A/N: Thanks very much to those who reviewed the last chapter. I appreciate each and every one of them. Many thanks to my patient betas, Tripp3235 and mswainwright.

Disclaimer: Not mine. All Downton Abbey characters belong to Julian Fellowes and ITV. I'm just playing with them.

Chapter 6

About a week after the letter from Tom's mother arrived, Lady Grantham suggested that Sybil go to Ripon to pick out her dresses the next day. Madame Swann had telephoned and said that new fabric had arrived and if Lady Sybil had wanted a dress in time for the wedding that she should pick something soon. When Sybil expressed a wish to go to Harrowgate afterward for a book she wanted, but didn't see in Ripon, Lady Gratham asked Mrs Patmore to send a lunch with her and a sandwich for Branson. Thankfully, Sir Richard was visiting that week to oversee the renovations at Haxby Park so Mary was too occupied to go with them. As for Edith, Granny had expressed a desire to visit her niece, Lady Flincher, in Leeds for a few days, earlier in the week and asked Edith to drive her.

On the road to Ripon, they had behaved per social convention. Sybil sat in the back while Tom drove, chatting all the while about their plans. After stopping in Ripon, Sybil looked quickly at the new fabrics and made a quick choice. They were back on the road again in less than a half hour. After Ripon was out of sight, Tom stopped the car and Sybil climbed up to the front to sit with him. This reminded Sybil of the night of their failed elopement, except that it was broad daylight and Tom was still in his uniform. It was a surprisingly warm and sunny spring day.

After a quick stop in Harrowgate, where Sybil picked up a book she knew she wouldn't find in Ripon, Tom stopped by a forest on the side of the road that he saw on the way there. He parked the car and brought the blankets and their lunch into a grove in the forest where they could still see the car but passersby couldn't easily spot them. Tom carefully laid out the blankets he had brought while Sybil laid out the lunch. As Mrs Patmore packed more than she could possibly eat, Sybil pooled their lunches together. Sybil was pleased that Mrs Patmore even sent a Dewar flask of hot tea with them. He took off his cap and his jacket which was carefully laid on a second blanket, while she took off her hat and jacket and laid it beside his.

After they had eaten their fill of food, Sybil looked around and said, "I do wish that we didn't have to sneak about for this."

Tom looked at her and said, "Once we're in Dublin, there are a number of places where we could go to have a picnic. I'm not sure that the fare will be as fine as this, but there would be no need to hide."

After a quick glance in his direction, Sybil looked down and said, "I don't care about the fare. I'm just tired of having to deceive people so that we can be together."

Tom reached over to stroke her cheek and said, "It won't be much longer now. Once we hear of something, anything, we'll tell your family."

Sybil placed her hand on top of his and said, "I know. I know. I'm just frustrated that an accident of birth is what keeps us apart."

"Well, if it helps, if it wasn't for the accident of birth, we might have never met," said Tom trying to soothe her.

"If I were a farm girl nearby, we might have met in the village," said Sybil with a defiant tone in her voice.

"If you were a farm girl, would we have spent enough time together or would you have been married off to someone years ago?" asked Tom.

With nothing to say to that, Sybil felt the emotion well up within her. The toll the deceit had taken on her was finally boiling over. Seeing her tears, Tom pulled her over to him and held her as she cried into his shoulder while whispering some calming words. When he could hear her sniffling, he pulled out a handkerchief from his trouser pockets and gave it to her.

After about five minutes, Sybil was calm enough to think again. She felt so warm and safe in his arms. The last time she was comforted like this was when she much younger and had a nursemaid who would take Sybil in her lap whenever she had a scrape and came crying. It wasn't that her parents and her sisters weren't loving or that she didn't love them, but social convention kept them physically apart and Sybil yearned to be held.

Realizing that she had soiled his shirt with her tears, she pulled up suddenly. "I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to dirty your shirt."

