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

Ch. 85 (PG-13, S): A Good Man

Margaret: “Oh Nicholas!   I’m glad that I found you!”  He looks at her curiously for the tone of urgency in her voice.  “Brigid is with the children.  Um.  And uh.”  Margaret finds that her throat has dried up as she tries to form the words that will send Nicholas to Thornton Manor, but without conveying the reason for his needed haste.

Nicholas: “Is everything alright?  Is Brigid well?”  He asks nervously. Nicholas has been worried ever since he proposed that Brigid might regret her decision to marry him since he is twelve years older than she, recant her promise to marry him, and withdraw from their planned wedding.

Margaret: “Yes!   I think so. Well, you should go and see her yourself.  She wants to talk to you.”  Margaret states in a nervously flustered manner so unlike her.  But her insistent tone makes Nicholas feel uneasy.

Nicholas: “Did something happen?”

Margaret: “I cannot say.  You must talk to Brigid.  Please go to her now at the Manor and talk with her.”  Margaret reinforces portentously and she nearly pushes him toward the open Mill building door.

Nicholas: “Alright.”  He replies resignedly. He is worried that Brigid has changed her mind about marrying him.   What he does not know is that the decision about whether they will marry is up to him in her mind.

***

Margaret continues up the Mill Office stairs, rushes down the hallway, and bursts into her husband John’s Mill Office.  Unfortunately, John is not alone as his clerk Bartleby looks up from taking notes about a letter that he must write to a customer for Mr. Thornton.

Margaret: “John!”

John: “Margaret!”  He quickly stands up and he moves around his desk toward her. “Is everything alright?” It seems that worried husbands to be and husbands have similar concerns.

Margaret:  Noticing that John is not alone, she apologizes profusely.  “I am so sorry!   I didn’t realize that you were busy.  But I would not have come, if it were not an urgent matter.”

Of course, John is always busy with work at the Mill, so she is bound to interrupt him doing something.

Surveying her flushed face and agitated manner, John concludes that his young wife Margaret’s unexpected visit is not a social call for elicit kissing and such to tide him over until tonight.

John: “Not at all, Margaret.  Bartleby and I were just finishing.”  Then he turns to his clerk.  “Please write out that letter and I will sign it in the morning so that we can get it on the early post train.”

Bartleby: “As you wish, Mr. Thornton, Sir.” Bartleby nods at both Thorntons and leaves. 

John shuts the door behind his retreating clerk.

John: “Now what is  so …”

But Margaret doesn’t let her husband finish as she launches herself at him and kisses him soundly. Hmmm, thinks John--maybe this is a social call.  After a few moments of passionate kissing, Margaret pulls back and adoringly gazes up at her husband.

Margaret: “Thank you for marrying me!”  She blurts out.  It is slightly off topic, but tangentially important.

John: “Ha ha ha!   Thank you for marrying me!” He kisses the tip of her nose and her eyes flutter closed for an instant, then she opens them again and smiles brilliantly up at him.

Margaret: “It’s just that we … before we were married we …”  She doesn’t need to state that they made love the week before they married, they both remember their mutual need for love and assurances after the Mill’s near riot that fateful late October 1850, nearly five years ago.