Sorry for the late update! I've been drowning in work the past couple of days and really didn't have the time. I alwas reread a chapter before I post it and I just didn't get around to it.

Anyway, thank you very much for all the lovely review on the last chapter!

Chapter 5

Violet – Downton Abbey, four day later, July 1889

There are no more tears left. She watches the last of the guests leave and slumps down on a chair. She doesn't care what it looks like. It is only her husband and the two children they have left that are still in the room. And Charles, the footman. He is very discreet and he won't tell anyone how she sits.

"How are you?" Patrick asks in a very soft voice as he sits down next to her. He takes her hand in his and she is utterly thankful for it.

"Like you I assume. I am feeling like a parent who has just buried a child 60 years before his time. He should have had children of his own, he should have had an adult life, we should not have seen him buried. We are not supposed to feel this pain. And yet we do."

"But it is over now. We've put the funeral behind us." She hears a tiny bit of relief through the pain in Patrick's voice. "And we have got to move on. There are matters we have to discuss." She hates the business like voice. "Can't it wait until tomorrow?" she asks and Patrick says "no. I'd rather it not wait."

"Charles," he says, looking at the footman. "Please tell everyone downstairs that Mr. Crawley is now the Viscount Downton and to be addressed and treated accordingly." This gives her another pang and when she looks at Robert she sees the pain reflected in his eyes. Robert did not want this. He might have been envious of Richard, but he did not want this.

"And, I am sorry to bring it up, but there is the matter of the estate. We cannot go on another year. Robert, I know this sounds horrible and hollow but you have got to marry. We need money. I've gone through the books, we might be able to hold out until March if we don't take on anyone new and if the harvest is good but that is it. If you don't get married before that we will have to sell. We will have to sell everything."

"How am I supposed to find an heiress between now and March? The season is almost over," Robert says and then she cannot stop herself.

"I suppose that after all we are lucky that half of London believes that we tried to push you and not Richard towards Miss Levinson," she says. She doesn't know why. She knows she is hurting Robert but she needs to let it out. And to her surprise Robert only sighs. "I think she may have her eyes set onto the Duke of Suffolk now. I don't think she is keen on going back to America."

"Then you have to stop her," Patrick says. She could hit him. She hates this. Their eldest son has just been buried and they are pushing their younger son into the arms of the woman that Richard was practically engaged to. But not officially. He hadn't asked the question.

"Go to London, Robert. Be discreet. But go. We need the money," she says. There is time to cry about this later after all.

Cora – a rented home in London, August 1889

"The Viscount Downton," their butler announces and she looks up. For a moment she is shocked to see Robert in the door but then she remembers the awful truth.

She hears her parents greet him and then hears her father say "Martha, I have to show you something," and he literally pulls her mother out of the room.

"They shouldn't leave us alone like this. Again," Robert says but she shrugs her shoulders. "that makes it easier, doesn't it?" she asks and there is that hard and calculating look on her face.
"You have always been honest with Robert and now I'll be honest with you. The Duke of Suffolk proposed to me last night. It wasn't indecent, I wasn't engaged to your brother after all. I am sure he knows he is only my second choice but he does not care. He needs my money." Robert looks at her and says "that is what I expected". She thinks that she can detect a little disappointment in his face.

"I told him I had to think about it. He wants an answer tonight. I think he has also set his eyes on Miss Flynn. If I say no, he'll ask her."

"Cora, I," Robert says and she can see thoughts and arguments forming in his head that he cannot put into words. Or maybe does not dare to.

"It is not your fault your brother died," she says.

"No. And I don't feel responsible. But I have to take over all of his burdens. I need to find a wife as soon as possible. But I can't marry while I am still in mourning. Which means I cannot marry until the end of January. And yet I have to be married to a rich heiress by March or we will lose everything."

She doesn't know what to say for a moment. And then she throws caution and being afraid of acting completely inappropriately to the wind.

"My parents were planning to tour the continent during fall and winter. I could go with them. We'd be back in February."

Robert looks at her completely flabbergasted.

"Are you saying you want to attend my wedding?" he asks and despite it all she has to laugh. "I'd like to attend it, yes. But what I would like even more than that would be to be in it."

"You'd like to be in my wedding? As what? A flower gi," and then he stops speaking in the middle of the word. And begins to laugh uncontrollably.

"Oh dear god, I am sorry. I am so sorry. I did not get what you were saying. My brains must be addled. And it feels so wrong to laugh now."

She takes his hand in hers.

"You are allowed to laugh. It doesn't mean that you aren't sad about your brother's death anymore."

"You were supposed to marry my brother."

"A business arrangement. Which has now been rearranged."

"You understand that I cannot propose to you now," he says and this is what she expected.

"Yes. But you can tell me to tell the duke that I will not accept his proposal. And tell your father to meet mine as soon as he feels up to it."

.

Robert

.

He can't remember ever feeling so many different emotions at the same time. Incredible sadness and emptiness because he lost his brother. He is scared of being the Viscount Downton, he feels as if he was buried alive with the pressure of having to take over something he wasn't meant for. He is scared of having to marry the right amount of money. And he is incredibly happy that Cora has to all intents and purposes said that she is willing to be the woman with the right amount of money. Yet he feels incredibly guilty. Cora was supposed to become his sister-in-law, not his wife.

"Don't feel guilty. Half of London thinks that your family were pushing you on me anyway," he hears Cora say. She again has that calculating look on her face.

"I suppose so. Cora, please tell the duke that you do not want to marry him," he says and for a brief moment there is beautiful smile on her face.

"Thank you," she says.

There is nothing left to say and this is not the right occasion to celebrate or be openly happy about what just happened between them. So he takes his leave. But not without a twinge of regret for not having kissed Cora. And then he feels very guilty again.

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