I've seen Perfection

Part two

"Carson? Carson, is everything alright?"

The Butler was startled from his thoughts, woken by the voice of Lord Grantham. He had left Mrs Hughes about two hours ago, despite his words feeling the pressure of his duties that told him to return to work. So here he was in the library, doing what he usually did best and enjoyed most - but completely and utterly failing to concentrate. It annoyed him beyond words, feeling that he neglected his duties, the devotion to his vocation that usually never abandoned him, and yet he couldn't help it.

"Wha-? Yes, yes, perfectly fine, Mylord, I beg your pardon...", he stuttered, embarrassed that he had been caught in such a disgraceful position.

"You seemed deep in thoughts", Lady Grantham said, putting down her cup of tea to observe him rather concerned.

"Yes, I'm sorry, Mylady", Carson apologized again. "I was just...going through everything that needs to be done for today's supper. To check if Barrow's ahead of everything", he replied, hoping to save what was left of his dignity, for he could hardly reveal what his mind hat really been occupied with, the thought alone-

"Oh, yes", Robert nodded in agreement. "He told me he would oversee it today. I do not hope that anything's the matter?"

"Not at all, Mylord", Carson assured him. "I just thought it might be good training if he were to be Butler somewhere in the future."

"Quite right", Lord Grantham agreed, obviously satisfied with the Butler's reply, but his wife was not so easily convinced.

"I had already wondered if it might have something to do with Mrs Hughes being ill", she noted as casually as possible, unable to resist the temptation of startling the always so dignified Butler a little. And indeed, it had its effect, Cora noticed rather amusedly. Held breath, raised eyebrows, a straightening of his shoulders to regain composure.

"Your Ladyship?", he asked slowly, while Robert looked no less bewildered than the Butler himself. Cora couldn't have helped to laugh at the picture if she hadn't been taught to control herself from her earliest childhood, so it was merely a smile forming on her lips, rather satisfied with what she was sure she had been able to read due to her feminine capacities.

"Oh, never mind", she dismissed it, taking an innocent sip from her cup and giving away nothing at all apart from the little sparkle in her eyes Carson hoped he had only imagined.
Robert, unsure what to make of the recent conversation, decided to make no further inquiries and slightly shook his head.

"Mrs Hughes ill?", he asked instead, astonished. "Why on earth did no one care to tell me?"

"I thought you knew", Cora replied truthfully, as she had assumed that Bates or Carson must have informed him. "Baxter told me this morning right after breakfast. Anna is going to take over her duties until she's better", she explained soothingly, knowing how much her husband hated to be left out with information, even though it seemed to happen with considerable regularity.

"Alright, alright...", Robert nodded in consent. "By now, I suppose I should be used to being the last who gets to know anything that happens in this house", he sighed then, earning a sympathetic smile from his wife.
"But it's nothing serious, Carson, is it?", he added in the Butler's direction.

"I would not say so, Mylord", Carson replied. "I went to see her this morning and she didn't seem too unwell, apart from a fever. Although she might need to keep to her bed for a couple of days."

"Yes, of course", Lord Grantham agreed. "But you don't think we should call for Dr Clakson?"

"I don't believe that will be necessary."
Nevertheless, he was more than pleased that Lord and Lady Grantham seemed to care so much about the well-being of their staff, an impression that the latter confirmed when she continued.