Isobel had been watching from the window as Robert and Cora exited the sweet shop and headed towards the green in front of her house. She had been watching ever since she'd glimpsed them walk through the grounds of the church that morning. She wasn't spying, just keeping watch. She knew what it was like to be pregnant and she could remember all too well the need to get out and about in the last few weeks, but Cora was obviously clutching onto Robert quite firmly and Isobel could see the concentration on her face as she tired to avoid slipping over. It was obviously she was tired and uncomfortable and Isobel didn't doubt that she was, her due date was a week away, there was no way she should be anyone but at Downton in the warm. It was for this reason she had watched the couple as they made their way through the village, if anything happened she wanted to be ready. It wasn't that she didn't trust Robert, he had proved in he last few months that he could take good care of Cora, but nevertheless he was likely to panic rather than think rationally if something did happen. She also didn't doubt that if Robert had been allowed a choice he would not have taken Cora out this morning, but no doubt she had used her charms and his weakness to persuade him, Isobel had seen enough of that in the last few months to be sure that the excursion they were taking had Cora's name written all over it.

As she watches them exit the sweet shop, both still upright, thank goodness; Cora plunging greedy hands into the brown paper bag she holds Isobel couldn't help thinking back to the plan the lady had presented to Matthew, of him living at Eryholme if the child were to be a boy. She wondered if Matthew would accept the offer. She'd been thinking like this for months, convinced that the baby Cora carried was a boy, she couldn't explain why she thought that, indeed there was no proof, Cora herself believed it was another girl. But Isobel wasn't convinced, she was sure the couple deserved a son, she was sure they deserved what they'd always dreamed of. Of course, it would change her own son's future, but then that had been altered by Mary anyway. Lost in her thoughts of a baby boy that would no doubt have the blue eyes of one or other of its parents she almost misses the turn the couple make into her driveway. A moment or two later Molesley ushers the couple into her little sitting room.

"Sorry to disturb you Isobel but I thought it best if Cora had a break from the cold, and a sit down."

"Yes, quite." She turns her gaze to Cora. "You shouldn't be out you know." She's unsurprised when the woman gives her a cheery smile, her hand hovering over her bag of sweets.

"I'm quite alright. Still perfectly able to walk, Robert keeps fussing over me but that's just his way, I'd rather you didn't join in." Isobel doesn't shy away from the warning Cora presents her with, why should she when she's only trying to protect her and her unborn child.

"Well, Robert is correct. The baby is due in a week and the cold weather might bring on labour as might the exercise. It would be a lot safer for both of you if you were at home in the warm."

"I appreciate your concern Isobel, I really do, but I'm fine. Have you heard from Matthew recently?" Isobel isn't blind to Cora's methods of escape, she's rather practiced in changing the subject, she's really quite gifted at the job even when she had a dining table full of guests she manages to avoid controversial topics of conversation by changing the subject. This time though Isobel decides to indulge her, after all there is nothing she can do about the fact Cora is out, the decision had been made that morning and now here they were. Neither did she wish to worry the ever worrying Robert by pointing out how tired she looked, or the look of relief she'd seen cover her face as she'd sat down on the settee.

"I have, he wrote to ask me how you were and whether everything was still proceeding alright with your condition. He also asked for any other news he might be interested in." This hadn't been the whole letter but it was the only bits that really mattered for the present conversation.

"And did he mention if he'd come to a decision about my proposal?" Cora's words come through a mouthful of sweet and Isobel can't help but turn away as Robert watches her indulgently, his hand rubbing slowly up and down her thigh, need they be so affectionate in front of her? Cora's condition is enough to make most people frown, a forty year old woman pregnant, and then to watch them being all cosy all the time. It was bearable at Downton where there were lots of other distractions at dinners and such like, it was possible to look the other way without seeming rude, but in the middle of her sitting room?

"No, he didn't, only that he would wait until he had news of the child." Cora nods as another sweet enters her mouth. There's a break in conversation as Robert feeds her the next sweet, dancing it in front of her mouth, Isobel once again feels the urge to be as far from them as possible. She can't really understand her aversion to their affection it's not something she had any difficulty with until Cora became pregnant and then suddenly it became stomach churning. Perhaps, she muses, she might be a little jealous of Cora's chance to have such a large family when she only managed to have one son. "Are you still convinced the baby is a girl?" Isobel notes how her question startles the couple back to reality, they were obviously miles away.

"Yes, I think so." Isobel decides not to comment on the expression of uncertainty and hope that's written on Cora's face.

"And do you have a name?"

"Yes," it's Robert that answers this time, "we do, but, you'll have to wait and find out, we haven't told anyone yet."

"Well, I'll wait with heightened excitement. Now, I really think you ought to be getting back to the abbey. It'll be lunch time soon, and you need to eat something other than sweets Cora, and I suggest you rest for the afternoon, you're too close to the due date to not be well rested." Isobel notes Cora's weak nod and the winch she makes as she stands, her hand immediately reaching for Robert's support.

Isobel can't help thinking two things as the couple make their way back down her drive, the first is that she is sure not only that Cora secretly wants a son, but that the child is a boy, instinct somehow. The second thing she thinks, instinct also, is that, most probably by the following morning, at the very latest tomorrow night there will be a new Crawley cooing from its crib.

Isobel, if she had been able to place a bet on her assumptions would have found her pockets rather full. That night, some time just before midnight Cora shook her husband awake. "Darling, call the doctor," she said, "she's coming."