I started to write this on 14 July, before I heard about the terrible events in Nice. So for that reason, I am dedicating it to the lovely @mimijag . Hope it will make you smile, my dear!
I’m revisiting an earlier modern AU with this ficlet which is set in Paris. It forms part of my M-rated ”Tonight or Tomorrow“ collection.
***
Meet me outside… please!
Sybil smiled as she read Tom’s text message. They’d been going crazy since their arrival in Paris with her parents that morning… not a minute alone, unable to touch, smile or even look at each other for fear of giving away their secret.
Which only seemed to heat things up between them even more than usual.
“I’m going to go out for a walk. I feel like some fresh air.”
Her mother looked at her – “Don’t go far, darling, please – we’ve got a formal dinner tonight, so you’ll need to dress the part. There’s someone coming whom I’m sure you will remember.”
“Don’t worry, Mama – I’ll be back in plenty of time.”
She stepped out of the house, hearing the concierge close the front door behind her.
Paris was moving from day to dusk all around her. The spring sky over her head was darkening to blue velvet, touched with the last crimson and gold rays of the sun, as the citizens of the great city hurried home, followed by the birds that flew chattering to their night time roosts in the plane trees.
Ok, forgive the Australian-ness of this gif, but…I couldn’t pass it up when I saw it ;oP
WE ARE WITH YOU, CASSIE! You are missed, but I am glad you posted something and are keeping us informed! All the hugs of strength and support for you! May calmer times come your way *VERY* soon. THINKING OF YOU, SWEETIE!
thank you! It has been, went out for both lunch and dinner, got to visit one of my favorite bookstores, and all in all, it’s been quite relaxing :o) But the best part of all, is having the chance to chat with you guys! *HUGS*
“See that one? See the tail?” Sybil asked, pointing up at the sky over their heads. “That’s Scorpius.” She turned on the blanket and looked him. “Any guess what he’s supposed to be?”
Tom reached out and gave her side a little pinch, which earned a squeal, but also a giggle. “No need for your cheek, Lady Sybil,” which only had her laughing more. He turned and looked at her and grinned, glad to hear the happiness again in her voice. “Feeling better?” he found himself asking, his hand running down her arm until it found hers on the blanket.
Sybil sighed, her gaze to the night sky, but she nodded her head and took his hand, her fingers twining once again with his own. Another sigh escaped her lips, before she murmured, “they don’t understand me.”
Tom squeezed her hand. He didn’t need for her to clarify, he knew the story. In her parents eyes, he was nothing more than the son of their chauffeur, an “Irish hooligan”, or so he remembered Lord Grantham once muttering when he thought Tom was out of earshot (or perhaps not; it could have been done on purpose). The point was, in the eyes of Sybil’s parents, he wasn’t “good enough” for her. He didn’t belong to their world, he was the son of their staff, who had no prospects, although he wished he could go to university, he wanted to go…and some day, he was determined, he would. Just not right now…
As for Sybil, she had just turned 18 and had a whole life ahead of her, with opportunities to go to various universities, even schools in America if she so wished. Once upon a time, Tom thought perhaps he was “holding Sybil back”, and worried that he was keeping her from achieving her dreams.
That was exactly the lie her parents wanted the both of them to believe. But Sybil set him straight, angrily declaring that NO ONE decided her life for her but herself…and “how dare he think he couldn’t be a part of her dreams”.
He would never argue the matter again. And never was he so glad for her stubbornness.
“I told them I want to go Trinity,” Sybil broke the silence. Tom’s eyebrows lifted in surprise. Ireland? Really?
“Syb…” he rolled over onto his side and looked down at her. “Love…forgive me for asking this, but…but did you pick Trinity because–”
“I’ll not lie and say that you don’t fit in to part of the reason,” she answered. “However, you’re not the only reason.” She smiled at him and poked out her tongue. “You are frightfully full of yourself, you know.”
He grinned back at her, but his heart throbbed with warmth over her declaration. “Why Trinity then?”
“Well…ever since last summer, when I volunteered at that clinic along with Cousin Isobel in York…I found that…that I really like nursing, that it just…feels right. And while York has a nursing college, it’s a bit too close,” she confessed, which he could understand. “But I looked at Trinity, and there would be opportunities to work in clinics, including a midwifery program that sounds fascinating! And…well, you have family in Dublin, and you talk about how you’d like to go back sometimes…”
He gazed down at her with wonder. “You’ve thought of everything, it seems.”
She blushed and snuggled a bit closer, her head coming to rest on his chest, just over his heart. “They’ll fight me, I know,” she sighed, and he squeezed her closer, his arm tightening his hold.
“They’ll come around,” he assured her, pouring all the strength and support that he possessed into her trembling form.
“I hope so,” she whispered. “I do love them, even though they drive me mad,” she groaned, which earned a chuckle from him. She lifted her head then and gazed down at him, her eyes more beautiful than the stars over their heads. “I love you too, Tom.”
He reached up and brushed several strands of hair behind her ear. “Do I drive you mad as well?”
She swatted his chest and he laughed, but he also locked his arms around her and drew her even closer, until their lips found each other in the darkness and they shared a long, lingering kiss. “I love you,” he whispered when their lips parted. “I love you and I believe in you, Sybil.”
He felt her tears fall on his face, but he knew now what her tears meant, and knew these weren’t tears of sadness she was bathing him with. He leaned up and kissed those tears away, and she once again settled her head on his body, tucked beneath his chin, and the two of them held one another and continued gazing up at the sky.
“Right, so…that’s Scorpius?” he asked, pointing at a constellation overhead.
“No, that’s Ursa Major…the big dipper?”
“Oh right,” he chuckled, smiling at the giggle she made, glad he could was able to bring it out.
He wasn’t rich, he never would be; he had no title, no grand house, not even a posh car like the ones his Da drove for the Crawleys. But what he did have was a heart overflowing with love for their youngest daughter. And as far as Sybil was concerned, that was enough.
Here’s a story I’ve owed to the lovely @broadwaybaggins for a very long time (sorry!). Better late than never, I hope. 🙂 It’s part of my I’d Wait Forever collection.
Happy Tom and Sybil Romance Week! I think this fits in with the ‘meet cute’ theme.
***
“Ready, Sybil?”
Sybil looked up and smiled at her roommate Aoife, who was already halfway out the door.
“Where are we going again?
“It’s a mixer, down in Temple Bar. Perfect for you, being new to Dublin and all.”
On exchange for the coming university term despite the objections of her parents, Sybil was already relishing the freedom she’d found. She stood up, grabbing her jacket.
Musings of a Yankee Countess 