Hello! Just a one shot of something that popped into my head, I'm sure I got some historical details wrong but I hope you'll ignore that and enjoy! Thanks!

This was such a long train ride and so boring, back home Colin could usually walk to where ever he wanted to go. Sometimes they would take a bus to the zoo or a park when there was extra money but that only would take half and hour or so.

This had to be the longest he was ever on a train, or anyone has ever been on a train. Well his uncle did move to Glasgow a few years earlier, that was probably longer but this had to be the longest train ride for an 8 year old ever.

Colin already missed home, he had lots of friends and his even some of his cousins lived a few minutes away, he wished he would have been sent away with them but they were close to Dorset and he had to come so far North.

Mum told him it was for the best and she wanted him to be safe and loads of other children were doing it, and also to mind Lord and Lady…something or other, he forgot their name but knew he'd be going to live in a big house.

Tommy down the street tried to scare him by saying that Lord and Lady whoever would make him serve them dinner and polish all the furniture while they made him sleep in their stables with the animals. Colin just figured he was jealous, Tommy was being sent somewhere dull in the Midlands.

Colin was also thinking about the other children who would be there, he was told the fancy Lord and Lady took in a lot of children from London, and Liverpool and all over, he hoped they would know the games he played with his friends at home.

The lady who was escorting him told him what a lucky young man he was, that Lord and Lady…Heaton was it? Either way, they were kind and good and generous. Colin didn't believe her, Dad always says to not trust words but trust actions and he did hear about the Jones girls being treated badly by someone they went to go stay with so maybe all the people hosting evacuees weren't to be trusted

He decided if those posh people tried to pull on over on him he'd leave to go back to home that very night, his Mum and the government might make him go but they couldn't make him stay.

"Here we are deary, Brancaster your new temporary home. Sounds like a fairytale place doesn't it?..." The escort lady told him as the train finally stopped and she began to organize herself "…come on, now get your things. They are expecting us at the castle. Imagine that? You get to stay in a castle, such a lucky young man to be placed with Lord and Lady Hexam."

Hexam. That was it, what kind of a name is Hexam? He never heard of a Hexam before, at least not on his street. And they had loads of names and not just the regular English ones, there were the Sardanas on the corner and the Nowickis above the bakery. They must have odd names this far north.

He tried to keep up with the escort lady as she got off the train, she walked very fast and seemed to know exactly where they were going, the lady stopped in front of a large car with a younger woman standing in front of it

"You look like you're from the castle, I've brought the newest one, typically Lady Hexam likes us to go straight home to give the children time to rest. Where is the driver?"

"I'm the driver and we can leave as soon as you're ready mam."

"What happened to that man? Don't tell me he was fired?!" Colin stood behind the escort lady and hoped the house he was going to wasn't too far from the station, the train was boring but he would hate to walk all the way back to London

"No, of course not. Mr. Miller took work in a munitions factory in Manchester, we were sad to see him go but since the Army wouldn't have him he wanted to help the war effort anyway he could."

"And you can drive that thing?"

"Lady Hexam taught me herself. There aren't any men standing around to just drive a car, I drive when Lord and Lady Hexam are busy. I still have my job in the kitchen but we all have to do our bit don't we?"

"That's true Come on love hop in!" Colin was quickly directed to get in the large car. He would love to have a car at home, so they wouldn't have to get on the bus, he wondered if Lord and Lady Hexam had ever been on a bus in their whole life.

Colin looked out the window at the small village they were in, it was different from home, the houses all had spaces in between them and they were cleaner, probably because there weren't as many trucks and factories, that's what Dad had told him.

"Now your mother told me she told you to behave yourself, and I tell this to every child I see to a new home, these people are opening their home to you so respect and good behavior is expected. Especially since you'll be with a Marquess and Marchioness, no one expected them to take in as many children as they did so they are doing you a great favor. Don't forget that young man." The escort lady took the opportunity to nag at Colin again, he didn't know why everyone kept talking about this Lord and Lady Hexam so much, he hadn't heard of them at all until a few days ago when they found out he would be going to Northumberland.

Colin never expected to ever be in Northumberland, Mum and Dad thought he was asleep but he heard them talking the night before he left, Mum said she didn't know why he was going so far away, Dad tried to make her feel better by saying 'the Gerries won't find him that far north.' And he promised he'd try and take on extra hours at the factory so they could save up to go visit him in the summer.

"Look at those lions on the bridge, you ever known someone who had a bridge with lions on it to their house?" The escort lady laughed to herself, Colin guessed she thought herself very funny.

