Something cold wakens her, startling her slightly from her dreams. The linen rustles, bristling at its careless treatment, as she reaches; her fingers closing on a sheet of stationery that slides into her hand like butter.
As the older woman pushes herself up into a sitting position, she observes the cool, sharp light filtering in through the curtains, just bright enough to make out the elegant hand that fills the piece of paper. Moving from the bed, she takes up her usual space by the window on the chaise longue that has only recently been purchased, plumping up the cushions behind her. As she observes the handwriting once more, a characteristic smile spreads slowly across her face, and she pushes back her plait, indefinitely self-conscious.
"My darling Cora,
"It has been a long time since I wrote you a real letter; our love-sick bedside notes do not count.
It has also been a long time since we have done anything worthwhile.
A long time since we truly meant what we said to each other."
At this, her eyes fill, and the paper almost falls, but she retains her dignity and continues to read, nevertheless with some difficulty.
"But I do not wish to discourse that I have fallen out of love with you, Cora. Never. I only wish to remind you of times when our passion could never have accounted for mending difficult situations. I loved you from the first moment I saw you, but I dismissed this for too long as beyond my reach and incapable for me, considering I had never given my heart to anyone else before.
"What would you have done if I had never approached you in that ballroom? What life would you be living now? And, how, my darling, would you feel knowing that your life would be so much easier without me?"
The tears begin to spill down Cora's cheeks, pooling at her jaw line and dripping uncontrollably onto her lace covered lap.
"Do you regret us, my darling, my Cora? Do you ever wish to have been spared these difficult, testing times? Is there a space in your heart that wishes maybe yearns, for a different life, a different husband?
"I don't regret a single day of our life together; I don't want to turn back time. But I feel as though I have not been counting your opinion, my darling wife, as though I have not been asking you your thoughts constantly enough to grasp your attention.
"I suppose what I am attempting to communicate to you is...do I take you for granted, Cora?
"Do I dismiss you? It terrifies me to think that you have been in turmoil the past thirty two years, yet you have not said a word, due to my selfish behaviour and dismissive attitude.
"I love you, Cora. I love you, and never forget that. Never forget to remind me of your ardent status in our relationship, for you have so much good in you, and that fact shall never be superfluous to me.
"Forever in my heart; despite death, never to part.
"With much love and affection, Robert Crawley."
Cora's eyes are glassy and her fingers tremble as she lingers on these last words.
Despite Robert's extraneous attempts to overdo a simple sentence, she understands.
He is acknowledging her.
He loves her.
He wants her opinion, and he loves her. He loves her. She rocks forward as she cries, and the sheet floats off the chaise longue and onto the soft carpet, settling just as innocently as it was put on Cora's pillow, not two hours before.