"What?" Of course he wasn't sure that she would say yes, in fact he rather doubted she would, but a simple 'no', or maybe an "I'm sorry' would have been a much kinder way to refuse him. Defeated, he gets up and turns around.

"Robert," she says and he wants to ignore her, but she grabs his hand and forces him to turn. She seems to have trouble holding back her laughter and nothing has ever hurt him so much as this.

"Are you laughing about me?" She now really begins to laugh and if he didn't still love her so much, he'd consider slapping her across the face. But of course he would never do that to any woman, especially not her.

"Yes," she says and looks at him expectantly. "It was supposed to mean, 'how can you ask when you know the answer?'"

"What?" She has now utterly confused him. "I was afraid you'd say no, I even considered it the more likely outcome, but I would not have expected you to laugh at me." She is now almost hysterical and has to hold onto him to not fall over. This goes on for a few minutes and only the fact that being a gentleman has been engrained to him from the day of his birth on keeps him from just letting go of Cora and letting her fend for herself. Eventually she calms down and looks at him.

"I am sorry, Robert," she says and strokes his cheek so tenderly that it almost causes him to cry. "I just thought you knew the answer, after what I said before. That I thought that I might have made a wrong decision. After all, this must have been a spontaneous proposal."

"Why?"

"You have no ring."

"What? Of course I have a ring. Oh dear God, I forgot the ring." He reaches into his pocket, gets it out and shows it to her.

"It is beautiful. Oh Robert, you spent too much money on me. I hope you bought me a very cheap Christmas present."

"What?" This woman keeps confusing him.

"At dinner you said you were done with your Christmas shopping."

"Not completely. I haven't got a present for you yet."

"Why not?"

"I didn't know who I would be buying a present for. A good friend of my daughter's or my wife. That makes quite a difference."

"Buy a present for your wife." He can't believe it.

"So 'yes'?"

"If you put that ring on my finger." So he takes her hand and slides the ring in place.

"Yes?" he asks her one more time.

"Yes!" she says and then kisses him. He lifts her off the ground and swings her around. "I love you, too," she says.

"I think we have to go back inside. They'll be waiting for us." There is no need for him to explain who 'they' are.

"So you told them?"

"I asked them for help. Sam and Mary, mainly. I needed you alone, didn't I?"

Much later that night, after a celebrating their engagement with their families first and then by themselves, when Cora is in his arms and he is playing with her hair he says

"I thought you meant no. When you said 'how can you ask?`"

"I am sorry about that. I ruined it for you."

"Well, you made it rather memorable."

"It is a beautiful ring. Where did you find?"

"In a jewelry shop I went to to look for necklaces for Mary. Which reminds me that I still have to tell Matthew that I put some necklaces on hold for him to choose from for her."

"You better go with him when he makes the final choice."

"She should like all of them."

"You are a very good to Matthew."

"I want my daughter happy. And him too. When do you want to get married?"

"Soon. And here. Not in England." He almost expected that.

"We will be here for only two more weeks. Or would you like me to stay here longer?"

"No. I want to go home with you."

"So you don't want a big wedding."

"No. Just the children and us."

"Alright. We'll do it in whichever way you like."

"Thank you, darling."

"The Earl and Countess of Grantham," the butler announces.

Quite a few heads turn to look at them and most people seem rather surprised and then the murmuring starts. Sam and Lilly walk towards them and welcome them, this is their 'Winter Ball' after all.

"I am glad you made it in time. Mary and Matthew arrived hours ago."

"We visited my sister first."

"How is she?"

"Much better. She will come to the shoot."

Lilly and Sam move on to greet the other guests and Cora and he join Mary and Matthew.

"The papers will have a field day with the two of you."

"We know."

"I still think you should have made an official announcement."

"No. We would have been required to at least give a huge dinner party then and we did not want that." Mary rolls her eyes at that but Cora squeezes his hand in thanks. He wanted to make an official announcement but Cora didn't. She said it would cause too much publicity. He wonders whether their method of just showing up as a married couple at the Duchess of Suffolk's Winter Ball won't cause even more publicity, but at least they will not have to give any kind of party or ball themselves, although he isn't sure whether he wouldn't have preferred that. But then again, he understands Cora's reasoning. Both their first weddings were society affairs and both their marriages turned out to be almost unbearable.

He dances far more dances with Cora than he should, in fact the only dances he does not dance with her are the two dances he shares with Mary and the one he shares with Lilly.

At one point he takes Cora outside for a while and when they come back inside, they can hear a few women talk about them.

"Who is she?"

"The mother of the Duke."

"So she was a Duchess? And she gave that up to be a Countess?

"Apparently."

"Why in the world would anyone do that?"

"Because the Earl is Robert Crawley. A lot of women would give up quite a lot for him. He kissed me once, you know? We were both 18. Lucky woman."

"Oh, he kissed many women when he was 18, I think." Both he and Cora have to laugh at this, but the women don't notice them. They are however joined by two men.

"Lucky man, he is. Married to a woman like that. I'd have taken her."

"She never would have taken you, though. Her husband died 28 years ago. It took her 28 years to get married again. Imagine that."

"Well, she is rather picky, I suppose." They both have to laugh out loud at this and when heads turn their way again, he decides that it is time to lead Cora away again.

"So, I am a very lucky man."

"And apparently I am a very luck woman."

"Which makes both of us lucky."

"And happy."

"Very happy," he says and then kisses her on the lips in full view of most of the guests at the ball. He doesn't care about the indignant whispers of the people around him, he loves his wife after all. And so he takes her hand and leads her back onto the dance floor, where he holds her a lot closer than absolutely necessary.

AN: This is it for this story. Thank you so much for all your support, especially to those of you who have reviewed every chapter! That really makes me smile.

I'll start to post Sentimental Haste on Sunday.

Kat