A/N: Wrote this as I was recovering from a nasty GI bug over the weekend and could do little other than lie in bed between visits to the bathroom. It's in the same universe as my other Downton fic - The Journey to Happiness. Many thanks to Tripp3235 who did a quick beta for me yesterday on a few hours notice.
Disclaimer: Not mine. All Downton Abbey characters belong to Julian Fellowes and ITV. I'm just playing with them.
Saturday, February 14, 1920
When Sybil arrived home with the groceries that afternoon after work, she was greeted by a clean flat. As she worked on Saturdays and Tom did not, he usually cleaned the flat in the morning and did the groceries and cooked for them, but today he was helping his brother move. After the twins arrived in September, Ciaran and Aileen had been on the lookout for a new place. It wasn't until Christmas that they found something in their price range and today was moving day.
After placing the food on the work table by the door, Sybil took off and hung up her coat and hat and washed up before checking the stove to find it good for the cake. After she put a kettle on the stove and seasoned the steaks, she started on the cake. After about a half hour of mixing, Sybil poured the batter into the paper-lined pan and placed it into the oven. On the pad of paper on the work table, she jotted down the time from the clock.
After starting the tea to steep, next up was the Irish potato pie that Tom loved and Sybil was reasonably good at making. After the potatoes were peeled and cooking on the stove, Sybil started frying the bacon and after the bacon, the onions which were chopped before the potatoes were peeled. While the ingredients were cooling for the potato pie, she checked on the cake and as it was done, she took it out to cool and then shoveled in some more coal from the small coal box they kept in the kitchen to bring up the temperature for the potato pie. Once that was done, she took out the whisk and started on the cake icing. With her first pay, she had splurged and purchased the nicest whisk she could find. She had used one when she was learning to cook in the kitchens at Downton and she was tired of using a fork to do the same job poorly.
Once the cake was iced, the potatoes were cool enough for slicing and the bacon for crumbling. As it was getting dark, Sybil lit a few candles in the kitchen so that she could assemble the pie. When the ingredients were assembled, the potato pie went into the oven and Sybil took a short break for her tea by the fireplace.
Sitting in the rocking chair Tom gave her for Christmas, her hands immediately cradled her small protruding belly. Now in her fifth month, Sybil had started feeling flutterings in the last week from the inside that were still too faint to detect outwardly. It took a couple of days, but she finally realized what they were as they tended to occur as she was about to fall asleep or when she had been sitting down after a meal. She and Tom had started discussing names after the three month mark, but were no further ahead as they discovered their ideas for names were rather divergent and had yet to find one they could agree on, never mind two.
Sybil had been very lucky in her choice of job that she started in September. Dr. Byrne, the head of the clinic, had nothing against Sybil working during her pregnancy and in fact advised her that she should keep active and working until her seventh month. Meanwhile Tom's mother had been helpful with loosening her existing clothes and had helped make the new clothes she recently started wearing. Surprisingly, the pregnancy had been relatively easy other than the initial tiredness that had gone away after the three month mark. Other than no pressure on her belly, the occasional aversion to smells and the changes to her body shape, she had none of the other symptoms that her sisters-in-law had described in great detail when they first shared the news.
As for her own family, she had received congratulations from Mama when she wrote to her mother about the pregnancy just before Christmas and more recently from Granny, Grandmama, Mary and Edith when she felt more comfortable sharing the news with everyone. In a more recent letter, Mama had threatened to visit Dublin and hinted at bringing them back to Downton on a more permanent basis, but fortunately due to the weather, any trip was unlikely until the spring. She and Tom had been invited to Mary and Matthew's wedding in June, but she had indicated that their attendance would depend on how she was feeling. She had been very hurt by her father's refusal to attend her own wedding the previous year which resulted in not having Mama or Granny at the wedding either. Tom had counseled that they should attend if at all possible, but she hadn't been as forgiving.
As the clock chimed six, Sybil finished her tea and lit a few more candles about the flat now that the sun had set. She then washed the dirtied dishes and pots before starting to cook the steaks and the carrots and parsnips she had gotten to celebrate their first Valentine's Day together. She found that she had a craving for red meat recently and purchased it more often. After putting the peeled and sliced carrots and parnips to cook on the back burner, Sybil started the pan for the steaks and onions with some of the bacon drippings from the potato pie. While waiting for the pan to heat up, Sybil checked the potato pie. Determining that it was ready, Sybil took it out of the oven and placed it on the rack above the stove top to keep it warm.
