Chapter 4

October 1901

It had been about a month and a half since he had met Cora once more in London. Shortly after she returned to the countryside, so too did Robert and his mother. He hadn't told Violet anything of his two meetings with Cora while they were in London, nor the few meetings he had had with her since returning to Downton. In the weeks since their return, he and Cora had been on a few walks together, or even gone riding, and a few picnics with the children. He was beginning to find he couldn't go even a week without seeing Cora and her family.

The way her face lit up when he was with her made his heart flutter…and he laugh, he couldn't even begin to explain the music that was her laugh. Everything about her caused him to feel things he never had felt for anyone before in his life, but he couldn't exactly explain what that feeling was should anyone ever ask him.

"Robert!" His mother's voice pulled him from his thoughts, and one look at her face led him to believe that she had been speaking to him for quite some time already. "Heavens, boy, are you deaf today?" She asked incredulously, shaking her head as she sipped at her tea.

Robert stared at her for a moment, blinking a few times before shaking his head. "I was thinking about asking a friend and her family to dinner," he said quietly, folding up his latest letter from Cora and setting it aside.

Violet looked at him in surprise, very slightly mimicking his previous expression only moments earlier. "Her?" She asked slowly, a very slight tone of interest in her voice as she set her teacup down on the table in front of her. "May I ask who this woman is? Is she the reason you're out of the house so much lately?" He seemed to leave at the same time almost everyday lately, and he always returned in good spirits.

Robert couldn't help but roll his eyes at those words. "We are merely friends, mama," he dismissed quietly, to which his mother scoffed and rolled her eyes.

Friends. A man could not merely be a friend to a woman. It simply was not common. Whoever this woman was, she was clearly much more to her son. "You said her family?" Violet asked as she took another dainty sip of her tea.

"She had four sons," Robert explained, setting his own teacup down on the table as he finished. "And a one year old daughter. She will likely leave her at home with the nanny, however, since she obviously is not self-reliant enough to sit with us during dinner."

Violet's eyes widened at those words and she nearly choked on her tea. "Four young boys?" She exclaimed in shock, clearly appalled. "In the dining room? At dinner?" She paused for a moment and then her eyes widened a little more. "Is this friend of yours a married woman?" Five children? There was no way she was not married! It would be a scandal if that was how it was.

"No!" Robert said quickly, knowing what his mother was thinking. While affairs were not frowned upon in society once a woman produced an heir, they were still a very large source of gossip. "She's a widow. A few months over a year now."

This time, the Dowager Countess's eyes narrowed as she thought. "Widowed?" She asked suspiciously. "A little over a year? Five children and the youngest a girl? Next you're going to tell me this woman has a stepson in his early twenties who has inherited his late father's title." One look at Robert, and she could tell that was also true. "Well, if I didn't know any better, I would say you were describing the Dowager Duchess of Norfolk." From the way her son tensed, she knew she had guessed it right. "And you want to invite her and her boys? Her young children in our dining room?"

"I do…" Robert answered slowly. "They are very well behaved boys, mama, she has done well with them."

From what she remembered from the late Duke's funeral, those boys truly have been very well behaved. Granted, their father had only just died, but most decent mothers would not have taken their young children to a funeral anyway. It was most certainly her American ideals. Clearly they had not changed since her first season. Violet was very glad she had found Robert an English heiress with enough money so he had not had to marry Cora Levinson all those years ago. But who was to say he wasn't thinking it now despite his claims that she was just a friend? He certainly wasn't simply a friend with the woman, she could tell simply by looking at him.

"Very well," she sighed quietly after a moment. "But only on the condition that her mother-in-law join as well." The Dowager Duchess had been a close friend of hers all her life.

"That sounds fair enough to me," Robert agreed, dancing inside at the idea of Cora getting to see Downton.

It was around seven later that night that Cora arrived at Downton with her four boys and her mother-in-law, Emma Fitzalan-Howard, the Dowager Duchess of Norfolk. Well…Cora had also become a dowager while her mother-in-law was still living.

If she was quite honest, she was actually very nervous. She had met Robert's mother once before, and she hadn't been very kind to her then. It could be the exact same this time around as well. The time she and Robert were spending together—with or without her children—was growing more and more, and she could feel the feelings she had had for him in the beginning coming back. It gave her hope for what the future of their relationship could hold. However, that also depended on what his mother did about it this time around as well.

Robert was in the drawing room with his mother and stood when Carson showed Cora and her family into the room. He smiled at them and moved to her, gently taking her hand and pressing a kiss to the back of it. "I'm so glad you could all come," he said with a smile, looking down to the boys as well. He looked up to her mother-in-law after a while and offered her a smile as well. "It's lovely to meet you, your grace."

Emma gave him a small smile, one that was clearly only there to be polite, and then gave him a curt nod. She reminded him a little of his mother…although she looked as though she was less stern. He remembered Cora mentioning having troubles with her for a while, but the woman had warmed up to her in the end and now treated her as her own daughter.

Violet had watched the entire exchange between her son and the woman's family, her lips very slightly pursed the entire time. The boys certainly were well dressed, and seemed polite enough, but looking at Cora, she could tell that she was still the same girl from all those years ago: sweet, starry-eyed…innocent, and still American.

"My lady," she heard Carson say to her. "Dinner is served."

They all filed into the dining room, Robert sitting across from Cora, who was sitting between her mother-in-law and little Michael. He had Peter sitting next to him, and his own mother on his other side.

Dinner was a quiet affair for the first few minutes as the footmen and Carson went around the table with dishes of food. The conversation was quiet and polite at first, Robert introducing each of Cora's boys to Violet. However, the politeness did not last long, at least not on Violet's part. Her tongue was biting and judging as usual, many of the same discrete insults from years ago being brought forward to Cora.

Cora tried not to let the woman's words wound her. Years ago, those exact words had wounded her, but she had been young and sensitive. She still was sensitive, but she knew how to better guard some of her emotions now. She could tell, however, that Violet's words to her had upset her children to some extent, though William was trying hard not to throw a biting remark right back at the Dowager Countess.

When the night finally finished off, Robert came to see Cora and her family out the door, Cora carrying a sleeping Michael in her arms. "I apologise for mama," Robert whispered to her quietly, to which Cora gave him a small smile and shook her head.

"I expected as much due to memories of our last meetings," she whispered back, adjusting her son in her arms. "You'll call on me again sometime this week?" She asked him as her mother-in-law left out the front door with the boys.

Robert smiled, gently kissing her hand. "I wouldn't dream of not calling on you," he said with a smile.

Cora beamed at him and nodded, turning to follow her mother-in-law. "Goodnight," she called in a whisper over her shoulder, getting into the car.

"Well…" Emma started a few moments after the car pulled away from the house. "That was a disaster."

Those words caused Cora to frown. A disaster? What could she mean? The boys had been well behaved, the conversation had been going fine until Robert's mother had made a few judging comments to her…and they certainly weren't comments Emma herself had not used toward her in the beginning. "I don't know what you mean, I had a good time," she said softly, a small smile on her lips as she looked out the window, intent on the rest of the ride remaining silent.

Thank you to everyone who reviewed the last chapter! To be honest, I'm not entirely sure how I feel about this chapter. I did get a little stuck, that's why it ended a seemingly in the middle. And I didn't do much of dinner because I'm not particularly good at writing a witty Violet.