AN: Thank you for the reviews and favorites and follows!

Kat

The decision of whether or not he should return to Downton a little earlier than he thought he would is taken out of his hands only a few days later. A telegram from Marmaduke has arrived, telling him that he needs to be in England ten days later to finalize the divorce. This sends him into a slight panic because he thinks that while he could just take Mary away from her home in England, he can't just take her away from here, away from Sam and Cora, but that he also can't ask Cora to come with them and take Sam too. Even if Cora were up to it, she sometimes seems to be rather adventurous, they could never plan a journey to England with two such young children in the space of one or two days, because he will have to leave the day after tomorrow the latest if he wants to make sure to be back in England on time and also doesn't want to rush from the harbor to the courtroom. He knows that he will have to have a very important conversation with Marmaduke before going to court, so he has to be in England as soon as possible. And he doesn't see how he would be able to accomplish all of this if both Mary and Sam were with him, even if that would mean that Cora was with him too. What is more than that is that his parents really don't know anything about Cora and only a little about Sam. All he has told them so far is that Mary and he are staying with a friend who has another houseguest and that that other houseguest has a young son who Mary likes to spend time with. He is sure his mother would faint if she saw him and Mary with Cora and Sam without a warning. When he tells Cora this, she looks at him and smiles.

"Robert, there is a very easy solution. Leave Mary here. Go to England, finalize your divorce and then come back. Stay here for a little while longer, until we are all ready to leave. Remember that we said we'd go back to England together, and I am not quite ready to do so. I don't think we are ready to do so. You wouldn't be gone for longer than two or three weeks and I would take good care of Mary, I promise."

"I need to think about this and I have to ask Mary what she wants." Cora nods in understanding. He has never left Mary for longer than a day and he isn't sure whether she is ready for him to be away from her for three weeks but maybe this would be the best way to deal with all of this. Mary likes Cora very much, there is no doubt about it, she told him she wants Cora to be her mother after all and maybe staying with Cora for a few weeks while he wasn't there would be something that Mary could do.

When he tells his daughter that he has to return to England for a little while, but will come back to America and that it is up to her whether she will come with him or stay with Cora, his little girl looks into the distance first, then at the house they've been living in for quite some time now and then back at him.

"Do you promise that you will come back?"

"Yes."

"Then I would like to stay here. I get seasick on ships." That of course is true and something he had not considered. If he were to take Mary to England and back only a week later, his daughter would probably be seriously sick by the time they came back, because she can't keep any food down when she is on a ship.

"Good. I will miss you my darling girl." He will miss her very much, ever since the day she was born he has seen her almost every day; protecting his daughter, making sure that she at least had some happy moments every day has been what was most important for him for over five years now. Although it has become a lot less exhausting, because Mary is now in a place where she doesn't have to be afraid of anything or anyone. And he isn't the only one whom she trusts to protect her anymore.

"I will miss you too."

He has to leave the next day to make sure to be in England on time and sends a telegram to his parents that he is coming home for a short while, but that Mary won't be with him. Of course this means that he will have to tell his parents about Cora and therefore also a lot more about Sam than they already know, because his parents will be very surprised by him leaving Mary alone on the other side of the ocean for three or four weeks. Unless Rosamund has told their parents everything that he has ever written to her and that was quite a lot.

He and Cora spend the evening together and they are both rather subdued and don't say much, he will miss her and missing her will be more painful than missing Mary. He doesn't love Cora more than he loves Mary, but his love for Cora is of course different. He has become dependent upon her, she is not only the woman he is in love with, but also his best friend, the best friend he has ever had. So far his best friend has probably always been Rosamund, but Rosamund is his sister and while they get along rather well, there are still many things he would never talk to her about but feels quite at ease talking about them Cora. But more than their conversations, he will miss being able to hold her before they go to bed, to be close to her, to just see her and he has to tell himself that so far all they have done was share one kiss and that although Cora asked him to sweep her of her feet, they haven't even discussed getting married yet. But when he looks at her, sees the look on her face, he is almost sure that she feels the same; and because he doesn't want their last evening to be a sorry affair, he eventually gets up and says "Dance with me." And so they dance for a little while, until he pulls her closer to him and she rests her head on his shoulder.