Tom shushed her and said, "Don't worry about my shirt. My jacket will cover everything until we get back. Are you feeling better?"

Sybil nodded as she blew her nose into the handkerchief. When she was done, she said, "I'm sorry I'm not acting very lady-like today."

"With me, you only have to be yourself," said Tom with a smile.

Sybil smiled at the thought and asked, "How did you know how to handle my outburst?" Most men she knew would have be discomfited by the show of emotion and perhaps patted her on the back if they felt inclined.

"My sister Cathleen is more than ten years younger than I am," said Tom. "After our father died, she always came to me for comfort."

"Well, you're very good at it," said Sybil with a small smile.

"I've had a lot of practice," said Tom returning her smile.

"I know we have a few more hours yet, but should we pack up the food before the ants take it away?" asked Sybil.

"If you wish," said Tom.

"I do," said Sybil as she started packing up. Tom helped Sybil to put everything away except for the tea.

After they were done, Tom sat against a tree trunk and Sybil laid down to be more comfortable with her head on his lap. Looking up at him, she said, "Tell me more about Ireland and how we'll get there."

Looking down at her, Tom stroked her cheek with his hand and said, "Well, we'll have to take the train to Liverpool where we can get passage to cross the Irish sea." Looking into the distance, he continued, "The trip across to Dublin will take a whole day. So from Downton, it would be be a two-day trip with an overnight, likely in Liverpool. What else do you want to know about Ireland?"

"Tell me about where you grew up," asked Sybil as she looked up at him.

"My mother, Cathleen and Connor live in the flat where we, the three youngest ones, were born," said Tom. "It isn't Downton Abbey, but it isn't the slums either. Shops line the ground floor of most buildings in the neighbourhood with flats on two or three floors above it. Most of my aunts, uncles and cousins live within five or six streets of us. Though, Dublin is built up like London, there are many parks, making it seem greener than most English cities. Three miles in one direction from where my mother lives is the countryside, where it's green year round because of the rains. It's warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer than Yorkshire. While we do get snow, it's nothing like the snow in Yorkshire. "

"Sounds very nice," said Sybil as she tried to imagine the scenery that Tom described. "I'm not that fond of snow except at Christmas. Tell me more about your family."

"Well, my mother and father met in Dublin, though my Da was born in County Cork," said Tom. "He and his brothers came to Dublin to find work when the family farm failed. He had been working at the docks, where Ciaran does now, when he met my Ma at a church function. My father was a very religious man who had once considered making the church his calling. My mother is a seamstress who worked at a dressmaker when she married my father. Now she takes in work from several dressmakers around Dublin. This allows her to work at home to her own schedule. So long as the work is completed in time, she's free to work whenever she's able.

"My sister, Mairin, was born about a year after my parents married. Then came Ciaran, Niamh, and I, all within six years. They had another boy when I was about five or six, Aedan, but he died when he was just a baby, Ma doesn't like talking about him, then there's Cathleen and Connor who is a few years younger than Cathleen."

"That's a very large family," said Sybil. "I can't imagine having six siblings."

"It's typical in Ireland," said Tom. "My father was one of eight and my mother has six brothers and sisters of her own and quite a few of them have five or six children of their own. I had many cousins growing up."

"Like the one killed in the Rising," said Sybil recalling the one extended relative that they had talked about in the past.

"Yes, like him," said Tom.

"Do you want such a large family?" asked Sybil, as her thoughts coalesced around a subject that had been on her mind for sometime.

"Do we have a choice?" asked Tom, puzzled by this question. "It's one of the consequences of being married."

"But it isn't," said Sybil as she sat up. "In the training I received in York, there was a discussion on certain diseases that the men were bringing back from France and how to treat it and one of the other students mentioned that there was a way to prevent it. However, the doctor lecturing us shut down all discussion, saying it wasn't lady-like to discuss such a topic. So being curious about why discussion was shut down, naturally I went to talk to the girl who had brought it up afterward and she kindly explained it to me.

