Description: A chronological journey through the highs and lows of the Bates and Anna storyline, with the addition of a very special ingredient...

Warnings: Set Series 1, Episode 4 with minor spoilers up to and including the episode.

A/N: Thanks to everyone who has read or reviewed so far. Please continue to do so and make me very happy!

Thanks for reading!

Disclaimer: Anna, Bates and Downton Abbey all belong to Julian Fellows and are not my intellectual property. I'm only borrowing them for a bit and I fully intend to give them back!

Chapter 1

Anna sighed and rolled over. Another day working at Downton; and another early start.

Despite her normal sunny disposition, Anna was not a morning person. Those who knew her best were well informed of this fact and stayed well clear of her in the early hours until she'd had the chance to accept the day and sip several cups of tea. 'Tea', Anna thought to herself, 'always made everything seem brighter'. It was one of the things her mother had told her as a girl and, along with many other pearls of wisdom, Anna had always remember her words.

However, on this particular morning, tea did not seem to be helping much at all. Anna's head throbbed and her nose seemed to be getting stuffier and stuffier. By mid-afternoon Mrs Hughes noticed the maid's quietness and, after enquiring the cause, sent her up to bed with firm instructions "not to move for the rest of the evening".

Doing nothing didn't suit Anna well. She desperately tried to focus on her book but she just felt too ill to do anything. After setting the book aside and then picking it up again for what seemed like the hundredth time, Anna heard knocking on the door. Surprised, but not altogether displeased, Anna wrapped a shawl around herself and opened her door. She was confused to note that there was no one there. After looking up and down the corridor, Anna gave up. "It must've been the wind or someone downstairs" she concluded and was about to close her door when someone whispered her name: "Anna".

Anna would know that voice anywhere. It sang her to sleep every evening and coaxed her awake as the sun rose. It was the voice that haunted her dreams, both night and day, and she knew that if she were to live a hundred lifetimes it was a sound she would never forget.

That didn't explain, however, just what on earth Mr Bates was doing at the door to the women's quarters? Almost silently, she padded along the corridor. Mr Bates must've heard her coming though as he asked her to open the door. Open the door? Surely he realised that Mrs Hughes was the only one who would dare to do that?

Tonight however, Anna also dared.

She opened the door to find Mr Bates standing there with a shy smile on his face, holding a carefully prepared tray of food for her. Anna was touched to see that he'd also picked some flowers for her. The kind gesture gave her hope; hope that feelings she'd harboured but set aside for so long might just be reciprocated. Mirroring Mr Bates' shy smile, Anna carefully took the tray from his hands and, after one last, appreciative look, shut the door.

Later on that evening, alone in her room, Anna savoured the square of chocolate she had found nestled on the tray between the mug of tea and the flowers. It made her smile to think that, despite never having told him, Mr Bates was already well informed of her sweet tooth. But, somehow, the chocolate was something much greater than a sweet treat. It told her that Mr Bates was thinking of her and that he cared for her.

And this knowledge made the chocolate even sweeter...