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North & South: A Continutation	By : gallygaskins Category: M through R > North and South (BBC) > North and South (BBC) Views: 11128 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Elizabeth Gaskell's or the 2004 BBC adaptation of North and South and I make no money from this fanfiction.

Chapter List
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Chapter 1 – A Northbound Train Journey

John watched Margaret as she claimed her bag, opening it to find her book and place the yellow rose within its pages ready for pressing. “Is this all a dream, Margaret?” He asked, placing his arms around her again as she sat back in her seat, her head finding his shoulder to lean upon as the gently rocking train continued on its Northward journey, “or are you really here in my arms?” He kissed the top of her head.

“Can you not see me, or hear me, or feel that I am here?” Margaret countered, grinning with her contentedness.

“I am aware of a presence, my love, but you may be an imp whose actions would only add to my sorrow of losing everything dear to me in my life.” He answered, his smile fading. She pulled away to look into his eyes.

“Give me your hand,” Margaret ordered, resolute on shedding John of his unhappiness. “Is this not my hand that you touch with yours?” She asked of him waiting for him to at least nod his head. Once he responded she began to guide his captured hand over her body, “This is my face, John. These are my lips, my neck, my shoulder, my arm, my waist, my breast.” She watched as his smile began to appear again, leaving his hand on its final resting place she tenderly took his cheek into her possession. “I am here, John, all of me. There is no place on earth I would rather be than here right by your side. That is, if you still wish me to be so as you once declared to me you did.”

“Yes, my love, I do still have those feelings and honour what I said before, I love you Margaret Hale and I wish to marry you. God strike me down if its not so, but I think you know me better than that. I know I am not what would be considered a gentleman but I don’t want to possess you Margaret, not that I could now anyway.” He sniggered, “in fact, it would be the other way round, wouldn’t it?” He watched as she laughed at his words. “You do understand, don’t you? I’ve never wanted to own you; I’ve just wanted to be able to love you.”

“Then I accept, my gentle man,” Margaret answered, her eyes shining from his words and his tender affection, “but I may wish to own you.” She teased.

“Margaret, you are an imp!”

“No, just a woman in love and I do love you Mr Thornton, with all my heart.” John brought her to him kissing her again, his left hand wanting to delve into the thick mass of hair that was pinned upon Margaret’s head as their united passion increased. They had to stop, they both knew it but neither wanted to. Reluctantly they pulled apart never breaking eye contact for a second. “I do believe that I am in for quite a contented life, John, if your kisses are anything to go by.” Margaret said, breaking the silence.

“My enthusiasm for you has been building up inside of me for so long, Margaret,” he started to explain, then caught her eye; “I’m going to have to get used to your teasing aren’t I?” She nodded her agreement. “Mmm, well madam, perhaps it is not I that should worry about whether their actions are inappropriate or not, it seems like my wife will be wilful even in the most civil of company.”

“It seems that whenever I am near you I can not help myself,” she answered, “and to be honest, having experienced life in both the North and South; I know where I have been happiest. I know there were times when I felt that I would never understand life in the North, your ways, your customs but I don’t believe I have ever felt more alive than when I have been there, especially when I have been in yours or your mother’s company. Life in the South is so dull, so sanctimonious, I knew no different when we first came to Milton and for that I am sorry,” she took his hand in hers, “yes, the South has it beauties and charms but so does the North, and I am sitting next to the most charming of them all.” She smiled up at him. “Have I told you I love you, John?”

“More than once, but I think I shall never tire of hearing you say it.” He answered playfully. “What do you think mother will say?”

“I don’t know, John.” Margaret said thinking of her earlier conversation with Mrs Thornton. “When I spoke to her earlier she was already decided that I had ‘come to crow over you and to look over all of my possessions that you had worked hard for all of your life’, that I had some plan to triumph over you now that the mill had been shut down. She believes me impudent, I am sure.”

John smirked, “if she does it will be because of your numerous conversations that always ended in your telling her how you felt about her actions and words toward you. And then there’s the lack of attention to her son?”

