The morning light was simply a glare off of the snow, dull and achy. Cora nibbled her toast as Perkins, her maid, pulled apart the curtains further, allowing the whiteness of outside into the blueness of her room. With a sigh, Cora returned her toast to her plate. Her stomach felt unsettled.
"What time are they expected to arrive?" She rested her hands into her lap, beneath her tray.
Perkins looked at her from the string of wedding pearls she held in her hand. Cora watched her as she easily laid them across the vanity as she spoke, "I believe Grant and Harding have already left to meet them at the station, my lady."
Cora swallowed down the little toast she held in her mouth and Perkins spied her tray.
"Do you want me to take it down now, my lady?"
With a smile, Cora nodded.
Robert pulled the bottom of his coat down a touch as he glanced over at the grandfather clock. Ten o'clock now. Their train arrived a half an hour before. The carriage that had traveled to fetch them should return momentarily, he was sure. Again, images of Anne appeared in his mind's eye. It was odd, and unexpected, but not without some sort of fleeting emotion in his chest. It was an emotion he couldn't quite name, but whatever it was was wrapped tightly in nostalgia and topped with a curious bow.
"Here." Rosamund handed him a glass of warmed punch. "Fortification for the arrival." Marmaduke chuckled behind her.
He took the cup into his hand and peered into it. "Aren't you happy to see Charles? And Anne."
"Certainly I am," Rosamund blinked her eyes wider, "but I can't say I'm terribly happy they'll be staying through the holiday. This house will be packed like sardines."
Robert sipped the punch, looking at it in surprise when he tasted the dryness of the alcohol.
"…sardines that know us much too well," Rosamund continued into her own cup. She grumbled. "And I'd rather James not come at all."
"Now Ros," Marmaduke chided her sweetly, putting a hand on the small of her back. "James is your cousin. Certainly we can make allowances for his misbehavior. We should always make allowances for family."
Rosamund rolled her eyes. "I suppose."
Robert took another sip of punch. A gulp. James and Anne here together. Crickey.
"And it'll be nice to have a little tike around for the holiday! How old is Patrick now? A year, hmm?" Marmaduke was nearly bouncing in his shoes.
"A little over a year-"
"The tiny heir to the earldom!" He raised his own glass to his smiling lips. At his words, Robert's stomach dropped a bit. Rosamund eyed Robert as if she could feel the pit growing in his gut.
"Patience," she mouthed, knowingly, and Robert sighed.
"Cora!"
She descended the stairs, in her navy blue velvet, smiling briefly at Marmaduke who had called her. When she reached the bottom, she stood near Robert who nodded a good morning greeting.
"So you've come down for the arrivée grandiose," Rosamund stepped closer to her and lifted a brow.
Cora snuck a glance up at her husband. He was sipping from his glass and leaning into Marmaduke's excited voice as he said something in the joyfully animated way he always seemed to have.
"Would it have been wrong to stay in bed?" she whispered to her sister-in-law who smirked appreciatively.
"Not terribly." Rosamund looked around the room as her mother and father came in. "There's enough of us here to welcome an army."
Cora could hear Violet ask Carson, the under butler, for their coats.
"Well," Rosamund lifted her brows, "the moment's arrived."
Once bundled, they lined up outside accordingly, Cora standing to the left of Robert in the snow. He looked down at her beside him and found her hand, surprising her.
Her skin was soft and very, very cold. "Where are your gloves?"
She shrugged as the carriages came into view, and he dropped her hand.
"Here." She watched as he pulled the gloves he wore, finger by finger, from his hands. "Wear mine."
"We won't be out long-"
"Wear them, please." He insisted. She took the gloves from his extended hand. "I don't wish you sick."
She tugged them on, obligingly, glancing up at him as he watched her work. She felt warmer under his gaze.
Finally, the carriages stopped before them. Footmen stepped forward, opening carriage doors, and what seemed a sudden crowd poured from the carriages into the crunch of the fresh fallen snow.
There was a flurry of greetings. James was there, kissing Cora's cheek more roughly than he should. How was it that he smelled of whiskey before midday? Emma, James's wife, hugged her softly and motioned toward the young toddler a nurse held behind her of a blond little boy. Cora noticed he looked very much like Emma, and prayed that he behaved as her, too. A middle-aged Lord and Lady laughed with Robert's parents and Cora could see out of the corner of her eye that Robert smiled along with them all. And then Cora took a breath in. There, standing near the Plythes, she had spotted her.
Honey-colored hair with a small bee-stung mouth, Anne was pretty. Anne was disappointingly very pretty.
Cora felt herself tense when Anne crunched lightly over to where she and the others stood. She had greeted Rosamund, Marmaduke, and now she stood very close to them, she and Robert.
Robert held open his arms.
"Anne."
Cora watched the scene as Anne kissed her husband's cheeks, stepping back to see him, feigning a sort of appreciation as if he were some work of art. Cora suppressed the scowl she felt.
"My, but you do look well, Downie. I'm so glad."
She felt her lips twitch. The scowl was fighting to break into the open.
"I cannot believe it's been a year since we've seen one another last. An entire year."
Robert laughed, "And how was the continent, Anne? Are the French nearly as amusing as they let on?"
They both laughed together and Cora had to take in a deep breath.
"Here now, please," Robert held his hand out toward Cora and Anne's eyes followed. "Meet Cora."
She caught her eyes, a pair of gray bright things that shimmered against the snow. Cora smiled as nicely as she could bear it.
"Hello." Anne's voice was suddenly as cold as the air around them. Cora's smiled faltered slightly.
She saw as Anne's eyes lingered a moment longer on her own, then trailed their way to Cora's hands, Robert's too-big gloves fitting awkwardly, the tips of them hanging from her slender fingertips.
Anne gave a very tight smile. It did not reach her eyes. "You don't look at all like I expected."
Cora opened her mouth to respond, but couldn't find quite what to say. She felt as awkward as the gloves she wore, especially standing closer to Anne, the girl she had known nothing of but who had apparently known of her. Anne's height met Cora's shoulder and thus resulted in Cora's feeling quite like a giant of a woman.
Please, Cora found herself praying, please, anyone, say something.
"Let's all go in before we catch cold!"
The group all looked to Violet who had lifted her chin to speak to everyone. Cora breathed easier.
As the group began to move in, Cora caught Robert's arm.
"Robert, wait." She paused when he turned and looked down into her eyes. New snow had begun to fall slowly, "Before we go in, I want to apologize for being so childish last night. But surely you understand why I wonder why you've never mentioned her."
"Cora-"
"And I would still rather like to find time alone with you on Christmas Day, if we can manage it."
Robert sighed in response, but pressed a chaste kiss to the top of Cora's dark hair. Tiny white flurries had landed and had begun to melt in the thick of it.
"It's snowing now, Cora. Come then. We'll discuss it later."
The breath she released fogged in the air between them. "Alright…Downie."
"Cora…" Robert groaned. He tugged her arm a bit to beckon her back inside, and could hear her beside him, mumbling to herself under the warmth of her breath.
"Downie. Ridiclous nickname. No one in in the family calls you that."
Robert shook his head as he stepped into the house after her.