Robert checked the bedroom; Cora was still sleeping. During the night she had woken up several times, from nightmares. He needed all his restraint not to pay Mr. Bricker a visit right now. He should write a note for Cora saying that he had left for the office already. He preferred to stay with her until she woke up, but they needed to start the paperwork for the lawsuit. He wished she would wake up calmly and at least a bit well rested. He had said, she could take the day off, but Cora had insisted on going to the office. The last time she woke up last night, she had said it would not help staying at home. Her mind would only run in circles. And he had agreed on that, being amongst other people would help. And in the office, there were people who knew what had happened, if she wanted to talk, it was possible. Although he was not sure if Baxter would be back, and Rosamund had emailed that she would take today off. Was Baxter back from her get away? He did not know that either. At least he and his father would be in the office.
Robert walked towards the kitchen and saw fresh oranges on the kitchen counter, he could make her an orange juice. Cora loved a fresh orange juice in the morning, it was something that her father used to make her when she was a little girl. Every morning Cora made herself a freshly juiced orange juice, to keep the memory of her father alive. But Robert suspected it was not just the memory of her father, but he could see and hear that she missed her country from time to time. Two years ago, she had never thought about moving to England and now she was going to marry him and stay the rest of her live. He would make sure; she would never have a reason to move back. He would not survive losing her he was sure of that. He looked around in the kitchen, he hoped to find a manual juicer, the automatic one would make too much noise. Even though the bedroom was on the other side of the apartment, he did not want to risk waking her up.
He almost had the glass filled when he felt a small hand on his back. “I have an automatic one, you do know that do you not?” Cora asked, while leaning against his back. She had wrapped herself in her morning dress, her curls were wild, but she had tried to tame them with a hair elastic.
Robert chuckled. “I do know that, but I did not want to make too much noise, you were finally sleeping somewhat peacefully.
“Those last couple of hours were finally real sleep.” Cora smiled.” I feel a little bit more rested.” She wrapped her arms around Robert, she rested with her cheek against his shoulder blade. “When will I be able to sleep normally again, I do not want to give this power to him. He does not deserve that I am feeling the way that I do.”
He put the last orange down, wiped his hands on a towel and turned around, so Cora was now wrapped up in his arms. She instantly rested her head against his chest, her hands were on his lower back. “It needs time darling.” He said.
“I do not want to waste that time on this. We should be doing fun things. Like going to see those Highland Cows.” She let out a deep sigh.
Robert kissed the top of her head. “I am going to the office; do you want me to wait for you?”
“You are leaving already?” Cora lifted her head, she now rested with her chin against Robert’s chest.
“I want to speak to my father as soon as possible, we need to get the lawyers to work.” Robert moved his hand up to Cora’s neck, he massaged her scalp.
Softly Cora moaned, she loved it when he did that. “I am going to take a shower and will come to the office on my own.”
Robert kissed her on the lips. “I will be waiting for you.”
“No, you will not.” Cora chuckled.
“What do you mean?” Robert leaned back, surprised by her words.
Cora laughed. “You will not be waiting for me.”
“I will.” Robert interrupted her.
“No dear, you will not. You are consumed by the case you are about to file as soon as you enter the office.”
“Hmm, you know me to well.”
+++
“Robert, can you come into my office?” His father was standing on the first floor, when he entered.
Robert greeted the receptionist; he had not seen the woman before. Since Baxter started working with Cora, they had not found a receptionist that worked on the same level. They were spoiled with Baxter’s work attitude. He quickly walked on to his father’s office.
“Sit down please.”
Robert looked around the room, but only his father was present.
“Did you talk with Cora?” Patrick inquired.
“She has told me what happened last Friday. I cannot express how mad I am. What can we do about this?”
Patrick stroke with his hand over his chin, something he did when he was concentrating. “Is Cora coming in today? Or is she not ready to go back to work yet?”
“She is ready to go back to work, she was not dressed, when I left, but she will be here soon.”
“Good, a police officer will be here later this morning to take a statement of her. With that statement our lawyers will start working. I hope at least that she will report Mr. Bricker for what he has done?”
“I think she will report him.”
Patrick only looked at Robert for a couple of seconds. ‘I may hope she is not doubting about that. She needs to report him, if she does not, we cannot do anything, and he will be walking freely. He needs to be punished for this.”
Robert loved his father for this. Cora was not even his daughter, but he protected her as if she was. “I will let her know that she has to be here. What time will the officer be here?”
+++
“The officer is waiting in my father’s office for you. Are you ready for it?” Robert put his hand on Cora’s lower back, while they walked towards the stairs.
Cora nodded. “Will you stay with me?”
“My father will for sure, and if I am allowed, I will also stay.” He felt Cora’s back tense. “It will all be alright. You only have to tell the officer what has happened, he is not here and will not be here.”
Cora stopped midway of the stairs and turned towards him. “Do you think I will need to face him again?”
“It is possible that you will see him when it is brought to court but let’s not look to far into the future. For now, the officer is here and needs to hear your story for his report.”
+++
“Did he do anything else than putting his hands on the inside of your legs?” The officer looked up from his notepad.
“He touched more than just the inside of her legs.” Robert said sharply.
The officer now looked at Robert, who was sitting in the back of the office. “I have written down where he touched her, but it is visible painful for the lady to talk about it. So that is why I choose my wording the way I did. You can be assured that this incident will be written down into the smallest details. Man like this need to feel the consequences.”
