There are some qualities—some incorporate things,
That have a double life, which thus is made
A type of that twin entity which springs
From matter and light, evinced in solid and shade.
There is a two-fold Silence—sea and shore— Body and soul.
One dwells in lonely places, Newly with grass o'ergrown;
some solemn graces, Some human memories and tearful lore,
Render him terrorless: his name's "No More."

Edgar Allen Poe, Silence

The next few weeks were a blur. John practically disappeared into his work and Margaret disappeared in the latest novel, and when pressed by Hannah, into wedding planning.

The morning after their arrival, they shared a tense breakfast with Mrs Thornton and Fanny, who had come down early as she often did on Saturday mornings in her eagerness to lord her happiness over that of her mother and brother, and regale them with stories of her week. She did not, however, expect to find Margaret Hale sitting beside her brother eating marmalade on toast like it was perfectly natural.

"Miss Hale! What on earth are you doing here?"

"Miss Hale and I have recently become engaged and intend to marry within the next three months." John said. Margaret hid her surprise well; they had not discussed the wedding at all yet, and it made her happy to think that he wanted such a short engagement.

"Sorry?" Fanny asked, dumbstruck.

"Sit down and have some breakfast Fanny, for goodness sake." Hannah said grumpily, looking to avoid an outburst. She was too late.

"You're marrying my brother?"

"That's right." Margaret countered Fanny's incredulous tone with one of utmost patience.

"You?" She made a face. John's hand balled into a fist on his thigh and Margaret quickly reached for it, threading her fingers through his.

"Yes. I do not see what is so spectacularly surprising about that."

"And you're alright with this?" Fanny turned to Mrs Thornton. Hannah nodded carefully, a look of distaste on her face. John twitched and Margaret knew she would not be able to contain him for long.

"I thought you didn't like John? Or did you realise you needed the money?" Fanny asked, "Cause it'll be no use to you now, he's got none!"

John stood up so fast he knocked food off his plate and Margaret grabbed his arm, "How dare-"

"John," she pulled him back, "Don't!" He was fuming, chest heaving angrily, and Fanny's nostrils were flaring with satisfaction at the reaction she'd managed to get. He moved to yell again but Margaret stepped in front of him and put her hand on his chest, "John, it doesn't matter."

He shook his head, distressed, "Yes, it does, she is suggesting-"

"And you and I know it is not true, so what does it matter what she thinks?"

He glanced between her and Fanny. He was torn between defending her honour and obeying her wishes, but eventually he calmed and sat back down to his breakfast, which he proceeded to scoop off the table back onto his plate. Fanny occupied herself heaping far too much food on her dish and then making faces at everyone throughout the rest of the sufficiently quiet, awkward breakfast. Margaret's hand was on John's knee, and stayed there for the duration of Fanny's stories about her husband's money and her new dresses, and was the only thing keeping him from throttling his younger sister. When breakfast eventually ended, Hannah took Fanny into the drawing room and Margaret turned to her fiancé.

"You shouldn't let her get to you, you know." She stood behind him and placed her hands on his shoulders, stroking the back of his neck and leaning her chin on his head.

John sighed, "It is not right for her to say such things."

"No. But that is no longer your issue, it is one for her husband to deal with."

"Really? And how do you propose I deal with you when you speak out of turn?" He twisted slightly, his voice teasing as he pulled one of her hands into his own.

Margaret stood up straighter and smiled sweetly, "I am different."

"How so?"

"You have always liked it when I speak out of turn. I saw you smiling when you believed I could not see at that dinner with the Mill owners." She said triumphantly. He coloured slightly but remained otherwise unchanged in expression.

"You're right, of course. In light of that, I change my question."

"Oh?"

John moved quickly, tugging her hand and yanking her down into his lap and she gasped in surprise before raising her eyebrow at him scoldingly. Her gaze softened immediately when she felt his arm holding her around the waist, keeping her steady as her legs dangled inches from the ground.

"How do you propose I reward you when you speak out of turn?" His voice was low and had a hidden quality to it, one that Margaret found intoxicating. She didn't even notice as her hand slid up his shoulder to his face.

"What do you think is best?" She breathed.

"I have a couple of ideas," he murmured suggestively and she swallowed as he leaned in closer, his hand on her knee and his eyes lighting fires wherever they glanced. He'd barely brushed her lips, however, when Hannah stormed back in.

"For goodness sake, will you two get a hold of yourselves! At least try to act like upstanding members of society!" She clipped, and Margaret blushed scarlet and tried to move, but John's arm kept her there.

"We are not in society; we are in our home. I do not see that it bothers anyone."

"It bothers me. You are not married yet, and I expect you to at least try and maintain an air of decorum! Besides, John, you are going to be late for your meeting about the Mills, and you cannot expect to start your business again if you do not arrive on time."

"A business that would not be a business at all without Miss Hale." John said, frustrated.

"She is right you know," Margaret said and John glared at her, while Hannah looked surprised. "You're supposed to be getting things set up as quickly as possible, because we will not be able to be married until everything is stable. Or, I suppose we could marry, but a honeymoon would be out of the question."

