AN:This is the last full chapter with the exception of an epilogue. The sequel will launch some time next week and follows the story from four months after their wedding (Leaving me a little scope to do the wedding and the honeymoon in greater detail sometime in the future). Credit where it's due, I have stolen one of Julian Fellowes' lines for Biolet and used it at the very end of this chapter, I take no credit for that work. I really hope you like this and I can't thank you all enough for your continued reading and reviewing.
The following morning Robert storms from the house, ring in his pocket with a call of "There's nothing you can do Mama, the decision has been made." He can't stand being in the house any longer but it was too early to call on Mis-Cora. Instead he heads to Kensington gardens and retraces the steps he traced across the ground with Cora on his arm a few days previously.
If Cora had been asked how she would have wanted to spend the morning after she became engaged it would not be the series of events that she was experiencing. Her father and brother had been acceptive of her decision to marry Robert and understood the reasons for reaching the conclusion she had. He mother however, was beyond livid. She'd left Cora to sleep the previous night with the eerie parting message of "We shall sort this in the morning." So here she sat, her mother red in the face a few feet in front of her, shouting.
"Cora, I don't understand. Love over security and a grand title. What are you thinking? It's not like Mr Crawley even loves you."
"Doesn't love eventually result in security?"
"Not necessarily."
"Honestly Mama, you can argue all you like. My decision has been made. I don't want to marry Lord Bertram and spend the rest of my life thinking 'what if I'd married Mr Crawley?"
"Won't that happen in a years time when your supposed 'love' dies and you sit around thinking 'what if I'd married Lord Bertram?'"
"Mama, I don't even like Lord Bertram so I sincerely doubt he can make me happy. Love or no love I'm marrying Mr Crawley." Cora watches as her mother turns to the door, finally defeated. When she turns back to her daughter she speaks quietly.
"Very well, but don't turn to me when you realise I'm right."
"Levinson's don't complain Mama, we persevere. Isn't that what's you've always said?"
"Yes, it is."
"Robert likes me, even if he doesn't love me. I'll be content with friendship, I promise."
"Very well, it is your life. There is one thing I will ask, how much do you like this Mr Crawley?" Her mother comes and sits beside her.
"I've told you Mama, as has Papa, I love him."
"Why? What's special about him?" Cora pauses in an attempt to form words in her head.
"I like him because he's different...funny...honest...kind...doesn't care that I dislike dancing...I actually talk to him honestly, I tell him what I think and he's doesn't sneer at me of he disagrees. He asks for my views on some things and I-I don't know." Tears start to fall down her cheeks and she doesn't know why, all the stress and all the yelling coming to an end? Or maybe it's because her mother pulls her into a hug. Her mother hasn't hugged her since she was a tiny little girl.
"It's alright Cora. You really do like him and I'm convinced you can make him love you just as you do him. After all, who wouldn't fall for your beauty and humour?"
Robert eventually decides that its no longer too early to call on Cora and strides up the steps to her house, only for the door to be opened before he knocks and a red-faced Lord Bertram exits. The young Duke scowls at him.
"I suppose it was you that told Mr Levinson of my reputation with women. You realise I'll never marry. No English woman wants me. I also expect it was you that told Miss Levinson I only wanted to marry her to rebel against my insufferable parents. Good luck to you Mr Crawley. I imagine her beauty will become less appealing after a time. At which point you better watch out. She deserves to be ruined."
"You'll never lay hands on her." Robert steps into the house and brushes Lord Bertram's threats aside. He won't touch Cora, nobody will. He'd do anything to protect the woman who'd given him her heart.
He gets shown into the drawing room, Cora is sat in the window seat riding a book. She moves to get up, her heart more at ease now he's finally arrived.
"Don't get up. I didn't mean to interrupt your solitary reading."
"It's alright. I've read the book a thousand times. I just like it."
"Pride and Prejudice again?"
"Yes, how did you know?"
