A/N: Thank you for all the reviews, etc., for the last chapter. All of it is, as always, greatly appreciated. Thanks to those who pointed out typos, they have been fixed. :)
I want to especially thank my wonderful betas: Tripp3235, mswainwright and _livingfree (on Twitter). Without these wonderful people, who listen to me gripe and have the patience to slog through chapter after chapter despite their busy lives, the quality of every aspect of this story would be much poorer indeed! :)
Disclaimer: Not mine. All Downton Abbey characters belong to Julian Fellowes and ITV. I'm just playing with them.
Chapter 29
The following morning, Tom and Sybil were waiting on the front stoop of Mrs. Branson's home with a number of blankets for padding and ropes for tying down, when Ciaran and Kevin arrived in the lorry.
Ciaran got out of the cab. "Good Morning."
Tom and Sybil both returned the greeting, and Sybil added, "Thank you for doing this. I hope that Mairin and Aileen aren't missing the two of you too much."
Ciaran smiled at Sybil. "Don't worry yourself about it. I took Maeve over to Mairin's this morning and Aileen will have some free time to herself. Mairin thinks the more the merrier. Besides, since Ma's invited us all to dinner, all should be well."
Sybil smiled back at Ciaran.
Ciaran looked at Tom as he helped load the blankets at the back. "Why don't you and Sybil sit up front? I can hop on the blankets in the back."
Tom saw the logic in the suggestion. "All right. I owe you one." He then helped Sybil into the cab before entering himself.
Sybil sat down between Kevin and Tom. "Good Morning, Kevin. Thank you for taking your Saturday to help us with this."
Kevin mumbled a good morning and added, "It's nothing."
"Kevin, we're going to the Warrenmount neighborhood," said Tom. "I'll give you directions when we get there."
Kevin nodded and drove off.
Mrs. Murphy was quite happy when they arrived. The rest of the flat was bare except for the pieces that Tom and Sybil purchased.
"Here is what we owe you," said Sybil, handing over the remaining £13.
Mrs. Murphy took the money. "Thank you."
Sybil took out the paper from her pocketbook that indicated they still owed £13 to Mrs. Murphy. "Would you mind indicating that we've paid out the remainder?"
"Of course," said Mrs. Murphy, taking the paper from Sybil and writing on it.
When Mrs. Murphy handed back the paper, Sybil asked, "Is your mother settled now?"
"Yes, she moved in with my sister last month and is nicely settled," said Mrs. Murphy with a slight smile. "As you can see, you're the last pick up."
"We'll clear out as quickly as we can," said Sybil.
While Sybil was dealing with the monetary aspects, Tom had directed Kevin and Ciaran with some of the pieces. The welsh dresser had already been wrapped in blankets. The table had been shrunk to its smallest size while the leaves had already been wrapped separately. Six of the chairs had already been taken down to the lorry. Sybil went and picked up one of the leaves and started walking downstairs. Kevin saw Sybil holding the leaf as he came up for another load. "You needn't take anything. We can manage."
Sybil smiled at him. This was probably the most she had heard Kevin utter to her. She put her free hand flat on the top. "That's all right. I can manage the lighter things and we can get this done faster."
Kevin seemed to be impressed, nodded and continued up the stairs, while Sybil continued down.
When Sybil got to the lorry, Ciaran was arranging the pieces in the lorry bed so that everything fit nicely. When Sybil handed him the leaf, he said, "When we're ready to bring the table and desk down, would you mind watching the lorry while I go up and help?"
"Not at all," said Sybil with a smile. "You'll be a much better help than I will with the heaviest things."
When Sybil came down with the last of the removable pieces of the desk, Ciaran hopped down from the back of the lorry. "We'll be down shortly."
"Take your time," said Sybil. She looked around and saw how carefully Ciaran had packed up the chairs and the leaves. The desk pieces were all sitting on the pavement at her feet, but they would go back into the desk once it was down and in the lorry. To keep herself busy, Sybil placed her pocketbook on the floor of the lorry cab before she started working on unwinding one of the ropes for keeping the items down.
Shortly there after, she saw Tom open the door from the building while Ciaran and Kevin were lifting the desk through the doors. Soon it was also on the bed of the lorry.
Once they got off the lorry bed, Ciaran looked at Kevin. "I think that we'll need to take apart the table after all or at least remove the legs. That desk barely came down the stairs."
