Cora's lady's maid appeared slightly earlier than usual the next morning, with the intent to begin packing her mistresses things for the trip back to Downton. Shutting the door quietly behind her after she entered the bedroom, she turned and let out a sharp squeak of surprise. Her mistress wasn't alone.
Waking to an odd noise, Robert opened his eyes and saw the maid, who appeared frozen – whether in disapprobation or astonishment he couldn't tell. Blushing at being found in his wife's room, albeit with his dressing gown still on, Robert lifted his head from the top of Cora's, where it'd been all night. He did this rather too precipitately and grunted involuntarily in pain. This, paired with his movements, consequently woke Cora, and she sleepily looked from Robert to her maid, who still hadn't moved – didn't seem to know exactly how to act in this situation, never having been in it before.
Giggling slightly, Cora moved the large book sitting on their laps aside and got up. Taking the breakfast tray from her maid, she simply said to her, "Might you go down and get another tray? You can put his breakfast on that and bring it in here."
As the maid left the room to carry out these instructions, Cora brought the tray over to the bed and set it on the bedside table so she could climb back up beside Robert. She set the tray up so that he could reach for anything he'd like on it.
It was a few moments before Cora apprehended that Robert hadn't moved. Turning to him, she beheld his baffled expression. "What is it, Robert?" she asked.
"I think we – and then you – shocked the poor woman. Finding me here…" Robert blushed once more at this, then went on, "and then your basically telling her that I would be staying?"
Cora sighed. "What's wrong with that? You're my husband, and I'd like to have breakfast with you. Instead of your having it out there, you'll just have it in here. With me. I'm not suggesting we do this at Downton, of course. It'll be different at home. But we're not there right now, are we?" She looked around at him, taking a bite out of a piece of toast and grinning.
Robert began to grin at her, rubbing his neck and twisting his head gingerly. He took a piece of toast that she'd buttered for him and began to eat it.
"What did you do to your neck?" Cora inquired, sipping her coffee.
"It's the way we slept last night. My head was at a right angle all night, and when your maid came in, I think I hurt it when I jerked it up." He chuckled a bit. "Although, she may have to get used to seeing me in your bedroom in the morning." Leaning over, he kissed her, then smiled widely at her.
"Or teach her to knock," Cora added. "Although that may be too much to ask for."
However, it was not long until there was a knock at the door. Giggling, Cora told her maid to come in, and Robert, making sure his dressing gown was secure, stood and took his own breakfast tray from her. Cora told her to come back in an hour.
Pouring himself tea once he'd gotten settled beside her with his breakfast, he studied the black liquid in her own cup. Wrinkling up his nose, he shook his head. "How do you drink that malodorous beverage in the morning, Cora?"
"I think it smells wonderful. And it helps me wake up. I am very slow in the morning without it, Robert." She laughed. "And it's been quite a mêlée between our housekeeper and me to keep enough of it in the store cupboard at home, I will say."
"I am not surprised. The rest of us don't normally drink that foul stuff."
"Robert, sometimes you are so very English." Cora shook her head merrily and applied herself to her breakfast.
Both continued to eat in silence, only pausing to share smiles. Robert stole a few glances at Cora besides, still concerned about her because of her collapse at the ball the night before. She appeared perfectly well, but he wondered if perhaps they should put off their departure another day.
Apart from that, Robert kept going over and over in his mind the past several days and – leaving aside a few incidents, of course – how happy they'd been. Even simply falling asleep holding her last night…to him it had been perfect. Then her words drifted back to him: It'll be different at home. She'd meant breakfast, he knew, but it gave him pause. What if it is different at home? he wondered. What if everything goes back to the way it was? What if I lose my happy Cora again?
Stabbing a bite of ham with his fork, he frowned. He didn't want everything to go back to the way it was. He'd already decided he wouldn't leave her alone at night anymore. But what if that wasn't enough? Or what if she decided she didn't want him there with her at night?
