Shadow in the North

Chapter Thirty-Eight - A Wife's Duties

Mr Thornton had been some four days married, and was busy about his mill; the few hours he could spare, spent seeing to his business at the borough courts. He felt a stirring of guilt at leaving his wife in the company of his tepid mother and over-zealous sister, but Isabel assured him that she knew - from having read Gaskell's book - that he was something of a slave to his work, and that she had expected no different from him upon marriage. He suspected, however, that had she not the sanctuary of the mill infirmary to turn to, she would not bear his long hours with half the equanimity.

Indeed, the morning after their marriage, Mr Thornton had taken a long and late breakfast, and then crossed the mill yard to his work (having much to catch up on; so lately having been required to turn away workers and orders, when the mill had looked to close). His mother - disapproving to the last, in his tardiness to work - had only grumbled that he ought to be "getting on", and urged him from the dining table, leaving Isabel in his mother's care. Mrs Thornton had shown her new daughter about the house, explaining the household duties, and endeavouring to pass over the mantle of "Mistress of the house", with as little ill-grace as possible. She had been shocked, therefore, when Isabel had simply replied that all looked very well managed, and that she might pay a visit to the mill infirmary, and see about setting up the new surgical equipment, which had arrived that very morning.

Mrs Thornton had been vexed by Isabel's evident disinterest in the running of the household, but said nothing of it, for the girl had not been married one day, and so the matriarch reasoned, that Isabel perhaps needed a little more time to adjust to the habits and layout of the house, and her position as her son's wife, before she was ready to oversee menus and orders with the grocer.

But then Isabel had sought out the quietude of the mill infirmary each subsequent morning, and did not return but to take her midday meal, soon departing again for the company of those rough workers and her tonics and potions. By the fourth day, Mrs Thornton felt she could no longer hold her tongue, and so - that evening - as the family sat about the drawing room, Mrs Thornton set down her embroidery, and spoke up; her firm voice laced with a hint of accusation.

'You spend much time in that little infirmary of yours, Isabel. I wonder that there is such a need for it. Are the hands so very sickly?'

'No, Mother,' replied Isabel, evenly. 'I have been keeping to my usual hours; I have seen no more patients than any other week. Beyond my hours, I have been seeing to the improvements that Mr Bell bid me to make, so that we may be properly outfitted for complex procedures. If a limb were to be mangled - a hand lost -'

'Mangled!' cried Fanny, in dismay; her mouth agape. She turned to Mr Thornton, and said, 'I find it very strange, brother, that you should allow your wife to spend all her days about such ghastly business, and with such rough fellows. And Isabel!' continued she, 'I cannot see the appeal. You would be better to accompany me on my visits. I would be happy to make you an introduction to the other ladies of society.'

'Allow it?' asked Isabel, her brow arched, as she looked to Fanny with a slight frown. 'Must John "allow" me to do as I please? May I not choose to do so, simply because I wish to? I was not aware that I needed my husband's permission, to spend my days as I should please.' Here, Mr Thornton gave a weary sigh and set down his paper, looking to his wife with a narrowed gaze. He had expected words to be exchanged; he had only hoped that more than four days of marriage should pass before the conflict erupted.

'The concern though, Isabel,' said Mrs Thornton, her expression grim, 'is not how you spend your free time, but whether indeed, you have any. You are a wife now, and have duties to attend to. The running of this house, for example! You have a reputation to uphold - as the wife of the premier Master in Milton - and you cannot do so, gallivanting about Princeton with Miss Hale; nor playing at doctor in your little stable block.'