Chapter 10: Small Treasures
Summary:
Mrs Thornton and Mr Hale are given the happy news...and Dixon finds out :) Margaret is given a gift.
It was late when Thornton strode back into the yard at Marlborough House; he sent a glance upwards at the window, saw a light burning and was glad his mother had waited up. He was a different person now, he was no longer just John Thornton, mill master, he was Margaret's beloved, but others were just as they had always been and needed his care.
He walked in, saw her sitting straight-backed in her chair, and went to her, drawing her up. He said nothing, just held close against him the spare hard body that had given him birth and raised him to be the man Margaret Hale loved.
She held him tight; tighter, her thin fingers gripping him. Waiting...
He let her go, removed his coat and hung it over a chair and met her eyes with a steady look. "Margaret will marry me, Mother."
She let out her breath. "Oh, I knew it was coming. I knew it... The way she looked at you tonight - ! And as for you - ! you might as well have danced on the dinnerplates singin' a song about your feelings, they were so plain for all to see!"
The tart image won from him a quick involuntary smile whether or not she had intended to be humorous. He resumed, searching her iron face with dark intense eyes, "Try to be happy for me, Mother. I know it will mean changes. But you know that my love for you is unchanged. I could never love you any less."
"Mr Hale told me something of the sort," she said wryly. "I must be a very bitter woman – a mere man, a simple parson has more generosity of spirit than I do."
"Mr Hale. I've not had the chance to speak to him yet."
"Oh, he is expectin' it. But that's not properly done, then, John. You are supposed to obtain the gentleman's permission before asking for his daughter's hand!"
Her son smiled, amused that his mother could be genuinely concerned that it should be properly done. "I think that will be all right, Mother."
"Her Aunt will give the wedding, I suppose."
"I think Margaret will prefer it takes place in Milton. Where her friends are." They had discussed it a little tonight. Margaret seemed to have a distaste for London society and weddings; they had wondered for a moment if she should not have her perfect wedding in Helstone church, until they remembered that that would mean being married by the saintly Reverend whose shining path to heaven might lie wide open but whose mind was so closed he wanted books destroyed.
"Her family aren't likely to be pleased about it, John. I hate to say this aloud as it angers me. But they will not consider you gentleman enough for her."
"Her mother also married a man beneath her, though it angers me that anyone could think of Richard Hale as such. The family had to live with it then and they will now. Anyway," he added gently, "people must choose for themselves whom they wish to marry. How could it lead to happiness otherwise?"
She stepped towards him, yearning for what she had already lost – to be first in his love - and was readily embraced again, he wrapped her securely in his beautiful, strong arms, oh how she loved this boy of hers... "Are you sure she'll make you happy, John? Are you sure? I'll not ask again."
"Mother, I'm not good wi'words, but... can't you see how she has made a light inside me that was never there before? She makes me happy every day just by livin' in the same world as me. I thought this kind of joy was something only others could have, but she made it so easy just by the way she is with me -"
"Enough, John!" holding up her hands to ward off any more horrifying detail, "That'll quite do, thank you, " she said dryly, "I am convinced."
How could she not be happy for him? Her lonely, troubled boy whose eyes had always been set so determinedly on ambition, on work, on providing for and protecting his family, and never taken anything for himself...
No cowardly woman, Hannah Thornton sighed once, gathered herself firmly, and faced up to it.
"Well, John... we have a wedding to plan it seems." She added, " - an' we better get it right. There'll be the London family lookin' for chances to pick holes in our Milton ways... and I reckon your fine lady will have her own ideas about it all, too - !"
"I'm sure Margaret will happily go along with whatever you suggest, Mother," said her son, deep in the mists of love.
ooOoo
Margaret, who had hardly slept, was up early and waiting for her father to come down for breakfast. When the door opened and he appeared around it in his dressing-gown she flew to him and hugged him and loved him – "Oh Papa! Papa! You will never guess – the most wonderful thing – !"
"Am I supposed at least to try to guess, my dear?" he asked calmly. "If so, I would hazard a conjecture that it may perhaps be something to do with our friend John Thornton?"
"Yes!" she gazed at him as if he had mystic powers.
"Has he perhaps asked you to be his wife?"
"He has." Her eyes dropped and she blushed and then looked up to him again, her face alight with joy. "And I am the happiest woman that there ever was, Papa!"
