A/N - Thank you so so much to the people who reviewed and/or alerted the previous chapter. Its really boosted my confidence. I guess you could label this chapter 'The morning after the night before.' Oh, and I own nothing.

He carefully backed the car into the garage and pulled up the handbreak. Slipping out of his seat, he spotted his chauffeur's hat where he had left it on the table in the corner. Smiling to himself, he realised that he'd never have to wear that god awful hat again. There's always a positive, he reflected. He slunk out down to his cottage, careful that none of the servants saw him. The last thing he wanted was to delay his leaving with idle chatter. He needed to escape. To escape Sybil's world, and to escape the hold she had over his heart.

Entering his cottage, he began to throw his things haphazardly into the boxes that he'd stolen from the stores for the occasion. Funny. He'd imagined doing this with Sybil; her family looking on in horror as they made ready to depart for their new life. The two of them laughing together as they worked, over some wedding anecdote that was theirs and theirs alone to share. He supposed that she was laughing now. Laughing at her own folly. Choosing to elope with the chauffeur, indeed. Laughing with relief that her sisters had caught her in time to restore her sanity. Laughing at Branson, the puppy who had been trailing after her for years; clinging on to her every word and dreaming himself across the great divide.

What an arse he'd made of himself.

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She was sitting at her window when she saw the motor pull past into the garage. She felt the familiar tug on her heart that she always experienced when he was near and she rose to follow him. Sliding silently down the corridor, she passed Anna, on her way in to make up one of the guest rooms. Anna's face told Sybil that she knew exactly where she was going, but she made no attempt to stop her.

She didn't find him in the garage. Just his chauffeur's hat, looking forlorn in the corner. A smile lit up her face when she realised that he'd never have to wear that monstrosity again. No longer mistress and servant, soon they would be equal. Making her way down to his cottage, she began to imagine their future together. The politics they would share. The work they would do. The children they would have.

A cacophony of noise overwhelmed her as she neared his cottage. What on earth was he up to? She didn't bother to knock, just slid in through the partially open door. There he was, slinging pots and pans and crockery into an upended crate that looked as though it had taken a few hits with his boot. He was swearing under his breath in Gaelic. At least, she recognised some of the words he had laughingly taught her one one of their drives.

"Tom? Whatever are you doing? What's the hurry?" She laid a hand on his arm to slow him.

He stopped. He scrutinised her hand before glancing all too briefly at her face. "I'm packing, aren't I? Figured I'd just write my notice out for your father and give it to one of the maids to pass on. No point hanging around here longer that I need." He turned from her to continue his task.

"Wait." Sybil interjected, confused. "But... but I thought... I thought we were going to convince my father together, before we left? That's why I came home. We can't go yet." She couldn't understand why he wasn't looking at her.

"We're not going anywhere." Tom muttered. "Just me. You made your choice last night."

Bewildered, she bent down and brought his face up to hers with the tips of her fingers. "What do you mean, I made my choice? I left because I couldn't deceive my family. Because I wanted them to give us a real chance, to give you a chance. You know that, Tom. I told you last night I would stay true to you."

He shook his head from her grasp and turned from her. "The truth is, Milady, I knew you would never leave them. You couldn't do it. Leave all of this, for me."

He'd reverted to Milady. It cut her in a way she couldn't quite understand. "Look at me, Tom. Nothing's changed. I still want to go away with you. I still want to marry you. I just want to give my family time to try to accept us. That's all. Just a little time."

"A little time for your sisters to convince you that dreaming of running away with the Help is just a phase that all Ladies go through. An initiation right that will all be forgotten within the month." He began on a new box, throwing things in now with no thought to where or how they landed.

She stood between him and the box, desperate for him to stop, to really listen to her. "Why do you think so little of me, Tom?" she pleaded. "Why do you doubt what I've promised you?"

He did stop, then. He stopped and he considered her carefully. His shoulders sagged and a resigned expression settled on his face. "Because we're different, Lady Sybil. I don't mean because of our class, though I suppose that might explain it. I mean our motives. I was running away with you because I can't imagine my life without you right next to me. Because everything in me loves you 'till I'm sick. You were running away with me because to you, I was a way of escaping your life. And I don't want to be the way out. I want to be the way forward."

The room around her swam, and she sank down into his threadbare armchair with her eyes on the floor. Is that what he thought? That he was just a way out to her? That she'd truly changed her mind and left him last night? Suddenly, the words she'd used when she'd accepted him came floating back to her. 'I want to escape, and you're my ticket.' Her ticket. Her way out. Had she ever even told him how she felt? Had she even told him that she loved him?

The look of anguish on his face when her head finally lifted almost crushed her. The thought that she'd caused him pain was too much to bear. She crossed the room in one great cry and launched herself into his arms. "Oh Tom," she whispered, "Tom, I love you. I'm not going with you to escape my life. I'm going with you because you are my life. I'm going with you because I couldn't bear to be where you aren't. Because my little world consists of you and I and that's the way I always want it to be. Oh please forgive me Tom. I love you so much. So very much."

Exhausting herself, she clung on to him desperately and sobbed. He looked down at her, his expression inscrutable, and when she looked up she could see the tears gathering in the corner of his eyes too. He took a handful of her hair, shaken loose in her rush to get to him, and used it to pull her lips to his, crushing her in his desperation to show her how he felt. As he pulled away a small 'oh' escaped from her lips. "Please God, Tom. Don't go without me."

The sound of knocking dragged them suddenly out of each other's eyes, but still they clung to each other. "Milady," came Anna's voice, "Milady, you'd better come quick. They're looking for you and Lady Mary's beside herself."

Tom pulled her closer still. "Go back to them, my love. Go back, and I'll finish packing and hand in my notice and take a room at The Grantham Arms. I'll wait for you there. I'll wait until you're ready to tell your parents and until you're ready to leave with me. I'll wait forever for you to come away with me."

She smiled up at him, lost in the warmth that surrounded her. "It won't be long, Tom. I promise. We won't have to wait long to be together". And she meant it, she thought, while she made her way after Anna. There was no way she was giving him up now.

A/N - Thanks for reading. More to follow. Reviews would be very welcome. SS x