"I cannot believe you would use our union against me." He said grumpily and she kissed his forehead, removing herself from his lap.

"Of course you can." She smiled cheekily at him and he shook his head as she left for her room. Hannah, who had been observing the whole exchange sceptically from the corner, found her opinion of Margaret Hale shift slightly. She cursed internally, for she had been praying that the girl could still turn out to be a terrible match for her son. However, as she already knew, and had always known, Miss Hale was the one woman who could take her son away.

"Do try to be kind, Mother." John said as he grabbed his coat.

"I said I would accept her here, as long as she never hurt you again. So far, she has managed and so will I."

Margaret knew she had to inform her family in London that she was engaged, but she wasn't sure where to start. She decided she would start with Edith.

Dear Edith,

I'm sure by the time this letter arrives, Henry will have returned. I do not know how much he will have told you about the events that transpired at the train station, but I will do my best to tell a full account now. I am sorry for his distress, but you must know that I never intended to marry Henry; I told you so on more than one occasion, and I know you wish our family connection to be closer, but as you are like a sister to me in any case, I hardly believe my marrying Henry would have changed anything. I know you wished me to live in London with you, but it has just never suited me to be there, and I am moving to Milton in the coming months. I am engaged to John Thornton and I find that even I am surprised. I thought I may never see him again, but when I heard he was in trouble, I could not just sit by and let it happen. When I saw him in the train station, I was surprised: I thought I had wasted my last chance to see him, having not found him in Milton. Then, of course, he found me in the station, and approached me having just returned from a trip to Helstone – he had gone looking for me, or at least, looking for the place I used to love so much. I was surprised, but not as surprised as he became once I told him of my plan to invest in his Mills, and despite my insistence that it was only a business matter, he knew that I cared for him. Oh I do care for him Edith – I love him, despite my promise that I never would. I am sorry to Henry, but I would never have been a proper wife to him; he would have wished to stifle me and stop me from speaking my mind, as he has attempted to before, which is something that John would never do.

I am getting married in two and a half months and do hope that you can attend, with Aunt, Uncle, the Colonel and baby Scholto, and even Henry if he wishes, although I bear no ill will if he does not. I have sent separate summons to Dixon as I would prefer she comes up a month before the wedding (if she consents) to become my lady's maid, as she was for my mother. I hope to see you in two months time, my favourite cousin, and I do so hope to hear from you soon. Until then, I send my best wishes and my love to you all,

Margaret

The other letters were harder to write, and a lot shorter than the one to Edith, but she managed to finish them all before lunch and returned downstairs to where Hannah was waiting.

"Finished writing?" She asked brusquely.

"Yes, I will post them on Monday so they have an understanding of events at the earliest possible convenience. I am sure I have given them quite a big fright just not returning like that."

"So, you were not planning on coming home with John?" Hannah probed.

"Not entirely. I had just hoped to restore myself in his good graces, and to stop Marlborough Mills from collapsing. But when I tried to explain that it was nothing more than a business proposition, and that he would in no way be obliged to me, he… proposed."

"Did he now?" Mrs Thornton asked, noting the suspicious pause and brushing past it.

"Yes, and I just… I couldn't say anything, I just stared at him. Then the bell went for the train back to London, and I retrieved my bags from Henry and-"

"Henry?" Her tone was fraught with suspicion.

Margaret flushed in annoyance, "My cousin's brother-in-law who was supposed to help me explain the business proposition. He was… less than pleased at my leaving."

"Were your family encouraging a match?" Hannah was interested now, but trying to hide it.

"Henry proposed to me before we moved to Milton, and I refused him." Margaret stated matter-of-factly.

"Ah."

"But my cousin did rather encourage him in his reattachment to me, despite my objection. I began to believe that an unhappy marriage was my only option, but I swore that I would resign myself to a life of spinsterhood before I allowed that to happen."

"I recall saying to John once that I believed it would take a lot for someone to stop you from doing something you had set your mind to. I see that I was correct, in the most part. Yet your refused my son once before – what changed your opinion of him?"

Margaret shook her head, "I do not know. I barely understand the part of myself that refused him – someone who's pride had been hurt by his manner of proposal and by comments overheard when servants of this house and Fanny thought me unconscious. I suppose I just did not want my actions judged by people who had no cause to be judging them, and to be able to make my own decisions without scrutiny. Just as with the incident at the train station." The last statement had a hard edge to it, and before Hannah could ask what it was that the servants had been gossiping about with her daughter, she bristled at the implication of her interference.

"Miss Hale, I was simply acting on behalf-"

"The man I was embracing at the train station was my brother. He is on the run from the law and so I had to set him on a train in the night without so much as a proper goodbye." She cut in swiftly, and Hannah blinked.

"Miss Hale… I had no idea." She cursed the girl for having a reasonable explanation for her actions but appeared outwardly as interested as she could.

