Always Faithful

By: Miss Phyllis Baxter (knockedoveralamp)

Ship: Robert x Cora

Word Count: 1918

Summary: From a prompt on tumblr from zephiey, where Robert gets jealous because of young men flirting with Cora, set in 1925. I've also made it so that another house party is going on, and Mary is engaged to Charles Blake who has recently returned from Poland. Tom and Sybbie are still at Downton until Mary and Charles marry, and Rose and Atticus are still in England, waiting for the same event as everyone else. So, here is my offering of jealous Robert when three young men are trying to get with Cora. Thank you again to my darling beta, settees-under-siege.

Robert enjoyed house parties a great deal. They could be tiresome, but he enjoyed being a host to people he didn't know all that well in hopes that he could get to know them better. Some people who had attended his house parties he ended up not liking all that much and wanted nothing to do with them ever again, like Terrance Samson. Others rekindled their friendship with his family, like Tony Gillingham had. And then there was Michael Gregson, who became a close family friend, and someone he could see as part of the family. This house party should be interesting however, since the house was once again filled with young men and mostly they were friends and acquaintances of their daughters, Rose and Tom.

Evelyn Napier, Tony and Mabel Gillingham and Mary's new fiance, Charles Blake were all in attendance. Rose and Atticus had arrived with his parents in tow. Lord Merton and Lady Shackleton were also there since his mama had an idea that she wanted to set in motion. And Cora had invited three other men to hopefully cheer Edith up, however they seemed more interested in their hostess than Lady Edith herself.

The three younger men, whom Robert did not care to remember the names of seemed to be following his wife around. They were making her laugh, smile and they were ticking Robert off. Ever since Simon Bricker had come into their lives, he had become nervous, knowing that people didn't care about their marriage. He loved her, but he felt like his reluctance to be overly open with his affection towards her seemed to other men like an excuse to flirt with her. She was his to flirt with and only his, so he would need to keep a close eye on these young men. He trusted his wife, he would never doubt her loyalty to him again. He was shaken by finding Bricker in her room after all, because men were not monogamous. Cora was his one and only, and while he had nearly strayed at the end of the war, he knew he never would have been able to go through with it.

He approached his wife quietly and touched her waist gently from where he stood beside her. She turned her head at the feel of his touch and smiled when she saw her husband's face. "Yes darling?" she asked quietly.

"I just want to know who your dinner companions will be for the duration of the house party," he said. "And mine as well."

"Mine are Evelyn and Lord Sinderby. You have Lady Sinderby on one side and Mama on your other side," she replied. "Why do you ask?"

"Just thinking of possible dinner topics is all," he replied, kissing her cheek lightly.

"You always sit next to Mama, and I always sit next to Evelyn when he's here," she replied. "On Lord Sinderby's other side will be Rose, Atticus across from her beside Lady Sinderby. Would you like to see the plans for the table?"

"No it's fine, my love," he replied, noticing a slight blush coming to her cheeks when he called her his love. "You know what you're doing, I trust you to be the perfect hostess you always are." He leaned over and kissed her cheek again, noticing that one of the young men that had been flirting with her was watching. He smirked and left to speak to Rose and Atticus about how their plans for America were coming along.

Dinner went smoothly, everyone finding conversation to easily discuss with their dinner companions, which made Robert rather proud of his wife. Even people she didn't know, she could seat perfectly next to someone else. Those that she did know were easier to seat, but she did enjoy a small challenge every now and then. After the ladies had left to go to the drawing room, Robert struck up conversation with Lord Sinderby for a while before asking Charles about how the wedding planning was going (even though Cora had already told him everything that Mary had told her).

When the men went through, he didn't go straight to Cora as he had wanted to, but he still found a way to keep an eye on her, and more specifically the men who were flirting with her. He watched as she tried to get them to pay attention to Edith, but it was to no avail. No, why would they flirt with a woman closer to their own ages when they could flirt with such a beautiful woman like Cora, who happened to be the mother of the woman they should have been flirting with? Why not flirt with the most beautiful woman in the world who just so happened to be married? It made him want to just walk up to his wife and claim her as his own right in front of their stupid faces.

He walked over to Charles and discreetly asked him to keep an eye on those silly men that were still talking to his wife. He left the drawing room and slipped into the library, instantly finding his puppy, Cleo, that Cora had gotten him for Christmas to try and cheer him up after losing Isis. He picked Cleo up and kissed her gently on the head. He brought her into the drawing room when he went back, knowing that Cora loved to pet and kiss Cleo whenever she could. He hoped it would get her away from the three men (he still couldn't remember their names), and sure enough when Cora saw Cleo and Robert, her eyes lit up and she immediately went to him, petting and kissing Cleo, telling her what a good girl she was. Robert quietly cleared his throat and Cora looked up at him.

