A/N: Thank you to Manygreentrees and Chelsietx for reading and reviewing. Really appreciate your input :)

***Dancing***

I am sorry about not writing for ages, but I have been very busy with everything going on. I don't know what we all talked about before but all everyone talks about now is the Great War and a lot of the men here have gone off to fight the Germans. The papers say it will all be over by Christmas so it is a great adventure for a few months. They were very excited about going and I went with Lizzie and Carrie to wave them off as they have to go to army recruitment centres to sign up. All of us in the crowd were cheering and clapping and waving flags or hankies and all of the men were laughing and joking and blowing kisses and some were hugging and kissing sweethearts and everyone was shouting See you at Christmas! It was a lovely summer day as well, really warm, which was a nice surprise after all that horrible rain we had last week.*

It got very, very noisy especially as a band started up and there were drums and bugles and people singing and everything. Lizzie is very proud because Ben has lied about his age to go. Old Silas and Mr Carter will probably go mad when they find out, but he is very tall for sixteen and a half so we think he will get away with it. She gave him her photo to keep and he is going to bring her back a souvenir. They have to go to training camps first and they're all over Britain so he might even go to London! And there is a rumour the soldiers get sent to France before Germany! Can you imagine anything more thrilling?

Lizzie has been very dreamy ever since Ben left and thinks he might ask her to marry him when when they are old enough when he comes back! Miss Hunt got very impatient with her on Wednesday and said she was always in a trance these days. Lizzie said to me she's just jealous because she's an old maid. I think I would rather be an old maid than marry Ben but I won't tell Lizzie that.

Downton is very quiet with so many gone off to the war. There are people about as usual, and horses and motor-cars and bicycles, but I could hear the birds singing yesterday when Mrs Patmore sent me on an errand to Mr Bakewell about the vegetable order. I can hear the birds if I happen to go down to the village very early in the morning, but this was the middle of the afternoon when they were chirping away, and I don't know why but all of a sudden I felt like crying.

Not all the men have gone of course. Lots are still here, and loads came from the other villages to march down and sign up together so it seemed like they were all from Downton.

Anyway, with everything that has been going on I didn't touch my diary for months – well, I mean I did touch it, when I moved it out from under my pillow and put it in the one and a half drawers I share with Lizzie and sometimes I flicked through the pages again to see what I remembered – I just mean I didn't actually write in it. So I hope you don't mind me not writing to you for so long because after all you are my very best friend and I tell you everything. I don't even tell Lizzie some of the things I tell you so you should feel very special - even though I haven't told you anything for ages so you probably don't want to dance just because I am writing now though you can if you want.

Fred is still whizzing past on his bike and looking back at me and he's started singing Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer do. It makes my heart beat like blazes when he does that even though I go red. I have decided he is quite nice and if he ever asks me to the church hall dance I might say yes if Mrs Patmore lets me go, but I don't know what I will do if he wants to kiss me.

There are some very funny dances. I was secretly practising some dance steps while boiling the vegetables in case Fred ever asks me to a dance and Thomas saw me and said did I know there were dances called the turkey trot and the cake walk? I think he got a bit of a shock when I said yes because he shut up for a minute!**

I had already heard of them because I looked through a book about dances in the second hand bookshop once to see if it had any tips on how to dance properly, but it was very thick and mostly about dances around the world over thousands of years like belly dancing and cave paintings of dancing and not much about modern dance so I didn't buy it as I don't think the church hall would like me to belly dance. Then he said he bet I didn't know the turkey trot and cake walk were invented by a very clever kitchen maid!

I wasn't sure whether to believe him or not but he looked very serious and said that's why they were about food and I should think about inventing a dance called something like The Boiled Cabbage and be famous too. He was being very nice and I think he was going to suggest some dance steps for The Boiled Cabbage except Mr Carter walked in and he picked up the dishes quick smart for Upstairs.

I asked Mr Molesley about the turkey trot and the cake walk and he said yes, he'd heard of those dances, but when I told him about who Thomas said invented them he said, "Oh, Daisy! You should know by now to take everything Thomas says with a very large pinch of salt."

I don't think that's a good idea though as I would be very thirsty and anyway Thomas would wonder why I kept eating salt whenever he spoke.

Anyway, I thought about inventing a dance called The Boiled Cabbage but then I thought The Boiled Kettle would be a better dance as as there weren't many dance steps for The Boiled Cabbage. In The Boiled Kettle you dance for joy because the water's just boiled and then you skip merrily to the range and then you skip backwards daintily so you don't spill the boiling water. I have been practising in our room when Lizzie's not there and I haven't finished inventing it yet because I got told off by Mrs Hughes for jumping about like a baby elephant so it might be a while before I am a famous kitchen maid but I will not be too famous to talk to you so don't worry about that.

I know you probably think I am very happy with all this talk about dancing, but I am not. Weary Winnie died and it was very sad. Lord Grantham paid for it all and let some of us servants go as there was no family. Lizzie and I heard some of the other servants saying later it was a terrible thing not to save and to have a pauper's funeral like Winnie would have done if His Lordship hadn't paid so we thought we had better start saving, but we decided to buy humbugs and pear drops instead and then had a good cry because we didn't have any money.

Ben's going to France

so Lizzie s in a trance

And there is a chance

I will be asked to dance

by Fred in romance

when he steals a glance

and sings Daisy, Daisy

my heart goes crazy

A/N: *When the First World War broke out in August 1914, it was widely believed "it would all be over by Christmas"

**The turkey trot and the cake walk were actual dances - it's highly unlikely that they were invented by "a very clever kitchen maid" as Thomas claims, however! ;D