Kevin nodded and Ciaran looked at Tom. "Can you bring the toolbox from under the driver's seat?"
Tom nodded. "I'll be right up." He turned to Sybil. "Are you all right being here by yourself?"
"I'm fine," said Sybil, smiling at Tom. After the crying episode yesterday, she was feeling much better. "I'm keeping occupied. You go bring the toolbox."
Tom gave her a quick kiss on the cheek and headed up with the toolbox. Sybil then started replacing the drawers and shelves into the desk.
When she was pushing the last drawer back into place, Tom reappeared with two of the four table legs. "Can you pass me a spare blanket?" asked Tom as he placed the legs on the lorry bed. Ciaran wants to cover the table before they take it down."
Sybil reaches around the desk, and pulled one of them out and passed it to Tom before working to wrap the table legs in the blankets while Tom ran back up the stairs.
Tom reappeared with the final two table legs shortly thereafter, dropping them off for Sybil before hurrying back into the building to open the doors for the others. As Sybil worked on the last two table legs, she wondered where Ciaran was going to sit once everything was in the lorry bed. Ciaran was not fat, but neither was he a small man.
As Sybil tucked the last of the blanket to pad the final legs, she heard the door open again and Ciaran and Kevin were grunting with effort as they carried the tabletop between them while Tom held the door open with the toolbox in hand. As they came closer, Sybil got off the lorry bed and out of the way. She could hear them swearing under their breaths. Considering how heavy each of the legs had been, she could not blame them for swearing and pretended not to hear.
Seeing her, Kevin hastened. "Sorry for my language." This prompted Ciaran to say the same.
Sybil smiled broadly at them. "I didn't hear anything untoward."
Once the table was slid into the slot Sybil had left, they tied the pieces down as much as possible. When Ciaran started to climb the lorry bed Tom said, "I can sit up here for the trip home. Sybil, you can give Kevin directions, yes?"
Sybil nodded before climbing into the cab and retrieving her pocketbook from the floor. Ciaran got in and pressed himself against the door, looking rather uncomfortable but leaving a few inches between them. Sybil looked over at him with a smile. "Ciaran, you know I don't bite?"
Ciaran flushed red. "I didn't want to squish you. You're so tiny."
"Yes, I'm small, but I don't squish easily."
"All right," said Ciaran as he relaxed a little. "But let me know if you don't have enough room."
"Of course," said Sybil with a smile. Looking to Kevin who just got into the cab after cranking the lorry to start, she said, "We're about two streets over from Mrs. Branson's on Drake."
Kevin nodded and drove off.
When they arrived at Tom and Sybil's flat, it took a number trips to get all the pieces upstairs. There was definitely cursing involved when Ciaran and Kevin realized the number flights of stairs they had to lift the tabletop up. When Tom and Ciaran got to the flat with the table legs, Ciaran said, "Did you have to get the flat on the third floor?"
"We didn't have a choice," said Tom.
"Yeah you did," said Ciaran, giving Tom a look.
"Not if we were looking for a discount," said Tom
As they headed down the stairs, Ciaran said, "Of course, Tommy."
"Stop calling me that," said Tom. Since discovering how heavy the mahogany table was, Ciaran had been calling Tom by his childhood name. "You know I hate it. Makes me think I'm still wearing short pants."
"Well, you will have to suffer, Tommy, because my back will not be happy with me after I lift that damn tabletop up here. You're hiring help when you move it out of here."
"I suppose I could get Connor to help." Tom gave Ciaran a look.
"What are you planning to do, drop the table from the window?" asked Ciaran. "He's skinnier than you are. He can't lift much more than Sybil."
"He did help with painting the flat."
"Well, he's not lifting much in that case, is he?" said Ciaran, heading out of the building's front door.
In the meantime, Sybil and Kevin had started unpacking the lorry. All the pieces of removable pieces of the desk were out of the desk, so Kevin and Tom took that piece up first with Ciaran teasingly haranguing them as he came up behind them with a couple of the chairs. By the time, they got to the second landing, they let Ciaran and his chairs by and he continued to harangue them after he dropped the chairs off while they were climbing the third flight of stairs.