“Thank you, I think I have told you everything that I remember from that evening.” Cora’s voice was thick.
“Mr. Crawley, is there anything else you want to add to your statement?”
Patrick looked at Cora and then back to the officer. “Everything that happened after I arrived is in your notepad already.”
“Good, so can I speak with Miss Baxter and Mr. Molesley too?”
“I am very sorry, but Mr. Molesley is not here in London, he lives in Downton up north. Miss Baxter should be in the office, Robert do you know where she is?”
“She is in my office; I saw her when we walked in.” Cora answered.
“Thank you, is there a way Mr. Molesley can come to the bureau?”
Robert snorted. “He is in Downton, so I do not think he will be able to come for his statement.”
Patrick scraped his throat. “When do you have time for him at the station? I will send my driver to pick him up and he will be in to tell you his side of the story.” He gave Robert a stern look.
The officer got up and put his notepad back in his jacket. “I am going to write out your statement and will send them so you can check if I did not miss something.”
“Thank you, officer.” Patrick shook his hand.
+++
Patrick walked with the officer to get Baxter’s statement, Robert got up and stepped closer to Cora. She had a straight back while the officer was in the office, but now her shoulders were bent forward, and she slummed down. Carefully he put his hand on her shoulder. “Are you alright?”
Cora took in a very shaking breath. “I am not sure.”
Robert squatted down next to Cora’s chair. “Can I do anything for you?”
“It was easier to tell you last night what happened than it was to this officer. Is that not weird, should it not be the other way around?” Cora looked at her folded hands on her lap.
“I do not know my darling. I really do not know.”
“As soon as this police officer finishes the statements, our lawyers will start working.”
The door opened and Patrick stepped back inside. “The lawyers will be here this afternoon. We do not need the written statement to start.”
“Papa, does that mean, Cora has to tell the story again this afternoon?”
“Unfortunately, it does.” Patrick looked at Cora. “I am sorry my dear, but we need to go through this as fast as possible.”
Cora looked up. “I know, I know. When will they be here?”
Patrick looked at his watch. “In two hours, they will be here.”
“Good.” Cora got up.
“Where are you going?” Robert asked.
“I have two more hours to work on our current advertisement.”
“You are going to work?” Robert now asked surprised.
Cora shrugs her shoulders. “What else should I do, wait and feel miserable and think about last Friday. No please, I rather not.”
“Cora is right.” Patrick said. ‘Keeping your mind busy is the best thing you can do right now. I will let you know when they are here.”
“Thank you. For everything.”
Patrick was standing close to Cora; he took her hand in his. “For you my darling, I would do anything. I see how happy you make Robert, and you are part of our family now.”
+++
“Did you ask him to sit next to you?” Richard sat opposite of Cora, next to him was his partner, Helen. Until now it had been mostly Richard who asked the questions.
“I did not ask him that. He suddenly was sitting next to me.”
“What did you do next?” Richard asked.
“I asked him to leave. I told him that I was expecting a client and that he needed to go.”
“Oke.”
“He told me that he was the client and that he had lied to make that appointment.”
“He used the same tactic as you had done, when you went to his office, did he not?” This time Helen’s voice sounded.
Cora did not like her voice, she sounded as if she was judging her for what had happened. “I indeed pretended to be a client to learn more about his company. That is true.”
“And then your father-in-law, or upcoming father-in-law bought that company to get rid of the competition.” Helen’s voice was sharp.
“He did offer a big amount of money, Mr. Bricker accepted that offer and sold the company.”
“He was there for some sort of revenge?” Helen was the one to ask this question.
“He said that he wanted me and that he would not take no for an answer. He insisted that I wanted him too. But I never wanted anything more than the business interaction we had.”
“So, this man is interested in you and the company you work for has bought his company. So, he lost everything?” Helen again.
“He did get a lot of money for it.” Cora protested. “And I have been very clear from the moment he sat down next to me, that I am engaged and did not want anything from him.”
“Why are you treating Miss. Levinson as if she has done something bad?” Robert interrupted. He had wanted to interrupt earlier, but he managed to bite his tongue. But he did not like what those lawyers were doing. Were they not hired to punish that Bricker guy?
Richard looked at him. “I do understand that it does look like we are trying to put the blame on her. I can guarantee you that we are not. Miss Levinson’s story is very clear and there is no doubt in our mind, that this is not sexual assault. We want to make sure that we have highlighted every point of view, so that the lawyer that Mr. Bricker is getting, will not get a foot in between the door.
After many more questions, they finally said they knew enough for now and left. Cora stood next to Robert, when Richard and Helen left, she leaned against Robert’s chest. “I am exhausted.”
“Do you want to go home?” Robert wrapped his arm around her shoulder when he felt how heavy she leaned against him.
“Please.” He voice was soft. “But please hold me for a little bit longer first.”
Robert now wrapped both arms around her, Cora did the same, her arms slide over his sides to his back. She pressed herself against his chest as if she tried to disappear in him. Robert cradled her head and made sussing sound while he hold her as close as possible. This process would be a hard road for her, he already knew. Mr. Bricker would get good lawyers and he would fight this as long as he could. He felt frustrated, this should be the time they were preparing the wedding. Six more months, and Cora would be his wife. He would do everything he could to round up this whole process as quick as possible. He did not mind that it would cost them a fortune, Cora was worth it, more than worth it.
Verhalen van Traan 