***chapter 15***

***Stories***

Dear Diary

I know you have waited ages to hear about Lizzie, but I have been very, very busy cooking. I am getting better at it, though Mrs Patmore was being impatient yesterday as we were having to rush with Upstairs having sudden visitors for lunch and said when I was busy making the soup, "What are you doing, Daisy?" so I said politely "Cooking, Mrs Patmore" and she said, "Oh, is that what you call it?"

I don't think my cooking is that bad as nobody has died from it yet. I will let you know when anybody does but I hope they don't. I was a bit worried about Weary Winnie when she ate eggs I cooked for breakfast and wasn't feeling well afterwards, but Mrs Hughes said when I asked, "No, Hinny, of course it wasn't the scrambled egg you cooked that made her sick! Winnie tires very easily because she is old and she has been sent to bed for a good rest."

Thomas and James started being idiots as soon as Mrs Hughes left and Mrs Patmore was at the other end of the kitchens. They were saying things like, "Don't worry, Daisy, we can prop up all the dead bodies of people who ate what you cooked in the biggest garden shed. Should get a dozen at least in there".

Oh, ha,ha, Mr Thomas Barrow and Mr James Kent, you are so funny, I don't think. You are both very pure isle. Isn't that a great description? I love words so much! I wonder if it started because the captain of a ship discovered an uninhabited (another great word) island in the middle of an ocean and said his kids would love to play there because it was a pure isle. I heard Mr Carson say it to them once and they didn't like it and I looked it up in the dictionary but it wasn't there so I asked Mr Molesley what pure isle meant and he said immature, but he must have realised I wasn't too sure what immature meant because he said childish.*

I like Mr Molesley who is a servant here. He saw me reading my old Tale of Two Cities and lent me his own which isn't torn and doesn't have pages missing and he hasn't scribbled in it. He said it is good to learn and I should always ask questions.

I am sorry I have rambled a bit. I am just so mad about Thomas and James being pure isle. I will write about Lizzie now as she told me everything that happened, but you must promise never to tell anyone. I am going to try and write it exactly how she said it, if I can remember it all, because I would like to be an author one day as well as a poet so it is good practice for me. This is what Lizzie said:-

Can you just shut up for one minute and stop trying to pretend you're clever with reading all the time? I want to tell you something. (Not you. Lizzie was talking to me). Well, you know when Miss Hunt sent me for starch for the petticoats because we ran out and I cut through the gardens where there's the side gate to a short cut to the village but it's not allowed? Honest, the way she was carrying on about us not having any starch you'd have thought Mrs Hughes would send us to the Tower. You don't know what it's like working with the old bat. She's always complaining and saying I don't wash things properly and I don't iron properly. It's not my fault if I was the only one in Laundry and everybody else was off. I thought she would kill me if I didn't come back with the starch fast so I didn't care if anybody high up saw me – I don't know why you're talking daft about ladders and babies - yes, you are, Daisy...

All right, all right! Remember I said I got disguised with that big black woollen shawl? You know the one that's been on the hook on the back of the blue cupboard door for ages and nobody knows whose it is? And I put it over my head and shoulders so if anyone saw me they would just think I was an old woman who got confused and accidentally came in through the side gate? Yes, it was smelly - what does that have to do with anything? I wish you would stop interrupting and going on about babies playing tennis - but it was mothballs smelly so it wasn't too bad and, anyway, I washed my face and hair under the tap when I got in and old Boot Face just thought I'd splashed water over myself because I'd been so busy. That's why my hair was soaking wet when you saw me and you said you didn't know it was raining.

Are you listening or reading? Well, put the book down then. So nobody saw me in the gardens and I got to the village and got the starch so I decided to go the same way back. I kept running and hiding behind the trees and everything like before and crouched down by the wheelbarrow. Then I saw old Silas heading off for his smoke and a drink of tea with brandy in it – well, you must be the only person in the whole of Downton Abbey, in the whole of the world, who doesn't know Silas puts a drop of brandy in his tea from the bottle he hides in the shed and pretends it's for his rheumatism – yes, okay, it might be for his rheumatism, I don't know why Mr Carson doesn't say anything, I haven't asked him, so why are you asking me? I suppose if he's head gardener he can get away with it because even Mr Carson must smell it on his breath sometimes. I wish you'd stop interrupting me. You are such a child, Daisy! Where are you going? Come back, I'm trying to tell you about Ben! Well, you don't know he kissed me and more!

(Lizzie told me it all over again last night so I am going to tell you exactly what she said last night as I am still being a proper author. I am still shocked.)

