Notes: I've used some phrases from the BBC mini-series.

What Happens Now?

(Previously published under the name Miss Incognita)

(Before We Were Us)

Margaret weaved her way through the crowds of the great Exhibition, taking in all the sights and sounds. She was lost in a dream world when her attention was caught by the sound of a familiar voice in the distance. Letting herself be drawn towards it, she saw a figure surpassing all those around them, and not because he was the tallest of them all, but because he was the most handsome too.

She stood back and quietly listened in the wings while he finished his speech and answered questions. It never failed to surprise her how clever he was. He was an articulate man who knew what he was talking about, and it was not that Margaret had ever assumed that he would be otherwise, it still astonished her to think that he was quite possibly the most clever man she had ever met.

A man asked him whether there was any hope of bringing an end to strikes, and it was then that he looked up, and with his sharp eyes cutting through the crowd and Mr Thornton spotted her. Then he spoke to her, or that is, about her.

"Miss Hale knows the depths we men in Milton have fallen to. How we only strive to drive our workers into the ground."

Where Margaret had shied away in the first instance, she now looked back at him with anger. How dare he do this? How dare he play out the private conflict that was going in between them in public and amongst strangers who knew nothing of the facts?

Jutting her chin high as it would go, Margaret regarded him coolly and prepared to retaliate.

"I do not think that," she refuted, " as Mr Thornton would tell you if he would know me at all." She had been sure to leave a pause at the end of her sentence to add potency to her point, and then she turned slowly, her enraged gaze lingering.

But he followed her with heavy footsteps full of haste.

"I presumed to know you once before, but was mistaken."

Margaret wanted to reply with something quick-witted, but her tongue failed her. But it mattered not for they were interrupted by some unwanted additions, most notably, Henry.

The exchange that followed was swift and painful. Her aunt had been indifferent. Henry, rude. He had attempted to undermine Mr Thornton, to make him feel unimportant. He wanted him to feel like he was nothing to them and Margaret half suspected that Henry also wanted to make Mr Thornton believe that he was and would remain inconsequential to her.

If she had been angry before then it was nothing compared to now.

Mr Thornton has left as quickly as he came, and once he did, she had been sure to put Henry in his place. She informed him just how progressive Mr Thornton was and with a stern tone, she hoped she also told him that she would not tolerate any mistreatment of him, not while she was around.

Full of indignation, Margaret marched off, and it was as she was making her way towards the doors to get some fresh air that she saw him, Mr Thornton, standing still, looking lost. She watched him for a while and when he did not move, she went to him.

"Mr Thornton?" she interrupted. "I thought you were going home?"

He sighed and looked uncomfortable to have been found out by her. "I just said that," he admitted. "I had so wanted to," his head twisted round to look at where Henry still stood in the distance, "it does not matter now," he finished as a brooding shadow moved across his face.

Margaret could not claim to understand him, but bolstering her courage, she decided it was time they had a talk.

"Mr Thornton," she launched, "I have been giving it some thought and I think we should start again."

"Start again?"

"Yes, start again. I think we should begin over and make the effort to get to know the real Margaret and the real…John," she flushed. "That way, we can give each other a chance."

Mr Thornton did not know what to say but he was intrigued by the look of want on her face and it gave him a hope he had never dared to cling to before.

"Very well, Miss Hale, but I just have one question," he said, leaning in towards her with a smouldering smile that he could not repress to find her doing the same: "What happens now?"

The End