New Year's Eve 1851:

Sometimes the Butler wondered why he didn't just kill Felix Kraus and get it over with? The evening had started surprisingly well as for the first evening meal since boxing day he had been able to look Flora Ryan in the eye without coughing and she had barely blushed, which was definitely progress! However he should have known such tranquillity could not last, not when there was a conniving Prussian around.

- - - -

"Well we have a good hour or so before we need to join the lower servants." Felix had piped up when the last of the dinner plates had been cleared away. "We should do something fun….How about…"

"No Felix before you even say it we are not playing the bottle spinning thing again." The butler had piped up before the Chef could even get the words out of his mouth.

"My dear Mr Jarvis you are so suspicious and me thinks you do protest too much come on admit it you enjoyed it." Felix snorted into his brandy.

"I said no Mr Kraus now I am sure there are plenty of other parlour games that can amuse us…And no Charades." Jarvis managed to get in before Mrs Diggins could once again suggest her favourite, the very idea brought back terrible memories of the time she had tried to mime a nursery rhyme and sent him to a corner to be little Jack Horner eating his pudding and pie, after all the nerve of the woman just because he was the shortest man in the room didn't mean he could be considered a boy!

"How about statues?"

"No no too tiring on the legs." Jarvis snapped at the valet, more concerned that the amount of port he had consumed would be a disadvantage.

"I do have an idea." Felix piped up an enigmatic smile on his face that should have sent alarm bells ringing in the butler's mind but instead Jarvis allowed him to continue.

"How about Sardines…You know hide and seek." Felix added when no one appeared the wiser.

"Well I suppose it might be fun." The butler replied.

"Except we agree to a restricted area and more than one person is IT after all we want to find people as quickly as possible." Felix added.

"Sounds like a sensible suggestion Mr Kraus." The butler replied. "We will restrict the game to the servants quarters no one must venture into the main house and I suggest Mrs Diggins and Mr Jenkins for the first round…"

"Oh and of anyone is stuck for suggestions I'll tell you each where to hide." The chef piped up smiling dangerously standing up from his seat to wander round the table and whisper suggestions in people's ears so they one by one disappeared from the room to hide. Finally he got round to the Butler. "I have somewhere special in mind for you Walter, but you'll have to hurry…" He added glancing over to Mrs Diggins and Mr Jenkins who were already at 50 in their count. "Third floor corridor fourth door on the right." Felix added as they stepped outside and he turned towards his kitchen.

"But that's no bigger than a broom closet!" Jarvis spat his eyes widening however when Mrs Diggins reached 70 in her count he decided speed was more of an issue and so sped away his feet slapping noisily on the flagstones and then the staircase as he headed to his hiding place. Breathing heavily as he heard the sound of 'Coming ready or not' echo through the house the butler found the door Felix was talking about, it was slightly ajar and he wrenched it open flinging himself inside before pulling door shut behind him with a sound click.

It was less than a second later that he realised the small broom cupboard was not as empty as he had first supposed. He had not simply knocked over a few brooms or spare sheets although they had certainly landed on somebody who was now mumbling angrily from under the pile. Squatting down over the crumpled figure the butler groped around in the darkness intending to pull out the unfortunate wretch secretly thanking the stars that Mrs Diggins was on the opposing team that was of course until his hands came into contact with some rather agreeable curves.

"Do you bloody mind!" Their owner snapped, slapping his hands away as she struggled to her feet.

"Mrs Ryan?" The butler asked aghast as the housekeeper stumbled against him and he could feel her hot breath on his face and press of her full skirts against his legs.

"Mr Jarvis?" She answered and he could have sworn her breathing became even more erratic.

"I should find somewhere else to hide." The butler insisted his hand moving to the door to grope for the door handle but finding it disturbingly absent.

"We cannot open it from this side…Why else would I have kept the door ajar?" The housekeeper enlightened and from her tone of voice the butler could just picture her leaning back a mocking expression on her face to match her voice and her arms crossed over her chest. Shaking his head the Butler tired to drag his thoughts back from the last area, just because he now had a much clearer picture of such things down to size and density does not mean he had to focus on them.

"Well whoever heard of such a thing, a door without a matching knob…Why it's an accident waiting to happen!" Jarvis huffed back leaning against the wood of the door to try and maintain some semblance of decent distance between them something that was undermined by the fact that it was a very small broom cupboard.

"So what do we do now?"

Scratching his head thoughtfully the butler paused before replying. "Wait till Felix comes and gets us I suppose, after all the game cannot take to long they'll be bound to find us soon. Just wait till I find him, sending me to a place I could get locked in…."

"He sent you here too?" The housekeeper gasped.