They pulled in to a circle drive and the girl driving said through the window "Mrs. Jennings will take over from here." Colin looked to see an older woman in a plain black dress standing near the front door. That couldn't be Lady Hexam, she looked nice but not that grand

The escort lady hustled Colin out of the car and as soon as they were out Mrs. Jennings called down to them "Another one for us Ms. Reeves? You must be closing in on the record."

The escort lady let out a loud laugh and tried to guide Colin forward by the shoulder "I might be, although this one didn't give me as much trouble as the few I had last week. This Colin Duggan from London, Colin this is Mrs. Jennings, she works for Lord and Lady Hexam and makes sure everything is organized in the house."

Mrs. Jennings bent at the waist and spoke in a soft tone "We're very happy to have you here Colin, Lord and Lady Hexam are out at the moment but they've been looking forward to your arrival and they'll come to see you once they return. For now I'll have someone bring your things up to your room and have one of the children who has been here a while show you around."

Colin was happy to hear a familiar accent, although he had no idea why this Mrs. Jennings would leave London to come all the way up here, Mrs. Jennings stuck out her hand and gave him a warm smile "Come on then, we can't stay out here all day."

Colin took her hand as a teenaged boy came out to take his things, they walked in and it looked like one of those museums Mum was always talking about going to

"I know it might seem scary and big, but it can be quite cozy. Especially in the playrooms we've organized for you all…" Mrs. Jennings told him as she noticed him straining his neck and looking around "…Stephen, there you are. This is our new guest Colin, I want you to take some time to show him around like we talked about and I don't want you filling his head with nonsense."

Colin was a bit surprised at the stern way she was talking to him, but he just smiled at her and said "You can trust me Mrs. J, I still remember what it's like bein brand new to the old place. I promised Bertie I wouldn't let him down."

"It's Lord Hexam, and I don't care what he says about it, refer to him as Lord Hexam especially in front…" Mrs. Jennings trailed off and looked to the escort lady and to Colin "…I'll let Stephen show you around, dear. Don't let him get you into any trouble. Stephen I want you to bring Colin to the library for tea once you're done, Lord and Lady Hexam should be back by then."

Colin thought Stephen seemed to be 12 or 13 years old, he had long legs and thick dark hair that stuck out all over the place, he was wearing what looked to be hand me downs, being an only child Colin always got new clothes sometimes his friends would tell him how lucky he was not to have to share with a brother or sister

"Come on then Colin, we'll start in the dining room and work our way up..." Stephen motioned for him to follow and Colin quickly followed behind "…so, London, Manchester, or Liverpool?"

"Um, London. Poplar."

"We've got a few from London but mostly Liverpool and Birmingham. I'm from Manchester so naturally I've taken up a leadership position." Stephen looked quite proud of himself and Colin hoped they would get along

"How many kids are here?"

"Just about 11 or 12, and there are more girls than boys. But they are ok I guess, mostly just the small ones cry sometimes, but Mrs. P says that's to be expected with them being away from home"

"Does she work here too?"

Stephen gave him a funny look "No! She owns the place and a magazine in London too. Everyone else calls her Lady Hexam but she said we can call her Mrs. Pelham or Mrs. P to make things easier, same goes for Lord Hexam but he lets me call him Bertie on a count of we're such good mates."

Colin was embarrassed by his mistake, and confused that the Hexams seemed to have two names

"Why did they take so many kids, don't they have their own?"

"Of course they do, they've got four all together. There's Goldie, her real name is Marigold, like the flower but we all call her Goldie. She's the oldest, she turned 18 a few weeks ago so she went off to train for driving an ambulance, but she'll come visit after training, next week I think. Peter is 14, normally him and me hang around together but he had to go into town for something, he's pretty fun for a toff. Iris is only 11, she likes to tell on me and Peter but she can be fun when she is in the right mood. Andrew is the baby, at least that's what Peter and Iris call him he's 9, he can be whiny sometimes but he'll do anything if you promise him some biscuits."

Colin was a bit stunned at the amount of things Stephen seemed to know about this family

"How long have you been here?"

"Just about 6 months, I was sent to a tiny farm before I came here, it was just me and this nasty, mean old man Mr. Peabody. He'd make me work around the farm all day and only give me bread and maybe some cheese, and one time I didn't give the chickens the right feed and he hit he across the head!"

Colin was listening to Stephen's story wide-eyed and a little frightened; maybe Tommy wasn't just teasing him

"Do the Pelhams make you do any of that? Working in the fields? Or do they ever hit you?"

Stephen let out a big laugh, so loud Colin thought they would get in trouble

"No! They'd never do that! Mrs. Jennings just makes sure we all keep our rooms clean and pick up after ourselves. Mrs. P asks us to look after the younger ones and help out with the fundraisers she does and there is the schooling. Mrs. P makes us all go to classes with the tutors they have for their kids, she said 'anyone living here is going to leave with an education whether they like it or not' it's not so bad I guess, better than cleaning up after cows!"