“Now, who is teasing who,” she countered, he merely shrugged. “I don’t know whether I’ll ever be good enough for her son anyway.”

“Is any woman, after all a mother’s love is forever!”

“So is mine, John Thornton, once decided upon, of course.”

“And will you not be the same with our sons?”

“We are to have many then, are we?”

“As many as our love will allow, I shouldn’t wonder.”

“I think I like the sound of that.”

“You think you like the sound of that,” he closed his arms around her tighter, “I’m hoping for a large family, you know.”

“We shall be blessed John, I am sure of it.”

“You look so happy, are you truly as happy as you look.”

“I am, John, yes. I only wish my parents were here to see me, to see us, for I believe that you are happy also.”

“Beyond anything that I could ever have dreamt of.”

“Did you really dream of me?” Margaret asked.

“Constantly, but I cannot tell you the theme of my dreams yet, we will have to wait until we are married.”

“I do know something of the world you know, my cousin Edith …” John cut her off.

“I do not wish to know what your cousin has told you, you will find that we are dissimilar I think, especially with our social differences, I would not wish to disappoint you if I said I felt your cousin was wrong with some point of fact.”

“You could never disappoint me; you have always shown me to be true to your word, even if I have been less than desirable at times. For my actions haven’t always been prudent, have they?”

“Tell me about your brother,” he asked, feeling that the time was right, “please?”

“You know about him?”

“Higgins, sorry Nicholas, told me, well he told me in a round about kind of way, I just put two and two together, that’s all.”

“I’m sorry, I wanted to tell you, I wanted you to know who he was, who you saved me from having to lie about further even if that meant becoming something in everybody else’s eyes that only I and my family knew I wasn’t. I couldn’t betray him, at least not until I knew he was safely back at home in Cadiz.” A stray tear slipped from her eye and down her cheek.

John caught it and brushed it away soothing her, “it’s alright.”

“But it’s not is it, the only immediate family I have left in the world and I don’t know whether I shall ever be able to see him again because of his so called crimes.”

“Am I not your family then?” John asked delicately.

She smiled at his warming question. “Of course, you shall be soon. And with it I shall have another mother and a sister, although I think the feeling may not be mutual, in the beginning at least. I just miss Frederick so.”

“Tell me about him!” John urged.

“Frederick is older than I, by a couple of years. He left home to join the Navy as soon as he was able, mother and I were distraught; father thought it would be good for him, make him a man. His first commission was on the ‘Orion’ where he met with Reid, a man that disliked him for no apparent reason. Reid was an odious man by all accounts and Frederick could never put a foot right. A few years later Fred was assigned to the ‘Russell’ and there he met up with his old nemesis Reid, again. Reid was the captain of this vessel and used his title to uphold what he saw as being right. He beat the children that were on board, and worse; some of the higher echelons of his staff were right there with him.

“Frederick wrote to my father on every occasion that he could telling father of the crimes that were being bestowed upon the crew, father never relayed the true horrors to me but told me that they were horrendous. However, I have since read Frederick’s letters and conclude that Reid was obviously of a tempered nature and found delight in bringing others down especially those that could not fend for themselves or fight back. Frederick and his colleagues that were against Reid decided to get rid, one night they rounded up Reid and the staff that were helping him, put them all on a boat and set the boat sail. The next thing they knew they were being hounded by the Navy, set up by Reid as mutineers. Many were caught and hung. Fred managed to escape to South America at first but then made a safe passage to Spain, which is where he now resides with his wife, Dolores in Cadiz.

“When I realised that mother was very ill I wrote to him, urging him to come home and see mama before she passed away. I was wrong to do it, I know that and father reiterated the danger to me when I told him of what I had done, but I felt that it was the right thing to do, the right thing for mother at the time when she was at her worst. The day you came to see us, the day when you saw Fred’s coat and cap hanging on the hook in the hall and mistook my disrespect at not asking you in as an affront to your kindness and friendship, it pained me. I was caught between keeping my brother a secret and honouring you for your benevolence, outside of the family Mary was the only other person who knew about him and I had to do my bit, for that I am sorry. I must confess I defended you,” she looked up at him before continuing, “my brother’s opinion was very similar to my own when he first arrived but I set him straight. I told him that we had to thank you for your kindness, that you had been very good to us, that you were in fact a gentleman.