"Could you try and get those men to stop flirting with you darling? It's making me uncomfortable. You invited them to flirt with Edith, not you," he asked, looking at her, his pleading evident in his eyes.

"Robert, they're not flirting with me, they're simply being friendly," she replied. "They know we're married."

"Simon Bricker knew we're married," he replied. "It's not you that I don't trust, it's them. Men are terrible, and one can never know what it is they really want."

Cora's heart sank at his words before she gave him a small smile. "Then if it'll make you feel better, I'll go talk to Rachel and Daniel for a little while, if they would leave their private world for conversation with their hostess," she replied quietly, looking at Lord and Lady Sinderby, who seemed to have fixed their problems since the last time Robert and Cora had seen them at Brancaster. They were tucked in a corner and Lord Sinderby was wearing a genuine smile, frequently reaching out and touching his wife's arm gently.

"Maybe they will and maybe they won't. If they don't, perhaps talk to Tom, Rose and Atticus for a while," he suggested. Cora smiled and nodded, heading off in the direction of the Sinderbys. Robert headed towards Evelyn Napier, whom he had not had very much of a chance to talk to since he had arrived earlier in the day. The two talked for a brief while about the pigs before he heard the three men behind him mention Cora's name, calling her Cora and not Lady Grantham. They weren't friends of the family, they had only met her today and should not be calling her Cora. Even Evelyn who had known Cora for over a decade still called her Lady Grantham. Tom, their own son-in-law still often called her Lady Grantham. These men could not use his wife's first name. He hushed Evelyn and subtly nodded his head towards the young men when Evelyn's expression betrayed his surprise at being hushed by Robert. "They've been flirting with Cora all day and they just used her Christian name," he explained quietly. Evelyn's eyebrows furrowed lightly.

"Why have they been flirting with her? Don't they know what you did to Simon Bricker when he did that? Charles told me after Simon complained to him about the whole ordeal," Evelyn explained.

"Obviously they don't," Robert replied, the two of them listening to the conversation the three men were having.

"Cora's so gorgeous, isn't she?" the tall one with dark hair and eyes asked his friends. "Do you think I should go to her tonight or tomorrow? Or save it for the last night to make the big night of the house party really memorable for her?"

"I'd just slip her a note asking her to come to London and meet with you there," his slightly shorter green-eyed friend suggested. "It would be better than having someone like her husband walk in as you're having her."

"You're both extremely pathetic," the blond hair, blue-eyed one who had flirted with Cora less than the other two said. "Lady Grantham is extremely faithful to her husband and is unlikely to succumb to either one of you no matter how much you flirt with her. I've heard stories in London that Lord Grantham can get very jealous when men flirt with his wife."

"And what's he done to us tonight?" the second one asked. "He's seen us flirting and he's done nothing that would express jealousy. He's not shouted at us or taken her into his arms to put us off."

"She'll succumb to me, my friend," the first one replied. "I know she will. How could she resist a man as charming as me?"

Robert clenched his fists and stormed off towards the young men. He grabbed the first one by his lapels and shook him roughly. "You keep your hands off my wife," he growled. "You ever go near her again and I swear that you will pay." Releasing the man from his grip, he turned on the other two.

"That goes for the two of you as well. Now I suggest that the three of you go upstairs now and leave first thing tomorrow," he said, leaving the three men to pick their jaws up from the ground on their own. He approached Cora who had been talking with the Sinderbys since he had left her. She had a blush on her cheeks and as he came closer, he noticed Lady Sinderby trying to hold back laughter. He took Cora's hand and kissed it gently before bending to ruffle Cleo's ears lightly.

"I'd have done the same if any man was spending all their time flirting with Rachel," Lord Sinderby declared. "You were right to do as you did and I'm sure the rest of the guests will agree. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going up." He left the group, Lady Sinderby nodding and following after her husband. Robert and Cora smiled as they saw the couple take each others hands as they left the drawing room.

"Thank God they're happy," Robert said. "It's good for Rose to see happy marriages."

"Marriages where husbands defend the honour of their wives?" Cora asked.

"Indeed, my love. But I never doubted you. You've always been faithful to me," he replied, leaning forward and pressing a soft kiss to her lips, not minding that they were still surrounded by guests.

"And I always will be," Cora added, taking Robert's hand and saying goodnight to their guests before leading her husband from the drawing room, intent on proving just how faithful she was to her loving husband.