Cora
"Lady Rosamund Painswick."
She has no idea who this woman might be but she agrees to see her. The moment Lady Rosamund Painswick enters the room she knows who she is because she is almost the spitting image of Lady Grantham. This can only be Robert's sister.
"Duchess"
"Lady Rosamund"
These rituals are unnerving.
"I came here to invite you to spend a few days at my house."
"Thank you very much. That is very kind. But might I ask why?"
"My brother, Lord Downton, and his daughter Lady Mary are coming to stay. They'll arrive later in the afternoon." She can't stop herself from smiling.
"I'll take that as a yes Duchess. Bring your son and his nanny. I don't think that Robert is bringing Mary's nanny."
"He was sure I'd agree to this then."
"I think you know the answer as you didn't really ask a question." She has to laugh at this.
"Thank you Lady Rosamund. I will tell my maid to pack and we should be there tonight in time for dinner if that suits you."
"It suits me very well Duchess."
She is so jittery she can't sit still. She knows that Lord Downton is married but it appears that all members of his family are prepared to go out of their way to let him see her.
"The Duke of Suffolk and the Dowager Duchess of Suffolk."
She enters Lady Rosamund's sitting room and if Robert hadn't gotten up and taken Sam from her just in time she is sure to have dropped him because Mary hurtles into her with such force that she almost topples over.
"Mary," she says only half admonishingly because the little girl's unrestrained reaction makes her smile.
"I'm so glad you came" Mary says and begins to cry. She looks at Robert who only shrugs at her. So she picks Mary up and says "Oh dear. Of course I came. Why would I not? I was very happy when I heard that you were here and that your aunt was kind enough to invite me as well."
Mary has started to sob uncontrollably now and she doesn't really know what to do. She looks at Robert for help again but Robert doesn't see her. He looks at her son so tenderly that she briefly wonders if Sam really has to grow up without a father. But of course he has to, there is no way she could take Sam away from his estate. Unless, but she doesn't finish the thought because she is sure that thinking about something that will in all likelihood never happen is not helpful.
Rosamund
She needs to talk to her brother because what she has seen has given her a look at what his marriage could have been like had he not been so petty and listened to their mother.
The way Robert lifted the Duchess' son out of her arms at exactly the same moment that Mary toppled into her looked like something they have done a thousand times. She knows they haven't, they can't have and that says more about them than words. The look on Robert's face when he looked at the Duchess' son couldn't have been more lovingly if he had held his own son. And there was so much joy in the Duchess' eyes when Mary hurtled into her. She didn't mind the child's unstrained behavior; it actually seemed as if it made her smile.
But the thing that has touched Rosamund the most is that she has finally heard Mary speak. She thought her mother was lying when she wrote to her that Mary spoke to the Duchess, but the child even forgot that there were other people around.
Rosamund shakes herself out of her thoughts and looks at Robert and the Duchess. They are each holding a child and Robert listens to her say something about her relatives in America. Robert looks as if he found everything the Duchess said interesting. It is obvious that her little brother has fallen in love with that American girl. If only he had realized his feelings for her before their mother thought she had to intervene. Rosamund is sure that had Robert known how he felt about the Duchess he wouldn't have let their mother tell him who he should marry.
She knocks on his door.
"Enter"
"Hello Robert. How are you?" She needs to be friendly or he won't talk. And she wants to help.
"Fine. Why do you ask? What do you want?" Apparently 23 years of knowing her have made him able to see right through her.
"Oh brother dear. Why do you think I could want something?"
"You tried to be friendly."
"I didn't try. I was."
"Suit yourself." He says this teasingly and Rosamund knows he isn't really bothered by her.
"You are right. I do want something. I want to talk to you."
"About?"
"About that American girl."
"Tell me off for smiling too much at her then."
"Is that what you think you do? Smile at her too much?"
"No. I don't think I smile at her too much. She deserves every smile I can muster. She got Mary to speak to her."
"She also got you to turn back into my brother. You aren't that gloomy man who forgot how to laugh anymore. You are my little brother again. A brother I love very much and want to be happy."
"Thank you."
"Robert, what are your plans?"
"I don't know. Mama and Papa think I should file for a divorce. They both say that the scandal Philippa has caused is much worse than the scandal a divorce would cause."
"But you aren't sure about it."
"I have almost made my decision. I can't live with her any longer. She is horrible."
"You must hate Mama."
"No. I hate myself. For not having been strong enough to defy Mama. I am almost sure that I could have married Cora. I think she would have said yes. And we could just have presented Mama with the facts."
"Robert, you were 19. You were too young. And don't hate yourself. Please. You are a very good father."
"Thank you."
"You didn't know how you felt about Cora, did you? When Mama pushed you towards Philippa?"
