"There you are," he said happily, looking up at her entrance as he placed a book on the bedside table, which had gathered quite the collection of novels, magazines, and trinkets for "good luck" from the grandchildren in the weeks he'd spent convalescing.

She shut the door behind her and drew a shaky breath for confidence and courage as she reached his side. "Oh, dear. Did you need me? I'm sorry, darling. I was in the gardens for a while, I must have lost track of time. I didn't mean to stay away so long." He was as she'd left him - sitting up in bed, hair adorably mussed, pale but otherwise looking well. She pulled off her gloves and reflexively placed a hand on his forehead to check his temperature, but he grabbed it and brought it to his lips.

"I'm fine, I'm fine. Bates left just now after destroying me at chess. I just missed you, is all."

"You missed me?" she asked shyly, caught off guard. She unbuttoned her coat and placed it over the chair quickly before returning to the edge of the bed. "Goodness. I've been at your side for nearly four weeks straight. I would think my company has grown tiresome for you."

"The company of anyone else in the world, and I daresay it would grow tiresome. But not being with you." He pulled her closer. "I knew from the day we met that there was nothing tiresome about your company. And, my darling," she settled her hips on the bed beside him as he kept drawing her nearer and pressed a kiss to her cheek, "being around you so much has only caused me to remember just how delightful -" a kiss to her jawline - "how beautiful" - "darling," she sighed against him. "How very essential you are to me," he ended, his lips under her ear and his fingers dangerously close to undoing her hair.

"Three more weeks, Robert . . . " she warned gently, even as her own fingers drifted up his arm and then back down to lace through his again.

"Not as long as that. Nineteen days," he responded, grinning.

"...you're counting the days?" she asked, pleased, fingering the buttons at the top of his pyjamas.

"I may or may not have a little reminder in my diary," he cleared his throat as she dropped her jaw in shock. "It's just, well," his cheeks reddened a bit before he went on, "Of course, I always want to show you my affection, dearest, but something about being explicitly told in a somewhat awkward conversation with the good Dr. Clarkson that I cannot makes it all the more enticing for some reason. Why is that?" he asked, looking adorably perplexed.

"That's because you're rather childlike when it suits you - tell him he can't have it and it becomes his heart's desire," she teased, pressing a slow kiss into his lips and delighting in the little grunt he made, the feel of his hands encircling her waist, drifting lower until she pulled back with a satisfied smirk.

"Trust me," he growled, "my thoughts are hardly of a childlike or innocent nature while you're prancing about in flimsy nightgowns every night - "

"Robert! I do not 'prance'!" she exclaimed, giggling.

"-practically see-through, they are. As I lie here helpless - not that I mind, but it's a good thing it's not my heart we're worried about or we'd really be in trouble."

Her giggles ceased suddenly as Cora gasped at his words, struck with their significance. His face grew concerned. "No, don't - I'm sorry I said that. Please, dearest. I've so missed that sound. You laughing."

"I'm sorry, Robert, I just - "

His knuckles caressed her cheek. "I like that I can still make you laugh, Cor." He looked deeply into her eyes, his stare so intense she had to look away. His voice dropped, "I intend to keep doing so for a long time still, you know."

"Do you promise?" her voice trembled and she could feel the tears forming in the corners of her eyes. "Because, you see, I want, I want - " she felt tears begin to trace tracks down her face and closed her eyes against them only to feel Robert's hands on her cheeks, thumbs slowly sliding across the wet paths. She turned into his palm and kissed it, held her hand to it as she looked back at him, unmindful of the sudden surge of tears.

"What do you want, dearest?" His voice was thick with emotion.

She took a deep breath to fortify herself. "I want to know that what happened that night won't just be swept under the rug and forgotten, Robert. I want to know that you'll take every precaution and follow doctor's orders, and tell me the minute you aren't feeling well. No more pretending things will just get better on their own without changing our habits. I want you to let me take care of you, darling. Because I want - I need more time with you."

Robert's eyes filled with unshed tears, his gaze shifted down and to the side, guilt sweeping over his features. His hands dropped from her face, but she grabbed them to hold in her hands.

"We haven't truly talked about it, and maybe I shouldn't tell you, but - Robert, I was so scared, darling. So frightened for you - for the pain you were feeling. And then at the hospital, praying every moment until you woke up - " her voice broke and he looked back at her, squeezing her hands as tears finally drifted down his cheeks. "And you did - thank God you did." She reached a hand behind his head to stroke his neck, and as she shifted towards him, he pulled her into his lap and pulled her closer to touch his forehead to hers, taking a deep breath. Her nose met his and she closed her eyes, overcome. "Thank God you did. Because I'm not done loving you, Robert. I don't want any of my life without you."

"Cora, my Cora," was all he could manage as they sat on the bed together for a few minutes, breathing each other in as her nose traced the planes of his face, her hands framing his face as she whispered 'oh, my darling,' softly to him until her tears had slowed and they both breathed more evenly.

"Do you know," he said, breaking the silence after a few moments of calm, "that I've been meaning to apologize to you?"

She looped her arm around his shoulder to support herself as she leaned back to look at him, her hand wiping his cheek where tracks of their mingled tears lingered. "Darling? To me? Whatever for?"

He looked down at his lap. "For that evening. For ignoring the signs that could have possibly prevented such a dreadful scene for you and the girls. I'll never forgive myself for all the trouble and worry I've caused. It might have all been prevented had I backed off more from the estate and let Mary and now Tom do what they've proven to be so capable of. It pains me to admit that I'm not needed nearly as much as I thought I was, considering how easily you're all getting along while I continue to get more blasted rest. But I let my pride get in the way and it nearly cost me my life, and all I have with you, Cora. I'm so sorry. How terribly foolish of me."

