“You know you can take every Friday or Monday off when you want to?” Robert looked at John. He had parked the car in front of his apartment.
“Let us not rush into things.”
“But you two look so good together.” Robert continued.
“Anna is a cute woman. I can only admit to that. But I do not want to rush her.”
“As long as you know that I support your free days to go and visit her.”
“Thank you.” John got out of the car and took his suitcase out of the trunk. “Say hi to Cora for me.”
“I will enjoy your evening.” Robert drove off. He noticed that when he got closer to Cora’s apartment he started to hum. He could not wait to kiss his Cora. He missed her these days. It was strange how those things went, one and a half years ago he could not stand her and now he could not be without her.
With a skip in his step, he walked towards her door, he heard music when he opened the door. A relief, she was home. He saw her standing outside on the balcony, it was a warm summer night. He already imagined them sitting on the balcony, both with a glass of wine, him massaging her feet that she had stretched over his legs. The sliding doors were open, and he walked closer. Cora was staring over the water, and she had not noticed him entering the house. Trying not to make a sound he stepped behind her, with a smooth move he put both his hands on her hips and pressed his lips on her neck. But instead of her body moulding against his, she stiffened up and he heard her holding her breath. Unsure he pulled his hands back and touched her shoulder, turning her so he could face her. “Cora?”
A million thoughts were racing through Cora’s mind as soon as she felt hands on her hips. She froze when it happened, and the image of Simon’s hands on her flashed in front of her eyes. She tried to relax again as soon as she realised it was Robert, but her body did not let her. She stepped back from Robert’s touch, his hand was now on her shoulder. She needed him to pull his hands back, so she could snap back. “I was not expecting you already. I am sorry.” She forced a smile on her face and looked into Robert’s worried eyes.
“Something is wrong dear. What happened?”
Cora knew she told Rosamund she would tell Robert what had happened, but now she was looking into his eyes, she could not tell him. “I was just miles away.” She said instead of telling him the truth. It felt bad, but how could she tell him? He would be so hurt and get incredibly angry. She forced herself to step back towards Robert, she put her hand against his chest. “Did you have a good time?”
Robert put his hand on top of hers, the other rested on her lower back, pulling her closer towards him, pressing a kiss on her lips. “We did, the meeting went well, and we have a new big client. They have a big farm, with all kinds of livestock. But mostly they have horses. Magnificent ones, I must add.” Robert let go of her hand and turned towards the water, his other hand was still on her lower back, which made her also turn towards the water. “They want us to do all their advertisements from now on. From promoting their open days as when they want to sell a horse. They also have Highland cows; we are invited to come back next year when the calving season is there. Imagine all those cute small Highlander cows, that will be so adorable.”
Cora had to fight to not freeze again when Robert pulled her close and kissed her. His enthusiasm over the new client made it easier for her to relax. She leaned against his upper body and listened to his stories about the weekend.
She tried to suppress a yawn, but Robert noticed. “It is late, I know. We should go to bed.” Robert nudged Cora towards the bedroom. “I will take a shower first.”
Cora was very relieved when he said that. That way she could crawl under the covers and try to fall asleep before Robert came to bed.
Robert took a long shower, he was not sure what, but something was wrong with Cora. She looked relieved when he said he was going to take a shower. She had reacted weirdly when he touched her. She was hiding something from him, but he had not the faintest idea of what it could be. When he walked into the bedroom, Cora was already under the covers. Not the home coming he had hoped for. He could not think about anything else after he dropped John off. He wanted to feel her around him, but it was not going to happen tonight. The kiss she gave back to him, was not the same as usual. It felt forced, she said she was not mad that he did stay one night longer, but what if she was angry?
He got under the covers on his side, Cora always slept on the left side of the bed and he on the right. The coincidence was, that they both slept on that side already before they met. Neither of them had to adjust to sleeping on a different side of the bed. He was not sure if he would have budged, he liked his routines and sleeping on the right side of the bed, was one of those routines. Cora did not react to his presence in the bed. Her breathing let him know she was still awake, he decided scooted closer to her, with his hand he slid over her side, hoping for a reaction. But he got nothing, not a soft moan or squirming. He got even closer and wrapped his arm over her stomach, he pulled her against his chest when he noticed she was shaking. “Cora, can you please tell me what is wrong? Did I do something to upset you?”
Cora started crying very softly. “It is not you; you did nothing wrong.”
“But what is it then? Something has upset you, even so that you are crying. Please tell me, maybe I can help?”