"What about Mr. Pelham? Does he every get angry at the other kids and hit them?"

"Oh you're a funny one Colin, I don't think I've ever seen Bertie mad. Well I did, he's the Marquess, King of the county you see, and he heard that old Peabody was working his evacuee to death so he came storming in Peabody's barn one day with a policeman with him, told me to grab my things and get in the car. On the way to the car I could hear Bertie giving Peabody a dressing down for the ages!"

Stephen was laughing then and telling the story with energy and enthusiasm

"Then he brought me here and I thought at least I'll be inside while they work me to death and this place is bound to have better scraps than Peabody's, Mrs. P sat me down for tea and told me I wasn't going to be treated like I was at Peabody's and if I wanted I could stay with them for as long as I wanted. A few days later she told me they'd volunteer to have more evacuees come and stay here and they've been pouring in every since!"

"…So they're nice to you? And everyone else who stays here?"

"Yeah. Nicer than my own family at home, anyway… this is dining room, the table is big enough so we all eat our meals together. But Mrs. P is a stickler for good table manners so, best behavior."

Colin finally took a moment to look at the grand room they walked into and couldn't believe a room this big was actually in someone's house.

"Where did all those animals come from?"

"Bertie says that some of Marquesses before him use to hunt in Africa all the time and I guess they wanted to remember their trips."

"Does he go hunt in Africa? When there isn't a war?"

"I asked him that too and he said Mrs. P wouldn't let him because she would miss him too much…" Stephen put on a funny face when he said the last part and made Colin giggle

"…They get like that sometimes all lovey dovey, best to ignore it. Sometimes Peter whinges at them to stop but that just makes it worse, come on I'll show you the library."

Colin followed Stephen relieved that Mr. and Mrs. Pelham seemed to be kind people, Stephen seemed happy and he's been here the longest that must be a good sign

Colin was focused on keeping up with Stephen's long stride he didn't even notice the people who had entered the front hall

"What's this Stephen? I hope you're not scaring the poor lad already." Stephen turned with a big smile on his face

"No, sir. I'm doing just as Mrs. Jennings asked, and Colin hasn't run from the hills yet."

"Don't mind these two, they never stop with their teasing. Colin was it?" A lady with red hair and a few grey streaks spoke warmly to him as she leaned down to be more level with him

"Yyes…Mam. Colin Duggan…mam." Colin quietly whispered out, he was anxious to make a good impression and didn't want her to think he was impertinent.

"Well, Colin Duggan it's very nice to meet you and we're so happy to have you here with us. You can call me Mrs. Pelham or just Mrs. P is fine, and I want you to be comfortable here so if you have any problems please let me or my husband know."

"That's right, anything at all…" Colin looked over to a man who was giving him an easy smile "…I hope you'll enjoy your time with us Colin, I'm Mr. Pelham but most of the lads just call me Bertie, it's a bit easier isn't it? Mrs. P doesn't like that though, she's a bit posh." Bertie gave him a wink and Colin heard Stephen suppressing a giggle.

"Stephen, would you like to add anything to the conversation?" Mrs. Pelham asked, not in a mean way, but in a comfortable way that made Colin think that she knew him quite well

"No, Mrs. P. Not at all."

She turned her attention back to Colin "I'll write to your parents straight away and tell them you arrived safely and invite them up to visit when ever they'd like. And maybe tomorrow you can write them your own letter and tell them all about your trip and your first day with us, how does that sound Colin?"

Colin happily nodded proud of himself that she seemed to like him

"Wonderful, Stephen if you'd show Colin around some more before tea so I can box my husband's ears for teasing me I'd be very grateful."

By reactions of Mr. P and Stephen Colin could tell that Mrs. P was only joking and ventured to let out a laugh of his own and realized for the first time all day he wasn't nervous

"Come on Colin, it's a big place and you have to be on time for tea if you want extra biscuits."

Edith and Bertie watched the smaller boy try and keep up with Stephen's long strides, before long they'd have to give him some of Bertie's old clothes to wear

"You really aren't going box my ears are you?"

"No, but I really wish you wouldn't let all of them call you 'Bertie'. Their parents wouldn't appreciate us teaching them disrespect."

Bertie and Edith were used to this argument, it was one of the few things they disagreed about

"You're right but I want everyone to feel comfortable here, and I think it helps if I'm more familiar with them then I would be ordinarily."

"I want all of the children to feel comfortable as well it's just-" Edith stopped herself, she didn't want to discuss this again, instead she just slipped her arm around his and changed the subject "…I'd rather not discuss this again, Colin seems like a sweet boy."

