AN: Sorry for the delay. Thank you for reading and your kind reviews.
Margaret sat alone in the upstairs sitting room, the candle burned low. The curtain's pattern had burned into her mind displaying the floral design behind her eye lids. The house was deathly silent. Dixon had tired of arranging her mother's things and had started to feel the exhaustion of the last several weeks begin to build in her. She had taken to her room a few hours ago.
Her father was also in his room; he had eaten very little and had claimed his need for some rest, when both women watched him retreat into his bedroom. Margaret suspected that he was having the same level of success as she was. Sleep, when it came at all, was fitful and plagued with half remembered dreams.
Yesterday morning she had received a letter from Fredrick to announce his safe arrival on the continent. It was dated a week ago so she had to believe that by now he would be safely in Spain. Her fears of a coroner's inquest had also been dispelled when the Police Constable had returned to apologise. They were not searching for Fredrick and her reputation was untarnished. Why then was she still dreaming of that night at the station?
The thought of it turned her stomach and increased her heart rate. She understood this was due to her great fears for Fredrick's safety, now though she had to wonder at why this incident caused her so much upheaval.
Perhaps it was the grief that had twisted this event into something she could not resolve. She took a breath; feeling a dull ache in her chest caused by the merest expansion of her lungs, reminding her of the effort it was now just to breathe. The loss of her mother and their parting from Fredrick had left her and her father more alone than she thought possible. Her father's retreat into his intellectual cave made her still lonelier.
She fought the urge to curse Milton. If they had stayed in Helstone they would not be this alone and perhaps her mother would not have succumbed to her illness quite so quickly. It was not in her nature to dwell on things she couldn't change. She and her father were alone in Milton, this was their home and she would continue to forge a life here.
The image of Mr Thornton's angered face as he spat the words "I'm looking to the future!" sprung to her mind. It would not do to lament the things she couldn't change. She too had to look to the future for her floundering father's sake at least.
With the remnants of her stubborn oath pushing her on she pulled her aching body from her bed and faced another day of busying herself with mundane chores and attempting to affect her fathers depressed spirits.