AN: Longer chapter for you all! I have a busy week coming, and I think we are at a reasonable place in the story for a brief pause, so it may be a couple days before I update again. :-) (But I promise not to abandon you!)

Cora was not sure how long she remained in Robert's arms, only that she wanted to stay here forever, Robert holding her tightly, as though his embrace could put all of her shattered pieces back together again.

Her weeping had slowed, and his had as well, for she could no longer feel his chest shaking against her. She was, for the first time in days, something near calm, as Robert rubbed slow circles on her back, stroked her hair, and pressed gentle kisses to her head.

"Oh Cora, I love you so very much," he whispered. "So very much." His pronouncement drew another small sob from her, but she quickly stilled it. Those words, words she thought she might never hear again, were such a balm to her aching heart that she wished she could bottle them inside of her to replay at every second of the day.

She snuggled closer to him, as though his body could somehow absorb all of her pain and her grief if she just got close enough, and he tightened his hold on her.

"I love you, too," she whispered. "That's the horror of it—I've only ever wanted you and I've only ever loved you!"

"I know," he murmured, another kiss and a gentle passing of his hand down her back stilling her trembling. "Shh, darling, I know."

The dressing gong rung a moment later, and she sighed. She could think of nothing she wanted to do less than change into evening clothes and endure a lengthy meal in front of the family.

She felt his body shift slightly. "Darling…"

She clung tightly to his jacket. "Please, just five more minutes."

"I have a better idea," he said. "Instead of dining down here, would you rather we just went up to your room, and sent for trays? And ate there together, just the two of us?"

"Please," she said softly, sitting up.

"Edith seems very happy to have that little girl here," Cora said over their dinner. She was sitting up in bed, having let Baxter change her into her nightgown at the gong, with her tray over her lap. Robert was across the room, eating on the chaise longue—she was immensely grateful for the way he kept his distance until she let him know she wanted him near.

"She does," Robert agreed. "Oddly, there's something familiar about Marigold, though I can't think what." They had talked, quietly and easily, about the family and the more ordinary events of the last week, falling into natural and comfortable silence at times. Cora had found it a great comfort to be able to merely sit and talk and not think of the rape, although she could still sense Bricker's shadow hovering in a corner of the room. She could also sense that Robert was walking on eggshells, reluctant to say the wrong thing or to ask any difficult questions. She did not want him to feel this way, but at the same time, it was a relief that he did not press her.

As they'd waited for dinner, he had suggested heat for her neck and had gone to the washroom to soak a towel in steaming water, which he'd laid across her neck with a dry one on top of it to hold in the heat. He'd continued to get up every ten or fifteen minutes to rewarm it as they ate, and she was not sure what she found more soothing: the heat that seeped into her sore muscles, or his tender attention.

"Robert," she said, making an immediate decision as he set down his silverware, "would you please stay? Stay all night?"

He blinked in surprise. "Are you sure, Cora? I don't want to do anything that makes you uncomfortable."

She dropped her eyes. It did make her uncomfortable, but not in the way he thought. "I want you here—I think I'll be less frightened. And I don't want to be apart from you anymore…"

"Well then, that's settled, sweetheart. Of course I'll stay with you."

"I do feel wrong asking," she admitted softly. "I feel so—dirty, and I don't want that…getting on you."

"There is nothing dirty about you," he said firmly, standing and coming to her. "Nothing whatsoever." He bent and kissed her forehead. "Please don't tell yourself that."

She stared up at him for a moment, still disbelieving of how full of love his eyes seemed. "But Robert, aren't you angry?"

"Angry? Of course I'm angry!" His eyes darkened. "I've never been so furious in all my life! When I get my hands on this—this animal—"

"No, Robert. Not angry with Mr. Bricker. I meant…angry with me."

"Angry with you?" He took a seat on the bed at her waist so that his eyes were level with hers. "Whatever would I be angry with you for?"

"For–for letting this happen," she said, feeling tears rush to her eyes again. "For encouraging him, for letting him think I wanted—"

"Oh, darling," he said, taking her hands in his. He cradled the right delicately, first passing a light caress over her injured wrist. "Darling, you've done nothing wrong. You talked with him, you were kind to him…you were as warm as you always are, and there was nothing wrong in that. Nothing would have given him the right to use you as he did."

