This started out as a simple "What if?" story with Sybil in place of Ethel, but it took on a mind of its own and has become a rather deep conversational piece. Hopefully still with some humour.

Usual disclaimer - I don't own the rights to the characters etc, I just play with them!

Enjoy! :)

"You still here Mr Moseley?" Mrs Hughes asked the man.

"I was doing some invisible mending and got a bit carried away. I'm quite please though with how it's come out." He replied almost smugly as he wriggled into his coat. "Oh, I may be wrong, but I thought I saw one of the officers by the maid's staircase just now. I'm sure there's a perfectly reasonable explanation."

"Let's hope so." Although what she suspected was quite the opposite. "Goodnight." As Moseley left she took a deep breath and began up the stairs. It was going to be that minx Ethel! Elsie mentally scolded herself for not being more firm with the girl where Major Bryant was concerned. She was headed for the bedroom Anna and Ethel shared, but before she got there she heard girlish giggles coming from the empty room at the end of the corridor. She paused and listened again. There was definitely a man in there too. She opened the door swiftly. The girl gasped, the man looked shocked and Mrs Hughes' jaw dropped.

"Lady Sybil?"

The youngest daughter of the Earl of Grantham leapt up, ushered the housekeeper further into the room and closed the door behind her.

"Mrs Hughes, Tom was only teaching me to play cards." She gestured at the game spread out in front of where they had both been sitting on the floor. Sybil was still in her uniform, but her hair was bound as if she was going to bed. Mrs Hughes slowly looked beyond the army jacket on the young man and recognised the Downton Chauffeur.

"Mr Branson?"

He bowed his head at being caught while Sybil continued: "A lot of the soldiers play and some of them need help holding the cards. I know it sounds trivial, but it does so improve their spirits. Please don't tell Papa."

Elsie's head was spinning. This wasn't what she'd been expecting at all. It was far more innocent and far more dangerous all at once.

"I don't think I need tell him about the card game," she began cautiously, "but what are you both doing up here?"

This time Sybil blushed. "I knew the room was empty."

"Yes?" Mrs Hughes tried to encourage her to continue. Sybil looked at Branson, who shrugged but his eyes looked sad. Sybil sighed. She repositioned the chair from the corner of the room to where she had been sitting and gestured at it to the housekeeper.

"Won't you sit down?"

Elsie sat. There was obviously more to this than mischief making by the pair of them. She recalled the day of the 1914 garden party when she had noticed their fingers intertwined as they celebrated with Gwen. Perhaps they hadn't heeded her warnings and this had been going on since then? And Elsie thought she hadn't been hard enough on Ethel! But then she had always had a soft spot for Lady Sybil. It was like Mr Carson with Lady Mary. She watched as the girl sat back down on the floor.

"I always go out to Tom in the garage. It's been that way for years, but Mary caught us the other day. I know she's been watching me since then, so I thought I'd try something else. Tom wouldn't be welcome in the house and even in this" she tugged on the sleeve of the army jacket "it would be too obvious in the rooms the family go in. But to get here, it would only be a few yards between the back door and the staircase. I thought if he was spotted, anyone would think it's an officer just using the wrong stairs. What gave us away?"

"You were spotted. Then I heard laughter in the room. Never mind the rest but I was surprised to find you in here."

"You mean Ethel and Major Bryant? Edith told me about them." Sybil said calmly. Elsie was again surprised. Perhaps Sybil was more worldly than they gave her credit for.

"Let's get you back downstairs before Mr Carson locks the back door." She pretended not to notice the way Branson helped Lady Sybil up, or the way Sybil smiled at him in return. "And you should probably get that jacket back to its owner."

Behind her Sybil blanched. "It doesn't have an owner. I borrowed it from the hospital." Mrs Hughes rolled her eyes, locked the empty bedroom and marched them downstairs like a pair of naughty children. There she shushed Branson out the back door and ushered Sybil into her sitting room. She made them both tea and sat down opposite the young lady.

"Lady Sybil, I've no real right to ask, but would you like to tell me why?"

"Why?"

"Why it was Mr Branson teaching you and not one of the other nurses, or one of the patients. Why you go out to the garage to see him. Why he looks at you like you are the only girl in the world?" She stopped as she saw the tears pooling in the younger girl's eyes.

"He's my friend – my best friend." Her voice was barely above a whisper. She'd been keeping this all bottled up for so long. Tom was the one she went to when she needed to talk or to be comforted, but she'd never had anyone she could talk to about him. "I can talk to him about things my family would never understand. I failed my medical course the first time round. He was there to pick me up because I didn't know how to tell them. He drove me to Cousin Isobel's to pick up a dozen books and then he sat with me revising on his afternoons off. He comforted me when I lost a patient for the first time. He was there when Mama lost the baby, and when the war was declared and Matthew signed up. He encouraged my politics. I know everyone sees that as a bad thing, but I feel like I can be myself when it's just us. He has even asked me to marry him. I haven't given him an answer. I want to, but I know Papa will be mad and I don't want to ruin things for Mary and Edith. Maybe if he was fighting I would have done. I couldn't stand it when Papa said he'd been called up. Just the thought of losing hi…" Sybil broke down in sobs. The turmoil that had been in her heart for so long was pouring out on a wave of emotions. Elsie got up and put her arms around Sybil in an embrace that she returned fiercely. The housekeeper conceded that this was a night of surprises, for she had Sybil's honesty and just how deeply the girl in her arms cared for the chauffeur to add to the list. "You won't tell, will you?" Sybil asked.

"No milady. It's not my place to tell your family. You will have to be the one to tell them if you are truly serious about this."

"I need to be sure first. I know our friendship is more than most marriages start with, but the fact I enjoy talking to him and that I want a real job isn't enough for me to give up everything. Really I'd like my sisters to be settled first, just in case there is a scandal, but I'm not sure I can wait that long."

Elsie sat back down. "Maybe you need to think of it the other way around. You said yourself you couldn't bear the thought of losing him. Try and think of the alternatives. Her ladyship had high hopes that you might marry Mr Bellasis, or Mr Grey, as they were most attentive during your season."

Sybil pulled a face at that. "Are you trying to convince me to marry Tom, Mrs Hughes? Because I would rather be a spinster than marry Larry Grey! I could be a single, working woman. I could get a job and share rooms with…" She knew there was no-one. Certainly none of her society friends would, and the rules meant anyone below her in societal status would feel embarrassed or duty bound. No. Only Tom was daring enough… "Sometimes I just wish we could have a proper courtship or spend a week on equal footing. No titles getting in the way. Just Sybil and Tom and see how we do from there. Or sometimes I think I should try kissing him. Mary said her resolve broke the instant she kissed Matthew."

"On that note I think you should go to bed!"

Sybil made no attempt to move. "I won't really." They both sat quietly for a moment. Elsie tried to read the young lady's expression. Eventually Sybil sighed. "Aren't you going to tell me to give him up?"

"It's not my place to milady. Only you know what is in your heart. You will have to think very carefully. Marrying him would mean a very different life, but I believe I'm not wrong in saying Lady Mary still regrets letting Mr Matthew go." Sybil nodded. "You're both fighters milady. Whatever you decide, both you and Mr Branson will do well."

Sybil smiled at her. "Thank you Mrs Hughes. For everything."