***chapter 14***

Dear Diary

Lizzie has told me her Big Secret!

She asked did I remember when she cut through the gardens on the west side where we're not supposed to go because of all the vegetables, but it's a quicker way to the village as there is a little side gate and Lizzie and Miss Hunt, who is in charge of Laundry, needed starch for the petticoats and had run out. Not both of them. Both of them ran out of starch of course but only Lizzie ran out.

Miss Hunt would look very silly if she ever ran. She is thin and tall like a beanpole and always walks perfectly upright as she says that's how ladies walk, but because she is always busy she always walks very, very quickly but with very small steps because she says ladies NEVER stride and NEVER run.

I said to Lizzie of course I remembered. I couldn't forget it because she had been showing off, saying she didn't care if she got caught. I didn't say anything about the showing off, though. I like Lizzie, but, honestly, she is such a drama queen at times. I thought our Sal was bad, but Lizzie is ten times worse! (I hope she never finds out I said that.)

And she'd done all the actions like she was on the run from prison or a firing squad or something, though I don't believe she was in disguise and kept ducking behind trees and the garden shed and a wheelbarrow and making a break for it every five minutes like she said. I mean, it was very, very funny and it made me laugh, but I was trying to read A Tale of Two Cities that I got from the basket in the second hand book shop for free.

And I was still trying to read A Tale of Two Cities and it was difficult because some of the pages were missing and it was torn and a little kid had scribbled in it, which was why Mr Bryant the bookseller said I could have it for free, when Lizzie started telling me all over again about cutting through the gardens. She gets annoyed and says I'm showing off when I read books and says I only do it for attention, but I sometimes think it's Lizzie who wants the attention and she's jealous of me reading. I keep saying I will teach her if she wants but she just keeps saying reading is a waste of time. Well, anyway, I just said yes like I was bored, which I was, and I said again she could have got into terrible trouble.

Then Lizzie told me all over again, though she was all serious and didn't do the actions this time, about how she'd been in a hurry with Miss Hunt in Laundry being in a foul mood with FlotheGoSlowShow gone to visit her mother on her half day (Thomas and James who are footmen here called her that once because Flo fell on the ice and broke some teeth so is very slow eating her dinner because she can't chew much and it stuck) and Amy still being sick and nobody replaced Nellie yet since she got married so there was only Miss Hunt and Lizzie left to wash and she said she didn't care if anyone high up saw her.

That made me think a bit because I love playing with words and moving them about and how funny and beautiful and poetic words can be - is that a strange thing to say? Please don't laugh at me. I feel I can pour my heart out to you and I would hate it if you laughed at me.

So I said to Lizzie, "Isn't high up a funny expression for anyone in charge? It sounds like they are standing on top of a ladder or sitting in high chairs, not baby high chairs, those like they sit in for tennis", and Lizzie got all mad and said she didn't know why I was talking daft about ladders and babies playing tennis.

I said, "I am not talking daft and I didn't say anything about babies playing tennis, you did, and she said in a snooty voice, "You are such a child!"

Well, I got mad then. Can you blame me? I got up off the bed and thought I would go to the bathroom our floor shares, though it's hardly ever empty and sometimes you have to wait ages and if you go away somebody else jumps in, which is awful if you need to spend a penny (but not like Mrs Patmore's penny for the new knife, I mean REALLY spend a penny) but luckily I didn't want to go, I just wanted to go.

But Lizzie grabbed hold of my arm, her face all flushed, and said, "Where are you going? I'm trying to tell you about Ben!"

How was I to know that? I mean, she'd gone on and on about Miss Hunt and the Laundry and starch and everything so I thought she was just having a moan. And I was fed up of her saying things like "I have a secret but you're too young to know about it" or "I want to tell you my secret, Daisy, but you're only a child".

"I already know about him," I said in a snooty voice to match hers. "He works in the gardens with Silas and has dark brown hair and I know he's sixteen because on his sixteenth birthday Mrs Patmore gave him an extra portion of apple pie and put a candle in it and he had to blow it out."

I was going to be nasty and say he sniffs a lot and has crooked teeth and blows his nose on his sleeve sometimes, but I couldn't be that mean. I know I have already old you that, but I can trust you not to tell Lizzie if you ever visit Downton Abbey and meet her because I'm sure you wouldn't be that mean either.

"Well, you don't know he kissed me and something else!" Lizzie yelled at me and her face was still flushed.

So Lizzie finished telling me the whole story and dashed down because she was late and I was going to tell you, but I will have to stop here and tell you the rest later as I am on duty in fifteen minutes. I am very shocked. Not about Lizzie being late but about what she told me.

I don't have time to write any more so have done you a quick sketch of Miss Hunt instead. I was trying to show you her funny walk, but it looks like she's doing ballet. She does not have a big hat like the one I've done with flowers and fruit, she just has a plain black bonnet, but I wanted to make the picture more interesting and I am okay drawing flowers, apples, pears oranges and grapes. I can't draw bananas so she hasn't got bananas. Lizzie sometimes says she's bananas anyway. I hope Miss Hunt never reads my diary.

A/N (1) : *Not sure if "spend a penny" is a familiar expression in countries outside the UK. In times gone by in Britain, ladies would need to insert one old penny into the door of a ladies' public lavatory in order to gain access and so "spend a penny" became an old-fashioned euphemism for going to the lavatory.

A/N (2): The timeline with other characters does not follow the timeline of the TV series.