After a frustrated and sleepless night, Tom was woken by a soft knock on his door at the Grantham Arms. He was surprised to see Sybil, dressed for the day with sympathetic eyes whilst he remained still, unable to move, unable to know what to say until he realised his rudeness and beckoned her in. As Sybil sat on the bed she opened her mouth to speak, stuttered at first but then continued. 'I-I wanted to apologize for yesterday, It was rude of me to just run away like that, you must understand, it's not just about not remembering you, in fact , it's the way I feel about you that scares me. I hardly know you but there's something there, I won't deny you that.' Tom's eyes smiled back at her, a small relief for the lack of sleep. 'I wondered if you could take me to the other places you were going to take me yesterday, if that's alright' Tom reached for her hand to link it with his own to lead her downstairs 'embarrassingly the second place was here' he laughed as he led her to a table in the corner for breakfast.
As they walked away from her father Sybil beamed, when Tom had said her family would come around she had never believed it, but now things were slowly starting to fall into place. Tom reached for her hand gazing at her till they reached the centre of the village where they took a seat on a nearby park bench. Tom wrapped his arms around Sybil as she curled into him 'it's nice to see you smiling again, I didn't think I'd see it for a while' Sybil let out a soft moan but didn't respond content in his fiancés arms, perfection whilst it lasted.
After half an hour together in peace and quiet it started to rain and Tom led Sybil to the Grantham arms to start making plans whilst they got some food, as Tom was making some notes about their journey, lost in his own thoughts, Sybil gazed at the man she was to marry. She had never seen him do anything for himself before, always so selfless and connected to the job, to see him here scribbling away and making plans for their future... she knew it was time to say it...
'I love you...' His Irish eyes rose to meet hers, full of love and respect for her. He looked around the pub to see who was looking then quickly stood up, tilted Sybil's chin up to meet his and gave her a quick but sincere kiss, when he returned to his seat he responded in words by saying 'thank you'
...'so I wanted to bring you here, as this is where you first told me you loved me'. Sybil's blushed at the thought of being so open with a man in such a public place and wondered if she's ever be able to tell him that again.
Just a quick one to let you know I'm still doing this story, next he takes her to York to remind her of her nursing but will his proposal come back to haunt him...