As Sybil flipped the steaks to the other side, she heard the key in the lock signifying Tom's return. When she heard the door open, intent on not burning the dinner, she didn't bother to turn around and said, "I hope the move went well. I'm sorry I couldn't be there to help. Dinner will be ready in ten minutes. Why don't you wash up?"
When she heard no reply, Sybil turned and saw Tom beside her with a beautiful bouquet of red flowers in his hands. "Happy Valentine's Day, my love."
Sybil's face lit up as she took the flowers from him and said, "Thank you," before giving him a kiss. "Happy Valentine's Day to you, too." When she had left for work that morning, Tom was still asleep. Normally, he was up by the time she left, but she didn't begrudge the one day a week he didn't work to sleep in. "I'll put these in a vase after dinner is done." The first time he had brought home flowers on the six month anniversary of their first kiss, she had forgotten about the dinner she was cooking and they had to eat out that night.
"How was your day?" asked Tom as he hung up his coat.
"The clinic was swamped mainly with expectant mothers with the flu," said Sybil. Seeing Tom's alarmed expression, she said, "Don't worry, I took extra precautions."
"I thought the clinic doesn't treat normal complaints," said Tom as he walked into the bathroom to wash up.
Knowing that Tom couldn't hear her from the bathroom, Sybil instead placed the flowers on the work table behind her and turned her attention back to the dinner. Checking on the carrots and parsnips, she found them to be done and so she poured the pot into the colander she pulled out from the shelf under the worktable and put it in the sink. After the water drained, she poured the vegetables into a serving dish that she placed beside the potato pie. When Tom came out of the bathroom, she said continuing their conversation from before, "We generally don't treat normal complaints, but since most were expectant mothers, we made an exception, especially since we had the Spanish flu last year."
As Sybil was talking, Tom walked toward her by the stove and placed his arms about her middle and kissed her neck. When Sybil finished, he whispered into her skin, "I missed you both today."
Turning around in his arms, Sybil gave him a lingering kiss and said, "We missed you, too. I missed you, especially." Looking into his eyes, she said, "Why don't you set the table while I finish up here? I made your favorite, potato pie."
"If that's what my wife wants," said Tom as he released her after one final kiss before getting the table settings he needed. After he set the table, he went to get the vase from the Welsh dresser and trimmed the flowers and added some water before placing it on the dining table. When he came back to the kitchen, Sybil said, "If you want to take the potato pie and the vegetables to the table, the steaks will be ready in the next minute."
As he was retrieving the dishes from the shelf above the stove, Tom noticed the cake in the domed cake stand and asked, "Which cake did you make for today?" A lover of sweets, Tom was happy to discover soon after their move to Dublin that baking was Sybil's specialty and the cakes she made for special occasions were always a treat.
"You'll find out after we eat," said Sybil with a smile as she placed the steaks and onions onto another serving plate.
As they sat down after the dishes were on the table, Sybil asked, "How did the move go this afternoon?"
"Reasonably well," said Tom as waited for Sybil to take the first portions. "Ma was at their old place helping Aileen with the twins and Maeve while we moved the furniture. Kevin was there with the lorry and a couple of Ciaran's friends. We got all the furniture moved and two loads of boxes. Just before I left, Aileen, Ma and the young ones had just gotten to their new place."
"I hope you didn't leave too early," said Sybil as she handed him the vegetables. "I didn't want them to think that you left because of me."
"No, Ciaran's friends had left before me," said Tom as he spooned vegetables onto his plate. "I left because Kevin had to go and he offered to give me a ride to the florist since he was going anyway."
"Kevin is a bit of a romantic, isn't he?" asked Sybil. Kevin was the husband of Tom's eldest sister and had probably spoken no more than a hundred words in her presence since last April when she arrived in Dublin.
"Not sure I'd call him a romantic, but he is more observant than Ciaran is," said Tom as he tucked into his dinner.
"Where were Cathleen and Connor?" asked Sybil before she bit into the first piece of her steak.
"Cathleen was cooking a dinner for them at Ma's," said Tom. "She likes cooking more than babies, so she offered before Ma offered her. Connor has an examination to study for Monday, some sort of scholarship requirement." After another bite of the potato pie, Tom added, "This is really good. Your potato pie is getting better."
"Thank you," said Sybil with a smile. "As the saying goes, 'practice makes perfect.'"
Without skipping a beat, looking up at her, Tom said, "You never have to practice because you're already perfect."
Blushing at the compliment, Sybil said, "What did your mother tell you about flattery?"
"That it will get me everywhere," said Tom with a grin as he looked at her.
