A New Life

Disclaimer: None of these characters are mine.

Summary: The story of Sybil and Branson and their new life together.

The Branson family amazes me with how many people they can fit into a small room. Half of Tom's family is here, which means 2 sisters and 3 brothers along with their spouses and children running around . At the center of it all is his mother, Sarah. She is the calm matriarch of the bunch. I can imagine what she was like when they were all kids. All of the children are doting on her and still will listen to what she says. Her husband died several years ago, causing her to raise the younger children on her own. Tom being in the middle, said it was like the older kids each had a child they were supposed to take care of.

I smiled at the picture thinking how wildly different it was from my family dinners. It was all about being posh and polite at Downton and the silly dressing gong. Good lord, I forgot all about having to get dressed for dinner. If anything the Bransons, get more comfortable during dinner. There are have plenty of times, when chairs were limited that I had sat on Tom's lap. Granted his mother had not been there during those events. I can just imagine Carson's face if I did that at the dinner table.

Emily's oldest daughter, Anne, saw me standing in the corning and walked over. "Are dinners at your house much different Aunt Sybil?"

Anne was a beautiful girl of 14, she was almost as tall as me and had gorgeous blond hair, as did most of the Branson family. She was the oldest of the grandchildren and always had the duty of corralling the kids during family dinners. I could always tell that she relished the responsibility but also dreaded it.

"Much different" I smile at her

"Probably much more refined like in the novels."

"At times, but dinners here are far more entertaining."

"You are awake." Sarah yells from the other side of the room. "Good, let's sit you down and get some food in you. Need to make sure you have enough for your journey tomorrow." Sarah came over and walked me to a seat and Tom sat my dinner in front of me. I winked at Anne from across the room. Sometime I should bring her with me when we go to Downton. Tom stands behind me because of course there are not enough chairs tonight. He talks with his brothers about the news of the day. Sometimes I wonder if he forgets me, when he is deep in conversation. And almost on cue in kisses my hair and puts is hand on my shoulder.

The night is very long, everyone is excited for us and gives us gifts to take on the journey. Tom balks about not being able to fit everything in the trunk. I realize for the first time that they won't be there when the baby is born. This energy and excitement of his family won't be there. Instead our baby will be born in house that is quiet and reserved. Into a family that doesn't quiet approve of it. I grab Tom's hand at one point and whisper. "We will come home, won't we?"

He smiles. I have always been kind to his family but this is the first time in which I felt attached to them and attached to this place. Like Tom did years before when I said 'us,' Tom knows where my thoughts are.

"We will do whatever milady wants." And kisses my hand.

"Good because…" I can't quiet verbalize what I want to say, instead I just repeat "good."

Sarah is the one who ends the evening. She sends everybody home with their goodbyes and good lucks. Once the house has settled down she looks over at me, still sitting at the table.

"Sybil, my dear, I need to tell you somethings before you go. Because lord knows what your family has told you. " Sarah proceeded to tell me what childbirth was going to be like and what to expect. She gave me some letters that she had written to help me understand what the next couple of months were going to be like. "The most important thing that you need to do now is rest. Allow Tom and your family to take care of you. Tom has seen enough babies born and raised that he knows mostly what to do. The truth is Sybil, that when the time comes you will know what to do also." She smiles at me and pats my hand. "And when you are ready, you come home to us and we will all be here for you. Don't you worry about having to do everything yourself, that is what families are for."

"Thank you." I smile. "Today was the first day, I realized that this baby won't be born here. I am so excited to go home, but the notion of this baby not being born into the love of your family scares me."

"You will always have our love, you are a Branson. Plus your family will love you and this baby as well. They just take a little more time. You have to give them credit, you threw a pretty large kink in their plans and it takes people a little while to adjust to change."

"But you adjusted to me?"

"Yes, but I was able to adjust to the notion long before I met you. Don't think I was always as happy as I was the day you came. Besides I was getting my son back, your family lost you."

"But only because they didn't accept Tom."

"And you knew that they wouldn't accept Tom. So don't act so put out all the time with the notion. Plus you were the baby of the family, they probably thought they had all the time in the world." She puts her hands on my belly. "You will see when this little one arrives, parenthood is a strong emotion. The love you have for this child will make you do crazy things."

"I just wish it didn't have to be so hard."

"If it wasn't so hard, I don't think you would have liked it as much."

I smiled at her. It was true part of my initial attraction to Tom was that he was taboo. How dare I talk to a servant and then our conversations became so radical. It was thrilling to have someone listen to me. But slowly those talks became more comfortable and normal, like there were two sides of me. The one who was proper and debuted into grand society and the part of me that wanted to know how an engine worked, loved the smell of grease and wanted to have her hands dirty.

Sometime in the middle of the night, I woke to find Tom staring at me.

"You know you are the most beautiful creature I have ever met." He would say these words to me and I would never know what to say.

"You hold me up to such a pedestal. Imagine how much larger I will be in 3 more months. Not quite as beautiful then"

"Oh, I don't think that will be true. You keep getting more beautiful every day. This baby has just changed your beauty slightly, from a blushing debutant to a strong mother."

"You used to scare me, you know."

"What?" He crinkled his eyes at me.

"The way I felt around you, it scared me. I didn't know what it was. Then you started proclaiming your love for me and I was even more scared. Because it made me have to figure out what these feelings were."

"I was too forward with you."

"That is definitely true." I placed my hand on his cheek. "I remember at the school all of the nurses talking about their beaus and husbands. And I kept thinking about you. But I was very good at deceiving myself. A couple of times the men would say that they had fallen in love with me."

"You never told me that."

"I would simply tell them that they didn't know me. They would ask if I had a beau and I would always say yes. At first I did it not thinking, then I found myself describing you to them."

"I knew you were in love with me."

"Tom Branson, I was always in love with you. I just didn't know what to do about it. I didn't know if I could leave everything behind. If my love for you was enough. My mother crossed the ocean to be with my father, but she didn't love him at first."

"I didn't know that."

"Marriage wasn't about love in my family. Love was an afterthought. Position and money was the goal. The war changed that for me. It seemed silly to waste one's time being unhappy. Watching Mary and Richard Carlisle was almost unbearable and I kept thinking if that is what my life would like without you in it?"

"And you Lady Sybil didn't want that."

"No, I didn't. I wanted to be woken up in the middle of the night to my husband watching me adoringly."

"Well then I should wake you every night then." He grinned.

"Don't you dare." I kiss his cheek. "I am nervous about tomorrow."

"I know. Me too." We both feel back asleep.

To be continued….