Ch. 41 (PG-13): Baird Ogilvy Makes an Appeal

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"N&S: John Thornton, Love Lessons", Ch. 41 (PG-13):  Baird Ogilvy Makes an Appeal,  March 28, 2014 Gratiana Lovelace 

(An original fan fiction copyrighted by Gratiana Lovelace;   All rights reserved; Based on the Elizabeth Gaskell novel, North & South and its 2004 BBC adaptation; No copyright infringement intended)

[I will illustrate my story using my dream cast from the 2004 BBC production of "North & South" and other actors for additional characters:   Richard Armitage for John Thornton, Daniela Denby-Ashe for Margaret Hale, Lesley Manville for Mrs. Maria Hale,  Tim Pigott-Smith for Mr. Richard Hale, Sinead Cusack for Mrs. Hannah Thornton, Jo Joyner for Fanny Thornton, Brendan Coyle for Nicholas Higgins, and Graham McTavish as Dr. Cameron Ogilvy, Holliday Grainger for Angharad Ogilvy MacIntosh, Simon Woods for Baird Ogilvy, and Emma Ashton as Mrs. Dillard, John Light as Henry Lennox, Tim Faraday as Watson, Gillian Anderson at Carlotta Quint Watson, and Jeremy Northam as Dr. Miles Houghton, etc]  [(1) story logo]   

Author's Mature Content Note:  "N&S: John Thornton, Love Lessons" is a story with mature themes of love and relationships set within a period drama of the 1850's and beyond.  As such there will be heartfelt moments of love and sensuality (S)--as well as other dramatic emotions, including some violence (V)--and I will rate those chapters accordingly.  If you are unable or unwilling to attend a movie with the ratings that I provide, then please do not read that chapter.  This is my disclaimer.

Author's Recap from the previous chapter:  At John and Margaret's Tuesday April 1st evening dinner with Fanny, and Cameron and Hannah, they also welcomed Cameron's new medical practice partner Dr. Miles Houghton.  Dr. Houghton has a sincere interest in getting to know Fanny better, and he invites her to a musical concert--which she is considering.  Then later that evening, Cameron gives John and the five months pregnant Margaret his medical permission to love each other as husband and wife.  Cameron then proceeds to follow his own medical advice with his dear wife, Hannah.   Fanny is still trying to recover from her disappointment of breaking her informal engagement with Baird.  It is just very  difficult, because Fanny sincerely loves Baird--but she does not believe that Baird loves her, so she feels that she must move on with her life, somehow.

"N&S: John Thornton, Love Lessons", Ch. 41 (PG-13):  Baird Ogilvy Makes an Appeal

On the morning of Wednesday, April 2nd, the happy married couples waking up at Thornton Manor have contented smiles on their faces as they cuddle a bit longer under the bed sheets with their respective beloveds.  Hannah and Cameron tarry in their bed chamber--taking breakfast in bed, or at least sitting at the nearby sette before returning to bed.  Cameron will visit his medical practice later, around nine o'clock this morning.   Hannah plans to join Fanny at the Mill School and Nursery--especially to see little Lissa  Dillard.  And Margaret plans to continue resting in her bed chamber, knitting booties for her baby to wear when it is born.  However, John must arise and he consumes a quick breakfast with Margaret in their bed chamber before heading to his office late for him, around half past seven o'clock.

The first hour or so of John's work this morning at Marlborough Mills involves consulting with his friend and Mill overseer Nicholas Higgins about looms that need repair and then the proposed phased move in of more families to the growing Thornton Village housing experiment West of the Mill.  With the Dillard family being the first family to be situated there and now 12 families in all have moved in.  It is an ambitious undertaking, and there are still housing unit hubs (of eight homes to each hub) to be built for another one hundred mill families.  The Mill worker families in the Thornton Village will have access to fresh water and [waste] water sanitation drainage, a small plot of land to plant a community kitchen garden, and a formal school and church building.  And one more thing, they will be tenants of John Thornton, but they will not be beholden to him.  For John has devised--with the aid of former union organizer Nicholas Higgins--a form of tenant representation--to address housing repair needs, neighbor disputes, and such, as a community.

John Thornton finally walks into his Mill Office to attend to administrative matters at half past ten o'clock--including correspondence with clients. Sitting behind his massive walnut desk at Marlborough Mills, John [(2) right]  rifles through the post that his office assistant organized for him.  The post contains several expected signed contracts from new Mill clients, some bank drafts for payments of cotton fabric already shipped, and something unexpected.

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