"I sincerely doubt that," said Sybil unable to meet Tom's eyes.
Tom reached over the table to caress her hand and said, "Probably not, but I do think that you're perfect."
Sybil looked up at him across the table, smiled, said nothing and then continued eating. Tom often complimented her for many things and as always, she needed time to process it.
After she had eaten most of her dinner, Sybil asked, "Tell me about Ciaran and Aileen's new flat."
When he swallowed the food in his mouth, he said, "It's a little smaller than Ma's but it's got three bedrooms and the windows are north facing. It's at the edge of the neighbourhood about two blocks further than they used to be. Ma isn't happy with the location, but it was the best they could afford on Ciaran's salary."
"Is Aileen not going back to work?" asked Sybil as she took a sip of milk. Dr. Byrne had advised her to drink scalded milk with each of her meals.
"Not from the way Ciaran was talking today," said Tom. "Something about how Aileen doesn't want to separate the twins and no one wants to take them together."
"Two young babies can't be easy to manage," said Sybil took the last bite from her plate. "I'm surprised your mother hasn't offered. She's always so good with her grandchildren."
"From what I understand, there are certain things that she and Aileen don't quite see eye to eye on when it comes to child rearing," said Tom as he took his third helping of potato pie.
Now that she had finished her dinner, Sybil sat back and leaned against the back of the chair. "I always wondered why your mother didn't take Maeve while she offered to look after our children." Feeling quite a bit of fluttering in her belly, Sybil looked down said as she cradled it, "Well, someone is very happy with the food."
Tom looked up and lifted an eyebrow. "More movements? Any you can feel from the outside?"
"No, not yet," said Sybil as she looked up at Tom. "I asked Dr. Byrne about it this morning and she said that you won't likely feel them for another month at least." Seeing his disappointed look, she added, "It won't be long."
"Maybe by then, we will have agreed on a name?" asked Tom as he gave her a look as if to challenge her.
"Perhaps," said Sybil. When she saw the look on his face, she laughed and said, "Well, he or she won't be nameless baby Branson for the rest of his or her life."
"He just might," said Tom. "If his parents can't agree on one."
"I know you're convinced it's a boy," said Sybil with a smile. "But unless you have some magical ability to determine the gender, we have no way of knowing until he or she arrives. What if we agree on a name for a boy and she turns out to be a girl. I'm sure our daughter would not want to be known as Aengus for the rest of her life."
Tom blushed but recovered quickly and said, "So you like the name Aengus for a boy then?"
"I didn't say that," said Sybil, a little defensive. "It was merely an example. His or her parents might realize what name belongs on him or her when he or she arrives." Sybil felt strongly that she could agree on a name once she saw the baby.
Realizing the ridiculousness of this fight, the same one that they've had for almost two months now, the two of them broke out in rhonchus laughter and once the chortles subsided, Tom said, "Why don't you go sit by the fire while I clean up and do the dishes. I'm sure that you've been on your feet long enough today." They had an unwritten rule that whoever made dinner didn't do the dishes.
"What about the cake?" said Sybil as he walked by with their empty plates.
"I'll start up the kettle and we can have it with the tea by the fire," said Tom. "Might as well enjoy that freedom before the baby arrives." There was a rule at his mother's for as long as Tom could remember that all food had to be eaten at the table and though it had been relaxed while it was just the two of them, they both agreed that the rule had value when children were involved and to enforce it once the baby arrived.
So Sybil got up and put a couple of logs on the glowing embers before visiting the bathroom. With her growing belly, Sybil found that the baby liked to sit on her bladder, especially when she got up after sitting down. She then retrieved her knitting bag from her bedside table, lit a few candles on the mantle and sat down in her rocking chair. Unlike sewing, knitting didn't require as much light and Sybil could go by the feel of the knitting stitches. Tom's mother had been teaching her every Sunday since they had announced that they were expecting and she had already made a few pairs of booties and a couple of hats. Her current project was a sweater for when the weather got colder. As she knitted one row and purled the next, she could hear Tom whistling in the kitchen. He wasn't much of a singer, but liked to hum or whistle out a tune when he did housework.
These were the times that Downton felt a million miles away and a lifetime ago. Sybil didn't realize how happy and content she was with her life in Dublin with Tom until she thought of her mother's letters and the possibility of being moved back to her childhood home. It was unlikely that she would be allowed to work or make a simple dinner and every fibre of her being rebelled against it all. Worst yet, she simply felt that she was not quite ready to forgive her father and would not be able to face him until she did. The sadness Sybil felt when she first read her mother's letter saying that she and her father could not attend her wedding to Tom because of some urgent business in London still lingered and brought tears to her eyes every time she thought about it. Though the wedding itself was beautiful and she was grateful for Mary's and Edith's attendance, she was thoroughly hurt that her father chose not to come and hence prevented her mother's and, as she learned eventually from her sisters, his own mother's presence.