I didn't make a run for the gate when I saw Silas like I said. Not right away. I was just going to when I heard someone behind me. I nearly died, thinking it was Mr Carson, but when I stood up and I turned round you'll never guess who it was? Yes, how did you guess? He looked even more handsome than ever with his hair all over the place in the wind and that lovely smile.

He was laughing at my shawl and said, "What ARE you wearing, Lizzie?" "Nothing," I said. And he said, "I wish you were" and I went sooo red because he was being rude.

Then he said, "Who are you hiding from?"

"Nobody," I said.

"Oh, I see," he said. "Well, you are either playing hide and seek by yourself or you're trying to get out of work."

Well, I wasn't having that, was I? Not when I'd been working like a dog all morning! I'm not like you, Daisy, I don't let people walk all over me. I stand up for myself. So I folded my arms and said, "What are you doing then? You should be working"

"So should you", he said.

We were saying things like that for ages and I forgot all about the starch. But it was funny. We were arguing but at the same time it wasn't arguing. And he was looking at me and I was looking at him and I felt weak at the knees and he was smiling that lovely smile and he got hold of my hand, the one that wasn't carrying the starch, and I didn't mind, I liked it, and said, "You're a looker, you know, Lizzie."

I said, "I know, Ben, you keep telling me."

And then he said, "Can I kiss you?" and I was going to say "No" at first, but then I said, "Yes, but only for a minute", and my heart was hammering, he is so handsome, and, Daisy, he put his arms around me and he kissed me on the lips!"

I have to interrupt here to say Lizzie was being a proper drama queen and I am going to do some describing as I am being an author. She has hair the colour of straw and blue eyes and is pale except when she has just finished in Laundry and is still hot so her face and her arms are still very red when she comes in for supper with us all and Miss Hunt says, "For Heaven's sake, Lizzie! The ladies upstairs would NEVER roll up their sleeves at the dinner table! Pull them down before Mr Carson sees!" She is also quite tall really. Taller than me, Madge, Carrie and Betsy and even a bit taller than Winnie but not as tall as Betty or Miss Hunt..

Lizzie jumped up off the bed (I am still describing) where we were both sitting because we didn't want to get into bed yet and crossed both hands over her heart and did a silly little drama queen dance and bumped into our chest of drawers and knocked the hairbrush and some hair-clips off to stop herself falling over. That was when Mrs Hughes rapped on our door (we knew her voice as nobody else talks Scottish except Sam Campbell who collects the pig swill so he wouldn't be in the ladies quarters or in Downton Abbey as he doesn't live here) and shouted, "Less noise, please, girls, and go to sleep or you'll never get up in the morning!"

We said "Yes, Mrs Hughes" and I pulled the blankets back or I would been found frozen to death next morning because Lizzie had pulled them over to her side when she got into bed and then we waited a bit to be sure she'd gone so we could talk like we always do.

I thought Lizzie had finished telling me about Ben and I was going to say about how Weary Winnie keeps mumbling to herself, but she whispered, "We didn't just kiss, though, Daisy. I kissed him back for a minute too and the shawl was falling off my shoulders and Ben saved it and said, "Will you be my girl, Lizzie?"

So I said "I don't know" and then I said "Yes" and he put his arms around me like we were already walking out so I put my arms around him. But stupid Silas went and spoil it! We heard him coughing so I had to run back with the starch before he saw us.

Miss Hunt was going round with the sheets we starched before we ran out because there was no one else so I had time to put the shawl back and have a quick wash. I was so out of breath I thought I would die and Miss Hunt saw me and thought I'd run the long way there and back and been working so hard I'd accidentally splashed water over myself and she still moaned about me being ages. Oh, Daisy, isn't it wonderful? I have a beau!"

I said, "Yes, it's wonderful" like I was excited too, though I think Ben has horrible teeth and he wipes his nose on his sleeve so he is not much of a beau (have you noticed I can spell it now? Mrs Patmore told me after I thought Weary Winnie meant hair ribbon bows. It is French) but I am shocked. I know it is safe if you only kiss because the heroes and heroines kiss in books, but they only have a child if they marry. But Lizzie and Ben put their arms around each other like they were married so Lizzie will be having a baby now and that is not a good thing.

I hope you don't think I am being horrible about babies. I like babies. But Mrs Hughes would never let us keep it in our room until they get married. Lizzie is so excited she hasn't thought of that. But Lizzie is my friend and if I tell Mrs Hughes I will help her look after it she might let us keep a baby in the kitchens or the laundry. We are not supposed to have a beau unless Mrs Hughes says if we can see him, though, so I don't know what she will say when she finds out. I am so worried about Lizzie and the baby and she is acting like nothing is wrong!

A/N: *Daisy of course means puerile.