AN: Same problem with the incorrect display again. Sorry for the double post.
Thanks for the many reviews!
Kat
Downton 1902
Robert
He has been longing for this day to arrive for more than two years now, ever since the day he had had to say goodbye to his family, the day he left for South Africa. He hasn't been home once since, the longest 'leave' he had been granted during the war had been a week and there was no way to get to England and back in a week. He had complained about that to his superiors, had reminded them that he was the Earl of Grantham, that his son was the Duke of Suffolk and as a thank you for that reminder, his next leave had been canceled all together. But now that the day of his return has finally arrived, he actually dreads going home. One reason is that he is afraid to face his sister, who will surely be at Downton. Maramduke's death occurred a year ago and according to Cora's letters, Rosamund is doing rather well now, apparently his sister still grieves her husband, which is only natural, but she herself has returned to the land of the living so to speak. But he has no idea how Rosamund feels about him, because since Maramduke's death, his sister hasn't written to him once. He wonders if his sister blames him for her husband's death and he asked Cora about it in one of his countless letters to her and she had replied that she didn't think so, but it worries him nonetheless. He doesn't feel responsible for his brother-in-law's death, because Maramduke was shot while on patrol and Robert hadn't been with him, but when he had been told about it, it had still made him vomit because it brought home to him what dying in a war meant. His brother-in-law had died thirty, maybe forty years before his time and he left a wife behind, a wife who loved him very much. And it made Robert think about what he would leave behind and that would have been so much more. He had stopped trying to be hero after that. He had actually considered staying in the army on active service after the war, because it would have given him a purpose, but after Marmaduke's death he changed his mind about it.
The second reason he dreads going home is that he hasn't seen his children for two years and he is afraid of the changes those two years will have brought to them, he is afraid the he won't recognize them as his children anymore and that they won't accept him as their father anymore, because he hasn't been a part of their lives for such a long time.
When the carriage comes to a halt in front of the Abbey, he realizes that while all of the staff are waiting in front of the house, Cora and Rosamund are the only members of his family who are there to greet him and it scares him. When he leaves the carriage, Cora walks towards him with a serious expression on her face. She puts her arms around him and says
"I'm glad you are home, I love you, the children are fine and with your mother, we will have our reunion later, take care of Rosamund first, she was sure you wouldn't return." With that she lets go of him and gives him a faint smile. He looks over to his sister and he knows she isn't all right. He walks towards her and when he tries to embrace her, she begins to hit him with her fists and she lets go of a string of things she has probably wanted to say to him for at least a year. "I hate you, I'm glad you are back, how can you do that to me, why didn't you come back after Marmaduke had died, how could you risk your life, I hope you didn't play the hero, why did you let my husband go on that patrol, I know it wasn't your fault, I was sure you wouldn't come back, I was so sure you would get killed too, I was sure that I would lose both my husband and my little brother in that stupid war." She then begins to cry and stops hitting him and he has no idea what to do, so he finally puts his arms around her and says "I am so sorry about Maramduke, he didn't play the hero, he didn't want to die, I am sure. They gave his personal belongings to me, he collected the letters you sent to him and he had pictures of you with him. He didn't want to leave you. I am sorry he didn't come back." Rosamund keeps crying for a few minutes but eventually lets go of him and says "Your wife is waiting for you I think."
He walks over to Cora and her face now looks a lot more relaxed, a lot happier, she looks the way he thought she would look when he returned.
"I love you too," he says and kisses her.
"The children are at your mother's house. We should go there right now."
"Yes, but let's walk. I want you for myself for a few minutes at least."
So they walk down to the village, hand in hand. They keep off the main roads to not be stopped by people wanting to welcome him back and they don't say much. He is glad about that because he doesn't want to be asked questions about a part of his life he already knows now he never wants to talk about. He knows he will have to say a little about it Cora eventually, she deserves that much, and he supposes that should Sam ever have the misfortune of having to go to war, he'd have to talk to him too, but that is really it. What he said to his sister had already been a lot more than he had felt comfortable saying. They slow down when they are in view of his mother's house, because he dreads seeing his children, dreads realizing how much he missed. As if she could read his thoughts, Cora gently tugs at his hand and says "You can't avoid it forever. And the sooner you see them again, the sooner you will feel comfortable being with them again." He nods at her and they take the last steps towards their children.
