AN: So, lots of big hugs to everyone who reviewed the last chapter. This one is set after Mary tells Cora that Mathew has proposed in S1E6. Robert enters the room just as the conversation is ending, and I always wondered what happened after that, particularly as, at this point, unknown to the characters, Cora is actually pregnant. I hope you enjoy it, and please leave a review which will motivate me with more little one shots and, hopefully, my pre-canon multi-chapter fic. I apologise for any errors I have only briefly read it through.

Cobert love to you all.

Robert watches Mary leave with a set of emotions that confuse him. He should be ecstatic that he has been left alone with Cora so promptly, but there had been something in Mary's parting remark, something that Robert wasn't sure he liked.

Was it really news to Mary that her parents slept together? Almost certainly not, so why had she made the point so explicitly with a twinkle glittering in her eyes that reminded him of when she had been a mischievous little girl.

Letting his thoughts settle as he removes his dressing gown, he turns them instead to Cora's more recent behaviour. Although perhaps 'behaviour' was the wrong word because how she behaved was always exemplary. It was not her behaviour in general that was strange lately, it was her emotions and desires towards him which had become much more heightened than they had been.

He only had to enter the room the other night and his dressing gown had been forcibly removed, and all his coherent thoughts had been lost—replaced by the sensations Cora's hands and lips caused to swell within him.

She doesn't move towards him tonight, which serves to reiterate the feeling within him that whatever Mary had come to tell her mother was something significant enough to not only put her in a happy, teasing mood, but had also distracted Cora from her more recent 'habits'.

"What was it Mary wanted?" He turns back the covers on the bed. Lifting his legs to slide easily between the high quality bedding. When the silence from Cora's side of the bed continues, he turns his attention to actually look at her.

She is chewing the inside of her lips gently, her eyes fixed on where her hands are on her lap. When he turns she looks instantly up. Any other person might have missed the flash of the wide grin across her face that makes her eyes sparkle. It lasts only a millisecond, before her face returns to the controlled smile that he is far more attuned to because it is the one that lights her face the majority of the time.

"Cora, I am not Mama, I know every expression that lights up your face. Am I to assume that Mary came to see you with some very exciting news?" His own face begins to stretch into a wide smile, there wasn't much news from Mary that would make Cora so happy, which could only mean that Matthew had finally proposed. His mind settles on that matter, the entail no longer a problem, his eldest daughter the future Countess of Grantham. No doubt there will be a little grandson for him to teach the ways of the estate to.

Lost in his fantasies he doesn't see the way Cora's gaze drops from his, and the bright smile falters, a crease across her forehead taking its place. When he does focus his attentions back on her, there is admittedly a slight furrowing of her brow, but nothing to the extent of the one he had missed. He doesn't say anything, he doesn't have to, Cora reads the question in his face.

"She hasn't accepted him yet, she says she needs to think about it."

"What?! Is she mad?" He turns his body in the bed so he is completely looking at her.

"It is a big decision, Robert. She's being sensible not to take it lightly." His eyes widen in shock, just a few weeks ago she had been panicking about Mary's prospects. In fact, she had been in tears one night and on another occasion he knows she didn't get any sleep.

"But this is Matthew, Cora. Matthew, whom she has been in love with practically since she saw him."

"There are still considerations, Robert." She looks at him with that expression which he knows is a warning, it's telling him to stop, to not push her too far. But like he has done before, he ignores it.

"Cora, that's rubbish, and you know it is! The only consideration is whether she definitely likes him, and we know she does. She isn't you, she isn't going to be giving up anything to marry Matthew! In fact, she's going to gain an awful lot of things back that the law has taken from her." Cora's eyes narrow at him, and she takes a visible gulp which he knows is to steady her nerves. She hated him getting angry, and when it is aimed at her she always shies away. She had never been very confrontational when he yelled at her—not when she felt it wasn't her he should be getting at, anyway. They argue, sometimes, of course, but that was not, as she would no doubt tell him tomorrow, 'the same as when you are just trying to make an argument.'

"It is still a big step for her Robert, and one she is right not to take lightly."

"Being married is not a big step, Cora. Not for Mary who has been preparing for it her whole life. And this choice certainly isn't difficult, it's Matthew!" Her eyes flash, and he instinctively shuffles into the bedding a little more.

"I'm sorry Robert, but marriage for any woman is a big step. Even Mary who—" But here she suddenly stops. Her mouth seems to slam shut and then opens a little. It seems as though whatever she was about to say she had realised was not to be mentioned to him. Robert frowns.

"Cora?"

"Sorry, I...it doesn't matter. I just...I think you're actually right. Goodness, they've been dancing around each other long enough, I'm sure Matthew would much rather know where he stands." She laughs, but it's a strained laugh. Is he missing something? Before he can think of what that might be, he is accosted by her cold hand slipping beneath his pyjama shirt—it seemed her newfound desires had not vanished at all.

"Cora, I–"

"Before you even think of saying anything, no isn't a word I understand." He is, as always with Cora, completely cornered, if she wants anything he is powerless, and in this case more than most. His confusion over her change of emotion earlier is gone, his thoughts lost in far more favourable pursuits.