The clock was moving tediously slowly towards teatime when Tom breezed into the office the next day. In what appeared to be the new normal response of her body to Tom's every appearance, the butterflies in Mary's stomach took flight again at the sight of him.

'I thought you were in Thirsk today.'

'I was. And now I'm back.'

'Successful trip?'

'Yes, thank you.'

Mary narrowed her eyes. 'You're being cagey. What are you up to?'

'Nothing.'

'Oh, you're definitely up to something. What were you doing in Thirsk?'

Tom sighed, hanging his coat and hat on the rack. 'Well, if you must know, I was getting a little something for the weekend.'

'A little something for the week-' Mary frowned, then blushed as the penny dropped. 'Oh.'

'I thought it was better to be safe than sorry.'

'Well, yes, of course. And that's very thoughtful of you, but I have already taken care of that.'

Tom looked up from sifting through the post, a surprised expression on his face. 'You have?'

'Naturally. Especially given that it would be me bearing the consequences. You didn't think I went on my sketching trip unprepared, did you?'

Tom sat down, processing that. 'I hadn't really thought about it. About you and Tony.'

'Well, you're already far more gallant than he was. He hadn't given it a second thought. But then he was expecting to marry me shortly after, so I suppose he thought it wouldn't matter if I fell pregnant.'

Now Tom looked even more surprised. 'He proposed?'

'He did.'

'And you…'

'Well, initially, I thought I would say yes. That was certainly my intention before the trip. But then, well, he didn't measure up and there was no way I could spend the rest of my life enduring that and pretending to enjoy it. A week was tiresome enough.'

'Oh, that poor fellow!'

'Tsk. Poor fellow, indeed. It's me you should be feeling sorry for. I've never wished harder for time to fly in my life.'

Tom was laughing now. 'Mary, you're terrible!'

Mary smiled, enjoying the sight and sound of Tom's amusement. 'Honestly, Tom. You have no idea.'

'Well,' he said, grinning at her, his blue eyes twinkling, 'no pressure on me then.'

Mary suppressed a smile, trying to be stern. 'You'd better not let me down, Mr Branson.'

Tom didn't reply. He simply raised an eyebrow at her, holding her gaze before smirking and getting back to the post.

Mary felt a shiver of delicious anticipation curl down her spine. His quiet confidence in his abilities was so unexpectedly attractive. She glanced at the clock, calculating how long now until…

'So, when you say you've taken care of it, what exactly do you mean?' Tom's voice cut into her thoughts.

'I bought a device. One of those ones promoted by Mrs Stopes.'

'You went into a chemist and bought one of those?' Tom's eyes widened, totally taken aback by this turn of events.

'Don't be silly,' said Mary, tartly. 'I sent Anna.'

At that, Tom dissolved into more laughter. 'You didn't! Poor Anna. I'll bet she wanted the ground to swallow her up.'

'She certainly wasn't keen to do it, but I obviously couldn't. Can you imagine the furore if the widowed Lady Mary Crawley was seen buying birth control apparatus? I'd have been drummed out of the county!'

'Well, we couldn't have that,' Tom chuckled. 'Far better to send the respectable Mrs Bates.'

'My thoughts exactly.'

After Tom got his amusement under control, he went back to work, and Mary tried her best to do the same. Every time she looked at the clock expecting it to be time to finish, the minute hand appeared to have crawled forward by only a few laborious minutes. This day was taking almost as long as the nights she'd spent in Liverpool with Tony.

Eventually, Tom sat up straight, capped his fountain pen and slid his papers into his desk drawer. 'Right, shall we head back?'

'Absolutely,' Mary said, trying her utmost to rise gracefully instead of scrambling from her seat like an overexcited child.

She reached the coat rack at the same time as Tom and, like the gentleman he was, he held her coat for her to slip into. It was a simple gesture, one he'd done countless times before, but the nearness of his solid body nearly undid her.

Mary spun around quickly, surprising Tom, who grasped her arms to steady her. 'Are you sure about this, Tom? There's still time to back out if you want to.'

She held her breath, dreading his answer, but needing to give him the chance to change his mind. Even though he'd been the one to float the idea, she couldn't help but feel she might have forced him into it after her initial tirade.

Tom pulled her closer, never taking his eyes off hers. 'I'm sure. I'm completely and utterly sure.'

This close to him, Mary gazed at his lips, her heart beating wildly, wondering if he was going to kiss her. And he did, but it was the softest, most fleeting kiss she'd ever had, just a gentle press of lips then he was pulling back.

To her surprise, it stoked the fire in her belly even higher. This man she thought she knew so well was confounding her. Where every other man she'd been involved with had charged right in, he held back, building her anticipation. Mary wasn't sure for certain if he knew how it was affecting her, but she suspected he did and was using it to good effect. She only hoped he could deliver on his promises.

She came back to herself to see Tom standing by the office door, pulling it open. He looked her dead in the eye.

'Let's go home.'