Cora quickly made her way to the bathroom and he heard her lock the door before he had a chance to speak. His left hand massaged his temple gently.

Wonderful.

This was exactly what he hoped to avoid.

He knew she would want space and readjusted in bed shuffling down and closing his eyes.

He didn't even know where to begin.

Tomorrow was going to be hell.

They should have known it was coming. But there wasn't anything they could do now. He rolled over, the bed was still empty and he could see the bathroom light still on, as was his lamp. Cora needed to sleep, they had a big enough day ahead of them without all this. He switched off the lamp beside him with a groan, hoping she would come back to bed soon so he wouldn't feel guilty about going to sleep.

He was still awake when she did, and she slipped into bed silently tugging at the covers. She seemed to sense he was still awake and turned briefly to face him even though the room was dark.

"I don't want to talk about it."

He took the hint, rolled over and went to sleep.


When he woke the next morning it was later than he would have liked. He had hoped to slip back to his room before too many people were up, but that was not to be. Considering the announcement that needed to be made, he didn't suppose it would matter too much.

He made his way to her ensuite, knowing his bedroom didn't have one. Her side of the bed was perfectly made and he wondered how long she had been gone. Hopefully she was at breakfast and they would have the opportunity to showered and dressed back in his pyjamas making his way back to his room to dress for the day.

Cora was siting on his bed, her face in her hands when he walked into his room closing the door behind him. She looked up when he walked in and he was pleased to see that she hadn't been crying. In fact she looked strangely determined and he wondered if she had had the opportunity to talk to Bricker yet.

Last night was a mess and he wished he could go home and take Cora with him. Dinner had been a nightmare, then they had sex which had made him feel better and then his sister broke the news which would have consequences for them all.

He didn't want to be the first to speak, and made his way to his suitcase instead pulling out the clothes he should have hung up last night.

"I'm going to ring Simon."

"Uh hum" he began to dress unbuttoning his pyjamas and pulling on an undershirt and a navy jumper."Have you read anything?"

" I googled our names."

He looked to where she still sat on the bed, her body half turned to watch him,

"And?"

She laughed and shook her head with a frown, "Apparently you and I have been conducting an illicit affair for the past year."

He rolled his eyes, honestly not that shocked ,"Have we? I don't seem to remember it."

She went on unperturbed, "and Simon and Daisy have recently found happiness together after I broke his heart." He frowned as he pulled on his pants, she was still watching him, he wondered if she was still annoyed at him.

"Could have been worse I suppose."

"Robert" her tone suggested that she wasn't exactly pleased with him. But it wasn't like he had done anything wrong, he only had her best interests at heart. She looked annoyed and folded her arms across her chest as he moved to find his shoes.

"You having an affair with your ex husband, while your new fellow is left heartbroken, if anything it makes me look bad."

He was use to that though, his divorce with Cora had been across several papers and magazines. It bothered him, but he could deal with it.

He finished doing up his shoes and moved to stand in front of her. She was wearing a cream coloured skirt and a tight black top that had two slits at the bottom revealing the waistband of her skirt. She was wearing stockings, knee height boots and an orange bangle on her right arm.

In fact, she looked delectable. He gave her a coy grin, hoping to change her mood,

"You look very nice Cora."

She rolled her eyes, her arms still folded on her chest,"don't flirt Robert, not now."

She stood, but he grabbed her arms, his thumbs circling on the soft material of her shirt.

"You're cold" It was second nature to him, "put something warm on before you call him." He could see her composure softening at his kind words and he stepped in closer, knowing an opportunity when he saw it., "Would you like breakfast before or after?"

She shut her eyes for a moment drawing comfort from his touch. "I'll ring him now and come down to breakfast."

He unfolded her arms and ran his fingers along her cheek, she gave an involuntary shudder.

"Would you like me to wait?"

She looked up at him from beneath her eyelashes, her voice soft when she spoke.

"It will only upset you, go down to breakfast and I'll meet you there soon." She reached up and pressed a kiss to his mouth. "Remember to try and stay calm." She kissed him again, grabbing his bicep as she did so, "See you in a minute."

He left quickly closing the door behind him. "Ah Papa, all ready for today?"

He startled, it was Edith and she looked surprisingly happy, obviously she had not been googling her parents that morning.

"I doubt anyone is ready Edith, but I'm sure we will muddle through."

She smiled, "Yes, Mary has asked me to help welcome the guests this morning and I think I'm in charge of a tour of the grounds later. Hopefully it doesn't snow, or that will be off and I'll probably have to supervise tea." She laughed as they made their way into the hall and toward the dining room.

"I think tonight will be fun though, Mary and Mama have put a lot of work into making sure everything will be perfect."

"Your mother?"

"Yes she and Mary have been working for months on this." He didn't know that, but he supposed it made sense, Mary wouldn't want him to know what Cora was doing. Though he did pay for the whole event, so it would be nice not to be kept in the dark. He sighed and a chorus of hellos greeted them as they began to serve breakfast. He decided to concentrate on that until Cora came back down.


Cora was not having as nice a time as Robert. In fact she found herself feeling increasingly frustrated and fell back on the bed dramatically, thankful that she was alone.

She tried again. "You could have warned me."

"Like you warned me you were going to leave? I think not Cora, you made your bed and now you must sleep in it."

"Simon, that's hardly…"

"Too late Cora, the stories out now, there's nothing I can do." There was everything he could do, but it appeared Simon Bricker was more of a cad than she had ever given him credit for. Maybe she should have listened to Robert. She sighed into the phone, "well you could have at least waited until this weekend was over."

"I waited for your gallery opening Cora, that was enough." Only because he stood to make money from it.

"Anyway I have to go, Daisy's calling me. Oh and look out for some lovely photos in the magazines next week, you and Robert look like you were having a wonderful time." He practically spat the last part and hung up on her.

She dropped her phone onto the mattress beside her and shut her eyes.

She found she wasn't upset at all. Just angry. She had told Robert to keep calm and all she wanted to do was hit something. But that really wouldn't do, Simon was behaving like a child, which meant she had to be an adult. And that meant admitting to her family that she and Simon were no longer together before they read about it in the newspapers.

Although it seemed to her that the majority of the family already knew.

She sighed.

Telling them about her and Robert she wasn't so sure about. She was still cautious to reveal that they were in fact back together.

She took a few deep breaths and slipped her phone into her pocket before making her way down to breakfast.