Golly, What A Night

Chapter 3

Robert, please join me for tea this afternoon.

That was all the little note had read. Well, not quite. There was also his mother's scribbled Mama and he could tell that she must have written the note quite hastily.

This was just what he had wanted to avoid, her meddling in his life. It was complicated enough, even without her interfering.

Almost a week had passed since the cocktail party at their house and yesterday, Cora had given him an ultimatum to move back into her bedroom, their bedroom. He so wanted to stay in the close quarters of his small dressing room. The room was quaint and decades ago he had found that very fact to be the reason why he found the room to be so suffocating, too small to breathe and think. But now that had been just what he needed.

Then there she was, standing in the doorway between their rooms and he could see the faint glow of her bedside lamp illuminate her from behind. It was late and Bates had just left after tending to him. He felt bad having kept him up much later than usual, but truth be told, he had dreaded going up that night, even if it was just to his dressing room. So instead, he had stayed behind when all the others had gone upstairs, and his mother had been taken back to the village along with Isobel.

Robert had sat there on the red upholstered stool in between the settees in front of the fireplace, still swirling the whiskey in his glass. He had poured it over an hour ago, but didn't take a single sip. He kept swirling it around the tumbler, looking deep into the amber liquid, the motion in combination with the crackling fire behind it calming him. Then he took a look at the old clock on the mantelpiece and knew he couldn't put off going upstairs any longer for the night, it wasn't fair on his old friend who was waiting to go home and be with his wife.

But what was he supposed to do? She had given him a chance, invited him into her bedroom again, but could he? He knew he should, and he did, but only after she had given him an ultimatum. No matter how angry he was with her, with himself and with the world, he would never do something to willingly hurt her further. Not after she had forgiven him so gracefully all those years ago, when he had finally plucked up the courage to come clean about his mistreatment of her while she had been so close to dying in the room next door.

So he had moved back to her bedroom, but sleep had not come easy that night. Normally, her presence in the bed next to him calmed him, but last night it kept him up. What would happen now? Would she just do what she did at the party - brush it all over and never talk of the very apparent elephant in the room? Would she keep silent until one day it would all explode and be shot back at him?

His thoughts were running rampant inside his head the whole night through and they did not stop during the day, either, no matter how much he had wanted them to stop, just for a single minute.

Robert right about then cursed his decision to walk down to the village instead of taking the car as usual. He had told himself he needed to walk to clear his head and to wake him up a bit further, but he was yet again drenched in the rain and still had to sit through a reprimanding tea with his mother and then walk back again.

What a stupid decision. But then again, he knew all about those.

He had barely knocked at the door when Spratt let him in, taking his coat and hat from him to put them somewhere to hopefully dry at least partially and then announcing his arrival to his mother.

Unsure what to do, he entered the drawing room and, rather reluctantly, went to his mother to greet her.

"Ah, Robert. You received my note then. I was worried it might have been too late when I sent it up to the house," she said in her unmistakable tone.