"Come, let's get you upstairs."
His voice was soft as he murmured the words into her dark hair, still holding her fast in his arms in front of the fireplace.
Her reply came later, as if she had taken a while to even register the words he had uttered. He almost thought she had not heard him, but she had.
"What? No, I can't. What about t–?" She sounded tired and quite confused when the words left her mouth.
"Don't you worry, I will take care of everything. But you need to go and lie down, you have barely slept last night, just like the many nights before that."
She gently pushed herself back, leaving the warmth and comfort she had found in her husband's strong arms. A single look up at his face was enough – she did not argue any more. She saw it written clearly all over his face - the concern and sadness that had been there constantly for the past weeks. But Cora also saw the love in his eyes underneath all the other emotions.
Then she felt it in her bones, in her entire being – she felt so incredibly tired, he was right, and she could definitely do with a short nap.
Just until luncheon, that would help, certainly.
Cora allowed him to put his arm around her and guide her upstairs to her bedroom, leaning heavily on his arm and shoulder the entire way there.
Her head had barely touched the pillow when she fell into a deep slumber. It worried him to see how exhausted she must have been. But he was glad to see her sleep finally after so many sleepless nights.
Robert stayed with her for a few minutes, sat in a chair pulled to her bedside and watched the rhythmically slow rise and fall of her chest. Then, once he was sure that she was fast asleep, he got up and went back down to the library to put his plan into action. He sent a few telegrams, placed a call and sent the chauffeur down to the train station to acquire their tickets. To his own astonishment, everything seemed to work out - even on such short notice - and he had a satisfied smile on his face when Carson entered the library to announce that luncheon was served.
"Thank you, Carson," the Earl replied, setting down his pen and getting up from his chair in higher spirits than the butler had seen the last few weeks.
Carson liked to see it. He knew how hard the loss of the dowager had hit the earl. The butler himself had felt saddened beyond belief when the doctor had come downstairs with the terrible news, and he could not imagine what losing one's mother after so many years must have felt like. She had been a constant in all of their lives, and most certainly in Lord Grantham's. Initially, it had surprised Carson to find that Lady Mary had organised the entire funeral for her grandmother instead of her father, as would have been customary, but then he had seen the state the Earl had been in in the days leading up to that and even after it and then it had all made sense to him. Seeing a genuine smile on the otherwise rather haggard-looking face of Lord Grantham calmed the butler's mind ever so slightly. He cleared his throat to garner his Lordship's attention again.
"What shall we do about her ladyship, my Lord? I was told that she went back up to her room to lie down earlier in the morning, and Miss Baxter told me that she was still fast asleep when she went to check in on her a few minutes ago. Shall we wake her up, or take a tray up to her room?"
"No, Carson, none of that, please. Let her sleep for the time being. I will go up later myself and see if she needs anything."
"As you wish," the old butler nodded his approval, bowing his head.
Robert had almost left the room when he turned back to face Carson.
"Oh, and Carson. Could you please tell Bates and Miss Baxter to come and see me in the library after luncheon?"
"Certainly, milord."
Charles Carson usually took pride in the fact that he managed to hide his emotions and innermost thoughts very well – decades of his life spent in service had served him well in that regard. But even he could not help but raise his bushy white eyebrows in question and surprise at the Earl's strange request as Robert passed him by and went to join his family in the small dining room they always used to eat their luncheon.
Robert was the last of the family to arrive and thusly went straight to the buffet to join his family at the table.
They ate their meal mostly in silence again, this particular quiet filling the room seeming even heavier than it had that morning. It was no longer just because of their shared mourning for the dowager, but also because of Cora and her revelation at the breakfast table. It was most uncomfortable for all the people there, but nobody quite dared to speak, apart from Mary when they had almost finished eating their main course.
"Won't Mama join us, Papa?" she asked tentatively, eyeing her father as he cut into the food on his plate, noting the absence of another place setting.
He did not look up to meet her imploring gaze and he pretended not to notice everyone else looking at him expectantly as well.
"No, not today. I took her upstairs to lie down when the doctor left and she has been fast asleep ever since. I will bring her something to eat later."
His daughter had only nodded, turning her attention back to the food left on her plate, just like everyone else, at which Robert could not help but release the breath he had been holding. He had truthfully been expecting a string of questions following that first one, as would have been usual for his eldest daughter, but it seemed that she spared him that then and he was glad for it.
"You asked to see us, milord?" asked Bates after Carson had announced both him and Miss Baxter to the Lord, who was sitting at his desk and looking through several papers again when they entered.
Both of them looked puzzled upon their arrival, obviously completely unaware of why they were asked to come to the library at that hour. It was not unusual for the Earl to ask for his valet at various points throughout the day, but to have his wife's maid there as well was slightly confusing to them. Even more so when they realised that her Ladyship was still not with him.