"I did something to make him show up in my bedroom," she said, looking down.

"What? I thought—Baxter seemed to think you were outside…"

"We were. That's where…it happened. But…but first he came here, to my room, hoping I would…" She swallowed. "I told him to leave, and he did, but then I couldn't sleep, because I felt so…guilty that I'd led him into coming here…and that's when I went outside."

"He came into your bedroom? And then he followed you out, after you'd already told him no once?"

"I'm sorry," she whispered, hearing the anger in his voice.

"No," he said firmly. "Do not apologize. There is no fault in you."

"But—"

"No buts. You were attacked by a monster. You are completely blameless in that."

Cora did not know that she believed him, but for tonight, it was enough to know that he believed it, and she squeezed his hand.

"Darling, how are you feeling?" he asked, letting go of her left hand to stroke her cheek. "Your neck, and all the rest of it…"

"I'll be all right," she said softly.

"That isn't what I asked you."

She sighed. "I'm sore." When he said nothing, she realized he would not drop it without further details and assurances on her part. "My wrist doesn't bother me much; I just try not to use it. And my bruises are all healing. But my rib still hurts quite a bit…I feel it every time I breathe, and there's no resting from that." She smiled wryly, hoping to lighten the dark clouds overtaking his face. "And my neck's the same way…I try not to move it, but that's easier said than done, and to be honest it aches even when I'm—oww, you're hurting my wrist."

"I'm sorry," he said, quickly releasing her right hand; his grip had grown suddenly tense and tight. "It makes me so angry to think that someone's hurt you."

"I'm healing, though," she said, wanting to reassure him. At least, her body was.

"We will heal all of you," Robert said, as though hearing her thoughts. "Will you be all right if I go next door and ring for Bates so I can change?"

"Yes, of course. But Robert…" She had put off telling him this, but she knew that the moment was here.

"Yes, love?" he said when she did not continue.

Cora chewed her lip for a moment. "Robert, I do want you here, and I do want you, but I have to tell you that I just can't…be intimate with you, not now. It's not that I don't love—"

"Oh God, no," he interrupted. "No, Cora, I would never have expected that right now. Of course not. Please know that I wouldn't dream of asking you until you're ready."

When he returned from his dressing gown in his pajamas and climbed in next to her, she adjusted her pillows and lay down with a sigh. "I'm sorry if I keep you up," she said. "I toss and turn quite a bit."

"I don't care if you keep me awake all night. But can I do something to help you sleep?"

"No," she said hesitantly, hating to see the anger that she knew would spark in his eyes again, "it's just that it isn't always easy to sleep with my rib."

Robert did not speak for a moment, and she sensed that he was steeling himself to keep his voice level. "What did Cousin Isobel say about that?" he said finally, his voice gentle.

Cora sighed. "She told me it would be easier to sleep sitting up…but of course I can't do that because then my neck will tilt to one side or the other, and I can't imagine how painful that would be in the morning. So I can't very easily sleep sitting up."

"Yes, you can," he said. "I'll sit up, and you can lean against me, and I can support your head."

"What?"

"Here." He arranged the pillows against the headboard and then leaned back against them. "Now, sit up and rest your back against me." She gingerly moved to do so, and he wrapped an arm securely around her waist. "Then lay your head against my neck and my shoulder, and I'll make sure your head doesn't roll in your sleep." She let her head rest on his shoulder, the side of it leaning against his neck. It fit perfectly against him, and she realized she should not be surprised: her head had fit tucked against his shoulder for more than thirty years now.

"Now, will that be all right?" he asked

"Yes," Cora said softly, closing her eyes as she felt her body relax.

He slowly caressed her waist and her hip. "Nothing hurts?"

That was a bit of an exaggeration, but… "I'm comfortable." And it was indeed the most comfortable position she'd been in all week.

It was not just that the stress was off both her side and her neck, or that she was now in less pain that she'd been when she'd tried to sleep on each of the other nights. It was that she was supported and surrounded on all sides by Robert, that she could smell his scent enveloping her, that she felt safe again. Surely, she thought as she drifted off, there would be no nightmares tonight.