Cora sobbed; she could not control her tears anymore. She felt Robert’s strong hand on her side, turning her around so she was facing him. Robert pulled her against his chest, he pressed a kiss on the top of her head. His warm and strong hand was resting on her back, the other one, was brushing through her hair. It did not help, it made here cry even harder, because his caring touches only reminded her of the dirty hands of Mr. Bricker. Cora tried to push herself away from Robert.
Robert resisted, Cora tried to move away from him, he wanted to comfort her, why did she not let him? He finally gave up, Cora pushed herself up, so she was sitting against the headboard. Robert did the same, he had turned on his side, so he was facing Cora, meanwhile Cora stared in front of her. “I promise, you did nothing wrong.” Her voice without any emotion now.
“Can you than tell me what did happen? Is it my mother again?”
Cora shook her head.
“My father? Did Rosamund say something that is upsetting you?”
She shook her head even harder. “No, no. It is not your family. They have been more than incredibly nice.”
Robert now sounded irritated. “Can you just tell me. First you do not answer the phone. Then when you finally call you sound weird, I come home, and you do not want to kiss me. You even froze when I touch you.” Cora opened her mouth, but Robert continued. “No, do not tell me you were just in your thoughts. You never react like that, NEVER. Something is really, really wrong and I need to know what it is, right now!”
Cora cowered under his harsh tone.
“I thought we had a relationship build on trust, but it seems that you do not trust me. If that is what it is, than we should rethink what we are doing and if we should go on.”
“Robert?” Cora gasped.
“Am I wrong? You do not trust me, because otherwise you would have told me what is wrong with you, the moment I came back home. Or even better, you would have called me. But no none of that.”
“Robert, please.” Cora said with a small voice. “It has nothing to do with trust.” She took a deep breath. “It had all to do with not wanting you to get angry and do something stupid.”
“And you say it has nothing to do with trust? You do not trust me to act like a grown up, so you will not tell me what happened while I was away.”
“Can you please let me talk, I am trying to explain.” Cora’s voice got darker; she was getting angry too. “Something did happen last Friday. Your father was the first one that made the decision that we should wait with telling you. It would not help the situation.” Cora’s tone got softer again. “I had an appointment with a potential new client, they had asked me to come to a pub. Baxter had worded her concern about the meeting, but I did not see any harm in it. I send her away for her weekend with Mr. Molesley.” Cora smiled. “They are a cute couple, and I hope they will be able to make each other happy.”
“They are indeed perfect together, but you digress.”
Cora now sat in a cross-legged position, with her body facing Robert. “I went to the pub, it was a nice one, where they had reserved tables. I was early and the client had not arrived yet. I waited at the table, when Mr. Bricker arrived.”
“Mr. Bricker.” Robert said in shock.
“Yes, Mr. Bricker.” Cora had her hands folded in her lap, but she was wringing her hands nervously. “He sat down next to me. I asked him to leave because the client could arrive any moment. He then revealed that he was the new client and he had mis leaded us. He said that there was only one thing that he wanted and that was me.” Cora pressed her hands in her legs, trying to stop them from shaking. “I told him I was sorry for what had happened and that I never should have tried to get information about his company out of him. He answered that I could make it up to him. He started touching me.” Cora’s body started trembling. “I tried to get away and asked him to stop, I could not get away, because he blocked me in.”
“Where did he touch you?” Robert said, his voice was low, but soft.
Cora looked up at him, all the while she had been talking, her eyes had been down towards the duvet. Robert’s eyes expressed kindness and you could see he felt sorry for her. His expression did not help with her trembling. She tried to control her voice. “He pressed his hand in between my legs.”
“HE DID WHAT.” Robert exploded. “WHERE DID HE TOUCH YOU! HOW DARE HE.”
Cora got small and scooted backwards, away from him. She had never seen him this angry.
When Robert noticed that Cora got scared, he murmured an apology.
“He did not want to stop, and I do not know what would have happened if Mr. Molesley, Baxter and your father had not entered the pub.” Cora looked up again. “Oh Robert, he wanted me as payment for the loss of his company. He will not be satisfied with money, he wants me, and I am afraid he will never take no for an answer.”
“My dear, he will have to take that no for an answer. Thank God, that Mr Molesley, Baxter, and my father were there. How did they know?”
