Cora finally got up from the toilet. She wished she had stayed back at home, she needed Robert right now. She already felt bad for leaving for Downton so soon after Marmaduke's dead. She washed her hands and checked her pants in the mirror. She had lost quite some blood. There was some spotting on her pants. She could not change her clothes; she had a meeting in about 5 minutes. She wrapped her vest around her waist, took a deep breath and stepped out of the toilet room.

Isobel met her. Cora let out another sigh, she was not in the mood to argue with Isobel right now. But to her surprise, she had a worried look on her face. Isobel stepped closer and asked. "Are you alright?" Looking down at her vest. Cora pulled it a little bit tighter around her waist and nodded.

"Are you sure?" Isobel asked again.

Cora looked up and saw genuine concern. She swallowed, trying to get rid of the lump in her throat. "I need to be. The board is expecting me to present the numbers."

Isobel wrapped her arm around Cora's shoulder, this gesture broke Cora and she felt a tear on her cheek. She whipped it away angry; she did not want to cry. Isobel made a sussing sound. "You do not have to tell me what is wrong, but please call Robert. Do you want me to present the numbers?"

The first thought Cora had was that it was very convenient for Isobel that she was a wreck, so now Isobel could run away with the numbers and make it look like she did all the work. But at the same time Cora felt guilty, for this thought, that was not fair. Isobel was really concerned. "Thank you, I will..." Cora stopped mid-sentence when she felt faint. Isobel acted quickly and helped her to the ground.

"Stay here, I am getting Dr. Clarkson." She said while walking away.

Cora could not even leave; the world was spinning. She put her hands on her abdomen, something was wrong, she felt it. She took her phone out of her bag and texted Robert. 'I do not want to alarm you, but you should come to Downton as soon as possible.' When she pressed send, Isobel returned with Dr. Clarkson right behind here.

He kneeled beside her and took her wrist to feel her pulse. "Are you still dizzy?" He asked.

Cora nodded. "I lost some blood earlier."

Dr. Clarkson's eyes went down. "I will need to examen you." He said with a frown, then he looked at Isobel. "Can you get a wheelchair; I don't want Lady Grantham to walk."

"Can you please just call me Cora?" She said softly.

He ignored her question. "When did you start to bleed?" He asked instead.

"This morning I saw some spots when I woke up, but I have that on a regular basis, but about 30 minutes ago, I felt a blood clot. When I went to the bathroom, there was some blood in my underwear." Cora's phone started to ring, it was Robert. "I need to answer this." She said apologetic to Dr. Clarkson.

He turned away discreetly when Cora answered her phone.

"What is wrong Cora?" Robert sounded worried.

"Robert, I need you to stay calm, but I just got unwell." She tried to keep her voice steady.

"Unwell? How do you mean unwell? Where are you? Are you alone? I will send Mrs. Hughes to where you are, she will bring you to Dr. Clarkson."

"Robert." Cora said with her soft voice. "I am already in the hospital."

"What!" Robert almost shouted through the phone. "Cora, what happened?"

"Ssstt." Cora sussed him. "I was at the hospital for a meeting when I started to feel unwell. I am in the good hands of Dr. Clarkson, but I need you." That last part she said with a thin voice, almost inaudible.

"I am already in my car. Let me know when you go back to the Abbey, so I know where to find you." Cora could hear the panic in Robert's voice. "Cora?" He said unsure. "I need you."

Cora's heart ached, of course Robert was incredibly worried, they just buried Marmaduke and now she was here telling him she was unwell. "Robert, it is nothing really serious. Please calm down, I need you here in one peace." She heard him take a deep breath.

"I see you in two hours."


In the meantime, Isobel had arrived with a wheelchair and Cora was wheeled into an exam room.

Robert rushed into the hospital; Cora was still there. Isobel was waiting for him at the entrance. "Where is she?" He asked, forgetting about all the politeness.

"She is resting in one of the rooms, I will bring you to her, but I think she is sleeping."

Robert nodded and followed Isobel. She opened the door and there she was, his angel. Lying in a hospital bed, she was curled up. A blanket was draped over her, she looked peaceful.

Isobel notched him into the room. "Go on." She said.

Without making too much noise, Robert sat down next to Cora. Careful he took her hand in his, she opened her eyes directly and he saw she had cried. Her eyes were bright red, there were now also tears welling up. He got up, laid down next to her and pulled her close. He caressed her back and pressed his lips on her head. "I am here." He murmured. "I am here."

"We lost another baby." Cora said without hearable words once her sobbing stopped.

"You were pregnant?" Robert said surprised and immediately realising his mistake.

Cora pressed her face against Robert's chest. "I did not know I was pregnant, but I just had a miscarriage."

Robert pressed her even closer to his chest. "Oh, my darling. I am so sorry. I am so sorry." He felt tears behind his own eyes.

There was a soft knock on the door and Dr. Clarkson entered. Robert quickly got up from the bed, he helped Cora to sit up and sat on his chair again.

"As you both know now, you had a miscarriage." Dr Clarkson started. "During the scan, I noticed you have a lot of scar tissue in your uterus. I want to do some further testing to see where that is coming from. It can be something innocent, but I need to know that for sure.

Cora looked at Robert and he took her hand, squeezed it softly to encouraged her to tell the whole story.

"Before I met Robert, I was in an abusive relationship. That man has hit me multiple times in my abdomen. One time it caused a miscarriage." Cora told the whole story about all the times; Anthony had hit her.

"That explains a lot." Dr. Clarkson said. "Al his actions, caused you uterus to get scar tissue. It is harder for an egg to find a place to settle and even when it settles, it can get lose very easily."

"So, Cora could never get pregnant." Robert said, still holding Cora's hand. His thumb was slowly moving over the back of her hand.

"It is not impossible. You will need an operation." Dr. Clarkson looked at Cora. "I can remove some of the scar tissue and your change to get a successful pregnancy will increase with 30 to 70%."

"What are the risks of that operation?" Robert asked.

"The only risks is basically, that it will not work, and you will not be able to get pregnant."

Robert now looked at Cora. "I think we need to try it."

Cora lowered her eyes. "Can we talk about this before we make a decision?" She said softly.

"I think that is an excellent idea." Dr. Clarkson chimed in. "You need to process what happened today and then we will have another talk about what we are going to do." He got up. "If you are feeling up to it, you may leave and go back home." He said to Cora.


Mrs. Hughes offered to bring some tea to the library. Robert looked at Cora and then back to Mrs Hughes. "Tea in my room upstairs is perfectly alright." He did not want to use the library, although since they were at Downton a lot more, the groundkeepers had pulled back into the backrooms. He knew Cora would prefer the privacy in his room.

"I will take a shower." Cora said, once Mrs. Hughes had brought the tea and something to eat.

Robert nodded. "Take you time darling. Just let me know if I can help with something."

Cora stepped close and put her arms around him. She pressed her cheek against Robert's chest. "Having you close is enough at the moment darling. Thank you for coming."

Robert took Cora's face in his hands and kissed the tip of her nose. "For better and for worse. For better and for worse." Softly he kissed her lips.