After most of the pieces were up with a lot of grunting and not a little bit of swearing under their breaths, Kevin came down and said to Sybil, "You'd better go upstairs. They're arguing about where to put things."
"Thank you, Kevin." Putting the rope she had just wound up on the lorry bed, Sybil came down and got her pocketbook out of the lorry cab floor, and took the last of the small pieces of the desk up with her.
When she arrived on the third floor landing, she could hear Tom and Ciaran arguing. "No, this isn't where it goes," said Ciaran.
"If it isn't there, where do you think it goes?" asked Tom rather exasperatedly.
"What's going on here?" asked Sybil when she entered the flat.
"Ciaran is trying to attach the table leg on the wrong corner," said Tom, looking up at her.
"No, that's the right place," said Ciaran.
After putting down the pieces she had brought up with her by the desk, Sybil asked, "Very well. Who took the table apart?"
"I did," said Ciaran.
"Then why don't you put it back together for us," said Sybil.
"Be happy to," said Ciaran, giving Tom a victorious look.
"Tom, could you please help me with the desk?" asked Sybil sweetly.
Tom sullenly nodded, unable to speak his thoughts aloud. The two of them slowly lifted the desk in silence into the second bedroom. Sybil closed the door behind them in order to talk to Tom.
Before Sybil managed to say anything, Tom started, "Why are you letting him put it back together? I thought you were on my side."
"Your brother is spending his Saturday kindly helping us move this furniture" said Sybil, hands on her hips. "Without his and Kevin's help, we wouldn't have been able to do it. He's the one who took it apart. Let him put it back together. If it bothers you that much after he's done, you can always take it apart again tonight or any other night before my parents arrive and put it together the way you want."
Realizing the truth of what Sybil was saying, Tom mumbled, "I suppose."
Sybil went up to Tom to rub his arm for support and smiled. "I think you're just annoyed because he's been calling you Tommy all morning."
"Possibly," mumbled Tom.
"Why does it bother you so?" asked Sybil, genuinely curious.
"Because it makes me feel like I'm still wearing short pants," said Tom.
"Well, you're not wearing short pants, are you?" asked Sybil, giving him a look.
"No," admitted Tom, still upset.
"Are you not a weekly columnist for The Dublin Times?" asked Sybil.
"Now you're making me seem like an angry, sullen boy," said Tom as he looked at her.
"Well, if the cap fits …"
Admitting defeat, Tom asked, "Shall we go and put the rest of the pieces back into the desk?"
"That's a good idea," said Sybil with a happy smile.
In the end, the desk was placed against the wall near the door. The table had been placed along the wall on the same side as the second bedroom, the two chairs with armrests went in front of the fireplace and the remaining two chairs went into the bedroom. Looking around, it appeared that their home was almost complete.
Looking between Ciaran and Kevin, Sybil smiled. "Thank you for all your help."
Kevin looked away. "It's nothing." Ciaran just waved his hand.
Sybil then looked at Tom. "Let's go and eat then."
Tom looked at Ciaran and Kevin. "Any suggestions? We've been eating mostly at Ma's since we got here."
Ciaran spoke up, "There's a public house around the corner that's decent, if Sybil doesn't mind."
"Not at all," said Sybil with a smile. "I've come to enjoy them."
Ciaran held out his arm for Sybil to take. "Shall we then?"
Sybil took his arm and they proceeded to walk to the public house.
Lunch was delightful for Sybil. When they had eaten and the men were on their third pint, Ciaran started to recount a number of Tom's escapades when he was younger.
"So did Tommy ever tell you about the trouble he got into when he was younger?"
"No, he never shared any of that," said Sybil intrigued.
"There's no need to share any of that," said Tom, giving Ciaran a look.
Ciaran rubbed his hands together gleefully. "No, your soon-to-be wife should know about the adventures of young Tommy." Ciaran turned to Sybil. "When he was about eight, he read a book that talked about mountain climbing." Ciaran paused for dramatic effect.
Tom blushed to the roots of his hair when he realized which story Ciaran was going to tell.
"Mountain climbing?" asked Sybil.
"Yes, mountain climbing," said Ciaran, leaning closer to Sybil. "So he got a long rope (we're still not sure how) and waited until it was late one night. Then he tied it to the banister on the second storey, where we were, and proceeded to climb down inside the stairwell as if he were climbing down a mountain. It was going all right until he got too scared dangling in between storeys with nowhere to perch. He didn't cry out until he fell the rest of the way and had broken his ankle. Then he woke every one of our neighbours up with his wailing."