“As I said, Baxter had a weird feeling about this meeting. And once I had left, she had gone to your father. He decided to go and take a look at where we had the meeting. Mr. Molesley was the first one who saw us. he told Mr. Bricker to go away, but he did not listen. It was then that your father came in and pulled Mr. Bricker from the bench away from me. They brought me home, where Rosamund was waiting for me.”
“Well at least there were people who looked after you. But you should have called me, I would have gotten in my car directly.”
“That is why your father said we should wait with telling you about the incident.”
“Incident?” Robert breathed. “Cora, this is more than an incident, he assaulted you and he will pay for it.”
“No, Robert. Please do not do something that you will regret later.” She saw the darkness that got into Robert’s eyes. “It was an incident; they were there before he could do real harm.”
“You said so yourself just now. You are afraid he will never take no for an answer. I will make sure he will never have an option to not accept that no.”
“Violence is never the answer my dear.” Cora’s voice sounded delicate.
“The legal system knows what to do with these type of man. And we will make sure he will pay heavily for what he has done to you. You can be sure of that. We will put the best lawyers on this case. He is going to regret setting a foot in that pub that evening.” Robert slowly stretched out his hands and put them on top of Cora’s, she did not pull away. “I think I understand why you did not call me that evening or told me over the phone. But why did you not tell me when I got home? You got scared when I touched you, I now realise why, but I thought I had done something wrong.”
“I cannot explain why I did not tell you. I had promised Rosamund, and myself, that I would tell you as soon as you would be back home. But when you touched me, I could only think about how I could get away from you.” She lowered her eyes again.
Robert moved his hand towards her chin and lifted her face, so she was looking at him again. “I will never fully understand why you did that, but I think I can at least grasp a bit why you got scared. You were taken back to Friday evening when that Bricker guy touched you.”
“All I could think of on Friday night, when I finally got home, was how I needed you. I needed your arms around me, so I could feel safe again. And now you are back here, I got scared and pushed you away.”
Robert waited for Cora to continue, he did not know how to react, and he wanted to make sure Cora would say everything that was needed for her to process what happened on Friday evening. It felt like she had pressed pause and could not find the play button anymore. She only had the rewind button. Robert laid his hand against Cora’s cheek and softly brushed with his fingers over her jaw.
Cora let her head lean against his hand, trying to let his presence reassure her. It felt as a relief, that Robert knew what had happened. He got angry as she had feared, but he was still here with her and not rushing to kill Simon. Robert’s soft strokes over her skin, made her calm down. She scooted closer towards him, and she let her head rest against his chest.
Robert wrapped both arms around her and rocked her, while she finally let out all the tears that she had been holding in. “You are safe again darling. I will make sure our legal team will make mincemeat out of him. He will never own a business; he will never be able to come close to you. And if he does, he will have to face the consequences, I will be sure of that.”
Cora heard Robert’s steady heartbeat, a sound that she loved listening to in the night she could not sleep. She loved lying her head down on his chest after they had terrific fun and hearing his racing heart. His chest rapidly rising and falling. She shivered by the thought of how safe he made her feel every day.
“Are you cold?” Robert tried to pull the duvet closer, but they were half on top of it.
“Just very very tired.”
“Of course you are. Come let us lay down and try to get some sleep. Did you sleep at all these last two nights?”
“Barely.” Cora admitted.
Robert shook his head and made a displeased sound. “He will pay for this.” Robert fluffed up Cora’s pillow and waited for her to lie down, once she turned on her side, he pulled up the duvet and covered her. Making sure her shoulders were nicely tugged in. He then laid down next to her, pulling his pillow as close as possible.
“Please hold me.” Cora said with a voice that was half asleep. “Will you take me to those Highland Cows soon?
Robert smiled at her last words, than did as she asked, he wrapped his arm around her, Cora’s head fitted perfectly in the small corner formed by his other arm. Cora moulded her body against his and he felt her relax. It was a relief that she could now finally relax, according to the puffs of air against his chest, she was already asleep. He tried to make himself a bit more comfortable, so he could sleep too. Mr Bricker could wait until the morning, they could not do anything on a Sunday night, but tomorrow he would make sure that the best team was put on that case. Simon would pay for what he had done to Cora, imagine what could have happened if Baxter had not expressed her worries towards his father. And he would thank his father immensely for trusting Baxter and go with her. Although he did not like it, that Cora had to deal with this for two days on her own, he understood why they did not call him. He would have been out of his mind, and it would not have ended well for that Mr. Bricker.
Verhalen van Traan 