Upon the announcement of their arrival, Robert stood up from his seat and motioned for them to come closer. Bates saw the effort it took for his old friend merely to stand up from his seated position in his usual leather chair and, to him, it went hand in hand with the dark circles to be found under the Earl's eyes and the fact that Bates had had to alter almost all of his clothes within the past few months to make them fit a bit better. Still, the suits mostly looked quite baggy on him even after the alterations as he stood there in the library of his ancestral home.
Then, Robert clasped his hands behind his back as he spoke to them in a friendly tone, wanting to ease at least some of the tension and air of uncertainty that filled the room.
"Ah, yes. Thank you for coming. I have a request to make that involves both of you. I have arranged to take her ladyship to America to see her family as soon as possible, and I need you to pack our suitcases today, if possible. And I know that I am asking a lot, considering you have already been gone for weeks when we went to France in the summer, but would you please consider accompanying us? Both of you?"
"Of course, my Lord." — "Yes, certainly."
Robert was quite surprised at the quick replies he got to his unusual request.
"Are you sure you do not want to talk this over with your partners before answering? We would be gone for several weeks, after all."
"We will talk to them, won't we, Miss Baxter? But I am sure that they will agree to it," Bates replied with a gentle smile on his face, his gaze wandering from his colleague to his employer.
Robert was at a loss for words, things really were coming along far better than he could have anticipated. "Thank you, truly."
Miss Baxter and Bates nodded their heads, both smiling back at the Earl.
He seemed to be truly grateful for their services, which was quite uncommon as both of the servants knew. It was rare that their services were appreciated like that and not just taken for granted.
Later, Robert went upstairs again, to look after his wife and maybe get her to come downstairs for tea, but she was still fast asleep when he entered.
She looked peaceful, lying still on the big canopy bed, the thick blanket wrapped tightly around her. Her face seemed so relaxed and not at all as worried as it did when she was awake – he loved to see it. But he also knew that the worry lines would come back as soon as she was awake again. Robert decided to let her sleep for the time being and went down alone yet again.
Tea seemed to stretch almost unbearably long. The mist of grief that had settled like a dark cloud over Downton was weighing heavily down on all of their minds, especially when they were all assembled in the same place as they were for the meals they shared.
Tea, just like breakfast and lunch before, was a silent affair. People looked at each other and then back to the floor beneath their feet or into the teacups in their hands. None of them knew quite what to say.
When Nanny brought the children down, Bertie, who had arrived only an hour ago from Brancaster, instantly stood up, took Marigold's hand and said to the children: "Come, let us go outside for a bit. The weather is still nice and we should make the most of that."
So then, it was only Robert, his daughters, Rosamund and Tom in the library. This situation gave him the opportunity to tell them of his plan, something he knew he couldn't do with the children surrounding them. They would only ask him questions he did not know the answer to.
Robert cleared his throat as he set his teacup and saucer down on the mantelpiece he was standing next to as usual.
He turned to Mary and Edith, who were sitting on one of the settees, and said: "Your mother asked me to take her to America to see Grandmama and Uncle Harold. I have managed to get us tickets for the earliest passage in two days and we will leave for the harbour in the morning. She doesn't know that yet, and I decided to let her sleep a little longer. She will need a lot of strength and energy for the trip over the ocean. But I wanted you to know."
"America? But what about treatment? I assumed that was why Doctor Clarkson came here this morning," replied Edith, her voice surprised but sounding very small, as if she were a young girl again. Mary's gaze wandered between her sister and her father, who had come over to where they were sitting as closely together as never before while her sister had uttered her response.
Robert, who had since then taken a seat on the edge of the settee, turned to face them.
"We will worry about that later. Your mother needs to tell her family, too. And this is something you cannot just write in a letter or a telegram, this needs to be told in person. We will be back soon, definitely in time for Christmas, I promise."
"Robert, why haven't either of you said anything sooner?"
He turned around, tearing his gaze away from his daughters, and faced his sister.
She was looking at him, her imploring blue eyes staring at him as she repeated the question Mary had asked that morning at breakfast. She looked scarily like their mother in her younger years with her steely determination obvious to him.
"It wasn't my place to say anything, and to be honest I wouldn't have said anything this morning had she not decided that for herself. We've known for a little while now and I think she just needed time to come to terms with the reality herself before telling you."
"When did you find out? Was it the night Granny died? Was that why Doctor Clarkson was here so fast?"
He waited, took a deep breath, and looked at his eldest daughter before replying to the question Edith had asked. "Yes, her test results had come in the day before and he came here that night to tell us just before Denker called us upstairs to Granny's room. I had hoped you hadn't taken notice of his quick arrival."
"I hadn't thought about it until this morning," she replied honestly.
Just then, Bertie came back inside with the children in tow, their noses and cheeks red from the cold outside.
"It was certainly colder outside than I thought, we shall all need some tea and the fire to warm us back up again," he said as he stepped closer. His smile was sincerely apologetic - he had tried his best to keep the children out as long as possible to give them the chance to talk, but ultimately had to give up due to the harsh wind biting at their faces and hands.