"I will miss you so much, Robert."

"I will miss you too."

They don't say anything for a few moments until Cora lifts her head and looks straight into his eyes.

"I think you've swept me off my feet," she says and then begins to kiss him and he kisses her back and it is driving him wild. Without conscious thought he takes her to his room and he knows he won't be able to stop unless Cora explicitly asked him to do so.

"I can't stop unless you tell me to," she says to him and it sends a jolt through his body.

"I can't tell you that." They do things he has dreamed of doing with her for months now and he is in a complete daze and he knows he can't live without her anymore, not after this.

"Marry me," he says. It is not a question.

"Yes," she replies and they both begin to cry and laugh at the same time.

When he wakes up the next morning, she is still by his side, sleeping peacefully next to him. He is a little horrified at what they have done, he is a married man and he isn't married to her, but he can't regret it. He wakes her up because he wants to have time to say goodbye and to make sure the she is alright, that she doesn't feel bad about last night. She needs a minute to remember what happened and then she looks at him and her face breaks into the most beautiful smile he has ever seen, a smile that he knows he will never forget.

For once she gets up before breakfast, she has to, or everyone will know where she spent the night, although he doubts that anyone would care. The few servants they have know how close they are and Harold isn't home yet anyway and Robert is sure the he wouldn't care as long as they told him that they planned to get married anyway. They wake both their children as well and have breakfast with them, something they have never done before, but he thinks that maybe that should be something they should at least do from time to time when they are back in England. Or maybe they should have lunch with their children instead, because he has a hard time imagining Cora getting up for breakfast on a regular basis. She likes to sleep in, never very late, but she isn't exactly an early riser and she likes to have breakfast in bed, she has told him so several times because he keeps teasing her about it. He will miss her so much.

When he has to leave, Cora and the children come outside with him. He says goodbye to Sam who doesn't really understand what is going on, first, but when he tells the boy that he will miss him, Sam looks back at him and says "I will miss you too, Papa."

Mary begins to cry when he says goodbye to her and tells him that she changed her mind and wants to come too. He knows she only feels that way in that moment, that it has just hit her that she really will be without her Papa, but that she would regret coming along as soon as they were on the ship and he can't take her now anyway.

"I love you Mary, and I will be back, I promise. I will write to you every day as soon as I am off the ship."

"I'll miss you, Papa."

"I know and I'll miss you too. Be a good girl while I am gone and listen to your mother." Mary nods and stops to cry and he only realizes what he has said when he looks at Cora. "Sorry," he says but she only shakes her head.

"We will get married, Robert, don't be sorry about feeling the way you do. It makes me very happy. I love you." He gives her a fleeting kiss on the lips and then says

"I love you too."

Once he is in the carriage and waves his family goodbye he realizes that for the first time in his life he has told a woman that he loves her. Except for Mary and Rosamund of course, but that is different, they are his daughter and sister, his love for them is very different. While he watches them he sees Cora lift Sam up and put an arm around Mary and stir her back into the house.

When he gets off the ship in Liverpool six days later, he is rather surprised to see both his parents there. He had thought that maybe his father or Rosamund would come to greet him, but he wouldn't have expected his mother to come, she is not the type for any sort of sentimental acts and picking up her son in Liverpool just to see him a day sooner than she would have anyway certainly is a very sentimental act. Something that surprises him even more is that his mother hugs him as soon as he is close enough to her for her to do so and just as on the day the he left, she begins to sob, not violently, the way Mary sometimes does, and not as heartbreakingly as Cora did when he told her that he would try to sweep her of her feet, but in a more restrained and quiet manner. He wonders how guilty his mother feels about forcing him into that horrid marriage and if maybe his leaving for America, his going away and taking her beloved granddaughter with him, has shown her the extent of what she had done. He begins to feel rather sorry for her, although he doesn't know how to make her feel better in that moment. He looks at his father who only shakes his head and then pats his mother on the back.

