A/N: I feel that Cora was such an important character that Barbara Hershey should have been considered a regular. For most of Season 2, if she wasn't in an episode, she was still on everyone's mind. She affected so much that I just think she has a purpose here. Not that it was fun to get into her head...
Nicknames for her swirled all about court, "Cora the Heartless" strikingly the most accurate. She'd heard "Queen of Hearts" once or twice in that sarcastic tone she found most unbecoming. One would assume royal blood would be more refined than that, she thought. No one called her any of these names to her face as it would be the last mistake they would ever make, but her spies, those with legs and those with wings, told her all she needed to know.
If her heart beat within her chest, the words would have stung. Now, in the wee hours of the morning, hoarse crying was all she would respond to, Regina's crying.
A wet nurse had been provided as was the custom, but Cora insisted on tending to her child herself. The faces of Henry and the servants would soften and they would murmur about being overprotective and devoted. Her robes brushed the marble floor of the nursery where Regina lay in her crib, red-faced and hands in balled-up fists.
"Powerful little cry," Cora whispered, reaching down to pick her up. A stately rocking chair imported from a foreign village was her favorite place to nurse. Regina's eyes, two gigantic pools of dark chocolate, gazed up at her before they closed and savored their meal.
Strong and already beautiful, Regina would have the world at her fingertips. Henry already lived and breathed for her, but then Cora always imagined Henry could be devoted to a rock if he felt he should be.
"Being heartless doesn't deter a great mother," she whispered down to her baby, who was nestling into her sleeve. "I am giving you the best of everything, no matter the cost. And you'll thank me one day, Regina. You'll be a queen, and the world will kneel before you." It was the sweetest lullaby Cora could conceive, that decadent world always just out of reach where riches could buy away the chaotic, unpredictable things of life—change, station, especially love. It had been impossible for Cora herself to fall into that world, but Regina had the chance, had everything those already there treasured so. Beauty. Money. Blood. It baffled her at how often she lied awake making plans for her daughter, how early on she was thinking of the best ways to make her educated and accomplished. That had to be love, a controlled love, because the other kind crept under your skin when you least expected it and...changed you... This was the way that was best, best for everyone.