AN: I've been planning this one for some time, and it's finally ready! I'd like to note now that every other chapter (the even nos) will be from the point of view of one of the upstairs characters, which will be noted by their name as the title, with the odd numbered chapters being Cobert. Every two chapters, one Cobert and one character one spans a month, apart from in one odd case, but I will make that clear in the titles too! Hope you enjoy, and reviews are always very welcome!
"Are you sure you're happy?" The thought had been plaguing Cora all day. Robert hadn't seemed overly excited when she'd announced she was pregnant. And as he joined her in bed and kissed her sweetly on the forehead she couldn't help feeling he was a little distant.
He'd been worried all day that he hadn't quite convinced Cora he was excited at the prospect of her having another child. The truth is it had taken him by far too much surprise. Since he'd gone through the day he began to realise that perhaps he should have seen the signs, he knew them after all. Her increased interest in him in recent months should have been a give away, as should her vastly increased appetite and the lazy mornings she had been spending in bed when she wasn't busy organising this or that for Sybil's season. As the day had worn on he'd felt more and more guilty at not realising and taking some of her work.
"I'm delighted Cora. Absolutely delighted. You just took me by surprise early."
"You're sure. You can tell me if you're worried."
"I'm perfectly happy. And the doctor helped reduce the fears I had when I spoke with him earlier." Cora nods, twisting a finger in one of his button holes. She had predicted he might be worried. Sybil's birth and pregnancy had not been the easiest and with her more mature age she also had quizzed the doctor, but he seemed unworried. "I then began to think maybe I should have realised sooner, you've been showing some of the symptoms."
"Darling, it's not your job to worry about me. Besides, I was aware of the symptoms I just thought they tended in another direction, hence I tried to keep them from you. But some are harder to disguise than others." They smile as a blush appears on Cora's cheeks and her hand wanders to his bare neck.
"You're correct of course. I really would be a bad husband if I failed to notice your increased appetite for not only food." She blushes and looks down, Robert smiles, even at her age, she still blushes when discussing being intimate with him. "What do you mean by 'tended in another direction?'"
"Well..." She feels herself becoming uncomfortable. Robert hates all things medical, let alone female health. "I...did the doctor explain that I was...er..."
"Changing?"
"Yes, well. I thought, because some of the symptoms are very similar, that I might just be going through menopause and I didn't want to bother you with that."
"No, right." It's Robert's turn to get hot under the collar, and Cora giggles as she watches him literally twist his head from side to side as if removing the heat.
"Are you excited about being a father again?"
"Very much so. I'm also quite excited about being able to dote on you for the next few months, you deserve that."
"That's very sweet of you darling. If I remember correctly, you're quite the obliging husband when I'm pregnant. You do whatever I ask. Come to think of it, that's made the prospect of the next few months a lot more pleasant."
"You realise he, or she, shall be a December baby?"
"Yes darling. Do you think it will be a boy this time?" She looks up into his face, but she can't read his expression, he has a perfect poker face when he wants to.
"Who knows. I'll be happy either way, you know that. Besides, this baby is our little miracle, whatever happens." He hopes his face doesn't show his inner turmoil. Boy or girl he'll be overjoyed, this baby is definitely quite a miracle. But his subconscious can't help screaming in the back of his mind 'what if it's a double miracle?'
"It'll hopefully sort the Mary and Matthew situation if it's a girl. But I won't lie by saying I don't hope for a boy. I did always think I let you down." She says the words and immediately regrets them as a Robert pulls her swiftly into his arms and peppers her face with kisses, his hands drawing lazy circles over their unborn baby.
"Cora, you never, never, never let me down." It was funny, he mused, he supposed he'd always known that she hadn't quite let the thought of giving him an heir go, despite all the times he'd told her it didn't matter. But, hearing her say it out loud, that somehow shattered the conscious thought he'd always held, that it didn't bother her. "Besides, we have Matthew now, and he and Mary are so desperately well suited."
"Yes, but he's not your son. I would like to have given you your son. Your little boy with bright blue eyes and hazelnut brown curls." He kisses her on the forehead.
"I think I'd much prefer him if he had chocolate curls. They happen to be a favourite of mine." He kisses her hair repeatedly as if to prove his statement.
"Really?" Cora feels her resolve and coherent thoughts disappearing as Robert massages his hands over her abdomen and kisses from her hair down her cheek to her neck.
