Just a Spook

Part 2

A/N: M-rating for the second part. I hope you enjoy it and please review!

He didn't know what ripped him from his sleep. But he was wide awake in the dark of the night now. It was a strange night. Foreign somehow. Robert had no sense of time but it was dark. It was long before the time he had to get up. That he knew.

And then he heard it again. A howling. That was what had woken him up. He turned his head and saw Cora slumbering peacefully beside him. She wasn't disturbed by the weird noises that arose from the night. And somehow, Robert was glad. She should sleep. She had already been troubled earlier that night. It was good that she had found sleep. She had been oddly scared and unsettled, and Robert hadn't quite known how to treat her. He hadn't been able to comprehend her uneasy state. But she had luckily been alright and reassured already again when he had awoken from the subconsciously troubling effect, her absence had on him.

Now he was awake. The howling sound that had faded a little for a moment returned even more intense now. Where did it come from? Robert couldn't place it at all. But then it slowly came to him, what Cora had said earlier. I thought it was haunted. The night. It's kind of creepy, don't you think? It was the night. The night outside. That was where the sound came from.

Robert pushed himself up in bed a little, enough that his head could rest against the headboard. He tried to fixate the windows with his eyes. But it seemed the curtains blocked the room quite effectively from the night outside. Robert sighed. He shouldn't look for things that weren't there and go back to sleep instead.

Something seemed wanting to teach him differently, though. A loud howl was accompanied by a vision that made Robert's eyes widen in shock. A light shadow ran first over the curtains of the left window, just to reappear in a split second on the right curtain. The howl faded in the distance and the drapes were tainted in the dark indistinctive grey again.

Robert had only one thought. A ghost. This was the closest to a ghost he had ever encountered. He didn't know what this meant or what (or who) it was exactly, but it left quite the impression on him. Robert didn't move an inch. It could come back again after all.

Robert knew that many people had died in these walls. After all, Downton Abbey had hosted generations already. Still, Robert wasn't convinced this was sufficient to make it a haunted place. Oh, but there were strange deaths too, he remembered now. He really didn't want to think of the odd circumstances of Mr Pamuk's death, but now at night the pictures in his head regarding this incident crystalised in much clearer form than ever before. Not the exact moment of his death. Gosh, he didn't want to picture this. He thought about the dead man wandering the halls of Robert's beloved home at dead of night. He saw the lifeless white skin of the man who had the healthy olive taint hours before that made more than one person in the house hot under the collar. Robert saw him floating through the hallways, bare and dead. Oh God, and carried by the pristine hands of the discreet women! To this day, Robert couldn't wrap his head around it. How had Cora been able to bring this about? Being ripped from her sweet dreams to be facing the disgrace of her eldest daughter? Witnessing an unforeseen death at night? A guest dying under her hospitality? But how, in God's name, did she manage to guide Mary and Anna through the dark and quiet house with the weight of a dead man on her gentle delicate arms?

He turned his look to his wife by his side again. She was still sleeping soundly. He only saw her dark curls framing her head and her small shoulder wrapped in the light sheer material of her nightgown. She had been always so innocent to him, to be protected at all cost. Of course, he knew she had seen things too. But he had wanted to ensure her the idyll of the peaceful and love-filled life she wished for. The night of Mr Pamuk's death didn't fit in with what Robert wanted for her. And he couldn't make it undone. He couldn't take the burden from her.

And now, Mr Pamuk's ghost was maybe haunting the house. There was still some turbulence outside but the foreign visitation hadn't reappeared until now.

It probably wasn't the ghost of Pamuk, Robert told himself. He was lumping together the most random thoughts. Why should Pamuk come this night to haunt them? He wasn't there the other nights, right? Why should he be here tonight? There was no sense in all of it.

He winced when a sudden howl sounded. His slight jump startled Cora who he might have jostled in the course a bit.

"Hmph," she moaned.

"I'm sorry, darling," Robert whispered but it felt wrong to make a sound with the presence of whatever it was out there.

"What is it?" Cora grumbled and she turned around to him.

"I… I think there is something," he breathed. Cora blinked open her eyes.

"Where?"

"Out there." He pointed to the window. Cora shuffled closer, leaning her head, heavy from sleep, on his shoulder. They watched the curtain-covered window together.

"Was it a splashing sound?" she said softly after a while.

"No. More like a howling."

There was silence between them for a moment.

"Like the storm?" she asked then.

"The storm?"

"Yes, the ghastly rainy storm from earlier the day is gone wild over the night. I told you about the leaves it had thrown against the window."

"Maybe… maybe it's the wind," Robert relented. "But there was also this light… well, this light shadow at the window. It went from there," he pointed to the left window. "To–"

At that moment, the window was illuminated again, and Robert fell silent. This time the light brightened both windows nearly equally and it lingered some seconds longer.

"Do you mean this?" Cora asked. Robert nodded. His chin brushed her temple.

"Robert, I think this is only the moon."

"The moon?"

"Yes, it's hidden behind a lot of clouds tonight but the strong storm uncovers it now and then. Should we look?" Cora already scrambled from his side and made to leave the bed.

"Oh no! That's not necessary," Robert quickly intervened. She turned back to him. "I prefer we stay cuddled up," he added. He heard Cora chuckling dryly.