He dwelt on her, this his most beloved daughter, with the tenderest affection. "I am so glad to hear it, Margaret. He is a man with a quality of everything I hoped for in a husband for you, and I can give a man no finer compliment than that." He took his seat at the table, reaching for his cup. It was empty, so Margaret filled it for him, words tumbling out of her -
"I was not supposed to say anything, as he will come by this afternoon at 4 to ask you for your permission for his asking for my hand, which he has done already and I have accepted him with great happiness, but I just could not wait to tell you – I hope you do not think him impolite that he did not wait – he was anxious you should not think that."
"I daresay I can overlook it," her father said very seriously, and then broke into a smile. "I am teasing you, Margaret. It is hardly a surprise to any of us I am sure! Even Mrs Thornton can not have been surprised."
Dixon banged open the door and came in with a tray of eggs and ham. There was a high spot of colour in each of her cheeks. She directed at Margaret a very speaking look, but said no actual words as she set the tray down on the table with a bit of a thump.
"Good morning, Dixon," Margaret smiled at her.
"Is it, Miss Margaret?" from compressed lips.
"Miss Dixon!" Richard Hale said, surprised, but Margaret touched his arm and shook her head slightly, and let the maid stomp out uncorrected.
"She probably heard us speaking as she came up the stairs," Margaret said diplomatically; Dixon liked to know what was going on, even if it meant a little listening at doors. "It will not be welcome news to her I know. I will speak to her later, Father, and remind her how much Mother came to like Mr Thornton for his kindnesses. Oh! I am so happy!"
"Not so happy you can't eat your breakfast, surely?"
Recalled to the occasion, Margaret helped herself to eggs from the warming-dish, but laid down her fork before she could eat. "Mother would have been so happy to know of my good fortune, would she not, Father?"
Mr Hale kept to himself his doubts on the subject - it was true his dear Maria had been grateful for the friendship of the Thorntons, and in particular the visits of Mr Thornton bearing gifts, which she recognised as selfless and kind, but he had a feeling his wife would have preferred something she considered more worthy of Margaret for a husband – an Earl perhaps, or at least no less than a Sir.
He reached out and covered Margaret's hand with his own. "She would have been very happy, Margaret, to see the look on your face that you wear today."
ooOoo
Look how my ring encompasseth thy finger. Even so thy breast encloseth my poor heart. Wear both of them, for both of them are thine. (Richard III)
At 3:45 precisely, the happiest man in the world, Master of Marlborough Mill, knocked at the Crampton house. The door was opened with a furious jerk by the maid, Dixon, who looked him up and down and found him wanting.
It made him glance down at himself surprised, wondering if he had cotton-fluff on his coat.
"Mr Hale is expecting you in his study," she said, adding a sniffy punchline, " - At four o'clock."
He was at a loss how to respond to this. Impertinent maids in his own house he had never come up against; insolent workers in his factory he would have swiftly dealt with, but Margaret's own maid he felt was somewhat outside his remit... anyway Margaret was running down the stairs now, saying with sweet charm,
"Oh Dixon, I myself asked Mr Thornton to come early, so you must let him off, he has only done as I asked. I am sure he and Papa would appreciate some tea in the study in a little while, if you would - ?"
When she had trudged crossly into the kitchen, Margaret drew him in and closed the door and for a moment they looked at one another, each asking a silent question, receiving an answer; and then they were in one another's arms and hugging and exchanging little loving kisses.
Breathless, Margaret was explaining, "You must forgive Dixon. She is unhappy as she says it does not please her to come and live with me when I am married as she cannot bear your – the thought of living in Marlborough House," she filled in quickly, "so I said that, while I would be sorry of course, in that case she must go to London and my aunt will find her a very nice position, which has made her even unhappier, in case I mean it."
ooOoo
The door of Mr Hale's study closed. Margaret was not quite unmannerly enough to listen at the door Dixon-wise, so all she heard was her father saying "Come in, John! Come in and be welcome!" and Mr Thornton's low, quiet voice in reply.
When he came down she questioned him closely, drawing him with both her hands to stand with her, "What did you say to Papa? Tell me everything!"
He set her back from him a little way and turned her to the light, so he could gaze on her face in rapt contemplation as he answered, "I asked him if he was happy to allow me to seek his daughter's hand in marriage."