"Yes, really. Now, if the last few weeks are anything to go by, you're just about to crumble in my arms and demand to be kissed." She looks down at his chest sheepishly.
"I'm sorry, it's..."
"The baby. Besides, you're pregnant, your every wish is my command." His lips trace a pattern back up towards her mouth and when he gets there he finds her lips waiting for him, eager to be kissed.
As she lay in the bath for the last second, soaking up the bubbles. She passes her hand gently over her growing baby. What would happen if it was a boy? Would Matthew marry Mary, she hoped so, they were so perfectly suited. And yet, she couldn't help thinking that the baby must be a girl. Why would God give her a boy now, when the problem was solved with Matthew, when he could have done so all those years ago? It's these thoughts that continue with her as she stands and, not taking hold of the edge of the bath, lifts her first leg to the floor. Or not the floor but...soap? Her thoughts don't process this at the time. They take the jump from Mary and Matthew to the wooden floor spiralling into her vision. She closes her eyes against the shock she knows is coming and one hand flies to her stomach. To her baby. But, before it gets there a sound grip grasps both her elbows, her head falling onto, not the black floor, but a black uniform. The next thing she hears is her cries, not cries of pain but shock. Shock at being saved she thinks, or maybe shock at the thoughts of the things that might have occurred if O'Brien had not been there for her.
"M'lady, are you alright? You're not hurt?" Cora only shakes her head from side to side and gently lifting herself from her maid stands upright. The maid is blurred before her thanks to the tears that still spill over her eyes.
"Fine. Just a little shocked. I need to lie down for a moment, can you pass me the towel?" O'Brien passes her the required object and she quickly wraps it around her.
"I think I should call the doctor m'lady, just in case." She nods blindly and half stumbles to the door, images of the pool of blood the wooden floor may have been swimming before he eyes. Thankfully she can feel O'Brien's hand on her elbow, steering her safely to the bed.
She's dimly aware of the doctor coming and passing his verdict, she and the baby are fine, before leaving her some medicine to help her sleep that night. She is also aware of Robert's presence by her side for most of the evening, but all her thoughts see is the hazelnut haired boy blurring into a pool of blood. As the medication hits her system after she's eaten whatever it was Robert spooned to her, her thoughts finally become empty.
Robert doesn't sleep at all that night. He just watches Cora in her seemingly dream free slumber. O'Brien had given him a account of what happened but he couldn't work out what was upsetting Cora, she was fine, the baby was fine. Shock he supposed and just being pregnant may be getting to her. He couldn't help thinking it was his fault. He shouldn't be letting her do so much and have to take a hurried bath like that. His thoughts return to London and how hard she'd worked for Sybil, he wasn't going to let that happen again, she had to be relaxed, for the sake of her health because Robert knew, deep down, that was what mattered, Cora. If the crunch came and the doctor had to ask him to choose in December whether he wanted the woman before him or the unborn child, he'd choose Cora every day, any day. She stirs beside him and Robert dimly realises it's the morning.
"How are you feeling?" He says the words the moment her eyes open.
"Fine, thank you. I think I scared everyone yesterday. I really am fine. It was just a fright."
"A fright it may have been, but from now on you are doing a lot less and are going to spend plenty of time resting."
"Oh, Robert. Don't do that, you know how I hate sitting around. It was an accident, not due to my tiredness."
"I'm not stopping you from doing anything, I don't want you sitting around. I just don't want you to rush to make it down to dinner and such like. Take as long as you like, it's more important that you're safe."
"And no doubt that means you're now going to start walking me up and down the stairs and reminding me of where all the carpets are placed so I don't trip on the edge of one of them?"
"Exactly." She groans.
"Oh, not all that again. I know you did it when I was pregnant the first time, but this is number four in case you'd forgotten. Besides I'm not a child."
"I haven't forgotten and you are not a child but it's been a long time since last time. Just indulge me, just a little Cora. It's so important to me that you're alright." Cora can't help smiling at the sweetness of it all, she reaches forward and brushes his cheek.
"Well, if I indulge you in these little things, you will have to do what I ask of you."
"I never said I wouldn't. In fact, the other night I said that your wish was my command, that still stands."
"Good, I'm pleased about that as there something I'm rather in need of." Her hands have already unbuttoned his whole shirt and Robert sighs. It's very fortunate, he thinks, that he loves her so very much because no doubt over the next few months he's going to be sent on plenty of errands and he's knows form experience that not all of them are as nice as this one.