Mary
Her father is finally coming home from the war. She and her siblings had been brought to their granny that morning because her father needed to see Aunt Rosamund first. She doesn't really understand why, but she knows that it has got something to do with Uncle Maramduke's death. But she wasn't sad when her mother told her that she and her siblings wouldn't be in front of the Abbey to welcome their father back, because she wasn't too keen on seeing her parents reunite. She knows her mother rather well and her mother is very emotional, very American, as Granny always says and she doesn't want to see her mother greeting her father 'the American way', because it isn't ladylike behavior. Her Granny keeps telling her that she should be very happy about her parents loving each other so much, but she doesn't really know what 'loving each other so much' means and she wants to be a lady. So she stands in front of her grandmother's house to welcome back her father. She will give him a kiss on the cheek and say 'I am glad you are home' and that will be it. She will be a proper lady; she will make her father proud. So she successfully fights the urge to run to her father as soon as she sees him walking up to the house with her mother. She fights it successfully for exactly one second. And then she begins to run, overtaking all her siblings, because she is still the tallest and the fastest of them all and she throws herself at her father who catches her the same way he used to when she was still little. And she feels like a little girl when her father says "Mary, you've just knocked the wind out of me," slightly exasperatedly but keeps holding tight to her anyway and she begins to cry. Eventually she feels herself being passed off to her mother who puts an arm around her and lets her hide her face in her dress.
Violet
She has to smile when Mary starts running almost the second she sees her father, because her eldest granddaughter had spent the day talking about how to greet her father 'like a proper lady would'. She had tried to tell the girl that Robert coming back from the war after two years of basically fighting for his life was cause enough for his eldest daughter to behave a little unladylike, but Mary had insisted that she needed to show her father how grown up she was. Violet didn't think this a very good idea, but she kept quiet about it. Mary is so proud of being almost grown up that Violet didn't have the heart to tell her that her father would probably prefer her to be a child a little longer.
She watches as Robert, with difficulties, passes Mary on to Cora who puts an arm around Mary and lets the girl cry. For a second she wonders what this scene would have been like had Robert not divorced his first wife, if that horrible woman was still at Downton and it turns her stomach into a knot, a knot that becomes even tighter when she sees Robert greet his other three children, children who wouldn't be there if he hadn't gotten divorced and then married that American girl, the woman he had wanted to marry right from the start. When Robert finally lets go of his children and walks towards her, she realizes how much she has truly missed her only son, and how much she shared Rosamund's fear that he wouldn't come back. But he is home now and her stomach finally unclenches again.
Cora
She has held back the whole day. In the morning she didn't want to appear too nervous and jumpy to not make her children more nervous than they were anyway. When Robert stepped out of the carriage she had wanted to run to him and to cry and to never let go of him, but he needed to talk to Rosamund first and when he had done that, she decided that it would be best to see their children first because she knew Robert was dreading it.
She had been very relieved when Mary had thrown her grand plan on greeting her father in a 'proper ladylike manner' to the wind the moment the girl saw her father, because she knows that it would have hurt Robert, had Mary not come running.
She held back for the rest of the day because after greeting their children, not only them but also her mother-in-law had come with them to the Abbey and the whole family had spent the afternoon together. Of course her mother-in-law had stayed for dinner and quite some time afterwards. She doesn't blame her, Violet had missed her son and feared for his life more than she would ever admit. But even after Violet had left, they still hadn't been alone because Rosamund just wouldn't go to bed and her and Robert both thought that they shouldn't leave her by herself. But eventually Rosamund did go to bed and Robert had taken Cora by the hand without saying a word. He had led her to their bedroom, had led her inside, closed the door behind him and then put his arms around her. She had been so relieved at finally, really having him back after more than two years that she couldn't hold back any longer. She had begun to cry and so had he.
They have now stood in their bedroom for what seems like an eternity, holding onto each other and crying. Eventually Robert looks at her and says "If you knew how glad I was to have you back, how much I missed you, every minute of every day." "I do know, I think," she replies and he kisses her, really kisses her and then takes her to bed in every sense of those words.
"I didn't think that would happen tonight," she says while she lies in arms, at peace with the world.
"No. Neither did I. But I needed reassurance."
"For what?"
"That we could still do this."
"Why would we not?"
"I was afraid I had changed too much, changed too much to make this meaningful. Because the war did change me and not for the better I am afraid."
"I don't know Robert. I am sure that in essentials you are still the man you used to be. You love your wife and children, and that is all that matters."
"Let's hope you are right."