My Dearest Darling

Chapter 17

The cobbled streets were unfamiliar to him. He had walked them before, many years ago, but still - It all felt incredibly foreign to him. Though it wasn't the cobblestone beneath his feet or even the different accent reaching his ears from all around them that gave him this feeling – it was the vastness of everything. The streets were wide, as were the pavements, and there was enough space to move everywhere one so pleased without bumping into other people. He had walked the narrow cobbled streets of Downton all his life, he had seen his fair share of cities like Ripon or York. Not even London as the capital could begin to compare to the vastness of this place — despite being many times bigger, both in population and area. He always felt small and insignificant when walking around hectic London, but that was nothing compared to this.

They strolled through the streets and Cora pointed out so many things they passed along the way as she clung to his arm. He could already only barely remember half of what she had been saying and pointing out to him. She had shown him the park where she used to go to take a walk with her family back in the day. Then they went to pass by the house where the nice grocer had lived, whose daughter had been one of her best friends when she was a young girl living here in Newport. Harriet Bridges had spent many afternoons with Cora ahead of her departure for London in 1889, trying to calm her frayed nerves, she said.

She would have loved to meet her again, her darling Harriet, but she couldn't. Like so many others, she had died from the Spanish flu almost a decade ago and Robert was yet again reminded of just how lucky a man he truly was that his Cora got through it, that she survived, especially after things had been looking so grim back then. He shuddered simply thinking back to the words the doctor said back then.

If she makes it through the night, she'll live.

Robert shook his head slightly to get rid of those gloomy memories and instead steered the two of them to a bench a little to the side near the entrance of a park. "Come, let's sit for a few minutes and take the scenery in," he said softly, yet also firmly.

He had said that very same sentence a few times that day already – every time he heard her breathing get more laboured or felt her steps slow down slightly, he would be on the lookout for the nearest bench for them to have a rest on. They were fortunate enough that the weather was still nice, with no rain or even snow in sight, despite it being the end of November already. It made being outside the whole day much more enjoyable. Nevertheless, they should start making their way back to the house again soon in order not to be late for dinner — the sun was already almost fully gone, Robert noticed.

Neither of them said a word for a few minutes while they were just sitting there on that big wooden bench, Cora still clinging tightly to this left arm, her head leaning on his shoulder as best she could with her big hat on. Robert listened to the sounds surrounding them; the cries of the seagulls flying over the harbour nearby, the sounds of the motorcars rattling along the streets, the chatter of people passing them by while talking animatedly in their American accents.

That caught his attention. He had to concentrate to understand what the people were saying in their – what he thought to be lazy – way of talking. To him, it felt as if they just did not care enough about anything to pronounce their words properly, and he did not appreciate that one bit.

He could not understand how something sounding so foreign and lazy to his ears could ring out so softly, like gentle music washing over him, whenever his wife spoke. Even after her decades of living in England, she still had kept parts of her accent, but he didn't mind, not in the least. He found it very endearing whenever she slipped into that slightly foreign lilt, or when she spoke his name and rolled the r in that particular way of hers.

"Robert?"

And there it was, the way she said his name – it made his heart flutter and swell within his chest, as it had for so many decades now.