This wasn't written in chapters, I've just broken it up [to be mean]. JK. Yes, there will be more than just downstairs banter and, trust me, the soup is so important.

~pureclass

"There's a new maid!" called Mrs Hughes from down the hallway.

"To replace Jane, I suppose." Explained Anna in the kitchen, to herself really.

"Shame that was," added Daisy, "she left without explanation – just said she was going and left."

"Now, now, Daisy, she must've had her reasons." Mrs Patmore broke in with her usual derogatory statement.

"Yeh, but..."

"Daisy! The soup!" Mrs Patmore silenced her, Daisy almost panting as she attempted to stop the soup boiling over before Thomas, with one spin of his bad wrist, turned the gas down. His good hand was able to support a cigarette in his mouth.

Mrs Patmore, as much of a nuisance Daisy could be, was not unlike everyone else in not being able to dislike the girl. She'd pretty much had enough of Thomas shunning Daisy when Mrs Hughes and the new maid entered.

"Not another extremist red-head!" Miss O'Brien sighed as Amy walked in behind.

Donned in an apron it was the most clothes she'd worn in years and somehow still seemed strangely under dressed.

"So," began Amy, in her broad Inverness accent, "I'm Mrs Williams. What year is it?"

A silence encroached the room until suddenly Daisy began laughing, the pot of soup finally under her control, "What year is it?" she asked in return, "It's 1921. Or is it different in Scotland?"

"Daisy!" Mrs Patmore reprimanded her, "You don't say that, of course it's not. And I'm sure Mrs Williams knew exactly what year it is." The two had grown close enough for Daisy to realise when she'd done something worse than her usual accidental mishaps and decided she would be ushered into the corner by Mrs Patmore's disapproving glance.

"Sorry about that." Apologised Mrs Patmore.

"No worries." Accepted Amy, "We cool Daisy?" she directed to the small girl at the back of the room.

"Eh?" was her only response.

"Oh yeh." Amy corrected herself. "Period talk. Right. Er, this exchange hasn't affected what's likely to be a good friendship, has it Daisy?" she asked with slight hesitation, sounding more foolish than she could.

"I don't think so." Replied Daisy slowly, unsure of the question and it's context and confused more by Amy herself.

A following short silence was broken with Thomas' observation of "Always weird, the red heads. Feisty, aspirational, but strange."

"That will be enough of that." Carson's gruff voice shocked everyone in the room, especially Amy, when he stood framed in the doorway. "Has no-one bothered to introduce themselves to Mrs Williams, yet? Or shall we all be strangers?"

At that, all the staff attempted to introduce themselves at once. To this, Amy simply straightened her apron and pinafore and yelled "Alright, one at a time."

Carson and Mrs Hughes exchanged pleased glances. She'd fit in well, keep everything in order and she didn't seem like a problem.