AN: Thank you for all the reviews!
I know Robert's reaction wasn't very kind at the end of last chapter :) So you might enjoy this chapter a little more ;)
May 1896 - 3 days later
.
She is glad the day is over. It is warm outside, the first day of summer, and the children were restless. Most of them are well behaved but they don't view schoolwork as very important. Especially not on a day like this. So she packs her things to go home and wants to say "go away" when she hears a knock on the door. She is sure it is the mother of another 10 year old who is going to tell her that her daughter or son won't come to school anymore because he or she found a place in service.
"Miss Levinson?"
She looks up and sees Robert standing in the door.
"Lord Downton," she says and feels herself blush.
He seems to have understood this as an invitation to come into the room.
"I am terribly sorry to interrupt. But I wanted to thank you again for returning Mary. And I think I owe you an apology for the way I acted after you returned her. I was very worried about her and my relief at seeing her unharmed made me forget my manners."
"You have nothing to apologize for," she says because she knows that this is what she is supposed to say.
Robert hovers and looks around the room. She is sure he wants to say something else but she does not want to hear it.
"Lord Downton, is there anything else I can do for you?"
He looks at her and smiles.
"You listened to me. When I told you not to go back to America but to become independent you listened to me."
She wishes he hadn't referred to that period of her life. It is over and done with.
"Yes. It was good advice. To my own surprise I find that I prefer living in England to living in America. The reason for this might be the fact that there is an ocean between my mother and me now, I am not sure."
Robert breaks into loud laughter now.
"Yes. Sometimes I wish there was ocean between Lady Grantham and myself."
She raises her eyebrows now because Robert is not supposed to talk to her in that manner, not anymore.
"You don't seem to think very highly of your mother," she says but he shakes his head.
"On the contrary. I admire her. But sometimes that is best done from a distance."
"Lord Downton, I do not think that Lady Downton would appreciate you talking to me in this manner. Especially if she ever were to find out that," she looks at him imploringly now.
"There is no Lady Downton," Robert says. He seems neither sad not happy when he says that. He seems resigned.
"Why?" she blurts out and wants to bite her tongue off.
"She died about four years ago. It was a riding accident. It is bad for Mary of course. She was only 18 months old when it happened and she does not remember her mother but she knows she once had a mother and she misses her. It is difficult to explain. And here we are complaining about our own mothers."
"I am sorry, I did not know." There is nothing she could have done differently but she still feels as if there was something she should have said or done.
"And now my parents are sending me on a hunt for new wife. I need an heir after all. But at least I don't need money. So maybe I will be able to give into my heart this time. I wish you well, Miss Levinson," Robert says, puts his hat back on his head and leaves.
Only when she is in bed later that night does she realize what exactly Robert said. He may of course have been talking about someone else, may not have been talking about her, but there is a little voice that tells her that she was who she was talking about. That had he been able to give into his heart he would have chosen her. Her stomach somersaults at this thought but she tries to ignore it. Robert won't care for her now, she will probably never talk to him again.
AN (again): Please let me know what you think about this chapter.
I am thinking about writing a longer story or rather a story with longer chapters again. It would be set around 1924-1926 and Simon Bricker would be in it as well. I always thought that Julian Fellowes wasted potential with that story line (don't worry, I don't think that he should have made Robert and Cora go through a divorce). Well, actually I think he wasted a lot potentional with how he put so much Robert/Cora to the sidelines. I understand that he did it in favor of the Mary/Matthew story line because they were a perfect couple and I wish Dan hadn't left because again, that was wasted potential. But I think that besides Mary/Matthew, Robert/Cora should have been the focus of the show.
I can't make any promises about this new story though but I hope that I will have a little less work in the months to come (although that may turn out not to be true).
Enough of my rambling.
Have a great day everyone!