Once again, thanks for the comments. Hope you like this chapter :)

Mrs Hughes hurriedly made her way to breakfast. She had been waylaid by Mrs Patmore. The tetchy cook had decided to start earlier today in her ranting about the store cupboard. Talking about dinner time ingredients when she had yet to even make breakfast! Ridiculous, Mrs Hughes thought to herself.

The others were already tucking into their breakfast.

"Pardon my lateness." Mrs Hughes said quietly. She shook her head mildly in answer to Mr Carson's questioning look. Unnoticed by anyone else, she knew the look meant 'is something wrong?'. She could read him like a book. Once settled she glanced around the table to gauge the day's mood. Everyone seemed quite engrossed with their food. Perhaps yesterday's jolliness had been a once off.

"Why don't you tell Mrs Hughes and Mr Carson about your dream Daisy." Thomas suddenly suggested. "It was a corker Mrs Hughes! Mrs Patmore as a dragon."

"Goodness. More of a nightmare than a dream then I'd have thought." Mrs Hughes replied lightly.

"Oh it was terrifying!" Daisy said, her voice almost a whisper as though she were still scared.

"It worked out well in the end though didn't it Daisy?" Thomas asked. "Mr Carson appeared as knight in shining armour and rescued her. You have probably had similar dreams yourself Mrs Hughes."

"I beg your pardon?" she asked.

"Sorry, I should say nightmares. About Mrs Patmore as a raving dragon demanding a key to the store cupboard." He smiled innocently.

"No, fortunately I can say I have never had such a nightmare." Mrs Hughes said with a level tone.

Carson was doing all he could to keep from snapping at Thomas.

"Strange things, dreams. Nightmares." Thomas mused almost as though talking to himself. "I had a dream once that I owned my very own motor car. I drove all the way to London and was back here again in time for tea."

"As if we'd ever see you again if you had a motor." Miss O'Brien scoffed. "You'd hightail it out of here faster than you could say 'Shove your job'!"

"Oh I didn't come back here to work." Thomas said. "I didn't just own my own motor, I owned this place! Lock stock and barrel!"

"Wow." Said Daisy, impressed. "Did we all still work here?"

"Of course. I wouldn't turf you lot out. Well…" Thomas looked pointedly at Mr Bates. "I would definitely keep you on Daisy." He told her earnestly.

One of the bells from upstairs went.

"Alright. Enough nonsense, time to work." Carson said and they all began to move.

"I'd keep you on too, of course, Mr Carson. I couldn't think of anyone I'd rather have as my butler." Thomas told him. "And Mrs Hughes. Couldn't split you two up." He added quietly with a sly look at Carson.

Carson ignored the remark. When everyone else had gone about their business Carson turned towards Mrs Hughes.

"Thomas is a…" he bit his tongue and held back the word he wanted to use.

"Yes. He is." Mrs Hughes agreed.

Miss O'Brien caught up with Thomas on the stair case.

"What are you playing at now?" she hissed. "What happened to the 'let's be all sweetness and light' routine you had going yesterday?"

Thomas smirked. "That was yesterday." He glanced around making sure no one was within earshot. "I told you, I could have that lot eating out of the palm of my hand and I proved it. Mr Carson can play the high and mighty patriarch all he wants, but I am the one who pulls the staffs' strings. I can either have things running smoothly, with everyone playing nicely – like I did yesterday. Or…" he grinned wickedly.

Miss O'Brien looked bored.

"Or what? Just because you didn't pick a fight with anyone for a whole day means nowt. So everyone was running around smiling and thinking you were graciousness incarnated. Whilst you were playing games it was still old Carson making all the decisions wasn't it?"

Thomas sighed.

"Your problem is you have no vision." He turned to face her directly. "If I could get po-faced Anna and that joke Bates to think that I was really interested in their stupid stories, then I can get them to believe anything. I had them eating out of my hands yesterday. Even you were more cheerful yesterday."

"And you're taking credit for that are you?" Miss O'Brien asked, unimpressed.

"Yes. I am. I control the mood of the staff. I can twist every single one of them around my little finger." He said.

"I'm so very pleased for you." Miss O'Brien said sarcastically and began to move on up the stairs.

"You should be. Because yesterday was just a trial run." Thomas smiled enigmatically.

"A trial run for what?" Miss O'Brien paused and raised an eyebrow suspiciously.

But Thomas just continued to smile.