"N&S: John Thornton, Love Lessons", by Gratiana Lovelace (2013-2014) (Done)

Ch. 43 (PG-13): Baird Ogilvy Seeks to Win Back His Fiona, Part 2

"N&S: John Thornton, Love Lessons", Ch. 43 (PG-13):  Baird Ogilvy Seeks to Win Back His Fiona, Part 2, April 02, 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:  Baird Ogilvy travelled fromLondon to Milton on Wednesday, April 2, 1851--hoping to make amends with his love Fiona/Fanny Thornton.  His father, Dr. Cameron Ogilvy's advice to his son Baird was for Baird to talk to John Thornton first.  So Baird went to the Marlborough Mills administrative offices, where John proceeded to give him a tongue lashing for Baird humiliating his sister Fanny and causing her great pain.  However, John's ire also has partly to dowith his wife's delicate pregnancy and recent ill health.  After Baird convinces John of his sincerity in wanting to make Fanny happy again, John relents and will allow Baird to speak with his sister Fanny.

"N&S:  John Thornton, Love Lessons", Ch. 43 (PG-13):  Baird Ogilvy Seeks to Win Back His Fiona, Part 2

For an hour after Fanny had returned to her bed chamber after reading Baird's letters, she cried and cried and cried and cried--until she had no more tears to cry.  After another half hour passes of melancholy musings, Fanny is quite tired of being sad.  She feels that it does not help to dwell on what cannot be changed--what happened last Wednesday between she and Baird at the Charity Ball that precipitated their breakup. She can only look forward. Some might call Fanny's ability to redirect her energies a mark of her fickleness.  When in actuality, Fanny's resilience is the hallmark of a growing reserve of inner personal strength that she tries to marshall when she feels at her lowest ebb--like now.

So Fanny sits up and kindly decides to check-in on Margaret before joining her Mother Hannah at the Mill school.  Fanny both wants and needs a distraction from her thoughts about Baird.  After freshening up her face with some water--and trying to pinch her pale cheeks redder than her teary blood shot eyes--Fanny quietly slips out of her bed chamber.   As she walks down the hallway, she smooths the skirt of her non-hooped dress  that she had changed into--the better to interact and play with the little ones at the Mill School.

But upon reaching John's and Margaret's bed chamber, Fanny hears Dr. Miles Houghton conversing with Margaret and her ladies' maid present as a formality for decorum.  And not wanting to be pressed for an answer about Dr. Miles'  kind musical concert invitation--which Fanny is very much planning to decline at this point because she does not feel up to it--Fanny decides to check-in on Margaret later as she softly pads downstairs in her flat shoes.  Fanny opts for comfort over style in her foot wear when she is just around home these days.  At the foot of the stairs, Fanny notices that the hall table is set with a fresh small bouquet of pale pink roses and her face brightens--thinking that they are from Baird.  Well, he indirectly has something to do with them. But the maid Sarah informs Fanny that the flowers are from  Dr. Houghton to her. Fanny smiles wanly and thanks the maid for the information--trying not to convey her disappointment.