His parents have booked a hotel for the night and he actually enjoys being with them. His mother seems to have calmed down once they meet for dinner, but it is apparent that she missed him very much and that she is beyond happy to be able to talk to him again. He is happy to see his parents again too, although he misses Cora and the children very much. While he was on the ship he realized that he had begun to think of Sam as his son and of Cora as the mother of both Sam and Mary, and he briefly wonders if he should tell his parents about this right there and then, while they are so happy to have him back, if only for a short while, but then decides not to tell them right away. They will find out soon enough that although he isn't even divorced yet, he has already proposed to another woman, a woman who accepted him, a woman his parents certainly don't want him to marry. That is his greatest fear. He is sure that his parents will never push him into a marriage again, but he is now about to marry the woman they did not want him to marry all those years ago and his is afraid that they will try to prevent that marriage.

But this time his parents won't have a say in the matter. He will marry again and this time it will be to the right woman and he doesn't care that his mother will be ashamed of having an American daughter-in-law and that his father will certainly object to Robert accepting another man's son as his own, but there is nothing to be done, both he and Cora already have a child and they will make those two children 'their children', in fact they already have, and hopefully their son and daughter will be joined by siblings soon. They plan to live at the Abbey, but if his parents become unbearable or if they just refuse to let them live there, they will move to Sam's estate. They would both prefer the Abbey, the night before he left, after she had accepted his proposal, Cora told him that she wouldn't feel very comfortable living on her dead husband's estate again, and so he told her that he would do everything to make his parents accept their marriage. But, he thinks that now is neither the time nor the place and maybe his parents will be more accepting of his rather peculiar second marriage once he is actually divorced.

Because of the divorce, they go straight to London and per his request stay with Rosamund and Marmaduke. He needs a few quite moments with his sister and he won't have them if they are staying in different houses. Ever since they were children, Rosamund has been one of his closest friends, and vice versa and they used to meet late in the evenings, sometimes even in the middle of the night when they had to discuss something they didn't wish anyone, especially their parents, to hear and he fully plans on having one or two conversations like that with his sister over the course of the next one or two weeks. He needs to talk to someone about his relationship to Cora, he doesn't doubt it, he loves her, but he just feels that he needs someone to listen to him. Rosamund knows most of it anyways, he told her in his letters and she already asked him for the date of wedding before he had even proposed. But his sister knows him well and she probably knew before him how he felt about Cora.

True to what he hoped and more or less expected, Rosamund tells him to not go to bed when he goes upstairs their first night in London and she comes to his room once she is sure that their parents have retired.

"How are you? Really?"

"Somewhere between scared as hell because of the divorce and blissfully happy because of Cora."

"The divorce will go through without a hitch. The lawyer has reassured Marmaduke of that. It doesn't even look as if that woman will get her money back, Papa knew what he was doing with the prenup."

"Let's hope so." At least that his father seems to have done right.

"Rob, even if the family had to return her money, it wouldn't matter. Marmaduke and I will bail the family out, we are serious about that."

"It would feel wrong. It is my duty to take care of Downton, to preserve it, not yours."

"And you did your duty, Rob, never doubt that. It was just too much for a single person to handle because of a mistake our parents made when they told you exactly how you had to do your duty and with whom. And who better to turn to than your own sister? I love our childhood home just as much as you do. I want to save it too. But I might not have to save it."

"Do you miss it?"

"The Abbey? Very much. But since that woman left, Marmaduke and I have spent more time there than before and that makes it much easier to handle. But I also love our house and our life here, so I am very happy."

"I am glad for you, you deserve it."

"Do I?"

"You are the best sister in the world and you know it."

"I am trying my best. And you aren't such a bad brother either. Will I like Cora?"

