….oOo….
If the shock of that evening was not enough for the two Thornton ladies, they were in for an even greater surprise, when, far from his usual habit of staying away from the mill house whenever Fanny had visitors, John came home and joined them for tea every time there were to be young ladies present.
It was completely unlike John to purposefully insert himself amongst a gaggle of tittering women. For him to do so multiple times in the space of a week nearly gave his mother a heart attack.
Mother and sister speculated that John might finally be coming around to their near constant hints that he should find a bride. Maybe he was looking for someone to court. They could but hope.
Fanny wanted so much to tease John about this extraordinary behavior. However, her mother had admonished her against this as it might discourage him from what she had hoped was his purpose.
However, those hopes had been dashed after watching his performance over the past few days. Not only did he maintain his attitude of taciturn unsociability, he added to that an outrageous impertinence.
He would arrive late. However, that wasn't so bad as he at least he had an apology and a congenial smile upon his face. He would then proceed to scan the faces of the ladies around the drawing room, at which point his countenance would fall and his typical scowl and aloof attitude would return.
His mother didn't mind this behavior so much. He obviously did not find any of the ladies pretty enough, she supposed, and she agreed. No one was good enough for her John.
He would then proceed to sit - on some occasions he didn't even do that - and take his tea as quickly as possible, refusing to engage in any conversation even though every eligible young lady present made valiant efforts to try and draw him in. Instead, he spent what little time he was there trying to catch a glimpse of the ladies' shoes!
This gave the young women the delightful impression that he was taking them in from head to toe. Couple this, however, with his refusal to engage in conversation and the ladies were left with the feeling of having been objectified, considered by him as a mere possession, something to be ogled. Some of the higher bred ladies concluded that they could expect nothing less from someone in trade.
His mother was horrified. Rather than seeking a wife, she feared that the preponderance of evidence from the past week or so seemed to suggest the likelihood that her son had simply developed some sort of strange new foot fetish. This came with the unfortunate side effect of having inadvertently driven off every potential bride in town.
….oOo….
Margaret's leisure time never came. Although she entered upon the task with great aplomb, her search for a maid fizzled out to nothing. No one suitable could be found at a wage her family could currently afford. Therefore, Margaret felt obliged to take on more and more of the domestic responsibilities herself.
Every morning she was up before dawn. She would put on an old gray gown and pair of wooden clogs, as were often worn by the working class of Milton for their practicality, and she would begin her day. She had learned to knead dough and bake bread, to start fires and clear out the old ashes, she even took to emptying chamber pots as it was becoming increasingly difficult for Dixon to navigate all the stairs of the Crampton house multiple times a day.
She found herself to be particularly skilled at washing and ironing and was getting to be a famous clear-starcher. On wash days she took to calling herself Peggy the laundry-maid. Her father, however, affectionately called her Cinderella, as more often than not, the only time he saw her during the day was when she came into his study to sweep up the ash from the fireplace.
Due to Margaret's youth and greater agility, she was often employed by Dixon or her mother, and even at times by her father, to run errands in town. Of all the things Margaret did to support her family, this was likely her favorite. She always appreciated the opportunity to get out, even in dirty smoky Milton, as this presented her with a chance of possibly seeing the handsome mill master she was drawn to.
With a shawl about her shoulders and a basket over her arm, she would stroll down Crampton Crescent to New Street in her wooden clogs, bartering with the grocer or poulterer and peering into the shop windows. There she would see all manner of pretty new things to feed her fancies.
She would imagine herself all dolled up in the latest fashions, attending a ball as she would often do with her cousin in London. Then the vision of her tall dark and handsome 'prince' would come to mind. He would approach and ask for her hand and she would dance the away evening in his arms.
It was during one of these day dreams, as she was unconsciously smiling at her handsome prince, that she was addressed by a poorly-dressed, middle-aged workman, with "You may well smile, my lass; many a one would smile to have such a bonny face."
Margaret recognized this man as the one who had helped her on the stairs that fateful day when she lost her shoe. She could not help giving him an answering smile, glad to think that her looks, such as they were, should have had the power to call up a pleasant thought. He seemed to understand her acknowledging glance, and a silent recognition was established between them whenever the chances of the day brought them across each other's paths. They had never exchanged a word; nothing had been said but that first compliment; yet somehow Margaret looked upon this man with more interest than upon any one else in Milton, besides, perhaps, a certain mill master.
One Sunday, she saw this workman walking with a girl, evidently his daughter. Margaret, on her way home from church, had gathered some of the hedge and ditch flowers, dog-violets, lesser celandines, and the like, with an unspoken lament in her heart for the sweet profusion of the South, when she met her humble friends. The girl looked wistfully at the flowers, and, acting on a sudden impulse, Margaret offered them to her. Her pale blue eyes lightened up as she took them, and her father spoke for her.
"Thank yo, Miss. Bessy'll think a deal o' them flowers; that hoo will; and I shall think a deal o' yor kindness. Yo're not of this country, I reckon?"
"No!" said Margaret, half sighing. "I come from the South—from Hampshire," she continued, a little afraid of wounding his consciousness of ignorance, if she used a name which he did not understand.
"That's beyond London, I reckon? And I come fro' Burnley-ways, and forty mile to th' North. And yet, yo see, North and South has both met and made kind o' friends in this big smoky place."
Margaret smiled at this, and the trio introduced themselves. Thus began her friendship with Nicholas Higgins and his daughter Bessy. Now, when she went out, not only did she scan the crowds for her handsome 'prince,' she also had the pleasure of looking for her new friends whom she met quite often in the vicinity of Princeton, the area of town where most of the mill workers lived.
….oOo….
While Margaret spent her time in town looking up for the dark head of a tall man, John began his time in public looking down at women's feet. He could be found on market day spending more time trying to ogle the boots of passing ladies than he did the newly arrived bales of cotton he was supposed to be purchasing for his mill.
However, it only took him a time or two to realize the futility of searching out the lady by her boots. His mystery woman would not likely be hobbling around town only half shod. Therefore, after a quick habitual glance at a woman's shoes, he would bring his gaze up a little higher to look at her face. If he found a woman was wearing old worn-out boots or wooden clogs as befit the poorer classes he wouldn't even bother with the face.
The elegant lady in his mill had been finely dressed and her shoes expensive, so John figured he was most likely to find her in or near the up-scale shops on New Street. However, for as many times as John walked through that area of town, either on business or deliberately scouting for his mystery woman, he never saw her.
He was beginning to get frustrated with this lack of progress. He would have to think of some other method he could use to find her.