"Alright," she laughed. Robert felt her warmth at his side seconds later and it gave him the familiar calm of reassurance. Cora tucked her head beneath his chin and brushed her hand across his chest until it came to rest remotely where his heart lay. The dulcet scent of her hair reached his nose. And suddenly, the chill the spooky night had put on him was easily endured and even rather sweet with her in his arms.

"What did you think it was?" Cora asked.

"Oh… I don't know," he evaded her question.

"You had another idea. I know it. Tell me," she insisted.

Robert's hand began combing Cora's tresses on their own accord. His other arm was wrapped around her body. He entertained thoughts of what to answer.

"It seemed a bit like a ghost, you know?" he said eventually. After a moment, Cora nodded lazily on his chest.

"Ha!" All of the sudden, she drew in a sharp breath. It startled Robert immensely.

"What is it, dear?" he asked concerned. Cora lifted her head and looked at him in the semi-dark.

"You know what, Robert?" she sounded nearly excited. "It's the 31st of October, right?"

"… Yes?"

"It's the night of Halloween!" she proclaimed in a delighted tone.

"And what about it?" he asked.

"Well, doesn't that explain the spooky atmosphere tonight? But hence it's Halloween there is nothing to worry about. This is how it should be on Halloween after all, right?"

"If you say so, my dear." Robert didn't quite share his wife's enthusiasm in following this strange logic.

Cora put her head back down on his chest again. Her breath hit his neck as she said, "We should keep each other safe from this night's spook." Her lips connected with the sensitive skin at his neck and left wet traces.

"I feel…" Robert sighed involuntarily. "That you already have a special plan for this."

Her kisses travelled along the neckline of his nightshirt.

"Yes, and it will also ensure that we stay warm as well," she breathed.

"Mmh, this sounds good." With a sigh, Robert's body relaxed completely and he let Cora slip under his blanket and hover over his body. Her hands wandered first over his arms and then over the rest of his body. Her fingernails drew featherlight patterns on his body through the material of his nightwear. In a matter of a few seconds, she managed to make him tingle all over.

"Oh, Cora," the words escaped his lips with a content breath. The warmth of the immediate nearness of her body enveloped him and then her lips descended onto his. Her palms cupped his shoulders and her front slowly pressed against his body as their lips began exploring each other without any hurry. Her slender body melted against his and he held her close, wrapping his arms around her waist and her upper body, letting his finger trail down her spine. Their kisses quickly became more passionately. An intense warmth spread in Robert's body. One of his hands dropped to Cora's bottom and cupped her bum gently, before giving it a light squeeze.

Cora moaned into his mouth. Her fingers crawled underneath his clothes, finding their way blindly. She opened buttons and waistband, while Robert rolled up the length of her sheer nightgown. Her legs were bare already, and when the bunched-up fabric reached her waist, Robert abandoned it for a moment to caress the back of her thighs. The soft texture of her skin felt heavenly under his fingers. Cora straddled his hips more completely as his administrations got more tickling. She sat up, moving her weight onto his thighs. She freed him entirely of his nightshirt, and Robert couldn't hold back anymore to undress her as well. He pulled the nightdress from her upper body and threw it rather incautiously to the floor next to the bed.

Only very dim rays of moonlight aided the vision in their room but it was enough for him to guess her silhouette. He knew it well enough to add the missing details. His hands travelled up her sides, tracing her contour.

"Come here, darling," he whispered, and Cora leaned down to give him a kiss. Her fingers – warmed from his skin already – pressed against his cheeks, and Robert gently took her wrists. He didn't want her fingers to leave his body. Cora's bare skin against his expelled all rational thinking from his mind and he revelled in the sensation of her moving on top of him as she produced more and more contact of their bodies by removing all dividing layers and moulding her body into his. Both their hands wandered nearly desperately and their breaths became short and gasping.

"I need you," Cora said breathlessly before she lowered herself onto him, which elicited a guttural moan from him. Cora knew how to move above him. First languid and drawing out each roll of her hips before Robert began meeting her quickening thrusts with his strokes. The grip of Cora's hand on his shoulders grew tighter, and then she looped her arms around his neck, drawing his upper body closer to hers. Her breasts brushed against his perspiring chest as her hips ground onto his loins. The breath of her moans was hot against the shell of his ear as her temple pressed against the side of his head. It wasn't very long until she sat down hard on him with a releasing groan that could remotely resemble something like "Robert… yes!"

Robert moved his hips up a few times more as Cora lay in his arms more and more relaxed until he found release himself.

Heavily breathing they sank into the mattress, shuffling lazily into a comfortable position with their limbs still tangled and Cora's head on his chest, her chest pressed to his side. Her right leg was looped around his hip in a way Robert enjoyed more than she maybe knew. He pulled the messy sheets over them and tucked the two of them in as best as he could. It wouldn't take long until the cold of the night would get to their hot bodies. His fingernails scratched her scalp lightly as he played with the curls that had come loose from her night braid. Cora's palm brushed smoothly over his chest and upper arm. As his fingertips slowly wandered down to her back, tracing her spine, his thoughts wandered back to the event of the night.

"Halloween isn't so bad after all. I could have it more often," Robert said. Cora's following chuckle reverberated through Robert's chest.

"You are so right, my darling," she agreed with a voice already tainted by sleep.

The End