AN: I am now in a hotel that has free WiFi, although the connection is rather slow, but I thought that I could give this update a shot. I will return to updating more regularly within the next few days, once I am home and have slept for a good while :)

Her maid comes in at eight and tries to pry her away from Robert. Sometime during the night she lay down next to him and fell into a fitful sleep and while she was asleep, she somehow moved into Robert's arm. Her head is on his shoulder and his arm around her and she holds onto him as if her life depended on it.

"Your ladyship, you have to wake up. Dr. Clarkson is here and he has to examine his lordship."

She knows it is illogical but she doesn't want this to happen because she is afraid of the doctor's evaluation of Robert's health.

"My lady, please."

She knows there is nothing she can do and that she will have to face the truth eventually, so she gets up and lets the doctor do what he has to do. He doesn't try to send her away; he probably knows that she would not go anyway.

"It looks better. Much better. The fever obviously broke and he should wake up soon."

"What does that mean?"

"That Lord Grantham won't die."

She becomes dizzy and she is afraid that she will again end up in a state in which she can't do anything, but she pulls herself together and looks at the alarm clock on the night stand instead. It is eight thirty in the morning and she knows what she has to do. She dismisses the doctor, writes a short note for Robert she places on her pillow and then leaves. As usual all the servants jump up as soon as she comes downstairs, although both she and Robert have repeatedly told them to not do this as long as they come downstairs unannounced because they are often in search of their daughter who likes to get underfoot in the servants' hall and in the kitchen.

"Good morning. Please, stay seated. I am looking for Lady Julia."

Julie walks in at that moment, clearly arriving from the kitchen and looking rather apprehensive.

"Julie, there you are. Let's go upstairs."

"I promised Daisy I would help," the little girl says in what is clearly and attempt to not have to come with her mother. It breaks her heart, but she thinks that she probably deserves this.

"That was very nice of you my darling, but I need you upstairs for just a few minutes." Julie turns around and looks at Daisy uncertainly who nods at her.

"Alright Mama, if that is what you wish." Julie says this in such a grave voice that she wants to pick up her daughter right in that moment and apologize to her over and over again, but she can't do so in front of all the servants. So she just holds out her hand to her little girl and guides her up the stairs.

"Mama, might I ask what you need me for?" For a moment she wonders if Julie tries to hurt her intentionally by using such formal wording as a revenge for last night, but when she looks into the girl's face, she sees that that is not the case. She drops down to her knees and pulls her daughter close to her.

"Oh Julie, I am sorry about last night. I shouldn't have been so short with you. I know you only wanted to help."

"How is Papa?"

"Much better. Dr. Clarkson says he will wake up soon. Maybe he will already be awake when we get there."

"So that is where we are going?"

"Yes." She lifts Julie up and starts to walk. The girl puts her arms around her and says "I love you Mama." It almost drives her to tears.

She carefully opens the door and Robert is awake, reading her note.

"Papa!" Julie struggles free and jumps out of her arms.

Robert doesn't say anything but hugs Julie as best as he can lying down.

"I made you a cake. It is over there. A chocolate cake. Because I know you like it and you have to eat when you are sick to get your strength back. That is what Mama always says."

"Thank you." Those are the first words that Robert has said and she can see that it pains him to say even that little.

"Julie, go and see if Mary is up and tell her that your father is much better now. Tell all the others too, if you like."

"Yes Mama."

"Thank you."

She waits until Julie has shut the door before sitting down next to Robert and taking his hand in hers.

"I am so glad."

It only takes him a couple of days to get back on his feet and he tells his daughter that his speedy recovery is probably due to her almost endless supply of chocolate cake and ham and bacon sandwiches, another one of his favorite foods. He wonders if he isn't encouraging his youngest daughter too much concerning her work in the kitchen, but when he shares his doubts with Cora she says that Sam spent most of his time between the ages of six and sixteen either in the stables or in the garage and that learning how deal with horses and cars certainly hasn't hurt him.

"And she is only four, she doesn't really work in the kitchen, she gets to knead the dough and probably eat a bit of it too. Otherwise she keeps Mrs. Patmore and mainly Daisy company. And what is the harm in the daughter of an Earl knowing how much work is put into the food she gets served every day?" He can't help but agree with his wife.

When Spring turns into Summer he thinks that the family has finally entered a much deserved phase of calm and peacefulness. Matthew and Sam are both back to being their old selves and they come up with ever more modern plans to change the running of the estate and he lets them. Sam's estate makes quite a lot of profit and he trusts both his boys to not do anything too foolish, in fact, he is quite sure that they are a lot less foolish than him. He is of course still in charge, but he listens to Sam and Matthew more than he has ever listened to anyone. There will be another child in the house before Christmas and he is sure that the second child of Mary and Matthew will not be the last child that will join them any time soon. And he is right. Lilly and Sam make the announcement that they will have another child as well after the annual garden party.

"Papa, a penny for your thoughts." Julie has joined him on the bench from which he is watching Cora and Mary walk around the garden, trying to decide on which flowers to pick for the bouquet for dinner. He has to laugh about his daughter who is only a little older than four and a half years but sometimes sounds so grown up already.

