Robert held Cora's hand, the sat in the back of the car. His father insisted that they use the chauffeur to go to the hospital. Cora had been reluctant to tell his parents why they needed to go to the hospital, but she also realised that they could not hide it from them.
To his surprise was his mother's reaction very mild and even caring towards Cora. Violet tried to reassure Cora that it had taken a while before she herself got pregnant. He could see that Cora was unsure about her approach but appropriated her words.
And now they got the results of the tests back, Cora had been noticeably quiet and did not say much. He had not accepted that there was indeed something wrong. Cora warned him, she had known. But he kept denying it, but now he could not deny it. He admitted that it was a relief that it was not him, but at the same time, he had wished he were the problem. He could see that Cora felt guilty and he was at the same time scared about the impact this would have.
"Do you want to go home." He asked.
"I would like to go home, indeed."
The way she said home, made clear to Robert that she meant their own home. "I am sorry my darling. We have to stay a bit longer here at Downton. I meant if you wanted to go to Downton or get something to drink at the pub."
Cora turned towards Robert; he saw her eyes glistening from tears. "I cannot face your mother, not yet."
It cost him all his willpower not to wrap his arms around her and pull her close. "Can you drive us to the pub please?" He asked the chauffeur.
Robert wrapped his arm around Cora's shoulder, and he felt her arm on his back. He tried to keep her as close as possible. "Hello Jameson, good to see you again." He greeted the bartender.
"Good afternoon, milord. I have your table ready in a minute. I did not know you were coming."
"There is no rush, Jameson. We decided last minute to stop here. We will take a seat at the bar first."
Cora felt all eyes were directed at them, and she wanted to disappear. "Why is everybody staring at us?" She asked very softly.
"They have not seen you a lot and well, you will be their future Lady Grantham. So, they are curious." Ignoring all the people looking at them he kissed her temple. "We will have a private table, but for now we have to endure the looks."
"You can follow me, Milord, Milady." Jameson returned and brought them to the back. He pulled on a cord and a curtain separated them from the rest of the pub.
Cora sat down; she rested her head in her hands.
"Do you have another headache?" Robert asked worried. Dr Clarkson told them she had Intracranial hypertension. Simply said: there was a build-up of fluid in her brain. They would need to do a lot more tests to find out why it happened. Dr Clarkson said that her hormonal imbalance and low iron could be the source.
Cora looked up; she saw panic in Robert's eyes. Quickly she reached over the table and took his hands in hers. "I am just tired. Please do not worry."
Robert brushed over her slender hand, her hands were cold, as they always were. "I have to admit, that the results scare me. Why did you never tell me about the headaches you have? I know you have them, but they must be horrible, and you always just go on."
She smiled a reassuring smile. "Sweetheart, they are not always bad. I promise, most of the time it is just there. I never thought anything about it. During my period they are worse, but I thought that that was normal."
"We will not treat any headache as normal anymore. I feel guilty for not registering that you had such bad headaches earlier, we would have been at the doctor earlier." Robert said."
"Darling, please. Dr Clarkson said that with this medication I will take, the fluid will go down. As long as my headaches do not get worse or more frequent, we do not have to worry. I only have had them for a couple of weeks now. I did not tell you that they were bad, because I did not realise something was wrong. Do not feel guilty, they will go away again. Everything is alright.
He now squeezed her hand. "Everything is not alright."
Cora wrapped her fingers firmly around his hand. "I know. I mean that we do not have to worry too much. They will give me all the scans and tests that are needed and all will be fine. I only hope that this will also solve my infertility."
"With a better hormonal balance, you will be pregnant in no time."
This made Cora laugh. "We should first focus on my health before we go into the full force of trying again."
"Does that mean, you are denying me fun from now on?" Robert pouted.
Cora laughed again. "There are so many ways we can have terrific fun without trying to get pregnant."
"At least I know you are not lying when you say you have a headache." Robert laughed.
It was a relief that they could joke about this. It made the situation less anxious. "Do you mind if I tell Rosamund about the outcome?"
"Of course not, but please can we tell my parents too? "
"Sweetheart." Cora closed her hand around Robert's again. "That I was not ready to face your mother earlier did not mean we will not tell them. I just needed time to process a little bit what we just were told."
"Maybe we should go back to Downton then?"
"According to Dr Clarkson and his medical team, there is fluid build-up in Cora's brain."
"How did that happen? Did you hit your head?" Patrick's head whipped towards Cora.
"She did not. They think that it comes from hormonal imbalance and a low iron level."
"Does that fluid cause the problems with conceiving?"
Cora was intrigued by how much Patrick wanted to know. Robert had amazed her when he wanted to talk about her medical condition, but he had still seemed awkward. Patrick on the other hand wanted to hear all the details and fully understand what was said.
"My low progesterone is the source for not getting pregnant. It is possible that I already conceived but lost that baby. The fluid causes me headaches."
"I am sorry to hear this dear." Violet chimed in.
"Do you have a constant headache, or does it come and go?" Patrick continued his questioning.
"To be honest. There is every day a sort of buzzing in my head since a couple of weeks, but I do not classify them as a headache."
"Not anymore," Robert added. "Because your bad days the headaches are really horrible, they make the normal headaches, feel like nothing is wrong."
"You make it sound like I am lying, ill, in a dark room monthly." Cora rested her hand on his knee. "It is not that bad, I promise."
"Will you need other treatment for this, besides medication?"
"For now, the medication should work. If that does not help, they will need to operate." Robert's voice sounded anxious.
Cora squeezed his leg. "For now, there is no reason to think about a possible operation. I am going to prepare for my book tour, and you will assist your father in the company and before you know it, everything will be back to normal."
"I am going up for some rest." Violet suddenly said. "Cora if you need to rest before dinner, you could do that now."
Robert put his hand behind Cora's back. "It was an exhausting day, why do you not go up, as Mama suggested and take some rest."
"Robert, I need you, and also your parents, to not treat me as an invalid now. I am not ill, and I do know what I can manage."
"My dear," Violet said, her voice calm. "You could accept that Robert wants to care for you."
"But I do accept that," Cora argued. "I just do not want to be treated differently just because we got these results back."
"I understand and you are right," Robert said, getting up from the sofa. "I have to excuse myself, there is some work left for today and I would like to finish that before dinner."
"That is perfect timing then, that means I can take my darling sister-in-law for a lovely spring stroll." Rosamund's voice sounded. She was carrying Peter in a carrier on her chest.
"We were not expecting you before dinner." Violet said dismissively.
"That is a bummer, but here I am, and I am taking Cora for a nice walk."