A/N: Thank you so much for your kind reviews so far! I am enjoying giving every person downstairs a little snippet - so if your favourite has not come up yet: don't worry! Everyone who is going to be in S6 will have a chapter! Today it's our favourite cook's turn. Don't hesitate to review (again!)
In between the frigidaire taking up a buzzing space in her kitchen and Elsie Hughes going off to marry the Butler in a few weeks, there isn't much to keep her in the dark, hot kitchen, cooking seven meals a day. She's been contemplating a good moment to leave.
The most logical choice is in the new year to help Daisy through Christmas and the New Year's parties. She can't leave that dozy girl to do that on her own.
Though of course Daisy would have things well in hand. She is being wasted in this basement kitchen. She could teach home economics or take over the farm.
Sometimes she thinks about William. How she almost forced that girl to marry him. Out of pity. A deathbed wedding... Even Mr Carson had teared up a bit at the sight.
She rubs at her eyes. They're tired - like she is - from the lack of light and the long day she's had. She's been giving Daisy more responsibility lately. So she can catch more sleep. Soak her weary bones in a warm bath.
Her new house doesn't have indoor plumbing yet, but it shouldn't take more than two weeks for that to be put in according to Mr Molesley who's been regaling the details of the renovation of his father's cottage.
She's been making lists of things she'll need. Towels and plates and a bed. It reminds her of her sisters leaving home with 'six of each'. Her sisters moved out into the world, living their own lives. She'd been a little girl then.
There wasn't place for a dumpy young girl when her parents passed. Service or the streets had been her choices. An eleven-year-old scullery maid worked her soft little hands into calloused little paws.
She finishes her cup of tea and puts it in the sink. She'll rinse it out in the morning. There's nothing very exciting on the menu tomorrow. A quiet, ordinary day. Nothing to get herself in a state for.