Dublin, August, 1919

It was a hot, sultry Sunday afternoon. All the windows of their small flat in the smart district of Rathmines were open, although this simply allowed more noise that breeze to float through. Sybil and Tom were lying on their bed, both as bare as the day they were born.

They'd just made love in a rather leisurely fashion, it being far too hot for anything more energetic. Tom was lying on his back and staring at the ceiling, his mind empty for once, the sweat on his body starting to cool him a little. Sybil lay on her front, propped up on her arms and idly swinging her legs in the air. She'd piled her hair in an untidy knot on the top of her head, allowing what breeze there was to cool her neck. Stray tendrils were escaping and tickled her shoulder. She was humming softly to herself when she felt the back of his finger gently stroke her upper arm, so she turned to smile at him lazily.

"I thought you'd dozed off"

"Now that," he said as he smiled back, putting his hands behind his head and stretching like a panther, "would be very decadent. Sleeping on a Sunday afternoon…."

Sybil raised her eyebrows.

"And what we're doing isn't ?"

"Not for a good Catholic" he replied, grinning.

She rolled over onto her side to look at him properly.

"We couldn't do this at Downton. Can you imagine ? All those people milling about. Its funny, I suppose I grew up with it, but now I've lived here its made me realise how little real privacy I had."

"Surely the doors have locks ?"

"Yes, but if you locked yourself in your room then everyone would want to know why. And Mrs Hughes has copies of all the keys."

He raised his eyebrows at this and propped himself up on his elbows.

"You mean she could just walk in on you, even if you'd locked the door ?"

"Well, you'd have to leave the key in the lock I suppose… but if you were in a locked room in the middle of the afternoon with your husband you might as well have announced what you were doing at dinner. That's why I love it here. Its just us. No one knows what we're doing and no one particularly cares. I can get up and go and get a drink without needing to get dressed or even put on a dressing gown."

"You never do, though. You always put your dressing gown on, even when you are going to the bathroom"

Sybil mused on this.

"I suppose I do…even though I could, it doesn't seem quite right, wandering about with nothing on."

He grinned.

"That's your puritan Proddy heritage coming out. We Catholics have no such reservations about nakedness"

She raised an eyebrow and glanced down the length of his exposed body beside her.

"I've noticed….."

"I wish you would"

"What ?"

"Wander around naked"

"Tom !"

"What ? You've got a gorgeous body, Sybil, and I'd rather like it if I got to see it more often…."

"It just…. wouldn't feel right"

"So you're happy to be naked with me, like this, in our bedroom, but not anywhere else ? That makes no sense. You've been naked with me in practically every room of this flat."

Sybil blushed at the memory.

"That was different"

Tom looked at her quizzically.

"Why ?"

"Because…..we were…..Oh, I don't know. I can't explain. I think if I were to just wander around the flat naked it would spoil it."

"Spoil what ?"

She placed her hand on his chest and ran her fingers through the soft hairs on his abdomen.

"Well…. times like this…..it would make being naked ordinary, rather than ….. a bit….well…you know…." she gave him a naughty little grin. "And anyway I like being naked when I'm being naked with you"

He gave her a rather smug smile

"I'm glad to hear it"

She trailed her fingers up and down his chest, where he captured her hand and placed a kiss in her palm.

"Well, if it were up to me," he said mischievously, "you wouldn't have any clothes. I'd keep you naked all day long"

She looked up in mock horror

"But I'd get terribly cold !"

"No you wouldn't. I'd keep you warm..." he smirked, pulling her closer

"and I'd get dirty"

His smirk broadened into an evil grin.

"But I like it when you get dirty. Especially when you ..." at this point he leant over and whispered something in her ear that made her go a very fetching shade of pink. She gasped and pulled away

"Tom !"

"What ?" he laughed "You can't play the innocent with me, Missy..." he said, pulling her back down him and making her giggle as he started to kiss her neck.

"Anyway" she said, "I would need some clothes"

"Alright, alright,... but only if I get to choose them"

"Huh ! You'll have me dressed up like a dancing girl in a harem….."

He smiled broadly at this, and she wondered if it was the memory of a certain swathe of blue silk that had come into his mind. She was therefore rather taken aback by what he said next.

"Seraglio"

"What ?"

"Its not called a harem - its a seraglio"

She rolled her eyes.

"Pedant…" she chided gently, leaning in to kiss his chest.

"If you were a dancing girl in a seraglio, that would make me some Eastern potentate, spending his life on silk cushions, surrounded by beautiful women waiting on his every need. I think I could cope with that"

She snorted.

"Or", she said, a provocative glint in her eye, "you'd most likely be a eunuch"

He sat up at this, grabbing her wrists and looking at her sternly as she tried to twist out of his grasp.

"Eunuch ? " he said, outraged, rolling her on her back and pushing her legs apart. She was still trying to escape, so he pinned her arms firmly over her head and looked down at her as she met his gaze with a haughty stare. "I really don't think so, milady…"

Some time later, when Tom had proved his point to his own (and Sybil's) satisfaction, they lay flushed and content in each others arms, so closshe could feel the sweat trickling on his skin.

"So what will happen when we do go back to Downton ?" he said, idly coiling a skein of her hair around his finger

"What do you mean ?"

"About….well…..sleeping arrangements"

"Usually they put married guests in one of the suites," she replied, nuzzling his chest with the tip of her nose, "but I rather like the idea of being back in my old room"

"So where will they put me ?" he asked, alarmed

"With me, silly...but you'll have to disappear into the dressing room early in the morning"

"Why ?"

"Otherwise you'll give Carson a headache over who'll bring the tray up"

He looked confused.

"What do you mean ?"

"Well, as a married woman I get to have breakfast in bed, like Mama. You, on the other hand, need to get up and dressed and go down for breakfast with the rest of the family"

His eyes widened in horror

"You wouldn't make me do that, would you ?"

She gave him a small smile and shrugged apologetically.

"Can't I just have some of your toast ?"