As Kathleen Branson sat at her kitchen table thinking about her son, miles away in Yorkshire, England, Cora Crawley was wide awake but still in her bed. Unlike Kathleen, Cora had the everyday luxury of eating breakfast in bed as witnessed by the tray covering her lap. Yet other than the steaming cup of tea, Cora hadn't touched the tray with its usual plate of scrambled eggs accompanied by toast with butter and orange marmalade.
When O'Brien had brought the breakfast tray, Cora told her she would ring for her when she was ready to get dressed. Usually O'Brien would be readying Cora's clothes for the morning while Cora ate her breakfast but today Cora wanted some time alone. Hearing her dismissal O'Brien looked questioningly at her ladyship but Cora was staring at her breakfast tray as if it was alien to her.
O'Brien started to ask if her ladyship was feeling well when she realized what day it was. She glanced once again at Cora and momentarily felt a pang of sorrow for her but then she hurried out of the room thinking what fools.
Cora was glad when Robert had left for breakfast in the dining room leaving her alone for on this morning she had no desire for conversation with him. She had only been pretending to still be asleep when she heard him begin stirring for in reality she had been awake for hours. She sat there in her bed, leaning against a wall of plump pillows, firmly grasping the tea cup with both hands, her eyes starring unseeingly across the room, for in her mind her vision was of her daughter.
The newborn Sybil so pink and plump. Sybil trying to blow out the singular candle on her first birthday cake. Sybil chasing after the dog as fast as her chubby little legs could run. Sybil sitting on her lap, tears running down her face, Cora trying to comfort her after she had fallen. Sybil smiling and clapping as the Christmas tree was lit. Sybil radiant in her blue gown at her coming out ball. Sybil … so many images went flying through her head.
By marrying Robert, Cora had gained not only a husband and a title but also a new style of life, one that had existed for years with a very stringent set of rules of conduct. Her first years of marriage were more difficult than she could have imagined thanks mainly to having to live with her in-laws. Since the house was clearly the domain of Violet, Cora was adrift with nothing to do. Well that wasn't exactly true. Cora did have one job to do and that was to produce an heir which meant having a son for in England, unlike America, only a son could inherit the title and the estate.
The dismay that Cora's first born was a daughter was only tempered by the fact that she was young and healthy and that future children would surely be forthcoming. Her in-laws were heartened when Cora became pregnant again so soon after Mary's birth but this time the disappointment in her failure to have a son was more palpable. Her mother-in-law snickered at Cora failing at this task which she herself had been able to do. It was just one more constant source of irritation between the two women.
Edith's birth was followed by years of frustration and disappointment when Cora failed to become pregnant again. By the time Cora did become pregnant for the third time, Robert was now the Earl having inherited the title when his father died shortly after Edith's birth and Cora was the Countess.
It was a very warm August day when Cora went into labor. She had been surprised when she had gone into labor almost two full weeks from when the child was expected. Cora smiled now as she thought that was just like Sybil, to enter the world on her own time table. Although this was her third child, her labor was no easier than it had been for Mary or Edith but it was mercifully shorter.
Cora knew what it meant when the Dr. Clarkson pronounced the child a healthy baby girl, she knew the disappointment that once again faced Robert and his mother. She was so engrossed with her newborn daughter that she didn't see Robert standing at the open doorway of her bedroom watching her coo softly to their daughter who she held in her arms.
Any concerns she had of Robert's disappointment in the child once again being a girl vanished the moment he sat beside her on their bed. He smiled warmly as he softly kissed her forehead before looking at the baby who was wrapped in a soft light blue blanket. He gently moved the blanket so he could get a better look at the baby who obliged her father by flailing her arms and opening her bright blue eyes. She seemed to stare directly at him with her mouth forming a perfect O and then quietly closing.
They had chosen the names Mary Josephine and Edith Victoria, good English names, just in case the baby was a female. But for this child, although neither had spoken aloud of the reason, they hadn't picked a girl's name prior to the birth. It was Robert who decided to name her Sybil Cora as he sat there holding her for the first time. She's so beautiful. She looks like you with her dark hair and bright blue eyes. Even now all these years later she could remember how his face glowed. Sybil from the ancient Greeks. She'll be something special. He had said with conviction as he looked down at the tiny bundle he held in his arms.