Sybil was lost in thought until Tom touched her shoulder as he brought her tea and a slice of cake from the tray on the coffee table. When Sybil looked up at him with tears running down her face, Tom put the tea and cake on the coffee table and kneeled down beside the rocking chair and asked, "Is everything all right? What's the matter?"
Sybil put the knitting bag on the floor and the knitting on top and wrapped her arms about his neck and sobbed. Pulling his crying, pregnant wife out of the rocking chair and onto his lap on the sofa, Tom caressed her back and said a few soothing words as he held her while she cried. After a few minutes, Sybil pulled a handkerchief out of her dress pocket and started drying her eyes and blew her nose. Tom waited patiently until she felt like talking.
After one last sniffle, Sybil said, "I'm sorry I ruined our special evening. I was just thinking about what Mama hinted at in her last letter. I don't want to go back to Downton. I'm so happy here with you, with your family, with my work, with our home, with the baby. I feel as though I have a purpose here. Back at Downton, we'll be under my father's protection and we'll be spending our time at dinner parties or garden parties or visiting neighbours for tea and he will treat us as the same people whom he felt was less worthy than some urgent business in London."
Realizing the root of the problem, Tom said as he caressed her cheek, "We don't have to go back permanently if we don't want to, but we should make an effort to attend your sister's wedding. She came to ours and it's only right to attend hers. I know that you are still upset with your father, but we need to show that we are better than he is. If you want, we can always stay at the Grantham Arms, but I suspect that your mother and grandmothers would be horrified and I'd rather that they not use it as ammunition against me, but I would do it if it's what you want. You know your sister chose to marry a week later in June so that her wedding wouldn't coincide with our anniversary to avoid bad memories for you, but early enough so that you could still travel. That should be worth something should it not?"
Sybil blinked a few times to clear her eyes and said, "I suppose and we can stay at Downton. I just wish that I could forgive Papa, but it still hurts that he didn't come to our wedding and I can't face him until I do because there would be things I would say that would permanently damage our relationship with him and I don't want to do that, especially since he's the baby's only living grandfather."
"We still have a few months yet," said Tom. "Maybe by then, you'll have found it in yourself to forgive him."
"Maybe," said Sybil as she rested her head on Tom's shoulder.
They stared at the fire for about a half hour while Sybil absentmindedly played with Tom's waistcoat buttons and Tom held her and caressed her arm. Tom then pulled her off his lap onto the sofa and went to get something from his jacket pocket as he said, "I should give this to you before you fall asleep."
"Something for me?" said Sybil as her eyes followed him and she curled up against the sofa. "But I don't have anything for you."
When Tom sat down and handed her a small wrapped box, "Being married to you is all I've ever wanted and all I need. I just thought of you when I saw this in the window display last week." When all Sybil did was turn the package over and over in her hand, he added as he reached for his plate, "Why don't you open it while I taste this delicious cake?"
As he ate the first mouthful of cake, Sybil smiled at him and started by working on the knot holding the wrapping in place. After a few attempts, she was able to undo the knot and the wrapping paper fell off. When she opened the box, inside was a beautiful intricately-designed heart-shaped locket. "Oh, Tom. This is beautiful."
"So you like it?" asked Tom as he put down his empty dessert plate and picked up his tea.
"Yes," said Sybil with a shy smile. "Very much."
"I thought you might like to put pictures of the baby in it," said Tom. "So that you will always have him or her with you."
When she took it in her hand to look at the back, she saw the initials SPB engraved on the back. "You had it engraved, too. When you're done with your tea, can you help me put this on?"
Tom quickly finished the tea and put the cup and saucer on the coffee table before taking the locket from Sybil. Sybil then sat up with her back to him so that he could put the locket on. Once the locket was secured, Tom kissed the exposed skin on her shoulder between her clothes and her neck, which sent shivers down her back, and said, "Happy Valentine's Day."
Sybil then turned around and said, "Thank you," before pulling Tom in for a long, lingering kiss. When they finally pulled apart, the mutual fire in their eyes drew them together again while they each worked feverishly to remove each other's clothing, shoes, and pins from Sybil's hair during and between kisses. The pregnancy had done nothing to dampen the passion between them. In fact, in Sybil's case, it had increased the need for physical contact and Tom found that they spent far more time in bed and awake than before the baby especially after the initial tiredness passed. They just figured out other positions to accommodate Sybil's changing shape.