"You mean he told you….Oh how could he have made such a mistake forgetting he sent someone here already?"

"You think he forgot?"

"What you think he'd send us both here deliberately, for what purpose?"

The housekeeper chose not answer that, to her the answer was obvious but it took a moment for the butler to catch up with her but when he did the strangled choking nose he made provoked a snort of amusement from the housekeeper.

"What is so amusing Mrs Ryan?"

"Amusing Mr Jarvis I do not know what you mean, after all what could possibly be amusing about a certain chef conspiring to lock the housekeeper and butler in tiny broom cupboard with the hope that they will…"

"Yes thank you, you have made your point Mrs Ryan." The Butler cut in for once thankful for the cupboard's darkness so he could avoid her eye and hide the growing heat he felt spreading from his cheeks down his neck until he gave in and pulled at his collar to loosen it. "There must be something we can do in the meantime…Perhaps we can find something to pick the lock?"

"In a broom cupboard?" The housekeeper scoffed earning her a scowl from the butler, not that she could make it out but somehow it made Jarvis feel better just doing it regardless.

"If you are not going to be helpful than stand aside." Jarvis snapped stepping forward until they were practically nose to nose.

"And just where do you expect me to move to?" Flora retorted trying to edge herself past the butler to the door and gaining a broom handle in her back for her troubles. "You're stepping on my dress."

"Is it my fault it takes up most of the cupboard?"

"Well what would you suggest I do I can hardly take it off!"

"I am sure Mr Kraus would consider it a triumph if you did!" Jarvis retorted without thinking, trying to rid the now prominent image of Flora Ryan sans apparel clad only in her corset and petticoats. "It will not be necessary Mrs Ryan if you just lean that way I can feel the shelves and see if there is anything we can use."

Doing as he asked the housekeeper lent sideways her hands gripping the wall and at the last minute the Butler's shoulder to stop herself from overbalancing as he leant across her and began to grope the shelves trying desperately to keep his mind on escape and not the rhythm of her breathing as on every inhale he felt her chest brush teasingly against his right shoulder. Inwardly cursing Felix for putting him in such a compromising situation he grabbed widely at anything he could reach leaning further to reach the back of the shelves and feeling the housekeeper wobble worryingly.

"Just a few moments more Mrs Ryan." He muttered a smile appearing on his face as his fingers caught the edge of a thin metal pin like object, leaning even further forward he grasped it and pulled with all his weight.

However what he wasn't expecting was the object to come away in his hand with such force he staggered backward taking the unbalanced housekeeper with him and then to their horror having the entire contents of the collapsed shelf fall on top of them.

"Do you have anymore bright ideas?" Flora Ryan muttered from somewhere around his ear her movements restricted by the pile of sheets that had descended on top of her and the tangle of the butler's feet in her skirt. "Because next time why don't you stop before carrying them out."

"Hmmm." The Butler mumbled before pulling the sheet off his face. "Oh just stop it at least I was doing something."

"Yes getting us into an even more uncomfortable position than before not that I would have thought that was possible!"

"You're uncomfortable? I'm the poor sod who has you crushing him."

"You brought it on yourself!"

"Fine I can accept that but will you get off me." Jarvis snapped trying desperately to ignore the press of her breasts against his rib cage or the feel of her thighs pressed against his.

"I am trying." Flora retorted wiggling furiously to try and free them from the tangle before collapsing against his chest in exhaustion, then after a few moments to catch her breath trying again.

"Mrs Ryan would you please stop that." The butler hissed after a few moments his voice low and dangerously tense as if he were talking to her from far away.

"Stop what?"

"That…That wiggling thing you are doing…It is most disturbing." He managed to add before stifling a small groan.

"You told me to try and get up."

"Yes but now I want you to stop alright we will have to find some other way." The butler added through a clenched jaw his eyes tightly shut as he tried to retain some sort of control over his wayward body, the memory of their Christmas kiss now once more forefront in his mind.

"Mr Jarvis are you alright? You don't sound yourself and your breathing is somewhat erratic?"

"I am fine Mrs Ryan." The Butler replied through his teeth.

"You are not." The housekeeper replied stubbornly reaching up to check his temperature and brushing the hair back from his forehead gently causing the butler to moan once more but this time in no pretence of pain, his hands lifting of their own accord to encircle her waist before travelling both up and down her back .

"Mr Jarvis." The housekeeper began somewhat breathlessly herself as his hand reached the nape of her neck and began to stoke behind her ears and through her curls.