Sybil turned to Tom. "What on earth made you try mountain climbing inside?
"I thought it was adventurous and that it might be fun to try it out," said Tom, shrugging his shoulders. "Actually, I did climb down the first time, but my hands hurt too much the second time, especially since I slid down at the end."
"Ma had to call the surgeon and Tommy was in a cast for what must have been months."
"It was only eight weeks and as punishment, Ma made me learn to sew after my hands healed," said Tom. "For weeks after my cast came off, she had me sew buttons and buttonholes for the clothes she was making at the time. If I made a mistake, she'd make me pull it apart and do it right. I still hate sewing buttons and buttonholes."
"Then there was the time when he was twelve or thirteen, he took apart the mantle clock and couldn't put it back together," said Ciaran with a laugh. "He was at home sick from a cough and fever. Da was at work. The rest of us older ones were either at school or working. Ma had gone out with Cathleen to do food shopping and I think this was just before Connor was born. Poor woman comes home to find her mantle clock in pieces on the table. It had been a wedding present from a relative."
"Her favorite aunt, Cathleen, who had passed away not long before that," said Tom, sheepishly.
"Was it from Great Aunt Cathleen?" asked Ciaran.
Tom nodded. "The worst part was that Ma burst into tears after yelling at me. I'd never seen Ma cry before. Made me think twice before doing something after that again." Tom turned toward Sybil. "Since I was sick, Ma and Da decided not to give me the walloping I richly deserved. Instead they made me take it to the clockmakers after I was better and figure out a way to pay for it to be put back together. Took me nearly a year of running errands for Mr. Moore to pay for it to be fixed. Did learn a lot though, so can't really complain. Went from there to learning to tinker with engines."
"What made you decide to take it apart?" asked Sybil. It wasn't something she would have ever considered doing.
"I was bored and I just got the notion that I wanted to know how it worked. Figured that I could open it up, look at it and put it back together before Ma got home, but after I took out one piece, I still couldn't understand and that made me take out another and another until it was completely apart. Of course being thirteen, I didn't think to remember which piece went where and that was the biggest problem."
"Yeah, our Tommy was rather incorrigible," said Ciaran.
"I wouldn't talk," said Tom, wanting to deflect some attention from himself. "You used to get into fights every day."
"I'm sure Sybil isn't interested in hearing about that," said Ciaran.
Taking the opportunity, Tom looked at Kevin who had been quietly listening up to this point. "Kevin, I was wondering when you needed to return the lorry."
Kevin shrugged. "No hurry. Won't be used until Monday."
"While everyone is at Ma's, I was wondering if I might borrow it to take the wedding presents to the flat," said Tom. "We've received a number of them now and we don't want to clutter up Ma's place when we have a place of our own.
Knowing that Tom would treat the machine with care, Kevin said, "Yeah. So long as you're done before dinner."
"Without a doubt and if you gents are all done, I'll take care of the bill and we can head to Ma's."
When they arrived at Mrs. Branson's, they could already hear the boisterous children as they got to the second storey landing. As they got closer to the door, Kevin said, "Let me help you with the presents first."
"Thank you," said Tom. He then leaned over to Sybil and whispered, "Care to go on a drive with me?"
Sybil smiled. "Let me help you take the presents to the lorry."
When they entered, Cathleen was cooking on the stove, Connor was playing with the older children, while Mrs. Branson had Maeve and Liam on her lap in the rocking chair. Seeing them come in, Mrs. Branson said, "Mairin is feeding Dierdre in Cathleen and Sybil's room and Aileen is taking a lie down in mine."
A little concerned, Ciaran asked, "Anything the matter?"
Mrs. Branson looked up from her two grandchildren. "She was just feeling tired. Are you sure she's only four months? She looks bigger."
Ciaran blushed and shrugged. "Is what she told me."
"Why don't you go look in on her? I'm sure she'd appreciate that," said Mrs. Branson while she continued to rock the little ones.
While Ciaran walked toward his mother's bedroom Tom said, "Sybil and I are going to take the wedding gifts over to the flat. Kevin has kindly let me borrow the lorry for the trip. We won't be long."
