Sybil ran away from the abbey, she ran until she was out of breath and only then did she slow to a walk. She had snuck away from nanny many times before, but always to avoid something she didn't want to do. It was different from today, today nanny had laughed at her, laughed at Sybil's little notebook of dreams. Red-faced and angry Sybil had run off, this time determined not to go back.
She heard the boys before she saw them. They were just beyond a little rise in the fields, she sped up again, William always let her play whenever she came across him and his friends. As she crested the hill she saw William and a couple of his usual friends, with one unfamiliar addition. It was he who answered her request to play with an unfamiliar lilt to his voice, "no, a little girl can't play with us."
Tom was thinking of his younger sisters, every time they wanted to play with him they insisted that they play something where they could pretend to be princesses or queens. Not something a 9 year old boy ever wanted to do. Seemed this girl could be as stubborn as his sisters by insisting, "of course I can!"
They both looked to William who kind of shrugged, "Aw Tom, Sybil, isn't so bad, and she never plays long before she has got to go home."
He was not helping her case, "not today, I'm not going back, so you may as well let me play, I've got no where else to be."
"I say you can play if you can keep up with us," Tom smiled confidently, smugly even before he turned and took off running. The rest of the boys following immediately behind. His sisters didn't like to run very far or very fast, it was usually the easiest means to get rid of them, it would work with Sybil too.
The boys had barely a head start before Sybil was right behind them. She was fast but her legs were shorter so their lead held. She followed the boys through the field and to the nearby wooded area, she was out of breath but refused to stop or slow, she would prove those boys she could keep up. All of a sudden she couldn't see them and whipped her head around looking for them, getting her legs tangled with a gnarley root, and she screamed out in pain as she tumbled to the ground.
William stepped out from behind a nearby tree, the laugh on his face turning to worry as he saw Sybil's tears and blood. "I'm sorry Sybil, we should have let you play." The other three boys heads appeared now too. "Let us help you.
She shook her head angrily, "I don't need your help." Before she knew it, one of the boys had reached from behind her and scooped her up into his arms. Ugh, it was that awful Tom, the one who said she couldn't play. This was all his fault.
Tom thought so too, it was his fault. He hadn't meant to get her hurt and now he felt a bad. The girl reminded him of his sisters in another way now, the way they would sit bravely and silently in their room while their father went on a rampage. Tom hoped they were safe without him home to sit with them when it happened.
William led the way, all the way to the big house on the hill. Tom had first thought it a castle but his new friends had corrected him, it was just Downton Abby, the house of the rich lord who owned all these farms, including his grandfather's where he was staying.
Sybil did not care to be carried, especially by Tom, the strange boy who wouldn't let her play. She didn't want to return home but it hurt so much that she was relieved when William led through the servant's door and into capable hands and familiar hands of Mrs. Hughes.
Later than night Sybil's father came into the nursery to see her where she was propped up in bed, she couldn't remember ever seeing him in the nursery before. He sat next to her on the bed and when told the story agreed to talk to her mother about finding a new nanny. Sybil didn't mention the boys part in the accident, although she didn't forget it.
Tom took a deep breath standing on the rise where he could first see the castle on the hill. Memories of his long ago summer here flooded his brain. Staying with his grandfather for a month of his 9th summer was the first time Tom had ever felt entirely safe and happy. His grandfather's cottage was as small as their apartment home in Dublin and together with his grandfather Tom worked longer hours that his older brother did at home. They were his happiest months just the same, no raging father from his younger days and no hungry nights like the years since his father's death.
He had promised himself he would come back, that this is where he could find happiness again, the same happiness as the small but clean cottage and the boys from neighboring farms he could occasionally get away to play with. When he had seen the ad for the job at Downton Abbey he knew it was meant to be. He had given notice immediately and headed north, he was headed home.