Tom and I love each other. We know you won't approve but we plan to be married.

It was short and simple but could get the message across. Sybil had practiced the two sentences over and over until she could say them clearly with only a trace of a stutter. It may be easier to just let Tom speak but she knew this was something she needed to say. She spoke the words again as she wandered in search of Tom to tell him she was ready, tonight was the night she would tell her family.

When the time came she was regretting her choice, not of Tom, but of the evening, dinner hadn't gone well and her father was already on edge. When Tom entered the room Sybil shook her head and with her eyes willed him to go. She moved towards him, placing her hand on his chest. Instead of moving away her took her hand, "you've asked me to come and I have, we've waited long enough."

Behind them Violet spoke up, "Would someone please tell me what's going on or have we all stepped through the looking glass?"

Deep breath, now was the time, Sybil turned to them. "...a… I… I… a... a... asked…"

"What is going on here?" Robert interrupted his daughter, which wasn't a surprise. He had never had much patience when she was speaking. He loved her she knew but it frustrated him she had never gotten over her stutter like the doctors she had visited as a child had told him when she would..

Robert was looking towards Tom for an answer, hoping it would be more clear but Cora intervened. "Robert, let her finish."

Tom squeezed her hand and Sybil started again, this time on the words she had practiced, stumbling over them just a little.

"When did this happen?" Cora asked.

Mary who had always spoken up for her sister answered. "It's been ages."

"What do you mean, you knew?" Rober recovered enough from his surprise to address his oldest daughter now.

She said she had but she had wondered if it would all blow over. Finally turning on Tom, Robert questioned him. "What do you want from us?"

Tom shook his head, "I don't know what you mean."

"You have been bowing and scraping to me and seducing my daughter behind my back, obviously you want something from me."

This time Tom was angry. "I don't want anything from you except your daughter's happiness, I don't bow and scrape, and I haven't seduced anybody. Give your daughter some credit for knowing your own mind."

Robert laughed, "I'm not sure what either of you are getting out of this… this, madness."

"Your daughter is amazing, smart and independent, we believe in the same things. She is lovely and kind. If you can't see it then you are a fool." As Tom spoke, Sybil squeezed his hands with tears near the edge of her eyes. It wasn't supposed to go like this but Tom's declaration cemented even further in her mind that she had made the right choice.

"How dare you speak to me that way, get out of my house at once." Robert bellowed.

"P… pa… papa."

Robert interrupted Sybil again, "this is folly."

The room was tense, Sybil, who was usually good at reading people had no idea what most people were thinking. Robert had been obvious with his opposition but everyone else seemed silent. Matthew who had always been kind and patient with Sybil looked on with a straight face. He seemed concerned for Sybil but maybe not in support of the whole idea and her mother looked shocked. Even granny's next question couldn't be read as either support or opposition to her and Tom's declaration.

"What is your plan, surely you two have a plan or you wouldn't have brought it up tonight."

Tom looked to Sybil, without words asking if he should share what they had decided. She nodded approval and he spoke. "We will wait until after the wedding," he nodded at Matthew and Lavinia, "and then will go to Dublin, I've gotten a job at a newspaper there."

Cora's eyes widened as he spoke, "you mean to live unmarried."

Sybil shook her head quickly, although the thought of living unmarried wasn't repellant to her she knew it wouldn't help anybody to do it that way and it had never been a part of their discussion. Tom spoke the words to her shaking head, "no, my mother has said Sybil could stay with her while the banns are read, then we will be married."

Robert, who had been facing away from the couple turned on them, "I won't allow it, I won't allow…"

This time it was Sybil who interrupted, keeping it simple trying her best to speak clearly, "it d..doesn't..t m...m...ma...t..t...er, I, I wo..won't ch..ch..change m...my mm..mi..nd." With that she gave one last look to Tom and strode out of the room.

Tom followed and caught up with Sybil in the hall. "I… I'm sorry."

He wrapped his arms around her, "I figured it would go something like that, I just need to know you won't give up on me now."

She shook her head, which some people would have taken for an answer but as always Tom waited patiently for her to form the words he needed to hear her say. "I… I w..won't..t"

He smiled and before pressing his lips to hers said, "then I will be waiting when you are ready."

After returning the affection she broke away from his embrace, squeezing his arm twice before letting go, her little signal which Tom knew meant "I love you."

"I love you too, Sybil, goodnight." He nodded and strode towards the front door of the great building. She hugged herself as she watched the man who understood her go.