"A week to relax", his cousin Shrimpie said. So they've come to Duneagle, a beautiful estate in Scotland that he has always been jealous of. They still adhere to tradition here, although he has to admit to himself that he almost pulled the same face as Matthew did when that piper walked around the dining table. He only said he liked it because he was afraid that the rest of his family would make fun of the tradition. He didn't want to hurt his cousin because he doesn't kick a man that is already on the ground.
But he wonders what is supposed to be relaxing about a week in which he has been put into a room that is as far away as possible from his wife's room. Sleeping away from her has never done him any good, so he decides to just go to her room. He doesn't think that he will be caught and even if someone saw him, the worst thing they could do was tell someone else that the Earl of Grantham slept in his wife's bed. There are worse topics for gossip.
As soon as he has rounded the first corner he hears someone coming and decides to hide in the shadows. He hears her mutter indignantly about the bloody house being too bloody big and having to sneak around it like a naughty child. "Good night, Mary", he says as he steps out of the shadows. She smiles at him. "Good night, Papa". Apparently his daughter and son-in-law aren't happy with the sleeping arrangements either.
"You took your time", his wife teases him by way of greeting.
"To use the eloquent words of our eldest child: This bloody house is too bloody big and I had to sneak around it like a naughty child." They both laugh at this.
"I wonder why they put us in rooms so far apart. As much as I like Matthew, there is no reason why I should sleep in the room next to his, especially if they put Mary next to you."
"I think Shrimpy wanted to do you a favor. Or maybe he even wanted to do us a favor."
"By putting us on opposite sides of the house?"
"Yes. To Susan and Shrimpy that seems like a favor. The rooms are so far apart that you don't have to feel obligated to come into my room and talk to me. Or do anything else, at least not with me."
"That is a strange favor."
"It seems strange to you, to us, because we actually like spending time with each other. I don't think they do."
"Why did they get married then in the first place?"
"Are you really asking that question? Why did we get married?"
"Cora, I'm sorry for"
"Don't say it. I know you are and so am I. My motives weren't any more honorable than yours."
"Weren't they? You could have married a duke."
"Yes. But why dwell on it now? It's three and a half decades in the past."
"Humor me, please?"
"I picked you because you were nicer and easier to talk to. But I've told you this a thousand times. And it doesn't matter to me."
"That I'm nice and easy to talk to?"
"Robert, please. You know what I mean. It doesn't matter to me that we didn't get married for love. Why is that so important to you, all of a sudden?"
"Because I can't help wondering why it worked for us when it didn't work for Shrimpy and Susan. What have we done that they haven't done?"
"Fallen in love with each other."
"Yes. But why was that possible for us?"
"Because we were both careful in our choice of spouse."
"You just said our motives weren't honorable."
"I don't know, it certainly wasn't love. But we were both careful to marry someone we thought we could at least stand to live with. Your mother didn't want you to marry me. And you would have had other options had you waited another year. Probably better options in terms of money and reputation. My father wanted me to pick the duke. He said that if I had to sign all my money away for a title, it should at least be for the highest title I could get. We neither of us listened to our parents because we both knew that we had found someone we could be content with in a marriage. A marriage of convenience it certainly was, but not one that was destined to set both our teeth on edge for the rest of our lives."
"That sounds so calculating. Why did we fall in love then? Was that just fate or luck?"
"We were certainly lucky in the fact that we both had the same requirements for the person we would marry. Able to suit our needs of a title and money, but we both drew the line at marrying someone we knew we would be unhappy with."
"So you think we were never unhappy? Not even at the beginning?"
"No. We weren't unhappy, not with each other at least. We just weren't happy either. But we both have a disposition to be happy. So we were willing to work on that. Maybe that's what made us fall in love. The fact that the other person cared enough to make this marriage work well. To let it be a good and a happy marriage."
"So you think that ultimately we both wanted a happy marriage and not just one we were content with?"
"I think we both wanted this marriage to be happy after we had the first glimpses of what that would be like. We both had an inkling fairly early on that love was possible for us. And we wanted that love to happen then. So we actively worked on that."
"Very actively."
"That's not what I mean, although that certainly helped. But we did more than that. We sought each other out during the day; we made an effort to talk to each other, to learn about each other and to make the other person happy. The fact that I knew that you wanted to make me happy made me love you. It still does."
"I still want to make you happy."
"I know. You are being very successful. And so am I, I think. You walked through an almost unknown house in your pajamas just to spend time with me. That must be love."
"It is. Of course it is. But we came so close to being like Shrimpy and Susan. To not love each other anymore. Twice."
"No, darling, we were never close to being like Susan and Shrimpy. There were real reasons for our troubles. A four year long war that changed the world and the death of our youngest child. How could we go through that without any difficulties? But there was always a way back for us. And we loved each other too much to not walk that way. There probably are some obstacles ahead of us still, but we'll move them out of the way."
"That was quite metaphorical."
"Yes. I suppose it was."
"I love you."
"I love you too. And now come to bed, kiss me and go to sleep. Susan's told me that that piper will wake us at 7 tomorrow morning."
He acquiesces of course. Although he's not looking forward to being woken by Scottish music. He'd much rather his American wife woke him. Maybe he should tell his cousin to get rid of that bloody piper after all.