He falls asleep as soon as the plane takes off in London and only wakes up again when Cora shakes him awake once they have reached JFK. He wants to kick himself because he had planned on talking to her during the flight, but apparently his need to catch up on sleep got the better of him. Cora navigates them through customs and gets them a taxi and then checks them in at the hotel. He realizes why he hates New York so much. When he came there for his semester abroad, he wanted to leave right away, but he met Cora on his second day there and then decided to stay. That had been thirty two years ago and when he saw her for the first time he knew he had to meet her. When he talked to her, he knew he wanted to get to know her better and when he got to know her better he knew he wanted to marry her. He had been sure that he would spent the rest of his life with her and they did spent thirty one wonderful years together, twenty nine of them as husband and wife. But then it all went wrong and a few days ago things seemed to have been put to rights again. That first day with her had had him in a daze, he hadn't been able to believe that he had his wife back and he got carried away. He feels very uncomfortable now, checking into the hotel together with her. Once they have reached their room, he tries to talk to her but she says

"My meeting is in one and a half hours and I have to shower and get ready. Let's talk later."

"So you are putting work first again."

"Robert we came here because the company I work for wants to make me an offer, a rather lucrative one I suppose. Do you expect me to call them and to ask them to postpone the meeting because my husband wants to talk to me?"

"You wouldn't do that."

"No. I wouldn't."

With that she goes into the bathroom, where she stays for almost an hour. When she comes into their room again he looks at her and can't believe how beautiful she is.

"I have to leave. I'll call you when the meeting is over." She gives him a kiss on the cheek and leaves. He stays in their room, staring at the wall and wondering about what to do.

He has no idea how long he has been staring at the wall but when the door to the room opens and it is Cora who walks through it, he knows it must have been quite some time.

"Robert, have been in here all this time?"

"Yes, I was thinking."

"About what?"

"Never mind. What did they want?" It is only then he notices the smile on his wife's face.

"They've offered me the position as creative director."

"What does that mean?"

"Well, I wouldn't be an editor anymore, but I'd be the one to decide which books we actually do edit and publish."

"That is what you always wanted."

"Yes. It's a pity that that job is in the wrong city."

"What? You love New York."

"I do. But I live in London. I missed living in London while I was here."

"That doesn't matter, with that job, you probably wouldn't be missing London at all. It's your dream come true."

"In many ways."

"So when are you going to move here?"

"I don't know. I haven't given them an answer yet."

"Why not?"

"Because I need to think about it. I can't just move here again. I don't want to."

"Why not?"

"Robert, what kind of question is that? The girls are in London, our grandchildren will grow up there, and most importantly you are there."

"Cora, take the job here. We are moving too fast, much too fast. It would be better if we didn't live together."

"We'd be living on different continents."

"Yes. But this isn't 1914. You can fly to London quite regularly. To see the girls and the grandkids. And maybe me from time to time. And then we see where that leads us."

"But you said you love me."

"I do. And I missed you, but what we have had those last few days, it wasn't what I want, it isn't what we need. You said yourself that we need time to heal, but we didn't start a healing process, we fell back into what we were before. And we enjoyed it because it is what we know. It was comfortable and easy, but it will lead to nothing. It will just hurt us both."

"You can't be serious. You fly all the way to New York with me to tell me that you don't want to be with me."

"I've really only made that decision now. How about this. I'll take you out to dinner to celebrate your new job and then I'll go back home."

"You will have to stay the night."

"I'll get a different room."

"Why Robert? Why?"

"Because it is what is best. I don't want us to hurt each other again."

"You've just hurt me quite a lot. I thought we would be happy again, I thought we were happy again. But apparently not. Leave Robert, take your stuff and leave. Tell Mary to text me once you've arrived safely in London. Don't try to contact me, don't ever try that again."

He watches as Cora turns away from him and he reaches for her shoulder. "Cora, I,"

"No. You've made clear what you want, and it is clearly not a relationship with me. I won't say that I won't ever talk to you again, because we will have to talk to each other, for our children's and grandchildren's sakes. But that is it."

The sleep that came to him so easily on the flight to New York eludes him on the flight to London and it leaves him with five hours full of his own thoughts only. His thoughts turn around Cora and the expression on her face when she finally understood what he wanted. She had looked so hurt and so disappointed, the only other time she had looked at him like that had been when he had admitted to kissing that secretary and he wonders if she is going through the same kind of pain now.

Once he is home he calls Mary to tell her to send the text and when he tells her what has happened, Mary comes to his house and tells him that he is the most foolish man in the world.

"But you said that we were moving too fast."

"Yes. I told you to slow down not to stop. But what you've done now might irreparable."

He hopes she is wrong and he keeps thinking about calling Cora, or at least sending her an email, but she asked him not to and so he doesn't do it.

He spends the next two days checking her company's website for the announcement of her having been made the new creative director, but there is nothing. He asks all three of his daughters and Matthew and Tom whether they have heard anything but they all just laugh about him. He even thinks about calling Michael but then changes his mind because he can't forgive Michael for getting Edith pregnant so fast. Although it must have been her fault just as much and he knows he will have to come around soon because the baby will be born in six weeks' time. He supposes that that will be the next time he'll be able to speak to Cora, so against his former feelings on the whole matter, he is now looking forward to becoming a grandfather, if for slightly different reasons than is usual.

It's now been four days since his return to England and he is coming close to regretting not just giving in to Cora, not just taking up their lives again and be happy about it. But they wouldn't have been happy, not really.

Because he didn't expect any company, he sent the butler home and so he has to open the door himself when the doorbell rings shortly after eight. He supposes it to be one of his daughters, possibly with boyfriend or husband, depending on the daughter, in tow but when he opens the door it is Cora who is on the other side of it. Tears are running down her face and she needs several attempts to speak, but eventually she says "I didn't take the job in New York."