“Then when you saw us embracing at the station I thought my world was about to come to an end, I wasn’t worried for myself you understand, more for the fact that we were still endeavouring to keep Fred a secret. Fred asked me who you were so I quickly told him that you were Mr Thornton who we had already talked about, I also told him that something had happened to make you scowl and I asked him not to judge you, I didn’t tell him anymore, and I haven’t done since, I only wished for him to be safely ensconced on the train and on his way back from whence he had come. Just as Fred was about to alight Leonards came upon us and in his drunken state started to try to grab at Fred, saying he remembered him from Helstone and that there was a large reward for turning Fred in.”

“Leonards was from Helstone?” John interrupted.

“Yes, he was the draper’s son. Anyway, they fought, Leonards fell down the stairs but we saw him walk off, neither of us ever expected there to be any kind of investigation into his death as neither one of us had seen him dead. Fred was soon away on the train and I returned home. Sleep evaded me, I could only keep thinking of the way you looked at us, at me. I thought all was lost. And then, after I had thanked you for your help once more, when you made sure there was to be no inquest and you told me that you didn’t do it for me you did it for your friend, my father, well at least I could thank god for that. That he at least had your friendship even if I hadn’t, he so valued it, you know.”

“I valued his in return, Margaret, and, to be honest, I was thinking of you when I helped out. I know I should’ve been more open to your explanation but all I kept seeing was you in his arms and how I longed to have you in mine. You should’ve told me,” she nodded, “but I realise you had your reasons and that’s why you couldn’t. I just kept thinking the worst until Nicholas told me about your brother being over when your mother was dying. Do you know, I often wondered why that man wasn’t there for you at the funeral, I mean if he were any kind of lover he would’ve made sure he were there, wouldn’t he? I know I would’ve.”

“And that’s why I love you; you will always do the right thing especially by me. I misjudged you, yes you have a temper and I hope that I will not see it often unless I deserve it but you only hurt that man because his action could have caused something else so catastrophic, I see that now.”

“No, Margaret, you were correct I had no right to beat him just because I were his master; tell him off maybe, send him home, sack him, but not beat him. I recognized that you were right, I’ve never done it since.”

“I’m glad of that. Do you know, father asked me if you’d made me an offer soon after your last visit? I had to confess it. He asked me if I felt I had done the right thing, I told him that I had done nothing I wouldn’t do again but my insides churned from my lie, that was the moment I knew I loved you so absolutely.”

“Do you want to know when I realised I was in love with you?” Margaret nodded, “Well, I remember having some fanciful thoughts about you when I saw you in the mill, all that cotton flying about and you just stood there all angry and glaring at me,” she swatted his arm, “seriously though, I believe it was when your father introduced us properly, you were so feisty and yet compelling all at the same time, an enigma, you quite took my breath away. I realised that although there were many women in my life that had wanted to share my bed there were none that turned my head like you had, my Margaret. I am sorry to be so forthright but I imagine that it does not bother you, you do not seem to be easily offended by such remarks and you probably relish upon them readily.”

“I do John, it is better to be frank and honest, isn’t it, than hide away for proprieties sake? I know I have not yet seen and experienced many things but I am a great learner and I know you will be my greatest teacher.”

“That I will, my love, that I will. Do you know Mr Bell gave me the belief that I wasn’t to loose too much hope in the fact that we may be united?”

“I had no idea, what did the meddlesome old Eros have to say?”

“Meddlesome old Eros?”

“Yes, he tried to be quite the match maker where you and I were concerned. He could see something that I fear neither of us wanted to at the time.”

“I see, yes I suppose he were, meddlesome to a degree.”

“So what did he say to you?”

