Barrow's Boy - A Downton Abbey Fanfiction

The Soldiers

     They called it a convalescent home. Now, Theodore wasn't entirely sure what convalescent meant, but he did know that it was another long word to add to his growing vocabulary. After being treated at the hospital, soldiers would be sent here to Downton for their recovery instead of being sent somewhere hours away. Teddy thought this was a brilliant idea, considering that Lord Grantham had more rooms in his home than he would ever know what to do with, and his father seemed to agree. In fact, Thomas seemed to have quite the power when it came to this, which Teddy knew he was enjoying.

     Mr. Carson didn't seem too fond of Thomas' sudden involvement, nor did he seem happy about the fact that Theodore was now allowed upstairs, as long as he was helping. And he could promise that he was. Whether it was delivering bandages to nurses and patients in need, to clearing off tables after the soldiers had eaten, Teddy was doing everything that he could to be of assistance during this time. He finally felt like doing something for the war, even if it was as simple as this, and it felt great.

     Teddy relayed his feelings of this to Everett and Abigail one day, the three children sitting in the forest, all on a branch of a tree. 

     "It's so different now. People are everywhere, and I feel like I actually have something to do." He was telling them, to which Everett nodded.

     "Makes sense. Maybe I should come out. All I've been doing is arguing with my mother over what colour my new coat should be." He rolled his eyes as Abigail laughed. Teddy smiled a bit as well, although he thought Everett's problems were quite small. It was nice to know that Everett would be interested in helping, though, if he were asked. 

    "I feel like we should get everyone at school to plan something for them," Abigail said once she was done giggling. "To show that we appreciate their service." Teddy's face lit up a bit at this idea. How had he not thought of it? 

     "They would love that, I'm sure," Teddy said, a grin on his face. "There's a group of men who've told me that they missed having children around. They're all fathers or older brothers, I think." 

     "What kind of things were you thinking?" Everett asked, looking at Abi expectantly. Teddy had a similar look on his face as they both waited for her response.

     "I'm not sure. We could make them cards, maybe, or put on a show." Teddy thought about this, not sure what they would be allowed to do.

     "That would be a lot of cards. There's hundreds of them, I'm sure." 

     "Well, our class has about twenty people. If each of them made five cards, that would be..."

     "One hundred," Everett said after thinking about it for a moment.

     "Alright, so if we double that and everyone makes ten, then that would be two hundred, right?" Everett nodded to confirm her calculations were correct.

     "Maybe some other classes could do it too. Then we wouldn't have to make so many cards." Teddy suggested, kicking his feet back and forth in the air. Everett nodded.

     "I could ask Mr. Dawes if you'd like." Then, as an afterthought, he added; "or I could ask my father to ask him." Everett made a fair point. His father's position might be what they needed to convince Mr. Dawes. 

    "Give Mr. Dawes a choice of what we do for them. Just make sure we do something." Abigail said, and with that, the three children hopped down from their trees and began walking back to the village. Abi brushed some dirt off of the back of her skirt as they walked, being the only one of them who really cared to look presentable. 

     They were walking down the street when Everett suddenly stopped and turned to look at someone a good distance away.