Wonderful, wonderful story!

I like how you pinpointed when and where they fell in love. This is a unique take!

This was a truly lovely use of the prompt for flame.I always love a scene between one of the Carson's and Sybbie and you don't disappoint here. And the ending of course is loving and affecting. Brilliantly written as always.

Simply beautiful

Love, love this and how you show us the progression of Mr. Carson’s feelings. I’ve always loved the idea of him dreaming about her. And I liked how he tried to get his thoughts back under control by thinking about the wine shipment and the crack in his ceiling. So very Carson. And I loved his comparing Elsie to the flame, and thinking all he’ll ever be able to give her is admiration and those little gestures of friendship :(. But yay for happy endings!

The flame metaphor is so appropriate. Elsie as fascinating, kinetic , alluring, necessary and good, but dangerous and harmful to oneself to touch. Such were the realities of service life before the First World War. After the Bates marriage was accepted and supported by the Crawleys, it mustn't have seemed quite so potentially self-harming. to Charles Carson.
I like Elsie's explanation as to why she didn't waste time giving him her acceptance if his proposal. And her admittance of how marriage to Charlie HAD changed her, for the better, she thinks.
A lovely exploration, poignant; life was emotionally hard for these two,but beautifully told. You nailed it when you had Charles realise Elsie was full of love to share with the world. And he was brave enough to ask to share it and return it to Elsie, openly. A flame gives light as well as heat.

Oh that was a lovely story. I loved the charting of the evolution of Charles's feelings about Elsie, especially the moment when he realised he was in love with her and then he went about showing it in small ways. And I just loved that he questioned his ability about keeping his feelings secret when they thought she might be ill.

Thank you - Thank You - THANK YOU!
How FANTASTIC this fic is:)))!
The Song is beautiful and absolutely perfect! It's new to me and became an instant favorite, a Song I'll come back to over and over again!
Words fails me! Your fic/gift is AMAZING! I'm over the moon.
My favorite lines was.. "every glimpse he got of her was a gift, every word a song in his heart."
"He began to think of Mrs Hughes... as the flame - a woman whose beauty he could appreciate, whose company he could enjoy, and knew it would have to be enough."
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How perfectly brilliant written! And the ending was Glorious too *happy flailing*.
Chelsie PERFECTION throughout *Standing Ovations*!
You are precious my dear sweet friend! I can't even... I love you! {{Hugs}}xxx

I love a good songfic and this was certainly that. I hadn't heard the song before. It's beautiful. I hadn't really thought about it, but of course he was acting like a husband might when they thought she was sick. And she acted as a wife when he was sick. There is something sweet in that.

The bit about him going off to war made me want to reread Beyond the Sea. :)

Happy writing!

I don't know how but you outdid yourself, my dear! There are few fics where I suddenly realize I've lost myself to the world. As in absolutely and totally soaking up each phrase and thought. Completely enraptured and engrossed. This was beautiful - and the lyrics were perfect! I'll have to give the song a real listen. Thank you SO, SO much.

Gee, think I liked it much?! :)

What a lovely look back through Charles’ thoughts and feelings over the years. So beautifully written, as always.
Happy Birthday to chelsietothenorthern!

Lovely.

I love this little story so much...thank you for your lovely writing

Beautiful

This is great. I love reading introspective journeys through the history of their love. There are so many ways to imagine it, so many ways for it to be wonderful, and this is definitely wonderful. Well done. :-)