For perhaps the first time in his life, Robert didn't want to go back to his beloved Downton.
Setting his fork down, Robert cleared his throat. "Cora, I think we should stay here one more night."
Cora swallowed the mouthful of coffee she'd just drunk and drew her brows together, puzzled. "Why?"
Taking her hand, Robert pushed her hair back off her shoulder with the other. "You collapsed last night, and I want to make sure you're completely alright before we travel."
Laughing a bit, Cora squeezed his hand. "Robert, I'm perfectly well. I swooned because of my own silliness, having my corset too tight and not able to eat, and then the stuffiness of the room…." She wouldn't tell him that what she'd overheard had set her heart racing to a point where she could barely breathe either.
"Even so…" he said, kissing her hand. Robert lifted his eyes to hers. "It would ease my mind if we stayed one more night. We can rest here today. Together."
Looking into his eyes, Cora believed that, even beyond normal concern, she could see fear there. Her own countenance turning serious, she nodded. "Of course, Robert. We'll stay here another day, if it will reassure you."
A slow smile wreathed his lips. "Thank you, darling," he said in a low voice, kissing her hand again before he began to move. "I'll get dressed and go downstairs and take care of everything. I want you to finish your breakfast, relax, and perhaps wear one of those lovely tea gowns. No corsets today, please, Cora. I want you to be able to breathe. I'll be back in just a while." He leaned over one more time to kiss her cheek before disappearing from the room with his breakfast tray, leaving his wife a trifle dazed at his haste.
"Violet, I beg you to relax." Patrick Crawley sat in the library at Downton, his hands gripping the arms of his chair in vexation. Not because of the contents of the telegram they'd just received, but because of his wife's behavior upon its reception.
Violet, grasping the telegram, barely paused in her pacing the length of the room. She gave the appearance of a caged tiger, desiring to pounce but unable to do so. "How can you tell me to relax? What has happened to our son, Patrick?"
"I don't think anything has happened to him. He's concerned for the health of his wife, so far as I can tell from the telegram."
Rolling her eyes, Violet threw her arms out wide. "He's taken leave of his senses. There's nothing harmful about taking the train, and nothing is less salubrious than the filthy air in London. If he was concerned for her, he would have brought her straight back home to Yorkshire."
Patrick fixed her with a dissatisfied look. "That's hardly fair, Violet. You don't know what's wrong with her."
"Well, how long will they stay? A week? A month? Will we get a new telegram every day, telling us they'll be 'one more day'? It's most inconvenient, Patrick. Not to mention inconsiderate. Robert should be here to help with the estate. And what if I had planned a dinner?" She stopped pacing to glare at him, as the true object of her pique was not there to receive it.
Sighing, Patrick pinched the bridge of his nose between his finger and thumb and closed his eyes, feeling a headache coming on. "Then, Violet, you would be two people short, wouldn't you?" He looked at her again and saw that she was about to lose her temper. "Please, darling, let the two young people have some time away. They need a little fun."
Violet had started to turn her head, but did a double take at this. "I swear, Patrick Crawley, you sound just like your daughter." Turning on her heel, she left the room in a huff.
Patrick chuckled and shook his head, saying to himself, "Yes, but she gets her stubbornness from her mother."
When Robert got back upstairs from arranging everything for another night – sending a telegram home, booking the suite and the servants' rooms, changing the train tickets once more – Cora was tucked up on the settee, reading, her tea gown a delicate sea green. She looked up at him and smiled.
"Everything all set?" She rested her book on her lap.
Giving her a kiss, he replied, "Almost. I have one more thing to do, Cora. I'll be back before luncheon. I've requested that they serve it up here for us."
Cora pouted. "You're leaving me again?"
Robert chuckled. "I won't be long, sweetheart," he whispered, kissing her again. "And then you'll have me all to yourself."
Brightening considerably at this, Cora told him not to be long and went back to reading her book after the door closed behind him.