"You can have them for a kiss and a hug," he says to her and she pays him in kind.

"I was wondering if your mother and sister will be successful in designing a bouquet that your grandmother will like."

"They will not be, Granny likes to complain." He has to laugh about this.

"You are probably right."

"Nanny says I spend too much time in the kitchen." This does not come out of the blue for him, the nanny talked to Cora about this too. It surprises him though that the nanny told Julie because Cora told the nanny that Julie could spend as much time in the kitchen as she liked.

"Do you like being in the kitchen?"

"Yes. I like making food."

"What kind of food do you make?"

"Cake. I help kneading the dough. And I peeled a few potatoes yesterday."

"With a knife?" Maybe he should talk to Mrs. Patmore.

"No. With a potato peeler Papa."

"Oh, of course." He has no idea what a potato peeler is but thinks that he should not tell his daughter that.

"I also help shape the cookies. But Mrs. Patmore says I have to call them biscuits. But I don't think I really have to. Mama calls them cookies too."

"Yes, she does." He has to smile at that. Julie loves her mother dearly and he knows that his daughter's greatest ambition is to be like her Mama, which leads her to imitate the way Cora speaks. The result is a rather charming mixture of English and American English, in both choice of words and pronunciation. If Julie keeps this up, her way of talking alone will probably make her one of the most interesting young women during her first season. But that is still 14 years away and he can't help but be thankful for that.

"Papa, why doesn't Mama talk like you or Granny?"

"Because she is American."

"Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why is she American?"

"Because she was born in America. She came to England when she was nineteen."

"Why?"

"She wanted to live in England." Sometimes his little girl asks questions he wishes she would not want answers to for a few more years.

"Because she wanted to live with you."

"No. She didn't know me before she moved here."

"But when she was here she met you."

"Yes." He briefly wonders if he should change the subject of the conversation, but he knows that if he did, Julie would change it right back.

"Why didn't you marry her then?"

"Because I was a stupid fool."

"You aren't stupid, Papa. And you aren't a fool." He wishes that Julie would never grow out of the age at which children think that their parents can do no wrong.

"Thank you."

"Charlotte says you only married Mama because of me."

"Who is Charlotte?"

"One of the maids. She said so yesterday when she came into the kitchen to get a sandwich and saw me there. She said you wouldn't have married Mama if she hadn't been in the family way. But I don't know what that means."

"It means that you are having a baby."

"So Mary and Lilly are in the family way because they are pregnant."

"Yes."

"Is it true that you only married Mama because of me?"

"No. I married your Mama because I love her."

"Mary says it takes nine months for a baby to be born."

"She is right about that." He hopes the girl won't go any further but he knows that he is hoping against hope.

"I was born five months after you and Mama got married." The girl is too smart for her own good.

"Yes."

"Why?"

"You were born earlier than you should have been." That is not a lie after all, she was born early. He knows that eventually Cora and he will have to talk their daughter about their affair, they will have to tell her all of it because Sam and Mary know all of it too, but he won't talk to Julie about this now, she is still too young to understand all of it.

"Mary says that is because you and Mama already loved each other before you got married."

"Yes."

"Mary says you loved Mama for a long time before you got married." He should have words with Mary over this.

"Yes."

"Mr. Carson says that Mama has changed everything around here. He said that Downton Abbey was a gloomy home before Mama came here."

He wonders why the butler would say such a thing to Julie, but supposes that Julie's frequent presence in the servants' hall influences how the staff see her and how they talk to her.

"He is not wrong."

"So Mary's Mama wasn't very nice."

"No, she was not." He really doesn't want to talk about this, but he knows that Julie won't let go.

"I am glad that my Mama is nice and makes you happy."

"That, my darling girl, she certainly does. And so do you."

"Julie! Wanna play with us?"

George and Jamie have come out of the house, followed by the nanny. Jamie is holding up a ball.

"You don't mind, Papa, do you?"

"Of course not."

He watches his daughter and grandsons as they play football on the lawn and wonders when it will be time to teach the boys cricket and to tell Julie that she shouldn't play those games at all. He hopes that time will never come.

"A penny for your thoughts, my darling." He has to laugh at this.

"You can get them for a kiss." Just as Julie did, Cora pays in kind, but with a very different sort of kiss.

"I only thought that I wish there was a way to freeze time. For our lives to be like this forever. I have never been so happy, never been so free of any worries. And it is all thanks to you."

"No Robert, that is not true. I am part of that, but certainly not solely responsible for your happiness."

"Still, if you think about where we were six years ago, it just makes you wonder."

"About what?"

"Whether this isn't just the calm before the next storm."

"Maybe it is the reward for all that we have been through. Darling, stop worrying. Enjoy what we have."

"I do."

"Good. And now kiss me."

And so he kisses his wife, the woman he loves more than anything.

AN: This is the end of this story. Thank you for all the reviews!

I thought about writing a oneshot about the beginning of the affair. What do you think?

Kat