Dear readers, I hope, the story is still plausible, sometimes I feel like I've lost my way a bit. And there's still some way to go, actually ;) And please don't get too excited - they are not out of the woods yet...;) Enjoy x

The first day of the second week of Robert's and Cora's honeymoon promised to become a perfect day, even in its early hours. At least for the weather outside of the luxurious bedroom where Cora Crawley née Levinson had been lying awake for quite some time and didn't dare move for fear of waking her husband, who, to her lingering astonishment, lay spooned against her and slept soundly.

What a fiasco last night had been. The memory brought her almost immediately to the brink of tears again. Would she ever be able to give him what he needed? And what was her duty as his wife after all. Not to mention her duty as the future Countess of Grantham which was primarily to give birth to a healthy strapping son at some point in the, hopefully, near future. But before you could give birth you had to conceive, that much was clear. No stork would relieve her of that biological necessity. Although she had wished for a fleeting moment last night, that this bloody bird could just show up on Downton's doorstep and deliver a bundle like the postman delivered letters.
What would happen if she didn't overcome her fears? While Robert had been in the bathroom the scene had enfolded itself before her inner eye in painful clarity. Robert's disappointed face, the snide comments of her mother-in-law, the frustration of Lord Grantham who had to look for another saviour for his estate, the harsh words from her own mother, who had been beside herself that she had managed to marry a future British Earl, the signing of divorce papers, the mocking looks of society. She hadn't really been able to decide which of all those images she found the most frightening, but Robert's disappointment was a good candidate. She was in love with him, wasn't she, foolish girl that she was, the absolutely last thing she wanted was to disappoint him in any way.

But now Robert had given her hope for he had saved the day somehow. He could have just gone to sleep in his own bed and leave her. They could have been on their way back to Downton by now to announce the failure, but he hadn't spoken one harsh word last night. True, she hadn't seen his face after he had come back, there might have been a deep frustration visible in his marvelous blue eyes, but in his words it hadn't shown. On the contrary, the words he had whispered into her ear had soothed her profoundly.
And his strong arms, which were wrapped around her, soothed her still. Cora Crawley hadn't felt this secure in a long time and the foolish girl in love, which loved him even more for what he had done, wished, they could lie in bed like this till the end of their days.

When the first rays of sunshine started to light up the room, Cora felt Robert stir behind her and the butterflies in her stomach took a leap, because he didn't jump up and fled the bed like she had expected him to but instead he mumbled something unintelligible into her hair and pressed himself even closer to her body. And then she felt it. Something hard was prodding the small of her back. Cora took a deep breath and made a decision.

"Robert? Are you awake?" She laced her fingers through his, hoping he wouldn't just escape when he realized where he was and what they were doing.

"Mmmmh," someone was calling his name..., but the only thing that really registered in Robert's sleepy mind was the warm body in his arms. 'What a nice feeling', he thought, he had never in his life awoken with his arms around someone else. Such bliss.

"Robert?"

"What?" His eyes snapped open and he suddenly realized where he was, who it was that his arms were wrapped around and what his body obviously wanted to do this fine morning. When he tried instinctively and somewhat hastily to put some space between him and his wife though, Cora held on to his hand.

"Robert, please don't leave just yet," she turned around to face him. "Please? Just a minute?" Cora almost pleaded.

"But Cora, I... we shouldn't... we can't... I have to..." Robert trailed off, very aware now of his fairly uncomfortable predicament. He couldn't very well tell her what he had to do now. God, this was driving him nuts. Why did this have to be so bloody complicated. He'd never thought married life to be this complicated. And the way she was looking at him now. With this mixture of fear and desperation. He gave up.

"What? What do you want?" Robert sighed, suddenly feeling anger bubbling up inside of him, but he wasn't angry at her or at something specific, he was just simply angry. His manhood was throbbing painfully, but his beautiful wife couldn't yet help him with that, and on top of everything else his stomach started to growl audibly. Robert always got cranky when he was hungry.

Cora had to swallow.

"I... I want to apologize for last night. I don't know, what happened, but..."

"Don't apologize, Cora, please, I told you, it's not your fault," he cut her off, while managing to wriggle himself out of her grasp. He had to go and relieve himself somewhere or put the basin of cold water, which stood in his room, to good use. But he had to do it now. He wasn't in the mood for talking.

"No, please Robert, hear me out," she went after him across the bed and just as his feet had hit the ground and he'd started to look for his slippers, she slung her arms around his shoulders, slightly surprised by her own courage.

"Cora, please," exasperation was clearly audible in his voice.

"I know, I know that you are," Cora swallowed again, "that you are... ready," she managed to say.

"What?" His head turned abruptly and Cora looked into his questioning eyes.

"I felt it," her courage was drowning away rapidly now, "when you snuggled up to me," her voice faltered and was barely audible anymore, "which was nice."

"Can't we just try again?" She suddenly blurted out to both of their surprise.

"What? No... Cora... No, I don't... after last night, I...," he stood up, now looking down at her and into her eyes, which had just gotten even more fearful and Robert realized, remembering her trembling body and her desperate sobbing from last night, that she was very probably afraid he would blame her or want to divorce her or something, so he forced himself to calm down.

"Please, don't feel obliged in any way. Don't think, you have to force yourself to anything. We have time, Cora, hm? Everything will be alright," he caressed her cheek softly and placed a light kiss on top of her head.

"Thank you," Cora whispered, considerably relieved by his words. But she had made a decision this morning and she hadn't yet abandoned it completely.

