The Youngest Crawley (Peter Parker)

Chapter 12 - Healing Hearts

"I know we all sound like parrots, Tom, but I really would like to help if I can, and so would Mary." Matthew offered, as Tom just shook his head. Charlotte and Peter were standing across from both Tom and Matthew.

"My wife is dead. I am past help, but thank you." Tom said, as Peter took a sip of his whisky.  Charlotte had noticed that Peter had been drinking more often. She would confront him about it later tonight hopefully.

"I'm going to say goodnight to Granny." Charlotte said, quickly standing up and leaving Peter with the boys. "Going so soon?" Charlotte said holding out her arms for a hug from her grandmother.

"Yes, well grief makes one very tired," Violet said before turning to Cora, "now that it's over, try and get some rest."

"Is it really ever over though? When one loses a child?" Cora said, as Violet gave her a sympathetic smile.

Later the next day when Charlotte was walking down the hall she heard Mary and Tom talking in the nursery over the baby's crib.

"How's the baby doing?" Mary asked, watching Tom rock her.

"I envy her, she doesn't know a thing about it." tom said as Mary sighed.

"We ought to get a nurse," Charlotte said knocking on the door, "Mrs. Rose will leave when the baby's weened."

"Perhaps a local girl?" Mary offered, as Tom shook his head.

"Oh but I'm not staying." Tom harshly spoke, surprising both Charlotte and Mary. "At least not until I got myself a job."

"Well theirs no rush." Mary said.

"Tom's right though, he has to start to make a life for himself sometime, I suppose." Charlotte said, as Tom smiled and nodded at her in appreciation.

"And anyway, now that the funeral's over, we ought to think about the christening. Do you know what you want her to be called?" Mary asked, holding Charlotte's hand as a tear slipped down her cheek. They had all figured out what she was going to be names, but they wanted to hear it from Tom.

"I'd like to call her Sybil." He said, as Charlotte nodded.

"Of course." Mary said. Charlotte smiled and quietly excused herself because Peter would be arriving at Downton anytime now and she didn't want to keep him waiting by himself for too long, especially not with the staff. Just as she thought, there was Peter leaning against the nursery door frame. She quickly smiled and grabbed his hand dragging him away from the private moment between Mary and Tom.

"Today's the day, it's been months. I don't care what happens today, we are going to tell my family. I promise." Charlotte says as Peter nods and presses a kiss to the back of her hands.

"I love you, so whenever you're ready." He said. All the sudden James opened the servant door, causing the two to jump apart from each other. "James." Peter muttered, glaring at James as he gave a small nod and walked into the dining room.

"I'm sure everyone downstairs knows by now." Charlotte chuckled, picturing Mr. Carson hearing the 'news'.

"Then we'll just be confirming old news then." Peter said, squeezing her hands. "I don't like James very much, I think he fancy's you." He says, as Charlotte furrow her eyebrows together in confusion.

"What?"

"You've never noticed?" Peters asked.

"No, I just thought he was being nice." Charlotte muttered under her breath, trying to make sure no one heard them.

"He clearly likes you, I mean he's been eyeing you for a while..." Peter starts but is quickly cut off with Charlotte's lip on his. He chuckles before cupping her jaw and savoring the sweet kiss before pulling away to catch his breath.

"I wouldn't of agreed to marry you if I thought James was a issue Peter, you don't have to worry about him. I promise." Charlotte said brushing a strand of loose hair from his face.  "Now, let's go for luncheon before anyone sees us."

"Peter my boy, it's a been a while. Good to see you!" Robert said standing up to greet Peter.

"Yes, well business has really picked up in London, I'm sorry I haven't been around lately." Peter said, sitting next to Charlotte and Cora.

"It's not you fault your business is booming," Edith said, "I commend you for finding time for all our drama and grief in this time Peter."

"We actually have something to tell everyone." Charlotte announced, clutching Peter's hand. "Peter and I are engaged to be married."

"What!" Cora said, standing up with a big smile on her face, before turning to Robert. "Did you know about this?"

"Not really, congratulations darling." Robert said, kissing Charlotte on the head and shaking Peter's hand.

"Not that this isn't good news but maybe we should hold back on telling Tom about this," Mary said, "he's still a bit shaky."

"We will wait another week, but I don't want to wait to long." Charlotte said, squeezing Peter's hand. "It's only fair."

"Have you made any plan yet?" Edith asked.

"A few, I think we'll have the whole thing at Peter's estate," Charlotte said, causing heads to turn. "I don't want a traditional wedding like Mary's. It's just not me. We'll have it in Peter's backyard and then have the reception in the dining hall."

"But we've always had weddings at the church with Reverend Travis." Robert protested.

"Yes, but Peter's not Catholic. He's Christian, so instead of arguing about which kind of service we want we just decided to do a neutral one, because the customs are very different. This is a topic we're not up to negotiation."

"It's sound's like a lovely idea, right dear?" Cora said, elbowing Robert in teh side as he winced but nodded.

"Thank you. I think we've decided to have it in seven months. To be honest we got engaged around three month ago, but everything was happening and we didn't want to steal the spotlight or make things worse." 

"You've kept this for three months! How did you not explode?" Mary said, dragging Charlotte down to sit next to her.

"I had to be strong for Edith and now for Tom and everyone else. But I fell like it's finally our turn."

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