"No, I didn't. I wish I had, I think I'd have been strong enough then. Strong enough to go against Mama's wishes."
"But you did love her back then?"
"Yes. I know that now. I think that I never stopped loving her. I just didn't recognize my feelings for what they were. I thought if you fell in love you'd realize it the moment it happened but that wasn't was happened for me with Cora. I liked her very much, I liked to spend time with her but I never had a moment in which I thought "oh God, I love her". But I enjoyed her company tremendously, I looked forward to meeting her, and whenever I read or saw something I thought she might like I had to think about how I would tell her and how she would react. And then I would tell her the next time I saw her, regardless of how trifling whatever I let me to think about her was."
"That, my dear brother, is love."
"I know that now. And I kept thinking about her even after my wedding. I just didn't realize it was her. Since before the wedding I've always had a vague image of a woman I loved in my mind. I tried to project that onto Philippa but that did not work at all. It was the image of a very kind woman, someone very nice, intelligent, and strong, someone who loves with all her heart. I always thought I had made that woman up, or that it was an idolized mixed up picture of several women I knew. But it wasn't. The first night that Cora was at Downton she took me to see her son. I know it was inappropriate, but I didn't care, I couldn't care at that moment. It was right after I had found out that Mary had spoken to her and we had brought her to her nursery together. I lost control of myself a little because I was so relieved that Mary had finally spoken to someone else, but she didn't mind, she understood and then she asked me to come along. And when I saw her lift Sam out of his crib, saw how she looked at him, saw how she looked at me when she turned around, things just fell into place. I kissed her, I just couldn't help it and then I realized that the woman in my head wasn't someone I had made up. It was her."
"You should tell her that."
"I don't know, Rosamund. I am not sure she feels the same. I've loved her for years, even if that revelation only came to me a few weeks ago. It would break my heart if I told her that and she didn't feel the same. I'd rather not know at all, I'd rather have that picture or maybe dream of her, of us, of what could have been had we both acted differently in my mind, then know that this dream actually never would have come true."
Never has anything her brother said to her touched her so deeply and never has she felt so sorry for him, not even when she saw him standing at the end of the aisle on his wedding day. Her father had told her the night before the wedding that Robert had begged him to be allowed to marry someone else a few months earlier but that he didn't give in to him because Robert had openly admitted to not loving this other woman either. Her father didn't tell her why he hadn't given in to Robert, only that this other woman was somehow unsuitable. Rosamund is sure now that that other woman was Cora and that what had been unsuitable about her was her nationality. She remembers seeing the unhappy look on her brother's face on his wedding day, the forced smiles he gave his wife. She remembers seeing him struggle to find something he liked about his wife for months after the wedding and she now knows what he was actually trying to do. He was, as he said, trying to project the picture of the woman in his head to Philippa. He tried to love her but it he was fighting a losing battle. She remembers him fighting with both their parents to let her marry Marmaduke a year after his own wedding, remembers the fervor in his voice and she now knows why he did it, why he fought so hard for her to be allowed to follow her heart. She remembers her father finally telling her that he would give her and Marmaduke his blessings, that he would bring her mother around. She asked him why and her father had said 'It was something that Robert said to me. He said that you didn't have the duty to marry the right person, that duty had been his and that he had already done it and that there was no reason for a loveless marriage for you too.' And remembering all this shatters her heart into a thousand pieces. She walks over to her brother and hugs him, something she hasn't done for at least 10 years, but he doesn't object.
"Robert, I know you don't like my advice. But I'll give it to you all the same. Get that divorce. Not because Mama and Papa are right about the measure of the scandal, but because I think it would be best for you and Mary. And then follow your heart. Don't let yourself be deterred. Don't let anyone interfere."
"Rosamund, even if I got a divorce, I don't think that Cora would marry me. And I am scared of her not wanting to marry me."
"You said you were almost sure she'd have said yes a few years ago. And I think that she feels for you what you feel for her. You should have seen the look on her face when I told her that you were coming. She is a Duchess; she should have been appalled by me coming to her house without an invitation. I am the wife of a banker. She shouldn't have agreed to coming to stay here. And she knows that. But she said yes right away."
"Even if what you say is true, I don't think she'd marry me. She is the mother of the Duke of Suffolk. Sam should grow up on his own estate. Not at Downton. And he would have to grow up at Downton if I were to marry his mother. Because I can't leave there. If I asked her, she'd say no."
"You don't know that Robert. How can you know the answer to a question you don't ask?"
"Rosamund, it is complicated."
"I know, Rob." This term of endearment she used when they were still children makes him smile. "But think about my words. I think you two would make each other very happy. I'll leave you to your thoughts now. Dinner is in an hour."