A/N Thank you so far for your lovely reviews! I will reply to them tomorrow!

Chapter TWO

"Mrs. Hughes", his voice penetrated the silence that had evolved since she had put away the stack of old letters. She did not turn around to look at him because she could not. Not yet. The memories were too fresh and most of all he would not understand why her cheeks were still wet and her eyes a telling red.

"Is something the matter?" she could hear his steps on the stone floor, how he cautiously approached her, his voice a hint of worry in it. In one futile attempt she tried to wipe away the rest of the tears from her face with her already damp handkerchief.

"It is nothing I should bother you with, Mr. Carson." If he had told her that she would not be convinced. First of all because he still looked at her back while she spoke and secondly her voice did not sound as strong as she wanted it to.

"Well, the way you said it now makes me bother, Mrs. Hughes. What is it?" He stood right behind her now. She could feel his presence and his hand that rested on the back of her chair not quite touching her but near enough for her to know it was there.

"Do you remember my first day here?" She slowly turned around, still not ready to face him but she could not pretend that she was all right any longer without making a fool of herself in his presence.

"How can I ever forget that day, Mrs. Hughes." He tried to smile but she could see that his eyes did not. They studied her closely, took in her slightly reddened eyes, her flushed cheeks and the sad look on her face. She was able to keep a lot to herself, bury her feelings deep down inside her but worry always seeped through no matter how hard she tried to keep it hidden.

"I thought you would say that." Her smile was dishonest as well but she had to give it a try.

ooooo

"You are from Scotland then?" the old housekeeper seized her up skeptically with her head tilted to the left and narrowed eyes as if she had problems with her vision. "Well, as long as you are capable of hard work and can master the English language its fine with me." She dismissed her and the tall butler with a wave of her hand.

They stood outside on the large and dimly lit corridor in front of the housekeeper's now closed door. The moment she had stepped through the back door, accompanied by the butler she felt reassured that she had made the right decision to leave her home and country. After the rather impolite welcome in front of the main entrance, he had introduced himself as Charles Carson, butler of Downton Abbey and apologized for his harsh words earlier. He had even smiled and offered her to carry her small valise. But now, after the first brief encounter with her direct superior Elsie could feel how her uneasiness returned. "Hasn't she read my application?" she tried to suppress her accent as good as possible.

The tall man next to her sighed but straightened his back in the next second when she looked at him quizzically. "To answer your question Ms Hughes, Mrs. Willow has not read your application but I did and it was my decision to hire you."

She decided to ignore the nervousness once again and quickly rebuilt a strong and self-confident outward appearance. "Thank you Mr. Carson that was very nice. I hadn't expected that as a butler you were in charge of hiring the housemaids."

He cleared his throat and bent down to pick up her bag again. "Let me show you your room now. You must be tired from the long journey."

ooooo

The stairway seemed endless to her. Higher and higher they climbed, him walking in front of her maintaining a steady and light-footed step which made it hard for her to keep the pace. Not once did he stop to catch breath or turn around to see if she was still behind him though she was panting already.

"Mr. Carson", breathless she stopped at the bottom of just another flight of stairs. To her relief he turned around after he had heard her call his name. "I do not want to give you the impression that I'm not capable of managing all these stairs but…" she paused to catch her breath. "I've had a very long journey and I would be very thankful if you could slow down a bit?" The way she phrased her request was rather bold but Elsie had decided to give not the slightest reason for their new employer to regard her as shy and inexperienced. If she was to stay her, work here, live here, she would make sure that they saw her as a strong- minded and self-confident woman.

"I'm sorry Ms Hughes." He went down the few steps he was already ahead of her and once again stood next to her. "It was rather impolite to climb the stairs in such a hurry. I apologize."

Tilting her head back just an inch, she looked up into his face for the first time today, allowing her eyes to take in his features. The blue eyes, bushy eyebrows, large nose and thin lips made him look very handsome. His hair was beginning to turn grey at the temples but was otherwise dark black like his tailcoat. A small smile played around his lips. "Are you rested enough to continue?"

She was and they went up two more flight of stairs until they finally reached the sleeping quarters. "You should remember to take the stairs to the right Ms Hughes, otherwise you will enter the men's quarters involuntarily. And we have strict rules at Downton Abbey. Romantic relationships between the servants will result in immediate dismissal without credentials." The deep voice sounded stern again now like it had an hour earlier in front of the house.

"I understand Mr. Carson and I can assure you that I have no intention whatsoever to disobey these rules." She would never give in to any flirting or indecent hints from footmen or other male staff. Ten years in service had made her an expert in knowing people and taught her how to avoid situations that involved lovelorn men. She had fought off many admirers in her last employments. Only one man remained a constant in her life and that was Joe Burns. He had always been there when she had days off, was looking for a new employment or visiting her parents and sister. He was a kind and caring man but never more than a friend. She would never see him again for it was his proposal that had made her take on this new job away from everything she knew.

"Well Ms Hughes, this will be your new home then." They walked up the stairs, turned around a corner and entered a long corridor with doors to both sides. Name tags indicated who occupied the rooms. One door had an empty white label attached to it which Mr. Carson now extracted. "I will write down your name on it later. First you should see your room and unpack."The door slowly opened and revealed a small but nice room with a window, a bed, a chair, an armchair and a small bureau to the left.

"It is lovely", she noticed that the room just had a single bed. "Won't I share it with someone?"

Mr. Carson placed her bag on the empty chair ready to be unpacked. "The head housemaid has her own bedroom at Downton Abbey." His voice was now soft again, friendly and warm. "You don't mind, do you?"

"Not at all Mr. Carson." Again she looked into his face and he gave her a smile in return then cleared his throat which he obviously did every time he was beginning to feel uneasy.

"Make yourself comfortable. We will have dinner at seven thirty downstairs in the servant's hall. Before that I would like to introduce you to your new employer, Lord Grantham." The formal tone in his voice had once more returned but it changed for one last time when he left the room. "And Ms Hughes, don't try to hide your accent."

A/N I know it's short... sorry for that. But I got stuck :-/ somewhere in the middle and wanted to avoid to repeat myself.

So what is it that Elsie's so upset about?