Chapter 14

After arriving at Crawley House, Tom got out of the car with Isobel to bring her to the front door. They walked through the garden, remembering the first time they kissed, right next to the roses – how different their lives were now! A few years or even months ago, who would have thought any of that would happen?

As they stood at the front door, Tom wanted to kiss Isobel goodnight, but she interrupted him by saying "Why don't you come in for a glass of wine? I'd hate to see you leave again so quickly, especially after you took the time to bring me home."

"A glass of wine sounds lovely." Tom replied with a smile, and walked into the house with Isobel. They sat down in the drawing room of Crawley House, chatting away about this and that with a glass of wine each, having a lovely time.

"Oh before I forget", Isobel suddenly remembered, "weren't you reading a book when you were upstairs in Matthew's study?"

"I was. I already forgot about that." Tom responded. "It was a book that Matthew bought to learn about the work that goes into an estate like Downton. I suppose he wanted to be able to have conversations about it with Robert."

"It could be useful for you, now that you are the agent." Isobel noted, before finishing her glass of wine.

Tom agreed. "Yes, it could rather. I know what I am doing but a little help is always good."

"You should take it to the Abbey with you." Isobel suggested. "I don't see myself reading it."

"It would probably be more use to me than to you." Tom concluded, taking another sip of wine.

So they decided to finish their wine and go upstairs to fetch the book.

Once they had gone up the stairs, they went into Matthew's study. Isobel saw a book lying on the office table and went over to take a closer look.

"Oh there we are, that's the one you were reading, isn't it?" Isobel turned around and asked Tom.

When he agreed that it was, Isobel handed the book to Tom, who thanked her for being so kind to let him have it. The book would be of great use to him, Tom already knew it. The next moment, they left the study again, Isobel closing the door behind her.

Then she remembered something. "While we are upstairs, I think I have to ask you for yet another favour…"

Tom was surprised that Isobel suddenly appeared to feel insecure. "Of course, Isobel. What can I help you with?"

"Well, you see…" Isobel began, before taking a breath. "I needed your help to close my gown, so I will need help taking it off again. I don't want you to feel like you have to yes, so I can, um, always find an alternative I suppose-…"

But Tom, knowing that Isobel wouldn't be angry about the interruption, casually responded "If you need it, you can always count on my help, Isobel."

"Thank you, Tom. I appreciate it." Isobel said with a smile. "I just didn't want to make you uncomfortable or – even worse – appear vulgar by asking you to help me get undressed…"

Now Tom had to laugh. "Oh.", he said and stroked Isobel's cheek. "I didn't even consider your request to be one of a vulgar nature. There's nothing you have to be afraid of." They got closer, their noses touching only the slightest, before their lips met. It was a slow kiss, making them both forget any barriers society might think should keep the two of them apart. "And also", Tom said quietly, "I do believe that we are close enough for me not to feel uncomfortable when you ask me a favour of a… rather intimate nature."

"Well, that is good." Isobel said, regaining her confidence because Tom was being so very sweet. Then she gently pulled herself from Tom's arms in order to open the door to her room.

"I probably should go to bed after all the wine I had." Isobel continued, signalising that she would have to get out of her gown sooner rather than later.

Tom followed Isobel, and neither of them gave the situation any thought as to whether or not it was an acceptable thing to do. Isobel knew very well – and was glad about it – that she was wearing a corset under her dress, so she wouldn't feel too exposed. She could simply take off the gown, find a nightgown to wear and excuse herself, while Tom went back downstairs.

At the same time, Tom was thinking that he wanted to give Isobel her privacy as soon as she didn't need his help anymore, and that he would just go downstairs with his book and wait.

Then, Isobel said "I take it you don't need any explanation concerning my gown?"

Tom chuckled, "No, I think I should be fine." And with that he slowly and carefully opened Isobel's dress. When she had needed his help earlier that evening, the gown was already half-closed – but this time Tom opened it up all the way. In order to keep herself sufficiently covered up, Isobel held onto the dress on her chest. She quickly thought about her next step, her mind full of thoughts of what she might want to happen, before she – with her dress starting to fall down her shoulders – turned around to face Tom.

"Thank you.", she whispered. – "My pleasure.", Tom responded.

And before Tom knew what was happening, Isobel started kissing Tom, more intensely than before. Isobel realised her feelings had overcome her, so she quickly stopped to look at his reaction. All Tom asked was, "Are you sure?".

To that, Isobel responded with, "I am."

As her gown fell to the floor, after Tom carefully helped her take it off, Isobel started to help him get undressed, all of it very lovingly and slowly, both of them looking forward to what was about to happen.

A while later, Isobel kindly asked Tom whether he would wait for her downstairs, while she got dressed. So he went downstairs and into the kitchen, deciding to make some tea for the two of them.

