The Lost Moments

A moment most royal

For my crazy royalist mum on what would have been her 91st birthday.

TORY had made the journey to Sandringham a million times – especially at Christmas but this was the first time she'd ever gone there with Tom.

Sure they had spent time at the castle on her birthday and they had been to a lot of the other royal residence together but this was the first time they had made their grand entrance as a couple at Christmas. You didn't go Christmas at Sandringham unless you were royal.

Sure they had been living together for the past year - longer if you counted the six months where Tom was living in the cottage with her and the world thought he was sharing with Harry and Em with Tory (not that anyone had really thought that Tory was sure). And not that he'd been home much during the first proper year of their relationship. But that was beside the point. Here they were now. Yes they were engaged now – but that wasn't the case when Granny had extended the invitation to "bring that boy of yours". None of her cousin's boyfriends had been invited, she'd checked.

They had no security with them and were in his Jaguar.

Tory's stomach flip-flopped.

But it had always done that around Tom.

They had left his mother's place this morning after what was a lovely relaxed Christmas with the family. It was her family now and not just because her twin had married into the clan. Bloody cheek of him getting in first when they had been her "Other family" since she was 12. But they weren't other anything now.

She held her hand up again and stared at her ring finger. The sapphire sparkled in the sun light. She couldn't stop looking at it like it was some sort of miracle of modern science. She supposed it was a miracle of sorts – well it had been a long time coming.

But now she was on her way to having a last name, a real one, she was on her way to being Doctor Hiddleston. Problem was she was also on her way to visit her family.

Tom looked at her and smiled.

She smiled back.

They were doing a lot of that – goofy smiles. If she wasn't in the middle of it she'd have been rolling her eyes. But instead she just smiled again.

"That went well!"Tom said, his deep voice breaking her thoughts and the silence. They hadn't even put any music on. They'd just enjoyed the feeling of being together. No need to talk – just being.

"It was lovely – I just wished we could have stayed longer," she said (code for I wish we weren't heading to my family).

"If we'd stayed longer than neither of us would have a hope of fitting in our clothes," he laughed.

"Mum seemed intent on fattening us both up."

It was Tory's turn to laugh.

They had a big Christmas lunch yesterday and then a fairly substantial "left-overs" dinner and then a big breakfast this morning before she hugged and waved them off. They were up and off earlier than the others. Tory would be the first of the royals to arrive at Sandringham this year. They were to "get there early for informal drinks" – what ever that meant.

"Had you told Granny you were going to propose?" she asked her fiancé as they wound their way towards their destination.

He kept his eyes on the road but looked a little sheepish – though sheepish always looked good on Tom (as did that blue cableknit jumper and those tight jeans –they change before anyone else arrived.