Author's Note: For the sake of this fic, basically EVERYONE IS LESBIANS. In my headcanon, Sarah is clearly head over heels for Cora. It's difficult for me to write her mooning over anyone else, but a prompt's a prompt so here we are. Sorry if it seems a bit forced.
two.
No one was at the back door when Stella King arrived at Downton Abbey. She waited patiently in the cold for seemingly hours before decidedly showing herself in. Stella had always been a firm believer in the concept of it being easier to ask forgiveness than permission. As she made her way down the hallway, she was headed off by a woman, pale and proud and brusque, travelling the opposite direction.
"Excuse me, ma'am, are you the housekeeper?" Stella inquired, half surprised that her voice contained a slight tremor; she was not one prone to easy nerves, and intimidation was a rare occurrence.
"Not likely. I'm Miss O'Brien, 'er Ladyship's maid. You'll be lookin' for Mrs. Hughes. But who the 'ell are you?" Sarah O'Brien replied, rather irritated that she was wasting precious smoking time on this presumptuous, albeit delicate looking, stranger.
"Glad to meet you, Miss O'Brien. I'm Stella King, the new housemaid. Do you know where I might find this Mrs. Hughes or shall I have to wander the entire house myself to track 'er down?" Stella replied, regaining her usual gumption.
"Look miss, I'd love to give you a full tour of Downton, fix you a snack, and entertain you all afternoon," Sarah shot back, her voice dripping with sarcasm, "but 'ere's the servant's ball tonight, so we're already moving double quick to get everything done in time. And I 'aven't 'ad a smoke all day."
Sarah could see a slight glaze of defeat behind the other woman's determined, blue eyes at the barb.
"Oh, alright. One cigarette and I'll show you to the pantry," Sarah relented, and dropped herself heavily into a chair.
"Might I beg one off ya?" Stella pushed, "Smoked my last sittin' outside that door in the snow."
Miss O'Brien passed one round and struck her lighter, moving to light it for the other woman. The random urge confused Sarah, who tended to keep a solid two feet between herself and anyone excepting Thomas and her Ladyship.
"Thank you," the new maid said, curtly, exhaling.
The two women were seated side by side, making it difficult for Sarah to give the other her usual assessment. She stared Stella down with her peripherals, cataloguing each aspect in case it proved useful later. Stella was thin, but not quite like Daisy. She held her petite arms up with a delicacy generally unseen in a housemaid, but in a manner quite like O'Brien herself. The hardened, but not quite unpleasant expression she wore said she was a woman who knew what she wanted, and tended not to stand for others blocking her path. Her auburn hair was braided and wrapped into a knot at the base of her hairline, pinned prettily but with no real frills. Her lips were poised, as though always on the brink of a phrase; of a thought one's thought better of sharing.
She was, thought Sarah, letting the nicotine take hold of her brain, in fact quite lovely. Stella wasn't nearly quite as pretty as her Ladyship, but in a very different way, equally attractive. She crushed the end of her cigarette and tossed it in the bin, shaking herself from the slight daze. There were not enough moments in the day to waste anymore on this stranger.
Sarah O'Brien stood up abruptly, and she was off, motioning for Stella to follow, "C'mon then, I 'aven't got all day. Pantry's this way."