"Morning," Robert said in a cold tone when he and Cora entered the breakfast room.
Patrick turned towards them. "Good morning." He said cheerful. "What a lovely day today."
"It indeed looks lovely; I hope the temperature is nice too. We could go for a little walk today." Cora brushed briefly over his back.
"Where is Mama?" Robert ignored Cora's attempt to calm him down.
"She had an early meeting in the village."
"How convenient." Robert loaded his plate with toast and scrambled eggs. "Well, you can tell her we said goodbye. We are leaving after breakfast."
"I had hoped we could walk to the temple of Diana this morning." Cora sat down at the table. " It is such nice weather, and I would love to see the lake before we go back."
Robert looked at her, his expression softened when he looked into her blue eyes. She was right, he should not leave without saying goodbye to his mother, and they still had their amazing news to share.
"We will go for that walk."
Cora hooked her arm in Robert's when they started walking. But they had not said a word. Robert was not sure what to say, he was still very angry at his mother. And even though he agreed to stay until she was back, he had preferred leaving after breakfast. It was childish, but he was running away from another confrontation with his mother. She had hurt him yesterday; he knew that she would not be jumping up and down from excitement. But he had also not expected her to make him feel ridiculous. He glanced to his right where Cora walked next to him in silence. He was very grateful for her; she gave him time to process what had happened. Yesterday evening and today. She had made sure he would be able to sleep, but without forcing him to talk about the situation. Her hand calmly on his chest, was what he needed to be able to sort the thoughts in his head. And now she was walking beside him, again not forcing him to talk.
He sighed, which made Cora brush over his arm. She turned her head and softly smiled at him. He sighed again. "Do you think Mama will be able to react normally when we tell them our happy news?"
"You never know with your mama." She rested her head against his shoulder. "But to be honest, I do not really care."
"What do you mean by that Cora?" Robert suddenly felt as if he should defend his mother.
"Nothing really." Cora lifted her head again. "I think that it does not matter what she thinks and how she will react. I am happy that we will be parents in about 4 months, the rest of the world does not matter. As long as I have you next to me."
They reached the temple and walked to the same spot they had sat the first time Robert showed her this place. "I wish I could say the same." He started when they sat down. Cora pulled her legs up, so she could lean against Robert. His hand rested on her belly. "I should not care this much about her opinion, but I do."
"I know you do honey." She covered his hand with hers. "I know you do."
Robert nestled his face in her curls and kissed her hair. "I cannot wait to go home to our sanctuary."
"Where we need to prepare to go to my mother."
"Has Dr Clarkson already replied to your email? I do not mind going over water, but we need more time for the trip, and I need to prepare more."
"I have not checked my email today." She moved to take her phone out her pocket.
Robert however stopped her. "We do not need to know right this second. Let us enjoy this beautiful weather and be here together for a moment."
Cora leaned against him again, she turned her head slightly and pressed a kiss on his jaw.
"You finally decided to be a grown man?" Violet sneered when Robert and Cora entered the drawing room.
Cora lifted her arm and brushed over Robert's back, hoping he would be able not to bite. Violet was clearly testing him.
"I asked you something earlier. Why are you ignoring my request already?" Patrick said.
"Can we not do this in front of Cora?" Violet gave Patrick a dirty look.
"Mama, I was set on leaving after breakfast, I had no desire to talk to you again after yesterday. But I chose to be the bigger man and not run away. I am an adult and make my own choices. I will step in Papa's shoes when that is needed. In the meantime, I am planning on making the best of my life. And that includes playing the piano and raising a family with Cora. I adore Cora and love her very much; I cannot imagine my life without her. She makes my world complete."
Cora felt her cheeks blush and did not dare to look up at Violet.
"I hope that one day you will accept me for who I am and accept that Cora is my wife. She will be the mother of my children, and I cannot wait to hold our first little one in our arms this year."
Patrick's face lifted. "Are you expecting?" He smiled at Cora, who nodded and smiled back. Her hand moved to her abdomen.
"I am four and a half months pregnant. We had hoped that sharing this wonderful news would be a happy event. Yesterday you," She looked at Violet. "crushed Robert's confidence and today you are trying that again. This time however, I will not accept it."
"Cora." Robert said softly.
She turned her head towards him and smiled softly "Your mother has bullied you enough and enough is enough." She now looked at Patrick. "Thank you for trying to be there for Robert."
"I think we have to congratulate you two." Violet chose to disregard the other things that had been said.
"Thank you, Mama. We are very happy."
"Is it not dangerous for you my dear?" Patrick looked at her with grate concern on his face.
Robert wrapped his arm around Cora. "Dr Clarkson has her under strict control, so far nothing has changed in her brain. Pregnancy can have an impact on the fluid, but for now it is very stable. The last test even showed that there is less fluid."
"That is amazing news."
"Does your mother already know?" Violet asked.
"We have not told Martha yet, we are planning on traveling to New York soon, so we can tell her in person." Robert still had his arm around Cora. "And now we will go back to London, Mama, I hope you will come to a point where you accept all of this. Papa, thank you. I will call once we are back, we have to arrange a meeting with our new client. We have been managing their estate before, but I cannot remember why they stopped using our company."
"It had something to with money. Did they not close the estate?"
Robert had to dig deep, but he did remember something like that. "I will look into it once I am back in the office. Now, it is time to get to the car and drive home."