Hello Downton Abbey fans! I promised more Downton Abbey stories, so here's another one! I love this show, and have devoured all the episodes and seasons of the show. This particular story called "Drawn to You" was inspired by Season 5 Episode 1 - Fear, Fire, Foes, in which Downton Abbey catches fire and Thomas heroically saves Edith from her burning bedroom. I just thought that they looked so cute as Thomas carried her princess style out of her room, and I couldn't help but write a fanfic about them. It doesn't follow the storyline of that episode, but is simply a story about how Thomas shockingly finds himself attracted to Edith, and she, after years of having him as the family footman, is attracted to him as well. The story is set some time after Edith is jilted at the alter.

I hope you all like this one! I admit, I love pairing two people together who would be a very unlikely couple. This story is a case in point. Enjoy! =)

Chapter 1 – Instant & Unexpected Attraction

"Edith, hurry it up! We're going to be late!"

The sound of Mary's voice made Thomas shudder on the inside, but on the outside, he showed dignified composure, as a footman should. He has been working for the Crawleys for nearly twenty years already, and he has created an image that they were accustomed to seeing. He couldn't let his personal opinions and feelings show.

"I'm coming," Edith said from the main stairway. Thomas turned his head as Edith stepped down onto the main floor in the entry hall, about to go help her with her coat, as was his job. But he stopped. Edith wore a floor length, shiny light-green silk dress that tied with a sparkling gold chain like a necklace around her waist, showing her slender form. Her blonde hair was tied up in a bunch of curls on the back of her head with a gold pin, and her face illuminated from the lights above. Thomas stared.

"Heavens, it's only a dinner," Mary scoffed, looking her sister up and down with a twerk of her nose. Edith made a face at her sister. Her mother stepped in.

"You look beautiful, Edith," she said with a loving motherly smile.

"Right, then, let us get on," Lord Grantham said.

Thomas came up and helped Edith put on her coat. His fingers touched her bare shoulder for the briefest moment, and a tingle wove up his arm from the touch, even though he was wearing white gloves.

What in the name of heaven is going on?!

The family exited the castle into the cool evening air, and Thomas held the door open on the motor car. After the cars drove on, he stood near the front door to the house, watching the cars head down the lane and disappear out of sight. His face was heating up, his heart was pounding, and his fingers were tingling from that small touch a few minutes ago.

His mind whirled with confusion. Why was a woman—Lady Edith Crawley no less—making him feel like this? Making him feel things that only men made him feel?

He swallowed hard. Not possible. His heart pounded harder and faster. No, it wasn't possible that he could be attracted to a woman.

Thomas went about his normal footman duties the next day after an unfruitful night's sleep. Unfruitful because all he could think about was the evening before and the bizarre attraction that he suddenly had towards Edith. Every time he passed her that morning, his heart made a lurch, which caused it to start pounding. He even fumbled over his words after she said "Good morning" to him!

"I've gone mad," he muttered to himself in frustration.

During lunch in the servants' hall as all the servants were eating their lunch of beef stew and homemade rolls with butter, Thomas sat there staring at his bowl, not touching it.

"Aren't you hungry, Thomas?" Anna asked as she sat across the table and one person down from him.

"Not particularly," he responded in a drone.

No one bothered him after that because they knew to leave him alone when he was in a foul mood. But it wasn't a foul mood. He was just intensely confused.

After lunch, he headed up the stairs to retrieve some of the silver vases that Mr. Carson said needed polishing. On his way up, of course, Edith was walking in his direction. She smiled cordially as they stopped near the top of the stairs on the second floor.

"Hello, Thomas."

He nodded his head, and he refused to let himself be affected again by her pretty appearance. "M'Lady."

She started to walk on, but her foot caught on the bottom hem of her floor-length light blue skirt. Before she could tumble down the stairs, Thomas reflexively caught her by her small waist, and she caught his upper arms. He noticed her flowery scent. It and her nearness suddenly took over his senses.

"Oh," she gasped, and looked up at him in surprise. "Thank you, Thomas. That would have been a nasty fall."

There was a pause for a moment as Thomas held her small waist to him and he looked at her brown eyes. His pulse shot up against his will. "Indeed, M'Lady," he said in a low and almost husky tone. "It was no trouble."

She stared at him for a moment, then her eyes suddenly widened and pink started to fill her cheeks. It registered just how close they were, and Thomas quickly let her go at the same time she stepped away.

"Thank you again," she said, a tad flustered.

He nodded without saying anything as she hurriedly walked, or more ran, down the stairs, leaving that that flowery scent in her wake. He watched her as she went, and as she cantered through the entryway and disappeared into a hallway that led to the drawing room. He shook his head and walked on. He stopped where the hallway to where various bedrooms and studies started, and he leaned against the wall with his shoulder, his heart pounding out of control and his cheeks hot.

He recalled her full front pressed up against him as he held her to him, keeping her from falling down the stairs. His hand on her small waist, her hands clinging to him, her big brown eyes looking up at him...

He let out a sigh in agitation. "Bloody hell," he let out and bit his bottom lip, and sucked in air as he felt sweat on the back of his neck.

He realized it now. For the first time in his life, he was attracted to a woman. And not just any woman... he was attracted to Lady Edith Crawley! His employer's daughter!

He was out of his mind.