It certainly occurred to Anna that the cook might just be winding them up. The looks on their faces at that revelation must have been worth more than a king's ransom. Obviously taking in their expressions, Mrs Patmore smiled with the air of authority that quickly comes to someone who holds coveted information.

"I'm not asking you to believe me, I'm just telling it as I know," she informed them.

"Mr Carson?" evidently Daisy was having difficulty too, "But he must be an 'undred years old."

"Not quite that, Daisy," Gwen remarked. She had actually taken a seat and was waiting for Mrs Patmore to resume her tale. Anna thought that might be a good idea and followed her example.

"Well, this was ten years ago, wasn't it?" the cook explained, "And he hasn't always been past it. There was a time when he turned quite a few heads."

She said that with rather too much of an appreciative glint in her eye. Anna cleared her throat a little.

"O' course, mine was never one of 'em," she added hastily, "Though I don't think the same could be said for Elsie Hughes."

"Mrs Hughes!"

"Hush, girl, or you'll have us all in bother with her as well as Sarah. Well, you know what they're like," she turned to Anna and Gwen, "I'm sure you won't deny that you've wondered on the odd occasion if they were... Well, it's always been like that; as long as I've known them, anyway."

It wasn't too hard to imagine, Anna thought, and it was true; more than once she'd found herself wondering if there wasn't more to the infamous Carson-Hughes working relationship than they let on.

"So," Mrs Patmore continued, engaging their attentions once more, "Along comes Sarah with that flaming attitude of hers- doesn't care what she's told- has all of these foolish notions of finding romance and being able to leave service."

That, Anna did find hard to believe. Mrs Patmore could have been just as well describing Daisy as Miss O'Brien.

"I know it's hard to imagine," Mrs Patmore conceded, "But just try to go along with it. Anyway, here comes young Sarah- nicely lovelorn over nobody in particular- waiting to be whisked off her feet by the first chap to come along."

"And it was Mr Carson?" Gwen prompted her, only a little incredulously.

"Soon as she clapped eyes on him, I would have said," Mrs Patmore informed them- an expression of smugness that would have put Lady Violet to shame on her features.

By now they were all enjoying this idea far too much to allow for disbelief.

"What did she do?" Gwen pressed on.

"Who? Hughsie or Sarah?"

Either! What did it matter?

"Well," Mrs Patmore began, "It was just getting to the point of being ridiculous, when-..."

"I was not aware that the staff of Downton Abbey had subscribed to industrial action."

They all leapt up as they heard none other than Mrs Hughes' voice in the doorway, and by the looks of it, the housekeeper had not calmed down much since her prior altercation with Miss O'Brien. It would probably be taken as insolence if one of them were to respond "Well, we have."

"What, might I ask, was so interesting as to put a stop to work entirely in the middle of the day?"

Thank heaven, thought Anna, that I didn't take a fancy to Mr Carson myself. If what Mrs Patmore was telling them was true, she wouldn't like to have to face a rival in Mrs Hughes. When they were barked at to get back to work, they scarpered- all knowing what was good for them.

"I'll tell you after dinner," Mrs Patmore told her out of the corner of her mouth, as they dispersed frantically.

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