"Robert, don't apologize to me or anyone else for such a thing when you were experiencing yourself something so horrific!" She shook her head at him, at the memories, but he pressed on.

"No, I mean it. I can barely remember the actual pain of the ulcer, but I remember clearly thinking, knowing, really, that I was going to die in that moment. Knowing those were the last moments we'd spend together, spend with the girls, wondering what I had last said to our grandchildren, sure of what I needed to say to you." He swallowed hard and his voice was hoarse when he spoke again. "That must have been absolutely terrifying for you to witness, but you were so brave, my darling." He brushed her hair back from her face. "I was bleeding my life away on the floor, all over your hands, and you didn't turn away or swoon. You didn't say goodbye. You held me in your hands, looked me right in the eye and never wavered, and promised it wasn't the end. Because you were strong enough to believe I would get through it. And that was enough to make me believe it, too."

Her chin quivered and she could feel tears coming again. "I don't feel so strong now, sobbing in front of my poor husband and sharing all my concerns with him when he should be - "

"I warn you that if I hear the word 'rest' in any shape or form one more time today I shall go mad."

"Oh, Robert!" She huffed at the look on his face but stopped, trying and failing to suppress a watery smile. "Well, then, at the very least he should be - "

"Holding his wife properly, if you would just kick off your shoes and then slide over here, darling."

Surprised, and feeling guilty again for sitting in his lap for so long when it might be taxing on his body still recovering from the surgery, she complied quickly, dropping her shoes to the floor and then carefully crawling over his legs and to his side. He held his arm open to her and she gladly tucked her skirt under the covers, her stockinged feet rubbing against the silk of his pajama legs, her head to his shoulder, gingerly placing her hand on his chest.

"In bed, fully dressed, in the afternoon. What would Mama say?" she murmured, still moving against him as she settled.

"This is the least of it in our history together, I should think. And besides, she doesn't have to know," he whispered conspiratorially into her ear, his warm breath making her shiver and pull closer to him. His hand began making lazy passes over her back and shoulders. Warmed by his side and feeling the release of having finally shed a few good tears, she melted further into his embrace. This was the closest she'd allowed them to be physically since that night, and she relished the intimacy of their position, despite the inappropriateness of the hour and her dress.

In the back of her mind, she wondered how uncomfortable this might be for Robert with his stitches and considerable muscle strain, but she decided to let him take the lead for the moment, trusting he would let her know, voluntarily or not, whether he was in any pain. Until then, she enjoyed it. Her foot found its way between his calves, stroking his shins with her toes as her fingers began playing idly at the vee in his pyjamas, tracing the neckline and back down, up and down lazily to scratch at the small patch of hair she should see there.

"Three more weeks, Cora," he warned, a smile in his voice as he shifted slightly on the pillow.

"Nineteen days," she shot back, but she ceased her explorations, laying her hand still over his chest, and settled in more firmly against him, content to hear his even breathing, to feel his solid being beneath her.

"Is this the first time you've let yourself cry, Cora?"

His question divided the silence and surprised her, but after a pause she shook her head slowly in affirmation against his shoulder. She felt and heard him make a sound as if to ward off tears, before he spoke again, almost too lightly.

"You've been in England too long, dearest." He pulled her tighter against him kissing the top of her head. "If you need to have a good cry, Cor, don't you know I want you to come to me? Just like always? Let me comfort you, and be useful in some way to you."

"Oh, but Robert. I couldn't, before," she began, "I - I couldn't cry in front of the girls, or Mama - we were all so worried and they all looked to me. And then you - I didn't, I don't want you to worry, my love."

She felt herself shake a little, but he only pulled her closer and whispered against her ear. "You're my wife. I will worry about you whether or not you give me permission to do so. So I promise that I will tell you if I'm feeling poorly, and I will let you fuss over me, because I know it makes you feel better. And in return, you must promise me that you will come to me when you feel poorly for any reason, and let me comfort you and hold you as much as necessary."

She pressed her smile into his chest and felt his left hand thread fingers through hers over his heart.

"If you don't mind."

"Of course not. You're my wife. It's part of my sacred duties," his lips rested against her forehead and kissed her softly, reverently.

"I am your wife. And you are my husband. My dear, dear husband. So that is a promise I can easily make."

"Good."

"There is just one more thing, Robert." She lifted herself up in his arms to look at his face, where a glimmer of worry flashed across his features.

"Oh? What's this?" he asked, feigning nonchalance.

"I have loved you very, very much." She didn't mean for it to happen, but the tears came suddenly and she couldn't stop them, even as her throat clogged with emotion and her voice sounded strange to her own ears. But she persisted, because she wanted to say it, she needed to say it. "And I will love you more still, for the rest of our lives together. And I mean to tell you so every day. To not take it for granted that we'll have tomorrow to say so." She smiled hopefully as he reached up to wipe errant tears from her face.

"No, no," he replied softly. "No, we won't take any of it for granted, Cor."

They looked into each other's eyes, a lifetime of memories, hardships, triumphs, surging between them. He pulled her lips towards his for a long, pressing kiss before settling her again against his shoulder.

She felt the warmth of his embrace, his arms around her, his legs cradling hers. She heard the tick of his heart, and her whole body felt a peace long desired that had come with the tears shed as she'd opened her heart fully to Robert. She felt lighter than she had in weeks, every bone and muscle that had felt so heavy relaxed.

She was nearly asleep when she heard and felt it against her forehead.

"I loved you then, I love you now, I'll love you no matter what," he whispered. "And I'll tell you again tomorrow. Cora. Cora."