Humming the tune to one of the waltzes they'd danced together the previous evening, Robert hailed a hansom cab to visit the finest jewelry house in London. He wanted to get Cora something very special.
Shaking hands with one of the clerks, Robert asked him for a particular sort of thing, and the clerk led him to a glass cabinet. Scanning over the pieces in the case, he began to despair that he would find the right gift for her. Then, he spotted it. Grinning, he pointed it out to the clerk, who praised his choice and retrieved the item from the case.
Robert began humming happily again while wandering around the shop, waiting for the clerk to wrap the gift and put it on his account. Eventually, he became aware of a man hovering near him.
"So, that's how you keep her happy, eh? Buying her expensive jewelry." Sir Alistair's jaw was a deep purple, and he sounded like it pained him to move it very much.
Unfazed, Robert chuckled. "It amazes me that such a reputable house would let in such riffraff." He started to walk away.
Alistair followed. "Tsk, tsk – using a woman's own money to buy her things to win her over. It's quite reprehensible, that."
Robert's face darkened, but he didn't respond.
"You'll never make her happy, you know. You don't love her." Alistair's voice had lowered.
Knowing the man was baiting him, Robert simply clinched his fists and kept moving among the cases, determined not to cause another scene.
Alistair continued to hound him, hissing, "It's only a matter of time. She'll grow tired of waiting…."
Robert ground his teeth together, his brows drawing together dangerously. Still he refused to stoop to this blaggard's level.
In his oily voice, which was seriously grating Robert's nerves now, Alistair taunted, "And eventually, one day – probably sooner, rather than later – she'll come crawling, begging me to show her what real love is…."
Rounding on him furiously, Robert meant to give the fellow a severe dressing down. But before he could, Alistair socked him in the eye.
Robert's mouth fell open in astonishment, his hand covering his eye. "Bloody hell, man! What was that for?"
The clerk, having gotten everything settled, hastened over and stepped between the two. "Gentleman, this is a genteel establishment, so I suggest you take such things outside!" he said in a severe voice.
"He was going to hit me again!" Alistair cried pathetically, puffing out his chest and endeavoring to look taller, but there was nothing that he could do to get even close to towering over his opponent.
"I was going to do no such thing, you ridiculous buffoon! I was merely going to give you what for – even though what you deserve is to be well and thoroughly horsewhipped, you despicable coward!" Robert turned red with renewed anger. "Now if you will both excuse me, my wife is waiting. Good day!"
Snatching the parcel from the clerk, one hand still over his eye, he made a sharp about face and marched out, leaving both men staring after him.
When Robert entered their suite a little later, Cora jumped up from the settee, smiling. Her cheery countenance transformed swiftly into alarm, however, when she saw that his hand concealed his eye. "Robert! What happened?"
Letting her lead him over to the settee by the hand, Robert sighed. "Don't worry. They're sending more ice up with luncheon."
"Let me see." Cora grasped his wrist in order to pull his hand away. When he finally allowed her to, she gasped and put her hand over her mouth. "Robert! Please, tell me what happened!"
Seeing how upset she was already, Robert was loath to tell her the truth. But he knew he had to. It would be worse if he lied; the truth was bound to get back to her some other way. "I ran into that scoundrel Alistair. Or, to be more accurate, his fist ran into my eye."
"But how – when – why?" She found it difficult to form a complete sentence.
Robert passed a hand over his forehead, sighing once more. "I was in the jewelers and for whatever reason, he was there too. He began saying all sorts of contemptible things to me, taunting me, Cora. I tried not to respond, but the last thing he said was so vile – I snapped. I turned around to give him a sound tongue-lashing – nothing more, I promise – and…he punched me."
"Oh, Robert, darling. What a despicable coward to punch you like that!" she exclaimed in disbelief.