"All right," said Mrs. Branson. "We moved them to my room when the children were coming and then into Connor's room when Aileen wanted to lie down.
With Kevin's help, they loaded the parcels into the lorry bed and tied them down securely. Tom took the opportunity to ask Kevin if they could borrow the lorry again closer to the wedding to cart more of the presents and Kevin said he would ask. When they were ready to go, Sybil climbed into the cab and Tom started it up before climbing into the driver's seat.
Looking over at Sybil, Tom smiled. "Seems like old times, except you're now sitting beside me."
"I think I like this better," said Sybil while Tom pulled from the curb.
"Someday we'll be able to afford a car and be able to go for drives again," said Tom, driving down the road toward their flat.
"Except that we won't have to be back by the dressing gong," said Sybil with a laugh.
"And we'd be able to stay at an inn somewhere, if we went far enough," said Tom. Sybil smiled and Tom continued. "Are you certain you don't want to go somewhere for a wedding trip?"
"It matters not where we are so long as we're together," said Sybil, looking at him with love. She then placed her hand on his holding the gear shift. "Besides, I told you that you can show me a bit of Dublin if we wanted to go out for the day while you're off."
"Whatever makes you happy, love," said Tom, working on concentrating on the road rather than his beautiful fiancée beside him.
Soon, they were back at their flat and Tom and Sybil made short work of bringing up the stuff from the lorry bed. Anything kitchen related was placed on or near the stove for now. Anything that was household related was placed on the table or in the second bedroom. After what happened just yesterday, they stayed away from the master bedroom.
"That's the last of it," said Tom, placing a parcel on the stove. "We need to refill the tank in the lorry before we return it to Kevin. It's only fair. We have another couple of hours before dinner. Did you want to return to Ma's right away?"
"I should go back and help Cathleen with the cooking."
"Can you not do the cleaning instead?" said Tom. "I'll help you to let Cathleen off."
"What do you have in mind?" asked Sybil.
"I thought we could go for a drive before we fill up the tank at the pharmacy."
"In a lorry?" asked Sybil.
"Well it's the only motor we'll have access to for the time being," said Tom with a grin. "I promise to take us somewhere with a nice view."
"Very well, but only for the nice view," said Sybil, returning his grin.
About a half hour from their flat, Tom stopped the lorry in front of a small brook, on a secluded road. They had driven mainly in silence with the occasional question from Sybil about where they were, which was not like them. Turning off the engine, Tom turned to Sybil and pulled her in for a kiss. He had wanted to kiss her all morning, but with the moving and then lunch, there was never any time alone together. After what had occurred at their flat yesterday, Tom didn't want to chance things there and a drive in the lorry was the only solution he could think of. From the way Sybil was kissing him, he knew that she felt this need to connect, too.
When they finally broke the kiss, Tom asked rather hoarsely, "Did you want to get down and sit by the brook?"
Sybil looked at Tom, eyes shining brightly from the kiss, breathless. "I think we're doing just fine here. Besides, the lorry will give us some privacy in case someone wanders by." Sybil then pulled Tom back in for another kiss. After the cry last night, she felt much better, like she could manage the future, be a good nurse and a good wife to Tom, and that the weight of the world wasn't on her shoulders alone anymore.
As the kiss deepened, one of Tom's hands wandered down to Sybil's thigh and squeezed it through the skirt while the other pulled her closer by the waist. He wanted her body against his. Knowing that in the cab of a lorry they wouldn't get too far, Tom took whatever liberties he could while clothed and Sybil didn't object.
In the end, they kissed for at least a half hour before the sound of another motorized vehicle roared behind them and turned off on a driveway not ten feet from where they were. Not wanting to be discovered, Tom quickly ran a comb through his hair, got out and cranked the engine. Within minutes, they were back on the road to Dublin while Sybil fixed her hair and hat. By the time they pulled into the pharmacy to get the petrol, they were chatting about Tom's next column like two polite friends.
A/N2: What did you think of the stories of Tom's childhood? Was he precocious enough? Next up are the banns being read, Sybil cooks an entire meal and talk of the wedding ceremony itself.
As always, please feel free to point out any typos and grammatical errors. Sometimes no matter how hard you or your betas look, these things get missed. As always, I'd love to hear what you think of this chapter good or bad, so please do review. :)
