AN: Obviously a few lines have been taken from Season Two
Downton 1901
Rosamund
She knows what has happened when she feels Cora shaking her awake. She has stayed at Downton ever since her husband and her brother have left for South Africa, officially to help her sister-in-law with the estate, but Cora is not only the Countess of Grantham but also the former Duchess of Suffolk and knows what she is doing very well. Rosamund's real reason for staying at Downton is that she couldn't face being by herself in London, she couldn't face being all alone in the house that she and her husband chose together, bought together, made their home together. But she knows that she will now have to face it alone.
"Marmaduke is dead, isn't he?" she asks Cora.
There are tears running down Cora's face and she only nods.
"Thank you for telling me." It seems odd to her that her husband has died and Cora is the one crying.
"If there's anything I can do," her sister-in-law says but she interrupts her.
"No. Thank you. Please leave me."
She still doesn't cry after Cora has left but she doesn't do anything else either. She lies in the dark and does nothing because her life is nothing. They never had any children, she couldn't have them, so her life had centered on her husband. Her brother and his family have only ever played a marginal role, no one else has ever played any role at all. So she just keeps staring into darkness.
She eventually notices her mother sitting next to her. "I am so sorry," her mother says.
"Thank you," she replies.
"My dear girl, if there is anything,"
"No. Cora already offered, there is nothing. My husband is dead, I will never see him again, I will be alone and that is that."
"I know it hurts, God knows I know how much it hurts. But you won't be alone, not in this family."
"I will be. I have no children."
"You have three nieces and a nephew who all love you, a sister-in-law who is also your best friend, a younger brother who has looked up to you all his life. And you've got me."
"Thank you Mama. But the problem is that my little brother, the head of this family, is in South Africa too and we don't know if he will ever come back. And if he doesn't, what will happen then? Nobody knows."
"I think that Cora knows. Ask her if you want to know. But I know her plans include both you and me. Robert said so before he left. The last thing he said to me was that I shouldn't worry, that Cora would know what to do, regardless of what would happen."
"So they made plans together, they talked about how Cora's life would go on, could go on without Robert."
"I suppose they did."
"Marmaduke and I didn't do that. We should have done that. Why didn't we think about it?"
"Because it is all straightforward for you, isn't it? You are his sole heiress; he made you that the day you got married. You are more than welcome to stay here or with me as long and as often if you like. That is all there is to it."
"Because we could never have any children."
"Yes and no. I think it was rather a complicated affair for Robert to set everything in order before he left. He and Cora have four children, but only two of them are really theirs. And one of the other ones is a 7 year old duke whose property and fortune needs to be managed and can under no circumstances fall into the hands of Robert's heir. And if Robert were to die, in the eyes of the law, Mary would be left without a parent. But they got it sorted out."
"I miss Marmaduke. So much I think that it will break me in two. I wish Robert's problems had been ours. I wish there was something, someone else he'd left behind."
"It just wasn't meant to be."
She falls into a dreamless sleep she never wants to wake up from.