Barrow's Boy - A Downton Abbey Fanfiction

Public Business

Most of this was written on my phone during a car ride, so I apologize for any spelling or grammatical errors.

    The big house was opening for a day to raise money for the hospital.

     Carson hated it.

     Naturally, this meant that Theodore was all for it.

     It also meant that the idea had originally been his, dropped into the ear of Mr. Branson during their last driving lesson.

     He'd finished another shift today, with his next one not being until a meeting with Dr. Clarkson, Mrs. Crawley and Lady Grantham later that week, and was now heading to the forest to meet with the Levellers before he had to be back at the Abbey that night.

     It wasn't like anyone there was going to miss him.

     "Don't you dare move!" The voice came through the trees, pulling Teddy from his thoughts. 

     "Abi, please! I have an itch!"

     "I'm almost done, I promise."

     "And what if I sneeze and ruin the whole thing? What then?"

     "Percy Wilson, you will do no such thing."

      "Whyever not?"

     "Because I'm asking you to stay still, and you love me."

     Teddy reached the two as Percy sighed heavily, giving Abi an exasperated yet fond looked. She smiled back at him, turning back to what had become of his hands. 

     "What on earth is happening here?" Theodore asked, stepping forward to look at the newspaper clippings pasted onto his friend. The strips were formed to his hands, wrapped around his fingers as intricately as a mummy would be. 

     "Art!" Abi replied happily. "Percy's become my model."

     "Percy is highly regretting his agreement," Percy added. All Abi could do was laugh.

      "You owed me, and you know it."

     "Yeah, yeah. When does this stuff come off? This itch won't remove itself."

      Teddy sat on the ground with them, chuckling to himself. 

      "Come on, Perce. You must know by now that anything Abi sets her mind to will undoubtedly be completed." 

      Percy huffed.

     "Where's the itch? I'll get it for you."

      "Theodore Barrow, you're a saint. It's on my leg-" Percy pointed with his elbow, hands still outstretched in Abi's direction as she added a few more strips. Theodore fulfilled his words, turning to his girlfriend.

     "What's this for, then?"

     "Look at how they're positioned, and you tell me," Abi replied, grinning at Teddy. Percy turned to him, unenthused. 

     "I swear she took an hour placing them just so." Percy nodded his head to his fingers, one hand placed as if it had just been pointed and the other still pointing at it, though they didn't touch. Teddy looked at it with a frown, trying to piece together what Abi was trying to reference, for it must have been related to something.

      "Why does Percy look like he's creating man?" Everett asked as he appeared through the trees, walking up behind Abi. She grinned, looking over her shoulder at him.

      "Thank you! Someone sees what it is!" Theodore and Percy exchanged a glance. "We're supposed to reference a famous piece of art. I'm going to paint these once they've dried."