“He said that I shouldn’t worry about you interfering, as you were landlord in name only, not that I were bothered, I think I told him that it wouldn’t matter soon as there weren’t going to be that much to interfere with. But then he told me that I would be mistaken if I thought you had a bad opinion of me and he asked me not to judge you too harshly. I was angry and sent him away, my temper again. If I’d only listened I fear I may have known about Fred sooner.”

“Would it have made a difference?”

“Aye, I would have come to you directly, I would have asked for your hand immediately. Would you have taken me?”

“Yes, as much then as I do now. I do believe I should have listened to Mr Bell sooner.”

“Me too. Especially when he mentioned that Lennox hadn’t been bothered to turn up for your mother’s funeral, he said he thought he’d have been there for you.”

“Mr Bell really wasn’t going to stop at anything was he? I asked him to, after that scene in the street with Anne Latimer and her father, but instead of trying to get me to change my opinion he turned his attention to you. He asked me to marry him in a round about kind of way but that was after he realised my feelings for you; that must have been before he journeyed to Milton to speak with you. Well it may have taken us a while to realise our feelings for one another but we are together, perhaps it was for the best that we took our time.”

“And now we have the rest of our lives to keep making each other happy, if that’s what you want. I mean I haven’t really asked you properly have I not since your rejection.”

“I have accepted you already.”

“Aye, but I want to do this right, although I can’t really get down on one knee with the motion of the carriage.”

“Then just take hold of my hands.”

John brought her hands together in his and held them close to his heart. “My darling, my love, will you make me the happiest of men and do me the honour of becoming my wife?”

“I will John, yes. It would give me no greater pleasure than accept to become your wife.”

Their eyes dazzled as John kissed the back of both hands. Soon they were again within each others embrace, kissing the other fervently until they had to take breath. “I love you, Margaret,” he breathed.

“And I love you, John.” She answered. Margaret turned in her seat once more, looking out of the window trying to picture where she was on the route to Milton. “John, whereabouts are we? How far from Milton? I’ve travelled this line a dozen times now and I’m still not sure as to where we are exactly.”

“We’re about twenty minutes away from Outwood Station; I’ll have to do my best to get us a carriage as quickly as I can otherwise there won’t be any left.”

“Can we not walk? It is a fine evening.”

“It’s a fair distance, Margaret.”

“I know but I love to walk and we can take our time, it is not as if we have any luggage. I thought maybe we could pop in to see Nicholas, Mary and the children as well, if that is alright with you.”

“Yes, that is fine with me, I don’t think I would be able to stop you if I tried anyway, and it’s not like I have to get back to the mill at the moment. It would be good to see them. I‘ve been so wrapped up in everything that I haven’t seen them in a while, and they will be glad to have you back in the fold. I’m sure we’ll have a welcome reception from them too when we tell them our news.”

“Shouldn’t we tell your mother first?”

“Perhaps, but I think it best that we have some kind of encouragement before we have the stern looks of disapproval. I should have asked sooner but will you stay with us? I’m sure mother will be happy to accommodate you especially with the knowledge that we are to be united.”

“Even if she is not particularly welcome to the news?”

“Even then, she knows how I feel about you, knows how I have always felt about you. The night you were injured and you ‘declared yourself to me’ through her and the servants’ eyes she begged me not to go to you directly. She wanted one last night safe in the knowledge that I was still hers. She knew that she would one day loose me to you, she always felt that you somehow saw yourself above the rest of us and therefore weren’t worthy.”

“She was right, I suppose I did at first but that was until I fully understood the man that I had once rejected. I certainly do not feel the same now and I hope, that in time, your mother will come to realise that too.”

“I’m sure she will, I have no doubt. So how about it, will you stay with us. I’m hoping for a short engagement, Margaret. I want to be wed as soon as can be arranged.”

“If that is the case then I would be delighted. I know you are an honourable man and wouldn’t ask anything of me before we are wed so I will stay. Providing, of course, that it is alright with your mother.”

“Have no fear; I will speak with her as soon as we are home.” John assured her.

“Then it is settled. Oh look, I think we are pulling into the station.”
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North & South: A Continutation