When they stripped one another of all their outer clothing, Tom picked Sybil up and carried her into their dark bedroom and placed her on their bed. As Tom found the matches in his bedside table and lit several candles so that there was sufficient illumination to see one another but insufficient to be seen from the outside, Sybil quickly pulled the covers off the bed and stripped the remainder of her clothing in her need to be one with Tom and the urgency was increasing by the minute.
After the tame explorations on their wedding night, Tom had encouraged Sybil to express her wants and desires in the marriage bed as he did for her and that brought out a side of Sybil in the privacy of their own home that had been hinted at many times during their engagement, but never fully realized until late in their short honeymoon that led to many passionate nights in the summer after they married. When Tom was done with the candles, Sybil pulled him to her for another kiss and they only pulled apart so that he could remove his undershirt and she helped him remove the remainder of his clothing soon there after.
After a few more kisses, Tom pulled Sybil closer to him and he gently laid her on her back as he kissed the various erogenous zones he had discovered in their few months of marriage generating moans from Sybil that firmed his desire. Once he checked her core and found it wet, Sybil sat up and said, "Let me," and motioned for Tom to lie down before straddling and lowering herself on him. Their joining was electric. Sybil felt complete as he filled her and Tom found he nearly lost his control when Sybil took in his entire length.
They had found this position soon in their marriage and it was one of the few positions Sybil still found comfortable with her growing belly. A short while later, Tom signaled that he was ready for her to move by putting his hands on her hips to help. After a few movements, Sybil lowered her upper body so that Tom could suckle her. However, with her belly, she was unable to sustain the position for long and Tom used his hands to help out after she straightened up, which after a few weeks of practice, she found nearly as delightful as his mouth.
After a minute or so, Sybil felt Tom reaching for her nub which signaled that he was near. Sybil moaned as he rubbed it in a frantic motion that directly countered her movements above him providing the much needed friction that sent erotic sensations to every limb. This caused Sybil to move faster as they both got closer to the edge, which in turn caused Tom to rub even faster. "Oh Tom. Oh yes." Sybil shuddered as she fell over the edge causing her to spasm rhythmically and clamp down on Tom which sent him over the edge as he thrusted his hip up against her to reached his release. "Oh God," said Tom as he closed his eyes to feel the waves of pulsating sensation.
As they recovered from their high, Tom gently rolled to his side so that Sybil could rest on her side of the bed. As they untangled their limbs, Tom wiped himself off with his discarded undershirt and blew out the candles before lying back down on the bed. After a quick kiss, Sybil burrowed herself against his side with one hand on the new locket as he pulled the bed covers over them and they promptly fell asleep.
When Tom woke up a few hours later to use the bathroom, the flat had started to grow cold. After putting on his robe from a hook on the back of their bedroom door, he shoveled some more coal into the stove to bring the temperature up and to have the stove ready for tea when they woke up the next morning. After using the bathroom, he then cleared the uneaten food and did the dishes before he picked up Sybil's knitting, her hairpins, the clothing and the shoes they had discarded in the main room in their haste.
By the dying embers in the fire place, as Tom sorted the clothes, his thoughts wandered to how his life had changed in a short year. A year ago today, Sybil had just finished her work as a VAD and not made her decision in regards to their future. In that short time, Sybil made her decision, they had a failed elopement, built a plan to move and marry in Dublin, told her family, moved to Dublin, got ready to marry, found a flat, he started his job in journalism, Sybil found a nursing job at a women's clinic, they furnished the flat, got married and now they were expecting their first child together over the summer. After years of waiting, he had everything he wanted. Sometimes he wondered when the other shoe would drop. Not one to dwell on unhappy possibilities, Tom picked up the knitting bag, the hairpins and the sorted clothing and walked back into their bedroom. He placed the clothing on their individual chairs in the bedroom and the shoes underneath. After he put the knitting bag in and the hairpins on Sybil's bedside table, he then picked up their discarded undergarments inside the bedroom and put them in the laundry bag before going back to bed.
As he pulled the covers over himself again, Sybil instinctively snuggled closer to him in her sleep. Folding her into his embrace, he gave her a quick kiss on the head and closed his eyes. Soon, her gentle rhythmic breathing lulled him back to sleep.
A/N2: Happy Valentine's Day! Hope you liked it. Bad or good, please do review!