He grinned at her choice of words. "That's exactly what I called him, Cora. The clerk stepped between us then, but even if he hadn't, I wouldn't have dignified that bastard's actions by punching him back."
"Language, Robert!" Cora pretended to be offended.
"I apologize, Cora, but he's that and much worse. I wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of coming to fisticuffs in the middle of the store, or even outside on the pavement. But after what he said, I truly would have liked to have throttled him." He touched her face. "Knowing you were here waiting for me, most likely wanting me to arrive relatively undamaged, is the only thing that stopped me. I might have really hurt my hand this time." He chuckled, even though that action was becoming a bit painful to his eye.
Cora didn't laugh. "What did he say?"
Robert's smile vanished. "I'd rather not repeat it, Cora. None of it is fit for the ears of a lady, and all of it would simply make me livid again."
"It must have taken a great deal of fortitude for you to resist hitting him first, if it was as bad as that." She looked down at their hands.
"It did. But I could because it was different from the other day. He can say whatever he likes to me or about me. But not to you. And the only thing that made me want to turn and shout at him this time, was – " Robert stopped abruptly.
Cora looked up at him. "He said something about me, didn't he?"
"Yes."
She thought about asking him what, but the expression on his face told her that he wouldn't tell her. Instead, she asked, "Whatever it was, you don't believe him, do you?"
Robert gave her a small smile and shook his head. "No, I don't."
Cora gave him a small smile in return. "Good," she whispered.
At this juncture, a knock at the door announced that their luncheon had arrived.
The two ate rather quickly, Robert because he had very little appetite, Cora because she wanted to get ice on that eye before too long.
Once the luncheon had been cleared away and the waiters gone with it, Cora sat down in a corner of the settee with the ice and her book. She patted her lap. "Come here, darling, and put your head on my lap. I'll read to you."
Robert wasn't sure he would care for the book she had – he'd seen earlier that it was Jane Austen – but he liked the idea of being where he could look up at her beautiful face with at least one eye. Removing his shoes, he stretched out on the settee, lying on his back with his knees up, and rested his head on her lap.
Cora handed him the ice, not wanting to hurt him by trying to apply it to his eye herself. She also must have realized that he wasn't there to really hear the story, because she didn't bother to begin at the start of the novel, but picked up where she had left off reading herself. Soon she was absentmindedly threading her fingers through his hair while she read aloud.
The ice doing wonders to numb the pain in his eye, her hand stroking his hair, Robert became incredibly relaxed, and the sound of her sweet voice lulled him to sleep like a lullaby. He slept until a trickle of cold water from the melting ice slid down his temple, waking him. Not wanting to interrupt Cora's reading, he sat still and began to listen to the words as well.
She had gotten close to the end of the book now, as he could discern with his one eye. From what he could tell, a woman named Lizzy had fixed on marrying a man named Darcy, and Lizzy was speaking with her sister Jane about it. "'You will only think I feel more than I ought to do, when I tell you all,'" Cora read. "'What do you mean?' 'Why, I must confess that I love him better than I do Bingley. I am afraid you will be angry.' 'My dearest sister, now be serious. I want to talk very seriously. Let me know every thing that I am to know, without delay. Will you tell me how long you have loved him?' 'It has been coming on so gradually, that I hardly know when it began – '"
Robert stopped listening.
He stopped listening because he thought he knew how Lizzy had felt. "It's been coming on so gradually, that I hardly know when it began…." The words echoed inside his head, and images of the last few days, and then the last few months, flashed through his mind. Things spoken between the two of them, between him and Rosamund, him and his mother – these joined the phrase echoing in his head.
Suddenly it struck him, like a lightning bolt – quick and sending electricity all through him: I love her. I love Cora.
Tearing the melting ice from his eye, he sat up abruptly. Cora, startled, released the book, and it fell to her side. "Robert? What's wrong?"
Robert had rolled off the settee and now knelt before her, clutching her hand in his, gazing up at her, looking quite wild with his hair tousled and his eye turning black and blue. "Oh, God, Cora, can you ever forgive me?"
