AN: Sorry this chapter is late, fanfic being down yesterday rather interfered with my schedule! This is the last chapter, and I know a lot of you were expecting Robert and Cora's first meeting but I covered that in 'To Watch a Future Unfurl,' so this chapter is set in the CS of series 5 while they are at the castle. However, as the time gap is so big, there is a large amount of scope for me to write a new story at some time to fill the middle time!

On another note, this chapter got way out of hand somewhere in the middle. It was one of those chapters where you get to the end and you look back and can't work out how you ended up where you did. So, a lot of you won't agree with what is revealed in this chapter but in my mind I think, I think, it worked. But, your thoughts would be even more valued than usual, which is very valued anyway. Thanks for all the lovely reviews. I've got a few one shots lined up for the next few weeks, first will be up sometime on Wednesday.

As Robert entered the room Cora had been assigned for the duration of her stay at Brancaster castle Robert was unsurprised by the question she asked him before the door so much as closed.

"Robert, who was the niece the Hexham's tried to 'unload' on you?" He shook his head slowly from side to side before walking up behind her and encircling her waist with his arms and pressing a kiss to the back of her neck.

"How about we get into bed, and then I will tell you the whole story?" She swivels reluctantly in his arms and does as he bade, he follows her and after she's wriggled a fair amount, she always does before settling down she lies comfortably and turns an expectant face towards him. He then relates the whole story of his dealing with Lady Charlotte and Cora stares wide eyed.

"Did you love her?" Comes her first question, no doubt Robert thinks, there will be plenty more.

"I think I thought I did at the time. But then, well, I met you."

"You remember the story in a vast deal of detail if you didn't love her."

"It was a pivotal moment in my life. The attachment to a marriage of love was something that was never going to die in my mind, for my whole life, I knew that. And I was convinced I would never have that love. As I told Charlotte at the time, I was therefore desperate to help someone who had it within their reach. Secondly, and more importantly since I've moved on in life, I've looked back on the time I spent here with a very fond memory. It was after all the first place I heard your name." Robert delights at the blush that spreads over Cora's face.

"Do you still share correspondence with her?"

"I did, for some time, for a very long time in fact. But then Thomas died in the same war I fought in and Charlotte's letters changed, she became, I realise now depressed. She died of pneumonia. As you almost did. Strange really, that the two women I loved, very differently, but with equal vigour for different reasons...I almost lost you both to that disease." The tears on his cheeks appear before he realises they've been building in his eyes. When he found out Charlotte had died it had hurt, very much, she was in many ways the first woman he had loved.

"Oh, darling, I'm so sorry. Why did you ever tell me this before?"

"I suppose I was worried you would think I had some extra marital relationship with her. But also, her letters became sad for me to read after Thomas' death and it was seldom that I wrote back. In hindsight I realise I should have done, maybe it would have helped her out of her gloom. I thought of inviting her here but than I thought our happy situation might hurt her." He watches as Cora nods slowly beside him but he has wondered ever since the news came to him of her death, about whether he should have enlightened Cora and invited Charlotte to stay, he had regretted not seeing her in those final months.

"Will you take me to the stream? Where Charlotte bathed her feet? We could take some flowers and leave them there and then bathe our own feet."

"I'd like that."

"It's a shame I never met her. I would have liked to meet the woman who kissed you in such a way that you remember it."

"Cora, trust me when I say your kisses give me far more pleasure. Hers just shocked me, I think that's why I remember it. And you have met her, a part of her. Rose."

"What!?"

"Rose is not Susan and Shrimpie's daughter. Just after Charlotte's death I received a letter from her lawyer. She'd had a baby while Thomas had been fighting, when she died the baby was not even one. She left Rose in my care for some reason, all her other children were sons and an Uncle of Thomas' took them but not Rose, maybe he refused, I don't know. Anyway, being as I was with three young daughters of my own and perhaps more children I asked Shrimpie if he would take the girl, his children being that much older, and he did. He adopted her, totally."

"Oh my, that would in some ways explain Susan's dislike."

"Yes, quite. No doubt she feels an Earl's daughter, for that is what she is, deserves better than what Rose gives herself. It's why I wanted you to take Rose when Shrimpie asked. Rose does know, but she is adamant that in her mind Shrimpie will always be her father and Susan her mother. It's all she can remember after all." Cora shakes her head form side to side in disbelief.

"Downton Abbey must be the house of the most secrets, I've never known a family with so many things hidden from some and known to others as the Crawley family." Robert can't help but laugh, Cora is right of course, you wouldn't be able to count the secrets on one hand there were so many! "We will take roses to the stream tomorrow, a symbol of her only daughter. I'm sure we can find some somewhere. We'll make an afternoon of it, picnic and all."

"Yes, and you never know, I might even put stones in your shoes!" He leans over and kisses her nose before capturing her lips with his. Charlotte had shown him what love could be like, given him hope and a wonderful 'niece'. Cora had given him her heart, her life and three wonderful daughters. But most importantly she'd given him a life he didn't think he was ever going to have. A life and marriage full of love.