Second Chance (a North and South tale)

Chapter 51: Back to London

Margaret

This morning turned out everything but calm. Dixon came back yesterday, she was a great help in the household, which I wasn't able to attend to due to my lack of spirits, but she was difficult to bare, because of her constant complaining. She wasn't complaining about the work, it was about everything and nothing that she would let me know her opinion on. 

However, it was my aunt Shaw who started to draw all attention towards her, once she arrived in Crampton. I was, I have to admit, in a bad disposition so I let her arrange everything to her liking, without arguing. 

All the time, while she was rushing around, forcing Dixon to do this and do that, throw away this and pack that, put that to sale and gift that, I sat in the living room, not moving at all, only reacting if anyone tried to get my attention.

The time went by and it was all sort of a blur to me. Soon, everything was prepared for our departure and it seemed that to my aunt, we couldn't leave early enough. She was already maneuvering me outside of the house when I woke up from my daydreams and finally made a decision on my own again.

"I want to visit my friends before I leave, aunt." 

She looked at me incredulously, as if she wasn't believing her ears. "Friends? Pray tell me whom you intend to visit. I can not imagine the friends you could have here!" 

"Aunt, I will visit my friends and say goodbye, as I should. If you don't want to accompany me, fine, you can wait in the carriage until I come back." 

"This suggestion is preposterous. I will not leave your side, Margaret!" This flustered her even more and I decided that this was not the time to rile her up. She was very much surprised that after all this time that I did not give her any boundaries and let her have her way, I finally seemed to get my voice and my conviction back. 

"There is something that I forgot." I murmured and went back inside, into my fathers' study to look for the one item I had in mind. 

"No, Margaret we are already late!" I heard my aunt shout at me. 

"Well, as we have to visit my friends, there will hardly be the possibility of us being on that train anyway, so we will have to switch our train and change your timetable a bit. There is no other way, so I have some minutes to get something."

I went up the stairs and took a good look at my surroundings. This is the last time that I will see this house, but I will remember it. There were some good memories about this place, as well as bad ones, but I will only remember the good. Standing inside of fathers study, I had to think of Mr. Thornton. There he stood, talking to me about his love for me. Arguing with me about him being unreasonable. Him being utterly broken with my admission of never liking him. 

As I was searching for fathers book of Plato, a thought crossed my mind. I finally found what I searched for and opened it. The first page was completely bare. It would have to do. There was only one way for me know to remedy my reputation. 

My eyes skipped the room until I found a pen and some ink to write. As quickly as possible I scribbled down a note into the book, hoping that he would be able to read it. It was done, now it was up to him what would happen in the uncertain future. 

This is my last hope, I thought and went down the staircase to meet up with my impatiently waiting aunt.

........

After driving in the carriage for some minutes, which felt like hours had passed, we arrived at our first destination. I saw the disgust present in the features of my dear aunt when I climbed outside of the carriage and into the busy streets of the Princeton district.