The Lost Moments

An engaging moment

IT was the day before Christmas Eve and Tom was pacing the floor of his old bedroom in Suffolk like a caged animal.

This had seemed like a good idea at the time.

But now?

Well now - not so much.

His entire family was down stairs – the entire family.

He and Emily were spending Christmas with the royals at Sandringham this year for the first time and then Boxing Day with Charles and Camilla and all their children and grandchildren.

So it was decided that they would have an early Hiddleston Christmas in Suffolk with Diana and Martin (who had retired now). Even his dad and step mother were here.

Knowing what his son was going to do today, Sandy hadn't wanted to miss out and Diana had agreed – they had always tried to be accommodating where their children were concerned. And she knew she couldn't deprive him of this moment. Not when he'd surprised her and been so instrumental in getting these two back together.

Sandy and his wife were staying at a small B&B just two doors down and would drive back tomorrow when Harry, Em, Tom and Tory left.

The plan was to have Christmas lunch (the first of the three Christmas lunches they'd have this year) and then open presents and enjoy the afternoon – Harry had promised his own version of the "Queen's Speech" later in the evening – as long as Tory promised not to film it and show it to their grandmother. But Tom knew Tory – she'd definitely had her fingers crossed behind her back when she made that promise and after spending a bit of time with the Queen over the past two years, he knew Harry would be for it.

But that was all later in the day.

First Tom had the most important task.

If he stuffed it up he was dead meat.

His whole family was in the house.

It was 9am in the morning and it was cold out but it wasn't raining and the sky was clear and bright.

A walk still seemed like an insane thing to do.

But it's what he wanted, how he wanted to do this.

He'd thought about a tropical beach, warm sands or even Africa where this had all kicked off for them (both Harry and William had proposed on African holidays) but then he and Tory never got enough time to take a break like that and she wouldn't go to Africa without working – it wasn't physically possible for her to do it.

Maybe Paris the site of their abortive first steps towards a relationship or Cannes – where they had their first kiss but neither place felt right.

In the end, the most important thing to Tory, and to Tom, was family and both his mother and father had been so supportive of this relationship (eventually in Sandy's case). He knew it had to be like this. It was so normal and normal was what they both craved, normal was romantic and exotic to two work-a-holic gypsies like Tom and Tory.

He paced the room again – god he was nervous.

He ran his fingers through his hair – long for a movie role.

He didn't get this nervous before going on stage. But then this was, this was. He couldn't even describe how important this was to him.

She'd shot him down before.

What if?

Surely not?

They were a couple now, a real couple. They'd stopped playing now.