Cora Crawley, the Countess of Grantham, would also agree with the statement that mothers love all their children equally. She'd also agree with Kathleen Branson that even though she loved her children equally she acknowledged the differences in her girls.
When she had Mary, she had still been intimated by her mother-in-law who frowned on Cora spending much time with the infant. It wasn't their way Violet had insisted, children are raised by their nannies. She might have fought back harder but then she became pregnant with Edith and had been sick for much of the early months of her pregnancy. Once she had Edith she realized how difficult it was to have to a newborn and a 13 month old especially since in those first months when Edith was colicky and Mary was always demanding her mother's attention.
But it was different by the time she had Sybil. For one thing, Violet was no longer living at the Abbey but at the Dowager House and so she was no longer under constant scrutiny. She had now been living in England long enough that she was familiar with their ways, she was older and more confident in herself and, more importantly, she was no longer intimated by her mother-in-law, well not always. She was now free to run the household her way.
And Sybil had made it easier too. She had been the most delightful baby with her chubby cheeks and that ready toothless grin that lit up her whole face. Unlike her sisters who had demanded attention, little Sybil seemed content laying in her crib, gurgling to herself, her legs and arms flailing in the air as her eyes and hands explored the narrow world around her. That should have been a clue as to how independent and adventurous Sybil would be thought Cora.
Independent and adventurous … how that set Sybil apart from her sisters. Even as a young child Mary was very much Lady Mary with her good manners, her haughtiness and imperiousness. Edith though much quieter and more timid than Mary but she too could be just as imperious. Neither had the exuberance of Sybil.
Yes she loved all her girls but Sybil had been the easiest to love.
Even now, thinking of Sybil she could only see the child who laughed so easily, the child who wanted to run barefoot on the lawn with her hair blowing freely in the wind, the child who saw the beauty in flowers, the child who was content to sit in her father's lap while he read to her.
But Sybil was no longer a child, she was a young woman. She was older than Cora had been when she married. Thanks to the war, she was not as naïve as Cora had been then.
I never told her how proud I was of her being a nurse Cora thought. Like with everything she did, Sybil had put her heart into her nursing and had become a wonderful nurse. She had worked so hard during those years, never complaining about the work, always willing to learn, always willing to do whatever was asked of her.
Why did I think she'd be content to go back to life as it was before the war? If I was honest with myself I'd admit even I sometimes long for those days when I ran the convalescent home, when I had a purpose, when I had something meaningful to fill my days.
I didn't see that those days when Sybil became involved in politics and women's rights as a harbinger for what was to come. I thought it was just a phase … just … just something she'd get over. That she would soon realize she was Lady Sybil Crawley and that there was a path she was to take.
Sybil was so stubborn. Sybil always wanted her way. How many times did I wipe the tears on her face when she had hurt herself doing something she had been forbidden to do?
She had never been interested in tradition. Mary was always so dutiful. Edith was always trying to please. Sybil … Cora shook her head slightly … Sybil never cared about what was expected of her. Is that how she had gotten to this point? How she had fallen in love with the chauffeur?
Moving her breakfast tray to the other side of the bed, Cora rose from her bed. She opened the drawer in the bedside table and removed a cream colored envelope. She reached inside the envelope and drew out the contents. It was only one page.
Slipping on her robe she softly walked over to one of the windows that looked out at the great expanse of the estate. In the distance she could she a lone figure walking with a dog following close behind. She watched as the figure threw a stick and the dog ran to catch it. But the dog didn't run back to her owner instead she sat down, the stick firmly in her mouth, waiting for her owner to catch up with her.
Cora glanced at the clock sitting on her bedside table, not that she had anything to do or anywhere to be. Well that wasn't really true. There was someplace she should have been. She glanced back out the window and to her husband in the distance.
She stood like that for several minutes watching Robert. Then she looked down at the paper in her hand. Tears fell down her cheeks as she read the words.
Sybil Crawley
and
Tom Branson
Request the Honor of Your Presence