I've seen Perfection

Part twelve

Hello, my dears! Yes, it's been a while, but I haven't forgotten about the last parts I promised you for this.

I don't know, this just seems to be one of those chapters that keep refusing to do as you want them to and I still can't quite put my finger on it why I'm not really happy with it, I just have a strange feeling that it doesn't fit the tone of the others, but that might be my imagination, so I'll just publish it and see what you say.

If you're happy with it, which I hope you will be, that shall be enough for me!

Be prepared to find some new characters I didn't dare to write for before but that I desperately wanted to include in the end because I love them so much. Perhaps you'll notice that I nicked some of the last scene from the series again (but from a completely different context), I would really like to know if you remember what it originally was and how you consider what I made of the two.

And now, I hope you enjoy the first one of the prospectively last two parts! Waiting for reviews!

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"When do you want to tell them?", Mr Carson asked, placing a soft kiss on Mrs Hughes' hair as she leaned against him on the settee in her sitting room. 

"Why not tomorrow?", she replied as if it wasn't even a question. "There's no reason why we shouldn't. We've already kept this a secret long enough."
Mr Carson smiled at those words.

"I agree", he said and as she could hear that his mouth was wrinkled in slight amusement, Mrs Hughes sat up and turned a bit to be able to look at his face properly.
"Although I'm not sure how much of a secret it is after all...", he went on as she raised an eyebrow at him, "we've kept it from ourselves and each other more than anyone else."
There was no need to ask what he was talking about.

"Mrs Patmore", she detected, unable to suppress a smile herself.

"She...came to see me", Mr Carson cautiously confirmed. "Please don't be angry with her, she knew you wouldn't approve of it", he quickly added just as a precaution, relieved that there seemed to be no sign of annoyance to be spotted in her eyes.
"Let's just say...she helped me to get a clearer view on things", he ended then with meaningfully raised eyebrows. Mrs Hughes couldn't suppress a little chuckle.

"Don't you worry, I'm not angry", she assured him truthfully, thinking back to her conversation with the cook in the garden a few days ago. "I'm not even surprised, to be honest."

"Nevertheless", he slowly replied, "I would appreciate if you wouldn't tell her I mentioned anything..." Mrs Hughes let out a laugh at this thought.

"Surely not!", she exclaimed immediately, "She would never let me forget the role she played if she was aware that I know", she said with pretended horror, making him chuckle too.

"I actually had such an encounter as well", she then went on after a moment, receiving a questioning look from Mr Carson.
"Anna", she explained and could watch the realisation spreading across his face, a bit of shock and embarrassment too, she detected, but decided not to give it much notice.
"Well, we should thank them, I guess", she pointed out light-heartedly instead. "Who knows if we had ever spoken things through otherwise?"
It had meant to be a joke, but Mr Carson looked quite guilty at those words.

"After I messed it up, you mean", he said, looking down at his hands.

"Maybe just a little", Mrs Hughes replied quite teasingly, her tone making him raise his gaze again - the sparkle in her eyes and the smile on her face lightening his heart immediately.