"I think so. You two have some things in common. You are not similar people, but I think you will get along well." He dearly hopes so, because he would hate it if his wife, the wife he loves, and his sister did not get along. But somehow he doubts that would happen. Cora has a disposition to like people and while Rosamund doesn't want to like everyone, she usually only wants the best for her brother and so he is almost sure that she will make an effort too.

"Well, she loves you, which makes her much more likable than that woman."

"Yes. How do you know she loves me?"

"You said you were blissfully happy because of her, so she must love you."

"You are right, of course."

"When are you going to propose to her?"

"I've already done it and she has accepted me." His sister looks very surprised now and he wonders if she thinks that this was wrong, he can't read the expression on her face, something which doesn't happen often.

"Oh Rob, that is wonderful. I am very happy for you." She now gets up from the chair she's been sitting on and gives him a hug. "When will you get married?"

"I don't know, soon." He has to tell her, he knows she will be disappointed, but if he didn't tell her and just presented her with the facts, she'd be even more disappointed. "Rosamund, Cora and I will get married in America, probably not that long after my return there. And it will be only us and the children, no one else. We've both had a huge wedding with hundreds of guests and neither one of us wants to go through that again."

"I understand." She looks rather downcast though.

"Rosamund, I know you would like to be there, but I, we, just have to do this our own way."

"I know and I am not angry at you. A little disappointed maybe, but it's your choice and I understand why you've made that choice."

"Thank you."

"Will you make me the godmother of your next child as a, I don't know, compensation so to speak?"

"Of course."

He knows there is something else Rosamund wants to talk about but she isn't sure how to breech the subject. "Just ask."

"What about Cora's boy? Sam?"

"He is a lovely child, you will like him very much. He is a little trickster, a very engaging child. Mary loves him to pieces."

"What about you? Do you love him to pieces too?"

"I think so. Rosamund, I know this is strange, but Mary and I have stayed with Cora and Sam for the past sixth months and somehow, without meaning to, we've become one family. Two children, a mother and a father."

"In that case, I am looking forward to meeting my nephew. I've always wanted one."

"I suppose our parents won't be convinced as easily, especially since they have no idea about any of it. They don't know that Cora's brother isn't much more of a figurehead for us staying together. He is hardly ever there."

"Well, they'll come around, they miss you and Mary quite a lot. They were very disappointed when you wrote to them that you wouldn't bring her with you. They are also disappointed about you going back to America."

"It won't be for too long. We'll be back in England before Christmas."

"I am looking forward to Christmas very much then. And I'll try to convince our parents that they should be very happy for you and that they are not only getting a daughter-in-law that will make you happy but a grandson who is a duke into the bargain."

"Thank you."

"You're welcome."

"Is there anything I can do for you?

"No, but thanks for asking." One look at his sister tells him that she is to break down in tears and so he puts his arm around and lets her cry on his shoulder. He knows that this is about her not being able to have children, all this talk about his children must have reminded her of the fact that she won't ever have any children. She doesn't seem the maternal type, but neither does their mother and no matter how much their mother tries to hide it, both Rosamund and he know that she loves them very much.

"I am so sorry."

"Thank you for saying that. I suppose I just have to make sure to be your children's favorite aunt so that they'll come and stay with me."

"You are their only aunt, so being their favorite one won't be very difficult." This has the effect he hoped it would have and his sister begins to laugh. He knows she will be a great aunt, she already is to Mary, Mary just hasn't realized that yet, but she will eventually, and she will love her aunt Rosamund very much, because that aunt will allow her to do many things that Cora and he will tell Mary are out of the question. But that is what aunts are for, it is their job.

"I'll still try to be an aunt they like and trust."

"I am sure you'll be successful." He decides to try to get Mary to write to her aunt as soon as he is back in America, he is sure that it would make Rosamund very happy.

"You have to go to court tomorrow."

"Yes."

"Will you go to Downton afterwards?"

"Only for a few days. I want to be back in America before Sam's birthday. He'll turn three on September 2nd. Will you come to Downton too?"

"Yes. And you should sleep now. Goodnight little brother."

"Goodnight."