"I remember you mentioned it once. You said that you liked Miss Elizabeth's refusal to Mr Darcy's first proposal." Cora smiles and moves to the settee, gesturing for him to sit down, he's been listening to her conversation that must mean she means just a little bit to him. "At least my proposal was more agreeable to you. You don't know how grateful I am."
"I could say you were the first man in the world whom I wished to marry!" They laugh. "We're even now. I was in your debt for the ball and now I dan repay you."
"Yes, quite literally." The room is filled with their joint laughter again, but this time it's not cut short. "I'm not just grateful for your money though. I never thought such a wonderful woman would ever want to marry me." Robert takes Cora's hands coaxing her to look up and a blush warms her cheeks and she looks away.
"Nobody's ever called me wonderful before."
"Well, you are. And as I said yesterday. I want to make you happy."
"Has your mother recovered from the news?"
"Not quite. She'll come around eventually. But, you should know Cora that it may take a while and she'll probably try and make you suffer in the mean time."
"I expected that."
"How about your parents?"
"My father is fine with the whole situation, he likes you, you know. He was very impressed when you asked him for my hand yesterday, having already secured it. He said 'what a sensible man, woo the lady first and the father can't say no'" Robert laughs. "My mother's come around now as well."
"How dI'd you manage that? I thought she wanted a Duke for you."
"I persuaded her you'd make me happier. I persuaded her that my feelings for you were true and would last."
"Yet more pressure for me."
"It's not, if you think about it it's less. You don't have to woo me whan I'm your wife, you've already done it. And, I'll stand by you whatever, you don't have to worry about me having a lover and all that."
"Your logic is quite perfect Cora. But that doesn't mean I feel the pressure any less. Speaking of pressure I have a ring for you. If you don't like it we can take a trip out this afternoon and choose another." He fumbles in his pocket eventually retrieving the box which he opens to reveals the ring. Cora gasps. The perfect cluster of tiny diamonds in an oval shape that lays in the velvet is beautiful, as is the slightly larger diamond in the centre.
"It's beautiful." Robert slides it onto her waiting finger, relieved.
"I wasn't sure what you wanted. But I thought, classy, small and different."
"Yes, quite, I wouldn't want a great diamond." She finishes twisting the ring around her finger trying to see it better in the light. When she looks up Robert's eyes are more smouldering than she's ever seen them, and a lot closer. He reaches forward and strokes her face.
"May I?" she knows what he means without him elaborating, she's finally going to get to feel his lips on hers after being so rudely interrupted the night before.
"Of course." Her voice comes out in breathy gasps and Robert smiles inwardly, it's always a good start when a woman wants to be kissed.
Robert kisses her once gently and Cora's heart soars, never did she imagine being kissed would feel so good. When he pulls away she lifts her hands to the lapels on his jacket instinctively and tilts her head higher, desperate to feel the sensation again. Robert is at first taken aback by her forwardness but then realises their whole marriage will be a lot easier if she welcomes his advances. He rests his hands lightly on her tightly corseted waist and kisses her with a little more pressure. Cora smiles to herself as Robert moves to kiss her again, the added pressure at first surprises her, but she soon enjoys it. She parts her lips against the pressure and feels his tongue dart over her lips, she gasps in delight. Robert pulls away, worried he's scared her.
"Sorry, was that too much?"
"No, I only gasped in a mixture of surprise and joy." He brings his lips to hers again as she lifts her face once more to his, her hands now resting on his collar, only for her to immediately part her lips to him. When he pulls away a second later he leaves them both wanting more. He also parts his lips from hers in satisfaction, it seems no part of their union is likely to be conventional. Cora is not going to do as she is told, rather she is going to do as she feels. A better bargain for a happy marriage he hopes.
Cora is left feeling breathless. But the thought that dominates her mind is the hope that perhaps her Mama is right, perhaps she can make him love her. She highly doubts he'd kiss a woman he had no feelings for like that.
It seems hope rains in the thoughts of both. But does hope plus hope equal happiness? Or is it just a tease?