Cora wondered what had gotten into him. "What do you mean? Are you alright?" She thought perhaps he was becoming feverish, so she put her other hand out in order to feel his forehead.
Before she could do so, Robert caught this hand in his, holding both her hands in her lap in front of him. "I've been such a fool. A blind imbecile. How did I not see it before?"
Becoming frightened now, Cora tried to draw her hands away. "Perhaps we should send for a doctor, Robert. You're not making any sen—"
"Cora. Please, look at me."
His tone gently beseeched her, so she obliged, going very still when she saw a kind of light shining in his eyes.
"Cora, I love you. I love you."
Staring at him in disbelief, Cora could do no more than choke out, "What?"
Robert stood up, still holding her hands, pulling her up to stand in front of him. He took one of his hands away in order to cup her cheek. "I love you, Cora Crawley," he said in a soft voice, with an equally soft smile. "I love you, and I've been a complete idiot not to realize it sooner. But it's like the woman just said in your book, that it's been coming on so gradually –"
Cora clamped a hand over his mouth, smiling, tears in her eyes. "Robert, do you know you've just made me the happiest woman in the world?"
He shook his head, as her hand was still preventing him from speaking.
"Well, you have. I can't even tell you how much." Her tears coursed down her cheeks, and her blue eyes sparkled as she beamed at him. "Words aren't enough."
Robert gently pried her hand from his mouth. "Tell me you love me too. That's all I need."
Brushing tears from her face, she laughed softly. "I love you, Robert," she whispered. She leaned up and kissed him tenderly, then said again, "I love you, my darling."
"Cora, my sweetheart, my darling one…." He wrapped his arms around her and pressed his lips to hers, kissing her gently at first, and then with increasing passion. He wanted nothing more than to show her just how much he loved her. Forgetting the pain in his eye, forgetting that someone would be knocking on their door soon to bring afternoon tea, forgetting everything else but Cora, he swept her up impetuously, carrying her into her bedroom, kicking the door shut behind them.
Laying her upon the bed, Robert crawled up next to her, and, with great care, he trailed tender kisses along her skin, pausing only to remove articles of her clothing or to smile at her. He attended to her in a manner that was an act of worship, of adoration, paying no mind to his own quickening blood or growing need.
For Cora, lying there – in all honesty, still endeavoring to wrap her mind around his pronouncement that he loved her – there was a difference his awareness made in the way he caressed her, the way he kissed her. As if he saw her as more precious than he did before. She was not only his wife or even his lover. She was the woman he loved. He loves me, she thought. He loves me. She almost began crying again with happiness.
And then, quite unexpectedly, he touched her with his tongue.
Cora practically jumped out of her skin. Her reflections had somehow made her unaware that his kisses had settled in the area of her thighs, and then her inner thighs, and now…. Now she couldn't think at all, only feel and gasp and shudder and writhe. And now his fingers had joined his mouth, and it carried her to a place quite beyond her body. Her back arched up,and she wasn't sure where she was anymore, but it was a glorious place.
After her eyes rolled back to their normal spot in her head and her toes uncurled themselves, Cora, still panting, looked at Robert, who had left the bed to divest himself of the rest of his own clothing, fixing her with a wide smile.
"I wasn't quite ready for that, darling." She smiled back at him.
"No?" he asked. "You appeared to enjoy it immensely," he teased, throwing the last of his garments on the floor and joining her again on the bed. He looked down at her, propping himself up with his elbow, his head in his hand, playing with the ends of her hair with his other.
"Oh, make no mistake. I enjoyed it. Very much." Cora grinned at him. "When did you think of that?"
"I was inspired by you, actually. You started it." He winked at her.
"Might I return the favor then?" She waggled her eyebrows at him wickedly.
Robert leaned down and whispered in her ear, "I think watching you get excited before got me excited enough already. I'm not sure I can wait much longer, darling, to feel you around me."