"Then, can I at least... can I... see it?"

"See what?" He had picked up his dressing gown.

"Your...," she gestured vaguely into the direction of his hips.

"Oh. Well, if you think that's going to help," he mumbled with just a hint of embarrassment. It didn't matter anymore anyway and he didn't want to argue with Cora. Not now. All he wanted right now was to get rid of his predicament and have a hearty breakfast afterwards.

Robert put his dressing gown back down onto the armchair, took a deep breath and dropped his pyjama pants.

"Finished?" Cora heard his voice after a while and only then she realized that she was staring. She managed to tear her eyes away from Robert's middle part and to look into his face. What she didn't manage was to utter a word, so Cora just nodded instead.
Robert pulled his pants back up and cocked his head to look at her, trying to figure out what she was thinking, though he had to admit to himself, he wasn't very successful.

"Is everything alright?" Robert asked cautiously.

"Yes, everything is fine," Cora replied in a quiet but steady voice, which, Robert suddenly realized, was exactly what he had needed to hear, spoken in exactly the way he had needed it to be spoken.

"Then I'm going to get dressed now? Do I see you at breakfast? Let's say in half an hour?"

"I'm looking forward to it," Cora said and with a last nod, Robert left her bedroom to - finally - attend to his problem.

The moment, Robert had closed her bedroom door behind him, both of them smiled.

Like every day of the past week they enjoyed having breakfast on the balcony. The sun was shining, the sea glistening in the sunlight, the breakfast was exquisite and the music of the waves crashing softly onto the beach provided a calming background to their conversation. After having satisfied his morning desires, Robert felt considerably more relaxed and Cora seemed glad, that this mornings breakfast wasn't any different from the one's of their first week together and the issue of last night appeared to be resolved for now. While he read his morning paper, Cora admired the beautiful scenery, which she apparently couldn't get enough of. After a little while, she started to write a letter.

Robert eyed her cautiously each time he turned the pages of the paper, though.

When he had 'calmed' himself with a little help of cold water this morning an idea had suddenly sprung to his mind, which at first he thought pretty ridiculous but Robert found himself thinking about it throughout breakfast. He just couldn't get it out of his head. Remembering how he had woken up with his arms around her, her warm body pressed against his, their feet entangled in between the sheets and how he had enjoyed that, he wanted to experience it again. He knew, it wasn't proper and people like them didn't do such things, but their case was different, wasn't it? Perhaps his idea would help with their miserable situation, which was his fault anyway, so he was the one, who had to try and do something about it. But perhaps she would be appalled by it. In the end, she hadn't said anything about his 'display' earlier. Robert hadn't expected applause exactly but he hadn't been able to interpret her face, neither correctly nor otherwise. Perhaps he should just be content that she hadn't shrieked or covered her eyes or something. The few words she had managed to speak had given him hope that not all was lost and they had calmed him, but he couldn't be sure, could he? Well, the only way of knowing whether Cora would even consider his ludicrous idea was to ask her. When he took a deep breath, Robert felt like when he once went ice skating with Rosamund - on the third day of winter.

"Cora?" He dropped his paper, "I've had an idea regarding our... our... predicament."

Cora looked up from her letter, her quill suddenly scratching audibly across the paper.

"Robert, I don't... I thought..."

"Please, Cora, hear me out," he interrupted her seeing that the fear had returned to her rather marvelous blue eyes.

"Before I say anything, let me tell you, it's just a silly idea. You can say no, in fact, I'd like you to say no if you don't want to go along with it. Like I told you, I don't want you to feel obliged in any way. We do have time, Cora. Alright?"

"Alright," she whispered.

"Cora, I...," Robert had to take another deep breath. Confessing or indeed even speaking about his feelings, feelings of any sort, hadn't been his forte up till now for he had very little practice with this kind of thing, "I really enjoyed waking up with you this morning. And I don't mean it in, well, that way," he added hastily and gestured into the direction of his hips.

"What would you say, if I... if we... were to sleep together from now on? And I actually mean sleep, not, you know... perhaps it would help us to get to know each other better, or, or... I promise, I'm not going to force you or me on you, or, or... I know it's not proper, but..." realizing he was babbling now, Robert tore his eyes away from the bread basket he had fixated throughout his speech and raised his head to finally look at her.

For some unknown reason his heart was racing inside of his chest and his face felt flushed.

Cora's eyes had grown wider and wider the more and more words tumbled out of her husband. That she definitely had not expected. A wave of happiness surged through her, but Cora felt at a loss for words, though she knew, he was waiting for an answer. She lowered her gaze.

"Robert, you shame me. With what have I deserved this? I thought you would never want to see me again...," she trailed off, not being able to actually say the words.

"You really thought I would want to divorce you?" Robert asked, a little bit taken aback by her revelation.

"Yes," she whispered, her eyes still fixed on the half-finished letter in front of her.

"But it's my fault, isn't it?" Robert murmured, more to himself than actually asking her.

"How can it be your fault?" Cora felt genuinely confused by his words.

"My father... my father told me, just before our wedding night, to be gentle. And I wasn't. I hurt you. I'm sorry, I really am," Robert's voice was only barely audible anymore and he was staring at the bread basket again.

Understanding dawned on Cora. Finally. He felt guilty. They both felt guilty and had been groping in the dark for more than a week. In more than just one way. She reached across the table and took his hand in hers.

"Robert?" He raised his head and Cora thought she detected fear in his eyes.

"I'd very much like to wake up with you beside me again."