"Yes, and he looks closer to Andrew's age than anyone else so hopefully they can be mates."

"And join in on annoying Iris? Just what we need." Edith said with a sarcastic smile

"Yes, well our youngest daughter does have a dash of the Crawley dramatics."

"Stephen's cheek is rubbing off on you, and Peter for that matter!" Edith told him with a laugh refusing to admit outright that Iris did tend to remind her of her younger self and her sister Mary from time to time

Bertie smiled at her and gave her a quick kiss "Maybe, but I think being around them all keeps me young. In fact if we take in any more evacuees I'll start ageing in reverse."

"I know, but we have the room and the means and I can't bear the thought of any child ending up somewhere they shouldn't be. And well, you know how I feel about all of it really…"

Edith was referencing a conversation she had with Bertie before when Stephen first came to stay with them. Edith had been busying herself with various scrap drives and fundraisers and the thought of taking in evacuees hadn't occurred to her until she heard a rumor from one her Lady's Maid about a poor skinny boy who was nearly being worked to death over at Peabody's.

Then she thought about the time years and years ago when she left Marigold in the care of someone else and how she worried herself sick for months even though she knew the Schroeders were good people, and she imagined how she would have felt if she found out they treated her baby unkindly. She couldn't manage to sleep, tossing and turning worrying about that poor boy, thinking back to how much she missed Marigold in those days, she finally woke Bertie up in the dead of night and told him quite force fully "First thing in the morning you are going to Mr. Peabody's to see what's going on with that boy he took in."

Bertie mumbled agreement and finally Edith was able to get some sleep, he did go first thing in the morning just as Edith had said and caught Mr. Peabody red handed going after Stephen with a broom. And after Edith explained to Bertie how she felt a duty to take care of these children and keep them out of harm's way there has been a steady stream of them ever since.

"I know darling." Bertie quietly reassured her "And I'm so proud of you, you manage it all so well and all of them adore you."

"Now Bertie, don't tell fibs we both know you are everyone's favorite." Edith gently reminded him, Edith didn't know how he found the energy to be constantly exploring the grounds with the older boys, playing trains and dollies with the younger children, do his duties as Marquess and with the local regiment and on top of that still managed to support Edith in everything she was doing and be a wonderful father to four sometimes rowdy children

"Well anyone in the know realizes you're the one that keeps the ship going, we'd lost without you."

Edith blushed then, even after all these years Bertie still managed to find ways to flatter her and make her feel butterflies

"It's funny how I feel the same way about you, now I'd love to continue this conversation later but now we have to get ready for Marigold's visit."

Bertie loved how determined Edith became since the war started, he was always impressed with her work ethic when they first met but now she was blowing him away with how focused she was on all the evacuee's wellbeing, her fundraisers, and still keeping the Sketch going.

"Yes next week, it feels like she's been gone forever. It's funny how even with a house full of children one person leaving can make it seem so empty."

"I know you miss her darling, we all do but…"

"There's a war on and there was nothing we could do stop her from doing her bit, she takes after you in that way doesn't she?" Bertie rhetorically asked Edith with a smile, they both were worried about Marigold but also deeply proud of her

"She does, for better or worse. I almost regret teaching her how to drive but even if I didn't she would have found something else to do."

Bertie laughed in agreement but was soon interrupted by his youngest daughter coming down the stairs

"Mama! Papa! Andrew and the new boy won't listen to me when we are playing school and I'm supposed to be the teacher, it's not fair!"

"Hello darling it's lovely to see you too!" Edith replied used to Iris' frustrations with not having full cooperation from the other children

"Mama please help!"

"Sweetheart, maybe the other children don't want to play school. Maybe they get enough school during the week, I bet Colin would like to see the stables and I'm sure Coco misses you so how about I take you all down there to visit instead?" Bertie diplomatically replied knowing Iris wouldn't pass up a chance to visit one of the few remaining horses they had left

"Oh can we?!"

"As long as you all are back in time for tea." Edith added a stipulation

"I think we can manage that, run and get the others." Bertie told Iris as she turned to run up the stairs

"I do want them back in time, I'm sure Colin is hungry after his trip."

"I'll make sure of it, we might even get fortunate enough to get them all tired out and off to bed early so we can have some quiet time together." Bertie hopefully said

"Sounds like a dream, I think we can treat ourselves to a quiet night by the fire."

"That settles it then." Bertie told her as he leaned in for a quick kiss and heard the children beginning to come down the stairs

Edith reminded all the children to behave themselves and listen to Bertie then watched him lead the small excited group out toward the stables as she went toward her study to write to Colin's parents and still couldn't believe how she ended up with a houseful of children and although overwhelming at times she was so grateful that they were able to give them all a home.