After a long dry patch where all my energy went into getting my family well again, I have finally come back to writing after there was a delicious hint in the British TV magazines about a romance between Mrs P and Mr Mason. It was too good to resist, and so here's the first chapter of my sequel to 'A Long Needed Holiday'. With a bit of luck, this will be finished up in time for Christmas!

"Letter came for you Daisy," Bill Mason stumped back into the warm kitchen, shucking off his overcoat and hanging it on the stand. Toeing off his boots, he leaned over to pass it to her.

"Aww, it's a Whitby post mark! It'll be the Bates, we're due for one."

Bill smiled. He still remembered the visit the couple had made to see him, about a year before their daughter Josie was born. They'd been working through some troubles then, but at the end of their visit they'd bought The Gull's Nest in Whitby and by all accounts were well settled there now.

"Breakfast going on the table!"

The homely Yorkshire voice that rang across the kitchen no longer belonged to Mrs Patmore's soul-twin Hetty, but to the good lady herself. Although she now wore a wedding ring and was greeted as Mrs Mason in the post office, Daisy still tended to use her old name, an ingrained habit after fifteen years of cooking side by side. Bill beamed at his wife across the kitchen as she brought the hot plates of bacon and eggs to the table. He only ever called her Darling, so her surname didn't matter a jot to him.

Daisy sat down at the end of the table and slit the letter with the butter knife, reaching for the toast rack.

"They're doing well," she crunched through a slice. "It's from Mrs Bates. They're planning to take a break over Christmas, he says. The hotel was quiet last year, and they've worked out it's better to shut for a week between Christmas and New Year."

"Ah bless the pair of 'em," said Mrs Patmore, pouring out the tea into mugs and plunking herself down next to Bill with a grin. "They need a rest, they work too hard."

"'Ave they got any plans for Christmas, Daisy?"

"Doesn't say... perhaps they're going to stay there on their own?"

"Bit dismal for Christmas Day," Mrs Patmore frowned. "What's Christmas without a few folk to have dinner with?"

Daisy chuckled to herself. Mrs Patmore regarded anything less than ten people as dismal for a family gathering. Cooking lunch for the three of them last Christmas had lead to enough food being left over to feed them for another week.

"I agree," nodded Bill, mopping the last of his egg with a crust of toast. "What do you say, ladies, shall we invite the Bates to come for Christmas?"

Daisy and Mrs Patmore faced each other with matching grins, looking more like mother and daughter than many blood relations could boast. It was a question that didn't need an answer. Daisy scampered over to the snug to find her writing box.

...

Two days later, across the county of Yorkshire, another breakfast was taking place.

"John, food's on the table!"

Anna turned to reach for the coffee pot and turned just in time to see John and Josie coming through the door.

"Good morning sweetheart," Anna dropped a kiss onto her daughter's golden curls. "Did you sleep well?"

Josie nodded, an endearing grin her only answer.

"Don't I get one?"

John scooped his arm around Anna's waist and leaned in for a kiss.

"You had yours this morning, John Bates, and it almost made me late to open the front door..."

John chuckled, settling down to his coffee and boiled eggs. "Did the Marksons get off for their train on time?"

"Just about, she was waiting to check out when I got down to the desk. I hadn't even put my hairpins in yet..."

Josie had had enough of such grown up conversation. An exciting looking letter was propped up against the pepper pot next to Daddy's plate.

"Whose the letter from Daddy?"

Anna scooped Josie into her chair and started scooping small bits of egg and toast into her daughter's mouth. "It's a Downton postmark, looks like Daisy's writing. I didn't have time to open it yet, so I left it for you..."

John slit the envelope and scanned it through. His face broke into an enormous grin.

"It is indeed. And it's an invitation?"

"Oh right? To what?"

"To Christmas and New Year at Yew Tree Farm."

John paused for effect, as his wife met his gaze in sheer delight.

"Get away..."

"I'm serious."

"Let me see..."

Mopping Josie's mouth and pouring her a mug of milk, Anna dusted her hands off and reached for the letter.

We'd love to have you for Christmas and New Year if your hotel isn't open. Mrs P always makes enough to feed an army, and we've even more space than Mr Mason had at the old farm. Please say you'll all come.

Anna felt warm all the way down to her toes. She loved her life at the hotel with John and Josie, it was everything she could have dreamed. There had been trials and challenges, that much was true, but it was the life she had longed for through all of their long struggles early in their marriage. Yet she longed to go back to Downton and see the other people she loved. Letters flowed frequently, but they didn't make up for that daily contact she had been used to for so many years. Perhaps if the hunt road out on Boxing Day, she might even see Lady Mary, perhaps even George if he was old enough to ride out this time.

"What do you say? Shall we go?"

"Would you mind?"

"My darling, I never mind anything that makes you happy, and I would be pleased to see our old friends again."

"What do you think Josie? Would you like to go and stay on the farm for Christmas?"

"Can I feed the ducks? And ride the ponies?"

Anna peeled with laughter.

"We shall see my dear, we shall see. Let's finish up this egg now and then we can send a 'yes please' letter."

John smiled across the table at the two beautiful blonde women who made up the centre of his world and began to dream of a Christmas filled with food, good friends and warm comfort.