Just as the tea was ready, Isobel walked into the drawing room, wearing a purple robe on top of her crème-coloured silk nightgown. Tom noticed that she had also taken off her makeup and was reminded again how much he thought women did not need any makeup in the first place.

Isobel looked around the room as she walked over to the sofa to sit down. "Oh, thank you for making tea, that was quite nice.", she said with a smile.

Tom smiled back. "Of course, my pleasure."

After they were both sitting down and started to drink their tea, Tom kindly asked "how are you feeling?"

Isobel, of course, knew what Tom`s question was about. She had an answer in mind, but found herself in yet another situation, where she wasn't sure how to phrase it. So Isobel took another sip of tea before she said. "I`m feeling quite… happy, actually. But what I can't stop wondering is, um, well, I suppose I was curious how you feel about what happened just then. If it was… alright."

She knew how foolish she must sound. What she said and how she said it. But while Isobel's feelings were clear, she had no idea about Tom`s.

"What exactly do you mean by that?" Tom wondered, to which Isobel replied "Well I know that you were married not such a long time ago, and to a woman your age, while I am older and, if I can be honest, haven't had this kind of experience in decades!" She stopped before she added. "So I was hoping I didn't – what is the right term? – disappoint."

"Well, then you can calm down. You did not." Tom said as he walked over to sit beside Isobel. Then he took her hand and continued, "I enjoyed it very much."

"Oh, that's good.", Isobel responded quietly, feeling both relieved and shy.

They sat in silence for a while before Isobel had to laugh. "You know, now that I think about it… I have the feeling I only just remembered how nice it can be – sex, I mean. When my husband died I thought that chapter of my life is over…"

"I felt the same way when Sybil died." Tom replied.

But Isobel didn't understand. "But you are so young! It seems quite clear that a young person who loses their spouse will have this experience again – the older you get, the more difficult it is. I guess mostly because young people these days are more more open and free in their will to do what they want to do."

"I agree." Tom said. "But you can still never know where life takes you."

Isobel laughed again. "You clearly don't! I never thought I'd find myself in a situation like the one I'm in now!"

Tom squeezed Isobel's arm as she said that and asked teasingly "I hope it's not a bad situation."

"From where I'm sitting it seems to be a very pleasant situation, thank you very much!" Isobel teased back and laughingly rolled her eyes.

"The question remains…", Isobel continued. "What's next?"

"What do you mean?" Tom was confused.

"Well", Isobel explained. "Will this be something that happened once? Or will it happen again? Should we talk about it some more, or – god forbid – tell anyone about it? Or should we just wait and see how things progress?" There were so many question flying around in Isobel's head, many of them just came out while she was talking.

Tom gave every single one of them some serious thought. "First of all, I will let you decide if you want this to continue or not. I am putting the full responsibility in your hand – out of respect for you I wouldn't want that to be any other way." That earned him a thankful smile from Isobel. Then he continued. "I don't think we should feel obligated to tell anyone about it if we don't want to. We know that our relationship is officially not very intimate, because the time we live in expects something – marriage – that we both don't want to give. And… it's not like there is any risk of anyone finding out, as long as we keep quiet." Tom paused before he continued. "I remember Mary being in a different situation – I have told you about her and Tony Gillingham. When that happened, Mary had to tell someone, in her case it was Anna, for help, because she couldn't risk any consequences…"

"What you are saying is", Isobel finished Tom's thought, "that these are not consequences we, or mostly I, have to worry about. Which I would see as an advantage to my age!" She said laughingly.

And then they continued to joke about what they thought their family's reaction would be if they ever found out. – "How I'd love to see the expression on Violet's face if she found out!" – "Robert wouldn't believe any of it, he'd think we are messing with him!" – "Oh, and what about Mrs. Hughes!"

They talked and talked and had quite a lot of fun, before the tea was gone and Tom decided to take his leave. He would have to go home, hopefully without waking anyone, and be ready for work the next day, while also hoping that Cora wouldn't suspect anything in case Tom looked tired at all. Isobel, on the other hand, would have to be ready to go to the hospital for her afternoon-shift, also wanting to look fit and as though she had enough sleep.

Isobel and Tom kissed each other goodbye next to the closed door – not wanting to risk anybody seeing them at an hour this late – after which Tom left and took the car back to the Abbey. Even after they parted they thought about the events of the evening and the memories they would keep forever.

END OF CHAPTER 14

Author's Note: Here it is! I would love to hear your thoughts about this chapter. Also: Any ideas on how you think this will continue? A few more chapters are in progress, like I said, I have a clear Last Chapter in mind and will work on getting there, maybe with some more chapters in between!

(Sorry for the delayed update! I have no idea how many times I proof-read this chapter and changed things here and there until I was content with how it was written... I was careful and did my best! Hope you guys like and thanks for the continued support!)