AN: Thank you for all the lovely and kind reviews! I am so sorry that I could not answer them all personally, but I am still drowning in work (I have had this story prewritten for a while).

Please let me know what you think about this chapter!

Thank you!

Kat


August 1890

They have been walking across the grounds of the estate for quite a while now and Cora has been holding onto him the whole time. He thinks that she has changed a little, that she has started to seek his company even more, that she wants to be held more, that she has become a little more emotional, that she has become both more lovely and lovingly.

"I am glad we are home," he says and she smiles.

"You prefer Downton to London."

"Yes," he says. "This is where I grew up."

"I think we never really let go of our childhood homes." He looks at her and he is worried that she might be homesick.

"Do you miss New York?"

She shakes her head.

"Not very much. I miss my parents and my brother a little, but New York is not where I grew up. We moved there when I was 14. I sometimes think back to our home in Cincinnati, but my father sold it, so I will never see it again. I do see the advantage of the English love of tradition. This home will probably always be here for you. You will spend your whole life here. Rosamund can always come back here. It is a lovely thought."

"Thank you for saying that."

She briefly puts her head on his shoulder and sighs a little.

"Robert, don't thank me for that. I am glad that you have this wonderful home and that you are letting me share it."

"You saved it," he says, feeling more than just a little guilty.

"No. We saved it, Robert. I couldn't have saved it without you marrying me and offering something in return. And I am very glad that we did save it. It was more than worth it. And the price we paid wasn't too high. Not to either one of us I think. You said yourself that you were happy. And I," he has to stop her now. He is afraid that she'll say something she might regret. Something about being content because she loves her husband, even if he doesn't love her back. So he stops walking, turns to her and puts a finger on her lips. He looks into her eyes, eyes that make his heart melt, takes a deep breath and then says

"No, the price wasn't too high. I did not pay anything at all and I gained everything. This estate, a happy marriage, a wife I love. Because that is what I feel for you. I love you."

She looks at him as if she didn't understand and then her face breaks into a smile. She begins to speak and he expects her to say 'I love you too', but she doesn't. Instead she says

"We are having a baby."

A thousand thoughts run through his head, 'we are not ready for this' and 'we are too young' are repeating themselves endlessly but when he looks into Cora's face, sees the happiness in her eyes, he pulls her close to him and whispers "you are making me so happy," to her. And the moment he says it, he knows that this is right for them, that they are young, but in love and thus ready for a child.


AN No.2: Just a quick note on Cora becoming pregnant so quickly: I know that it is usually assumed that it took Robert and Cora quite a while to have Mary and that is somehow romantic.

As I said at the beginning of this story, I am using the Feb 16 1890 date as Robert and Cora's wedding day (as suggested in 5.01). According to the script book of Season 1, Mary was 21 by the time the Titanic sank, which means that she must have been born either in or before April 1891. If we combine the 1890 wedding date and Mary being 21 in 1.01, then Cora must have become pregnant within a few months after the wedding. That just fits this story well and I hope you can bear with me :)

Kat