"From what I could understand, the device ought to prevent children as well though I have no idea how to obtain something like that. Also, one of the women's rights pamphlets I received recently mentions the work of a Margaret Sanger in America on something called birth control. As well, I have read that feeding babies from the breast can space the children further apart."

Tom was left speechless by this discussion. Never in his imagination did he think that they would be talking about this topic on their picnic. Though he had been brought up in a religious household who attended Mass regularly, his own views of the church had been out of focus for a long time. In his time in Yorkshire, he had been attending the church in the village with the family and the staff who could be spared to attend, since the alternative was to wait in the car. However, he was still aware of the Catholic church's stance on contraception and it definitely wasn't along the same lines as Sybil's. Still this discussion surprised him greatly.

When Tom said nothing, Sybil looked away and said shyly, "I hope I haven't been too forward about this, but after Mama lost the baby just before the war, it something that's been on my mind."

"No, not too forward," said Tom when he finally regained the power of speech. "I always thought that children were just a consequence of marriage and that if I was ready to marry, I would be ready to support any children that we have."

"I don't doubt that," said Sybil with a smile to reassure him. "But were you aware that having children drains a woman's body. I don't want to die after having nine children in ten years, which is what happened to the third Countess of Grantham."

"Are you certain that's what happened?" asked Tom unsure of what else to say at this juncture.

"According to family history," said Sybil. "She married the third Earl when she was seventeen and proceeded to have nine children in ten years. One day, a few months after the birth of her ninth child, she collapsed and died. The doctor could not determine the cause of death as she was not ill and her heart had been strong. Also when Mama was expecting the baby, she talked of how tired she was every time she was expecting."

"If it's what will make you happy," said Tom. "I promise that we won't have nine children in ten years."

"Yes that will make me very happy," said Sybil.

Since Sybil brought up the subject, Tom decided to ask, "How many children did you want?"

"No more than three or four, I think," said Sybil. "But definitely spaced apart rather than bunched together. I want time to love each child on their own and to be able to establish myself as a nurse. Do you have a preference?"

"Not really," said Tom. "I had always presumed before today that children come when they come. However, based on what you've said, we can choose the timing and number of our children."

"Yes," said Sybil, "Though it would definitely depend on how easily we can obtain these devices. I have no idea where to start."

"I've heard of them, though never in the same conversation as spacing children" said Tom, blushing as he spoke. "I believe that they are mainly manufactured on the continent, but I've never seen them sold in the village or Ireland."

"If you have no objections to these devices, perhaps we can stop at an apothecary in Ripon on the way home to see whether they are available there," said Sybil as she thought quickly.

"I have no objections, but do what exactly?" asked Tom somewhat puzzled. "I don't think that it would be quite appropriate for you to purchase them and I don't want someone who knows your father's car to see me purchasing them while I'm in uniform and you're with me. Not to mention, I didn't bring much personal money with me."

Sybil was quick with her reply. "But you could park away from the apothecary and walk there to make your purchase. I have a little spending money on me that we can pool together and and I'm not asking you to purchase many of them, just one. Then, at least we'll know they are available in Yorkshire and perhaps you can purchase more when you're in Ripon for some other business."

"If that's what you want, we should pack up in the next half hour and head back. It would give us some time to look in various apothecaries."

"Yes, let's do that," said Sybil as she leaned over to kiss Tom.

After they broke apart, Tom asked, "I hope you don't think me too forward to ask this question, but is your fear why you asked that all we do is kiss until we are married?"

"No," said Sybil. "I just want to do this properly and when I asked, I fully expected to be married in a few days. However, it is a good test of our patience."

"Indeed it is," said Tom before pulling Sybil closer for more kisses to enjoy the freedom the picnic offered before they packed up.


