No Prince Charming

Chapter 7

"Papa took Rosamund away … to punish Mama."

Cora had been on the edge of slumber, but her husband's softly spoken words shook off any chance of sleep.

Cora started to reach to turn back on the light.

"Don't."

Cora left the light off as he bade. Shifting back to a sitting position, she waited.

"Mama wouldn't speak to him so Papa took Rosamund away from her. He found a boarding school willing to take her – not an easy feat back then given her age. He had the admission forms put with Mama's mail. No doubt, he expected her to come at him in a rage. To finally break her silence."

The advantage of little girls over sons – besides getting to dress them so prettily – was that you didn't have to send them away for schooling.

"She called his bluff. The following morning he found the application with his mail. Mama had filled out everything except his signature. After tea when we took a carriage ride through the village she began talking the idea up to Rosamund. How exciting it would be to go to school with other girls instead of having lessons with a governess."

Robert let out a long breath. "Not getting the response he had hoped for, Papa upped the ante. Before sending off the application, he ticked off the little box to say that Rosamund would be staying for summers and holidays."

"How far did they take it?"

"They got as far as dropping Rosamund off at the school."

"And then your mother balked?"

"No. Papa seldom won at the game of one upping Mama. Maybe when they were first married, when she was young and inexperienced, but not in their later years. He was convinced though that this time he had. When the trunks were brought out to be loaded on to the carriage to go to the train, he tried picking one up himself to prove that it was empty. When it wasn't, he claimed Mama had unfairly put Nanny to a lot of work packing what she was just going to unpack.

"He was so smug on the train. Carson had gone to him that morning – tried to talk him out of it."

"Our Carson? Or Mr. Carson?" Cora asked.

"Our Carson. Papa was taunting Mama about it trying to get a response out of her."

"You won't consent to speak to me, but you send your creature to plead on your behalf? He asked me this morning if I was sure I wanted to be doing this. He asked if I wouldn't consider a change of heart. He told me - 'Little girls shouldn't be parted from their mothers. A family should remain together.'"

"I know Mama had Papa well broken down by the time you met him, but it wasn't always that way, Cora. He kept needling her trying to get a response. I don't think he quite realized yet that if Mama was so angry that she wouldn't speak to you, you were better off not hearing what she would say to you. Or maybe at that point, he just didn't care as long as she was speaking to him again."

"You won't speak to me but you'll send Charlie to intercede on your behalf? That boy thinks you can do no wrong. I should have enlightened him on why it is you won't speak to me. Do you think he would still think so highly of you after that?"

"Mama didn't respond. She didn't say a word. Papa had been so sure that this time he would win, but you could tell he was getting anxious as they got closer. Mama wasn't. Just morose. Poor Rosamund just lay there pretending to be asleep. She had her head on Mama's lap and Mama just sat there stroking her head as you would a cat."

Cora listened rapt.

"Rosamund was a late admission so the Headmistress came out to the deserted courtyard to personally greet them. It wasn't until Mama kissed Rosamund outside the school and sent her in with her little case that Papa appreciated that he had no idea what was going on. Watching Rosamund go into the school Papa finally realized that Mama was not going to call his bluff.

"When a man came and tried to take a trunk down off the carriage, Mama stopped him. She told him that neither of the two trunks were Rosamund's."

Robert's lip curled slightly. "At last Papa began to grasp the situation."

"Surely you do realize that I left instructions with the school that they are not to release Rosamund to you without my being present. If you leave me you will never see your children again."

"Papa finally got his wish. Mama was speaking to him again, but ..."

"As it stands I won't see them anyway so where is the difference?"

"... I don't think he cared for what she had to say."

"You've overplayed your hand. That's the flaw in going to that particular well too often. If you are going to threaten to take the children away, you do have to eventually follow through or you will look weak - but once you have taken the children away you have lost whatever leverage you once held."

"Papa balked. He said he was going back in to get Rosamund. Mama told him not to. She said Rosamund would be better off being raised by strangers than by the two of them."

"That house, this family has never been a good place to raise children. Children should not be exposed to us."

"You were the one that insisted upon having them! I certainly never wanted you to have any children."

Cora winced. Poor Rosamund. That wasn't something any child should ever have to hear.

"How old was your mother when she fell and broke her hip?"

"Old enough to know that one of her sisters had pushed her, but young enough that she could never recall which." Robert answered.

Compared to Mama and her sisters, Mary and Edith were like the sisters in Little Women. Say what you would about the spiteful things the Crawley girls did to each other - it never amounted to something anyone could hang for.

Upon meeting Robert's mother, Cora hadn't realized that the Lady Grantham's use of a walking stick was not a recent development. It was only later that Cora had discovered that Robert's father had knowingly - willfully even - married a cripple.

She could hear the grimace in Robert's next words. "Mama's hip was never actually broken. It was only fractured. Clarkson managed to get a film of it when the hospital got that new machine a few years ago. Her leg was, as we of course knew, broken, but her hip only fractured in the fall."

"How did Dr. Clarkson get your mother to agree to that?" Cora wondered aloud. "To letting him take an x-ray?"

"He didn't. He just tricked her into standing in front of the machine. That's all there was to it."

"How did your mother take the news?"

"She doesn't know. I told Clarkson not to tell her. I didn't see a point. Why dredge up the past when Papa is no longer around for her to tell him I told you so." Robert sighed. "All those years of them arguing and it wasn't even broken."

Cora doubted that news would have made a difference to Robert's father. He had always made it quite clear that he felt that the risks of childbirth to his wife's health outweighed any possible benefit.

Robert's mother on the other hand, had felt that no risk was too great to ensure her husband's brother and his wife never inherited the title of Earl and Countess of Grantham.

"Papa went on to expand upon why he never wanted us, but ..."

"Both your mother and one of your sisters died in childbirth. My -"

Their darling Sybil had only been the latest in a long line of women to have lost their life in childbirth.

"... Mama had had enough. She interrupted him."

"- You didn't want to have children - how fortunate then that we never had any together."

Cora gasped, but Robert, continuing on, didn't seem to take notice.

"Papa's face lost all expression. He turned to look in the direction Rosamund had disappeared. It took him a moment to actually respond. Turning back to Mama, he asked her."

"Is that true?"

"Mama wouldn't answer."

"It's not! You're lying! I know you're lying. That damned foreigner was the first. That bloody Russian! I know he was!"

"It doesn't matter if it's true or not. All that matters is that I agree to put it in writing."

"What?"

"I've spoken to Patrick."

"My brother, Patrick?"

"If I will put that in writing, Patrick has agreed to make sure I get to keep the children."

Cora couldn't help herself. She interrupted. "Oh my god! Poor Rosamund! To have heard all that!"

"Oh she didn't hear any of it. As I said, she was already inside the building. The matron offered Mama and Papa a tour of the school, but Mama didn't want to go in. She wanted to say her goodbyes outside."

"Then who told you what was said? It was Susan's mother wasn't it?"

Talk about an awful, awful woman!

"No. No one told me. I overheard them."

"You?" Cora didn't understand.

"Mama told me to wait in the carriage, but I sneaked out while they were saying goodbye to Rosamund. Mama's back was to the carriage. She didn't know I had disobeyed her by leaving it."

Cora questioned him. "But why were you even in the carriage?"

"I was too young for Eton to take me yet, but the school for Rosamund was very near to the one Papa found that would."

"He was taking you away too?!" Cora exclaimed. Robert hadn't mentioned that part.

tbc

A/N As always reviews are greatly appreciated.