Cora blushed deeply. "Robert," she whispered, placing her hands on his chest and then brushing her fingertips over his nipples, "I can't wait much longer either."
Needing no more encouragement, Robert covered her, looking down into her eyes, caressng her face. "I love you, Cora."
"I love you, too." She nodded at his silent question, giving him permission.
As he moved against her, Robert pressed his lips to her ear. "I love you," he hummed softly, over and over until she had climaxed again, and then until he could no longer speak himself, eventually achieving his own release and becoming still, his heavy breathing ruffling her hair.
A little while later, having remained entwined, Cora traced a finger lightly over his face, carefully avoiding the purpling bruise. "That's going to take a while to heal, my love."
Robert just smiled, not caring that it hurt a bit. "It's no matter. At least he didn't knock me flat, as I did him." He chuckled. "I believe that perturbed him a good deal, that I was still taller than he was."
Cora's face puckered slightly. "Robert? Did you say you were at a jewelers?"
"Yes, sweetheart." Then he remembered that he'd never given her the gift. "Oh! Give me a moment." He kissed her on the forehead, then got off the bed. He rifled through his discarded clothes until he got to his jacket on the bottom of the pile. Removing the parcel from his pocket, he brought it over to the bed, climbing back up and turning the bedclothes back. He slipped beneath them, then patted the place beside him for her to join him. "I don't want you catching cold over there."
Grinning, Cora sat next to him, and he tucked the blankets up around them. Then he handed her the parcel. She opened it, then nearly dropped it in her haste to turn and kiss him.
"I think she likes them," he said, half to himself, when she'd finally released him to admire the gift.
"Oh, yes. I do like them. Very much." She touched the earrings with her forefinger. They were emerald green scarabs, set in beautifully worked gold settings, very delicate and fine.
Robert had his arm wrapped around her shoulders and he gave them a squeeze. "I remembered that symbol on the Egyptian carving we were looking at yesterday. And the color reminded me of that particularly fine scarf you were wearing the other night…." He leaned over and nibbled on her ear.
Cora giggled. "That tickles." She closed the box and put it aside, then turned and leaned her head on Robert's shoulder, taking his other hand and knotting her fingers through his. "Robert? May I ask you something?"
Kissing the top of her head, he replied, "Of course you may, sweetheart. You may ask me anything you wish."
"Why didn't we go home today?"
He began playing with her hair, something becoming a habit with him. "Because I wasn't sure you were well enough yet."
Cora sighed and kept her eyes on their hands. "No – I mean, that may be true, but it was only one reason. There was something else. I saw it in your eyes this morning."
It was Robert's turn to sigh now. "You'll think me ridiculous."
She turned her head to look up into his face now. "I don't think so. Try me."
"Alright. Well, everything had been going so well between us, I was – " Could he say it? "I was afraid that when we got back to Downton, everything would be different. That it would go back to the way it was before. And I didn't want it to."
"Robert. That's not ridiculous, to be afraid of that. But it's not true. It won't go back. Not now. Not that we've had all this. It's not the place that matters. Not anymore." She lowered her eyes. "Besides, your heart is my home. Not Downton. Wherever you are, that's where I'm home. I know it's not the same for you, so you don't have to try to say it. But it's true for me. Downton, here, anywhere."
"Oh, Cora." He kissed her head again, smoothing her hair back. "I think you're right though. I see it now – now that I've had my revelation." He chuckled a little. "I love you. And it doesn't matter where we are. That won't change."
Cora looked up at him again. "Then we'll go back to Downton tomorrow for sure?"
"Yes," he nodded. "We'll go home tomorrow."
Bringing his hand up to her lips, she kissed it. "I love you, Robert."
He realized it didn't hurt anymore for her to say it. In fact, it felt marvelous. "I love you, too, Cora."
And it felt even more marvelous to say it back.