A/N Sorry for the delay but I was in London, meet sooo many wonderful people, then series 03 started and the angst killed me. And I can never write fanfiction when there are new episodes running. So this chapter is silly, ooc, au - everything but "real". Please forgive me. Because i usually do not write things like this at all!

The Truth

She found her husband downstairs in the wine cellar, sorting and counting the bottles they would need for the wedding. A new delivery had arrived earlier and he was surrounded by half empty wooden crates, always careful not to stumble over them in the semi-darkness. But then he almost dropped the bottle of Bordeaux he had just picked up when he heard her voice behind him.

"She knows about us." Elsie said, putting and emphasis on the word 'know'. It was no longer an assumption but a fact and it made things different and even more complicated than she was willing to admit.

"What are you doing down here?" Charles balanced the wine bottle and at the last minute managed to securely store in on the shelf in front of him. "And who knows what?"

"Mrs. Levinson of course." How could he forget?

Charles furrowed his brow and stared at his wife for a moment too long.

"What is it? Have you lost your ability to speak?" She had come here for support, hoped he would hold her and tell her that it did not matter, that whatever Martha Levinson had seen or heard was nothing that would give them away; that there was nothing she could tell Lord or Lady Grantham about the housekeeper and the butler that would make them believe they were actually married. It was naïve to think like that of course.

"I am sorry Elsie. I didn't expect news like these." He opened his arms and hoped she would accept his apology. Elsie took a few steps forwards and sank into his embrace, her head resting on his chest.

"No I am sorry. I should not have bothered you. I know how much concentration is needed to organize this cellar."

He laughed quietly. "There is a hint of sarcasm in your voice my dear."

"There might be." She closed her eyes for a moment before she looked up and into his face. "Let's start again, shall we?"

The grin on his face told her that he this was a good idea so Elsie repeated her words. "She knows about us."

"How can she be certain? I thought she only suspected something but, lucky for us, had no proof?"

Elsie sighed and brought one hand up to her temple, rubbing the pain away that had started to throb behind her left eye. "She has proof now."

Charles shook his head questioningly. "I cannot remember kissing you in the middle of the big hall or holding your hand in front of her." He placed a light kiss above her left eye.

"Do you remember the day before you left for the season, the Blue Room?"

A loving smile crept on his lips.

"Of course I do. How could I ever forget it?" But then realization dawned. "Are you trying to tell me that she overheard us?"

Elsie bit her lip before she answered her husband's question. "I am afraid it weren't the words we exchanged back then that she witnessed but the kiss…"

He inhaled sharply. "And what will we do now?"

"I am not sure." Elsie admitted, resting her head against his chest again. "Be even more professional than usual?"

"Would be best", he sighed.

ooooo

Dinner was a strangely unspectacular affair compared to what had happened during luncheon. Mrs. Levinson talked to her grandchildren, tried to find out more about Matthew Crawley and earned a few snarky comments from the Dowager Countess. A few times Charles caught Martha how she tried to wink at him without anyone else noticing. But he remained calm and ignored her as best as he could. He was nothing more than the professional butler, always the perfectionist, never showing any kind of emotion.

At nine in the evening the family eventually decided to retire earlier than usual. Wedding preparations would require a lot of everyone's time the next day and the Dowager Countess refused to be in the same room with Mrs. Levinson for a minute longer.

Charles had sent the maids into the dining room to clear the table and prepare it for the next morning before he took care of Violet Crawley.

"I hope she doesn't stay long," she whispered when Charles helped her into her coat and hat. "I cannot listen to her accent a second longer."

"Mrs. Levinson did not tell us how long she would like to stay, milady," he answered although he secretly hoped that her stay would not be extended long after the wedding.

"Let's hope she leaves right after the wedding."

ooooo

"Have they gone to bed already?" Elsie looked up from her paperwork when the door to her sitting room was opened.

"It's an early night indeed." Exhausted he sat down at the small table. "Mrs. Patmore has already sent the kitchen staff to bed and I've told the housemaids to call it a night. They will have enough work tomorrow with the final preparations."

Elsie put down her pen and switched off the small lamp on her bureau. "Then let us go upstairs and rest as well." After all, everyone was in their rooms by now and there was no chance to run into Martha Levinson again. She had ruined their day, she would not ruin their night.

"I'll make one last round and join you after that." Charles suggested when Elsie stood up from her chair and approached him.

"No you won't. If you insist on checking everything again a second time then I'll accompany you." She offered him her hand, helped him out of the chair and they both went back upstairs, hand in hand until they reached the green baize door that led to the large hall.

Carefully and without making a noise, Charles opened it and they slipped out into the darkness. Only the moonlight illuminated parts of the large staircase. Otherwise the house was black and quiet. Elsie would have loved to hold his hand again but she did not want to try her luck. She followed her husband around the rooms, helped him to check all the windows and doors until the returned to the hidden door that led to the servant's staircase again.

"Finished?" She asked and searched for his hand in the darkness.

"Yes." He squeezed it and was tempted to bent down and kiss her but managed to suppress this urge when he heard someone coming down the stairs. Within seconds he had taken one step back and established a respectable distance between him and the housekeeper.

"Madam, is something wrong?"

Martha Levinson had reached the bottom of the staircase, holding a candle. "Oh no. I could not sleep and thought a short would help."

Elsie nervously clutched the keys at her hip and tried to smile when she realized that the woman would not simply leave them alone again.

"Do you usually take this rounds together?"

Charles cleared his throat. "Not very often but tonight Mrs. Hughes kindly offered her help so that we could save some time, Madam. After all, there will be a lot of work tomorrow." He hoped that Mrs. Levinson had not noticed the slight hesitation.

"I see. But Carson, you don't have to lie to me." She smiled and the candlelight illuminated her face in the otherwise dark hall. "And I think you know what I am talking about."

Elsie could not keep in the background any longer. "Madam, if I may say something?" Martha Levinson's behaviour was really getting to her. First the hints the woman had dropped in the Blue Room earlier that day, the conversation at luncheon and her welcome at Downton. It was too much. Elsie knew that they had decided to ignore it all, to stay professional and calm, to give her no further indication that she was actually Mrs. Carson. But it seemed that none of it had worked.

"Well, I am waiting." Martha smiled at her and then at Charles who unconsciously had closed the gap between him and his wife.

"We are not living in sin." She could feel how he turned his head to look at her. "We've been married for ten years now."

TBC later