"And what did Papa say?"
"That he'd be delighted to give his permission, and that he wished us every happiness."
She waited, but -"Was that all? You were with him some time!"
He slanted her a dark look. "After that we spent a little time looking at the next book we shall study together, and he read something of a new scientific paper to me – "
"John! Nothing more? You didn't talk about the wedding?"
"It's not in men's nature to give much thought to weddings. We'd sorted the important business in the first minute, so we then turned to the enjoyable pursuit of knowledge."
"John!" but she found it quite wonderful that he could be so playful; she gazed at him with huge eyes shining with love and joy.
"It is all settled then," she said, and she hugged him close, and felt him draw in a deep breath, and exhale it; pure relief, for it really was 'all settled'. She could feel his heart beating against her when they were so close like this; it moved her in a way she did not recognise, a yearniness for a closer closeness, if such a thing there could be.
"How did your mother - ?" she thought to ask, after a while.
He instantly grimaced but it untwisted itself into a smile. "Mother will be all right. She even managed to tell an amusin' story of how I apparently danced on the table singing a lovesong, I had not thought I had taken so much claret - ? And you were talking just now of the wedding; Mother at least is already turning her thoughts to planning it, even if us men have fallen short."
"Really? She gave no opposition at all?"
"Well, she could hardly oppose it," said the Master.
"She doesn't like me, does she," Margaret said regretfully, her head drooping, her lip caught between her teeth. She was so unused to people disliking her; it troubled her.
"Well," he said, "She will behave very properly, we can be sure of that; and one day she will think 'I am glad my son is so loved, for he will never be lonely and never unhappy,' so with that we must be content. Oh – " he thought to add – "she said to tell you she will be glad to welcome you at Marlborough any time to discuss – the colour of flowers I think? Does that sound likely? Do flowers have to be thought about? An' that reminds me – " he let go of her to feel inside his pocket – "I have something for you."
She opened the little box which bore the stamp of the jeweller in Milton High Street, and gasped. Nestled on a little bed of deep blue velvet, giving forth a sparkle the instant the lid was lifted and it caught the rays of daylight, was a ring, complacent in its prettiness. He was watching her as she lifted it out and examined it, her face alight. She lifted her eyes to his.
"I had forgotten you would give me a ring, I was so wrapped up in the hope of you giving me yourself. It's beautiful. Oh John..."
He had chosen it so carefully for her. Nothing too big or ostentatious, which he guessed she would not like – a fine little sapphire set between two smaller diamonds, supportive handmaidens which did not take the eye away from the deep blue gemstone mined in Kashmir, shaped and polished in London. The delicate setting was gold, which he thought suited her, though he had taken some time to deliberate between that and silver; his sunny, shining girl also had some quality of moonlight about her, ethereal and mysterious, but then the ring would not have matched his other gift so well.
"I don't suppose it will fit you. Your fingers are so little." It nearly did. He would take it back as arranged and have it altered. "Did you know, the ancient Persians believed the world was perched on a vast pyramid of sapphire, which is why the sky is blue."
"You know the most interesting things." She was turning it this way and that, rapt. "I wish I could wear it today. I want everyone to see it. I want to tell everyone I am marrying the Master of Marlborough Mill!"
"All the men will pity you. "
"- and all the women will pelt me with clods! It is the exact blue of your eyes," she said, "Like a deep ocean..." she threw her arms around his neck and kissed him fervently. "I have never owned anything more beautiful!"
"I am richer. I own something more beautiful," he said.
He could hear Mr Hale approaching noisily down the stairs, and bent his head closer to Margaret's, murmuring, "I have another gift in mind for you, darling Margaret, but that will take a little longer in the making."
ooOoo
On the way out he had a thought, and stopped and turned to the maid following him:
"Miss Hale will need a maid after she is married. She is very fond of you, Miss Dixon, and I will be easier in my mind if you would agree to stay with her. You will be most welcome to come with her to Marlborough House. We would do our very best to make you comfortable," and with that he made her a little bow and she found she was looking into eyes of the darkest blue and treated to a small warm smile.
"Me heart fair fluttered off its hook," she recounted to her friend Annie Stait afterwards, "for when all's said and done, despite that mother of his what I'm not lookin' forward to sharin' a house with, he's a very handsome gentleman, and his manners are better than what they used to seem."
ooOoo