On the way back to Ripon, Sybil devised a plan for searching apothecaries. Once they spotted an apothecary, Tom was to park the car at least a block away. Sybil would then enter the shop in front of which they parked and dismiss Tom. Tom then would walk to the apothecary and look around the shop, ask, if necessary, and make a purchase. When Sybil saw that Tom was back at the car, she would exit the shop and they would make their way to the next apothecary or home.

The first two apothecaries yielded nothing. With the rationing of supplies for the war, even condoms were in short supply. At the third apothecary, Tom found some and was able to purchase one with their combined monies. From the quick smile Tom gave when he helped her into the seat closest to the driver in the passenger compartment, Sybil knew he had been successful this time.

After they drove off, Sybil asked, "From your smile, I presume that you were successful this time."

"I was," said Tom and handed her the paper bag from the front seat. "But even this apothecary didn't have many and it was rather costly." As Sybil took out the package, Tom continued, "With our combined money, we have a thruppence remaining, which you will find in the bag."

Sybil turned the package in her hand over to look at all of it. "Such a small package being able to control when children might arrive and so costly."

"Perhaps once rationing is over, the cost will come down," said Tom. "But until then, we might not be able to afford to use this to control when the children come."

"Though I had hoped that we could wait a year or two before we had our first child," said Sybil as she returned the package in the paper bag. "My main concern is in the spacing. Perhaps by the time the first one arrives, the cost of this will be more affordable."

"Perhaps, but there's something else you should know," said Tom. "We may not be able to find this in Ireland. The prevailing belief there is that we should not interfere with procreation in any way. It should remain in the hands of God. This might explain why I've never seen them sold there. But then again, I've never looked for them before either."

"I see," said Sybil as she returned the package into the paper bag. "Then when the time comes, we'll have to determine some way to obtain them because obviously they are available in England and if there's some way to prevent having nine children in ten years, I'd like to be able to use it."

"We'll cross that bridge when the time comes," said Tom trying to concentrate on the road.

Sybil placed the bag back onto the front seat. "Since I won't be able to keep it with me without causing endless questions, you'll need to keep it for us. Perhaps we can test it out on our wedding night. I've also left the thruppence in the bag and I'll bring the remainder of the cost the next time I visit."

"Sybil, I can pay my share," said Tom.

"I know you can," said Sybil. "However, I was the one who wanted to purchase it, so I should pay for it from my allowance. I insist."

"Very well," said Tom not quite able to argue while driving.

"Thank you for purchasing it on my whim," said Sybil as she reached to place a hand on his shoulder. This made Tom swerve the car a little in surprise. Fortunately, the road was empty at this juncture. "So sorry about that."

"No harm done," said Tom as he straightened the car. He then looked over his shoulder, and said, "All you need to do is ask."

"I know," said Sybil with a smile. "I did wish that we didn't have to rush back to Downton, so I could thank you properly."

"You can thank me properly the next time you come by the garage," said Tom with a smile as he looked at her through the rearview mirror.

"I will," said Sybil as she though of ways to show her appreciation.

The rest of the drive back was in silence as each was consumed by their own thoughts on the afternoon. As they neared the village, Sybil returned to the back seat to avoid any gossip. By the time they reached the front door, they had returned to their respective roles for the time being.

With Carson waiting for Sybil, Tom exited the car and opened the car door for her. Reaching in, he handed Sybil down as if their afternoon had not occurred.

"Thank you, Branson," said Sybil with a secret smile for him. As she stepped out of the car with her handbag and book purchase.

"Of course, milady," said Tom. With his back to Carson, Tom winked at Sybil, who was barely able to contain herself.

"Good afternoon, Carson," said Sybil as she walked up the steps, while Tom drove to the back to unload. "I hope I'm not late for the dressing gong."

"No, milady," said Carson still at attention. "I was just going to ring it when I saw the car drive up."

"Excellent," said Sybil as she walked into the open door. "Thank you, Carson."

A/N2: What did you think of the hunt for the prophylactic? I'd love to hear what you think of this chapter good or bad, so please do review. :)