Author's note

Thank you so much to everyone who has read/followed/reviewed/favourited this collection so far! I love to hear from you.

This story was inspired by a beautiful picture sent to me by my friend angiemagz - check out her blog on Tumblr to find it - of Sybil and Tom on a beach. This picture brought me back to their honeymoon for this story, which I first wrote about in chapter 1 of this collection ...

On the beach

Sybil and Tom walked along the beach, hand in hand against the cloudy sky. The weather was calm, and small waves were striking the sandy shore as a warm sea breeze caressed their faces.

They had been married a couple of days before, and had come for their honeymoon to the west coast of Ireland. Tom still had to pinch himself to prove he was not dreaming - Sybil was really his wife! He wanted to do everything he could to make her happy, as he had promised he would at York all those years ago. That promise meant even more to him today than it had then, now that Sybil had taken that leap of faith, giving all of herself to him.

He could not take his eyes off her that morning. The lovelight in her eyes gave her face an almost incandescent glow, and her long hair hung unbound down her back as a symbol of how free she felt being here with him, as far as she could be from Downton Abbey and her life before. He longed to run his hands through it, get tangled up in it… memories from earlier that morning flooded into his mind, making him smile…

Before that day, Sybil had thought she had never been happier in her life than she had been on their wedding day. Making her vows to Tom, promising to love and honour him, to be true to him always, and hearing him do the same, had moved her to tears. Somehow, if it were possible, she was even happier now – it had really happened, she was really Mrs Branson! And of course, they had now discovered something together that she had only dreamed about before they were married. Sybil blushed, remembering what she and Tom had been up to just a few hours before…"Tom?"

"Yes, my love?"

"Do you remember what we did earlier today…?" She tailed off, not quite sure how to put her thoughts into words. She was still learning the language of love with him, particularly when it came to talking about their intimate moments together. Tom knew this, and loved her even more for it. He tried to make it easy for her:

"Yes, of course I do – being with you like that is more wonderful than my dreams could ever have been, darling."

"I wondered – well, do people ever do that, are they ever together like that… outside?" Sybil blushed again at her own daring.

Tom couldn't help but laugh – her beautiful innocence, coupled with her ardent desire to experience more of that side of their life together, made for an irresistible combination.

"Yes, my love, they do. This beach for example – I can see a comfortable spot just over there. Shall we go and have a look?"

Sybil looked down, too shy to answer, but her nod and her radiant smile told him all he needed to know. He started walking back from the beach behind the sea grass, leading her to a little sheltered nook in the dunes, which he had marked in his mind earlier, just in case.

Tom spread Sybil's shawl on the sand and gently laid her down on it, stretching himself out beside her. Leaning over to look into her eyes, he ran his thumb along her bottom lip - "Well, Mrs Branson, is this what you had in mind?" By way of reply, Sybil put her hand on the back of her husband's neck, pulling him down to her in a kiss that quickly deepened. It wasn't long before their ecstatic cries floated into the western sky, with only the circling seabirds to hear them…

A/N - yes, keeping this collection T-rated - although I may do a one off M one day. :)