"Mrs Ryan." The butler answered his voice now deep and husky as he cupped her face gently but firmly and tilted it up to meet his own anything further she was going to say cut off as his lips covered hers for the third time this kiss more intense than their last. Now without the gawping audience Jarvis deepened the kiss tugging on her lower lip in order to beg entrance which she surprisingly granted moaning into his mouth as his tongue began to caress hers before they duelled mercilessly. Finally having to pull away for breath the butler smirked at Flora's rapid panting her chest heaving against his especially when he dropped the hand that was still around her waist to grasp another part of her anatomy caressing it gently through the layers of silk and cotton before drawing her mouth back to his.

When he had plundered her mouth her mouth in its entirety and left the women in his arms reeling his attention turned to her slender neck which he explored laboriously, nipping at her earlobes, nuzzling into the soft skin before tracing the hollow of her collarbone with the tip of his tongue before twisting them over only deepening their entanglement in the sheets which bound them closer together. Now in the more dominant position he crushed the housekeeper under him his lips running freely over her face and neck and down to the tops of her breasts.

Whimpering beneath him Flora Ryan could do nothing but wrap her arms round his shoulders and then into his hair, arching against him when his mouth found the sensitive skin of her chest and he nuzzled between the tops of her breasts blowing hot air down them like a silky caress.

"Walter." Flora gasped then whimpered when the strong warm contact suddenly pulled away from her heaving chest and hovered a few inches from her face.

"Tell me what you want? Do you want me to stop?" Jarvis muttered leaning down and kissing her softly on the mouth. "Or shall I…shall we keep going?"

"No don't stop…" Flora insisted grasping his head and bringing his lips down to meet hers in an almost desperate kiss relishing in the press of his hands as they reached up to caress her breasts firmly through her dress.

However the Butler should have realised things were far to perfect to last, and just as he was slowly working the buttons of the housekeeper's dress loose he heard a booming voice through the door. "They must be around here somewhere Mr Jenkins!"

Immediately panicking the butler kicked furiously at the restricting sheets rising onto his knees before he tried to extricate his feet, cursing under his breath at his own stupidity for forgetting the circumstances of their imprisonment.

"It could have been worse a few minutes later and well…" The housekeeper muttered as if reading his thoughts as she tried to re button her dress and smooth down her hair but realising that it was undoubtedly a hopeless task people where bound to draw conclusions regardless but at least she could make an effort to look somewhat less debauched.

Once he had managed to stand the butler leant down and pulled Flora up as well his breathing hiking as she slid easily into his arms just as the door was flung open by a very red faced Mrs Diggins.

"Mr Err Jarvis…Mrs Ryan." The lady's maid gasped at finding not one but both of the missing staff and in a most compromising position.

"The door stuck." The butler added by way of explanation stepping out into the corridor and staring down the other staff as if daring them to say or think anything else, although the Chef's knowing smile was undermining his efforts. "Felix a word if you don't mind?" The butler added without a backwards glance at either the lady's maid or the housekeeper as he stormed off to his office the chef following on his heel.

"That was a cruel trick to play…Mrs Ryan and I are not amused with your joke, it was highly inconsiderate of you what will people think?"

"Oh I am sure they will not dare to think anything other than what happened happened!" The chef retorted mischievously glancing at the clock as they drew nearer to midnight and the toast.

"Felix I am a gentleman I would never take advantage of such a situation, Mrs Ryan and myself are only colleagues nothing more and it will continue to stay that way so enough of your cupidic intentions!"

Nodding as if bowed down with guilt the Chef indicated towards the door and the butler moved to follow him out to the courtyard. "If you say so my friend but then tell me how did our housekeeper's come to misbutton her dress?"

Stopping dead the Butler shot a death glare at his friend worthy of Mr Adams himself before storming off to perform the midnight toast his eyes flickering over the assembled staff to land on a still somewhat red faced Flora Ryan who had hastily grabbed her coat and gloves and joined the party. On the stroke of midnight he announced the new year, 1852, before stepping down off of the podium intent on finding a certain lady and imparting the seasons greetings to her. Watching her surrounded by her maids who were all wishing her a merry new year Jarvis waited to catch her eye a small smile pulling at his lips as she blushed immediately. Walking over he leant forward and politely kissed her cheek feeling her tremble slightly against him before whispering in her ear. "Your room later."

Watching as she nodded subtly he turned and ignoring Felix's knowing look headed off to wish the rest of the staff as happy a new year as he was looking forward to.

- - - -

It was therefore an hour later as he tightened the sash of his robe around him and headed out for his new year assignation that he decided perhaps killing the chef was a little on the harsh side perhaps he should instead try and give him a taste of his own medicine…After all with Mrs Diggins involved they wouldn't need to use such a small broom cupboard!