So Margaret spent a great deal of time explaining Frederick's situation to her future mother-in-law and Mrs Thornton listened intently, only interrupting to clarify details or make small noises of affirmation. By the time lunch was through, Miss Hale felt that Hannah disliked her a little less, which she hadn't believed was possible, and so pondered the existence of miracles while she waited for her fiancé to arrive home.

He appeared in the hallway just before dinner, apologising as he closed the door and dripping wet from the torrents of rain streaming from the sky. He'd been to the bank, he told them, and then to Higgin's about the petition of workers, then to the Mills themselves to see what he could achieve in an afternoon, and then returned to the bank to pick up paperwork for Margaret to sign.

"Excellent. How soon can we be up and running?" Margaret asked and John's mind did cartwheels at the use of 'we'.

"Everything should be fully sorted by mid-week, but work can commence after the weekend, to get ahead of the bank – I made sure that was acceptable under the current laws."

"Wonderful, son." Hannah said, "Will you be attending Sunday Morning Service tomorrow?" He frowned at her and she chuckled, "Suppose it'll just be me and your Miss Hale then, unless Fanny decides to grace us with her presence again."

"There's just so much to be done-"

"Son, you do not need to make excuses for hard work. I'm sure God will forgive you for a few missed services. I'm sure he forgives us for all the rest as well. Besides, it is your Miss Hale you should be apologising to. She is the one who will be most upset at the deprivation of your company." There was an edge to her voice but she disguised her bitterness with a hasty smile and vacated the table. John looked to his fiancé who was smiling absent-mindedly at her empty plate and he stood and placed his hands on her shoulders as she had done that morning. He bent down to her ear.

"Much as I am loathe to admit it, Mother is right – the next few weeks at least will be very busy. I will leave immediately after breakfast and not return until after dinner, and to begin with I will have to spend weekends in the Mill organising the logistics and business of reopening. I will not be in your company anywhere near as much as I wish to be."

Margaret nodded, "I understand. I would not expect you to neglect my business proposal, but…"

"But?"

"I know that I said you would not be obliged to me, but if I'm not going to see you because of something I did, I have a request."

"Anything love." His nose brushed the hair behind her ear and she sighed, frustrated that she would not feel him beside her so often.

"Just remember to come home. Now that I am here, you have a reason to avoid sleeping in your office, and I expect that you take care of yourself – sleep in your own bed."

"Huh." He raised his eyebrow.

"What is it?"

"I expected your request to be a little more… demanding." He said softly, kissing her temple.

"Not this time. However, if after a month you are still working quite so much, I will have to renegotiate the parameters of this agreement."

"I find that sentiment perfectly agreeable." John acknowledged, and kissed her cheek, "I do not wish to work so much any more than you wish me to. After we are married we can honeymoon for as long as you wish in a faraway country around lots of people we do not know."

"Oh no," Margaret said with conviction and he looked confused, "I would much rather go somewhere very quiet with almost no people at all, than an exotic country."

"So you are saying you wish to honeymoon in Helstone?" He asked, amused.

"Not precisely Helstone, but a quiet country area where no-one can be offended, and the countryside is beautiful and you can pick me more of my favourite flowers." It was at this exact second she realised how completely smitten and immature she sounded, gushing to him about flowers, and she trailed off.

"Quiet country honeymoon it is." John was smiling, but it was no longer quietly amused; it was a smile of love, one that would have agreed to anything she said so long as she kept blushing in that way. He pressed his lips to her temple again, holding them there as he spoke, "For as long as possible. Goodnight, my love." He squeezed her shoulders and she kissed his hand as he withdrew it and retired for the evening. She thought about the events of the past two days and blushed at some of the things she'd said and done, but in the long run she knew she would not be embarrassed – she was far too in love to care how she looked to others, and she knew he was far too in love to notice that anything she did was improper.

As she lay in bed, she felt restless, and found that sleeping alone was just not satisfactory anymore. She wished to fall asleep in his arms and wake up beside him, and though her bed had never been occupied by anyone but herself, it felt suddenly empty. It occurred that while their engagement would be announced in the paper in the next few days, there were very few people who even knew she had returned to Milton, and even then, she did not know many people in any capacity past brief acquaintance. She brightened the room and grabbed some paper from the side-table.

Those People Whom I Wish to Attend:

Those Who Can:
Nicholas
Mary
Sarah & Millicent
James, Billy, Timothy, Harrison
Edith, Scholto & Captain Lennox
Dixon

Those Who Cannot:
Mother
Father
Bessy
Mr Bell

*FREDERICK*

She then turned the page over and began to rehearse a new signature, using multiple variations on Margaret Thornton until she had no more space left to write. She folded the page in half and tucked it under the pillow. Margaret felt immediately more comfortable, and resolved to keep it under her pillow every night to absolve her of loneliness, and to remind her of who she had always been, and who she would become.

Sorry I left it for so long, but I've just finished moving back to the UK and things were a bit hectic for a few weeks there but I'm back on track now. This story will have some twists and turns to it, but if you want a quick and easy happy ending feel free to stop at the end of this chapter just here. If you'd like a bit more narrative and hardship, do read on, but beware of angst. I hope you enjoyed it.