough to keep the women's parents from cutting them off without a penny. At first they're thinking Lizzie should be the bride, because Edith marrying Thomas would not precisely placate the Crawleys, but Edith really wants kids, while Lizzie is a bit "meh" on them.
So Edith marries Thomas (and you can imagine how Mary snarks about that). She ends up being very happy: instead of being the plain middle daughter no one pays attention to, she has a great romantic/sex life with Lizzie, is a doting mother, is Findlater's right hand man in modernizing the estate (because Thomas is rubbish at it), and has a chummy, platonic BFFs relationship with Thomas. (He understands, even more so than Lizzie does, Edith's complicated relationship with her parents and sisters, since he was so often in the room when they pretended not to be arguing. Whenever they visit Downton, or the Downton crew visits them, Thomas has her back.) And he calls her Captain.
“Robert, do come in,” Cora said from the doorway to Edith’s bedroom in Huntingtower Castle.
Grantham didn’t think it was entirely proper for her to receive guests in her bedroom-even if they were family-but he supposed that, given Edith was under doctor’s orders to remain in bed until the twins were delivered, he had better get used to it. Fortunately, it was just Edith there-Thomas had greeted them on arrival, then dashed off on some mysterious errand. Lizzie Chatham, Edith’s “special friend,” they hadn’t seen yet. “Edith, you’re looking well,” he said. She did-she was propped up on a nest of pillows, and wearing a sort of mannish bed-jacket, but her face had the glow Robert remembered from Cora’s pregnancies.
“Thanks,” she said. “It’s awfully boring being stuck in bed, but it should be over soon.” She rubbed her belly; Grantham averted his eyes.
“I was confined for three months with each of you girls,” Cora reminded her.
“I’m glad we don’t have to do that anymore,” Edith said. “Lizzie’s been a real brick about keeping me entertained, but if I’d had to do this every time, I might have stopped after Tommy.”
“How is Lizzie?” Cora asked.
“Oh, she’s fine-walking around, being able to see her feet, not looking like a hippopotamus,” Edith said. “Very excited about the babies, of course. I’m sure she’ll turn up soon.”
True to her word, within a few minutes, Lizzie came in carrying little Lucy in her nightdress, followed by Thomas with Tommy. “Look, darlings,” Edith said. “Grandmamma and Grandpapa are here.”
Both children looked at them with suspicion. Lucy put her thumb in her mouth and clutched the collar of Lizzie’s riding jacket with her other hand.
“Well, perhaps they’d better meet you tomorrow,” Edith said tactfully. “They haven’t seen you since Lucy was a baby. Let me kiss you goodnight, darlings,” she said.
Lucy took her thumb out of her mouth and wailed, “No!”
“Yeah, Dad hasn’t said it yet,” Tommy pointed out.
The three adults all seemed to understand the objection. “I think you’d better, Sergeant,” said Lizzie.
Thomas sighed, shot Grantham a look of profound embarrassment, and said, “The troops are bathed, pyjama’d, and storied, Captain.”
“Present son,” Edith responded, and Thomas brought Tommy within range for her to kiss. “Present daughter.” Lizzie repeated the procedure.
“Dismissed to dreamland, troops.”
Thomas and Lizzie took the children out. A few minutes later, Lizzie returned, and she, Edith, and Cora began discussing subjects about which Grantham had no wish to broaden his knowledge. He made his way downstairs, a little uncertainly. This was the first time they’d been guests at Hightower-on their previous visit, they had stayed at the Dower House, where Edith and Lizzie lived. Edith had come to the Castle for her confinement-presumably since to do otherwise would have caused comment-and brought her children and…special friend…with her, so here they were staying, as well.
“The other gentlemen are in the library, your lordship,” said the butler, who found Grantham wandering around and pointed him in the correct direction.
Joining Thomas and Lord Findlater was, at least, preferable to participating in the frank discussion of childbirth going on upstairs, so there Grantham went. As he entered, Thomas was saying, “-asking why the Captain didn’t have the babies one at a time, if having them as twins means she got sent to bed for a month.”
“What did you tell him?” Findlater asked. “Grantham, something to drink? No? Help yourself later if you want something.”
“I said I wasn’t party to the decision and he should ask her tomorrow,” Thomas answered. “I’ll have to warn her.”
“Don’t those children have a nurse?” Grantham asked. Sibyl’s didn’t-a situation she claimed was as much a matter of choice as finances-but surely Edith had insisted on one.
“They do, and another one waiting in the wings for the twins,” Thomas answered, lighting a cigarette. “But Edith likes to put them to bed herself, when she can. Since she can’t do it now, she’s worried they’ll get an inferiority complex, or a jealousy complex, or some other kind of complex, about the babies. She feels better about it if we do it.”
“Some mad idea of Sibyl’s, I suppose,” Grantham said.
Thomas shook his head. “Sibyl favors scientific child-rearing. We’re against it.”
Against his better judgment, Grantham asked, “What’s that?”
“I have no idea,” Thomas answered.
“When he says we’re against it,” Findlater explained, “he means that your daughter has informed us that we’re against it, and the rest of us have said, ‘Yes, ma’am.’”
“That’s why we call her the Captain,” Thomas said philosophically.
Grantham had to admit, he’d wondered about that.
end scene
That's really all I've written in this universe--I got about two sentences into the next scene and then started writing something else. As is hinted at in this scene, the Crawleys are fully aware of Edith's unconventional domestic arrangements; Robert is handling the situation by thinking about it as little as possible.
The backstory is that Edith and Lizzie fell in love and decided to set up housekeeping, figuring they could live simply but happily on the income from their marriage portions. However, one or both sets of parents refused to cough up the dowry, and they were realistic about the fact that neither of them has any marketable skills through which they could earn a living. At some point, they're at the same ball or dinner or something as Thomas, and he happens to stumble across them kissing or something, and he's all, "No, ladies, don't panic, I'm the same way...."
Eventually they get to talking about their respective situations, and they realize that a marriage of convenience between Thomas and one of the women will solve everyone's problems, providing him with an heir, them with a place to live, and all with a paper-thin veneer of respectability, which should be just enough to keep the women's parents from cutting them off without a penny. At first they're thinking Lizzie should be the bride, because Edith marrying Thomas would not precisely placate the Crawleys, but Edith really wants kids, while Lizzie is a bit "meh" on them.
So Edith marries Thomas (and you can imagine how Mary snarks about that). She ends up being very happy: instead of being the plain middle daughter no one pays attention to, she has a great romantic/sex life with Lizzie, is a doting mother, is Findlater's right hand man in modernizing the estate (because Thomas is rubbish at it), and has a chummy, platonic BFFs relationship with Thomas. (He understands, even more so than Lizzie does, Edith's complicated relationship with her parents and sisters, since he was so often in the room when they pretended not to be arguing. Whenever they visit Downton, or the Downton crew visits them, Thomas has her back.) And he calls her Captain.