Looking to the Future #4
For her part, Margaret appreciated that he spoke of Milton in judicious tones with none of the contempt voiced by Edith.
Mr. Lennox appreciated Milton and its inhabitants, and admired their energy and power.
When other subjects bored her, and she gave short answers to his questions, Henry Lennox found that he could animate her expression by asking about some Darkshire quirk of character.
When they had first returned to town from the seashore, Margaret announced her resolution to take her life into her own hands.
Edith feared that she would establish her own household, but Margaret set her worst fears to rest, telling her she had no immediate plans to leave them and only wanted to make her own decisions about her person.
‘Then you will let me buy your dresses for you?’ Edith enquired with eager smiles.
‘No, I mean to buy them for myself. You may come with me if you like, but I shall determine what I will buy and wear, just as I shall determine how I shall live and where.’
‘Promise me you’ll not dress in drab brown or mousy colours as you were wont to do in Milton.’
‘I’m going to please myself, Edith,’ was her reply. ‘If I wish to dress in drab colours, or stay home in the evening rather than attend a dinner, or walk by myself in the park rather than be attended by a maid or footman, I shall do so.’
After much discussion, Edith and Aunt Shaw determined that these plans of hers to remain in Harley Street for the interim would help Henry Lennox win her at last. In a misguided effort, they avoided inviting friends with eligible sons or brothers to dinner and advised Henry to not invite any bachelors to Harley Street.
They were heartened by Margaret’s apparent avoidance of her previous admirers, and, if Henry thought her absentminded in her thoughts, he attributed it to her change in circumstances rather than her longing to hear from one particular person.
It was a warm evening near the end of summer when Edith came into Margaret’s bed-room dressed for dinner. She found Dixon laying out Margaret’s dress on the bed but Margaret was not there.
Edith could not help but exclaim, ‘Oh, Dixon! Not those blue flowers with that gold gown. How horrible! Pomegranate blossoms are what are needed to set off such a shade.’
‘It’s not gold, ma’am. It’s straw and everyone knows that blue goes with straw.’
Dixon was insulted, but Edith was determined and shortly returned with a handful of scarlet flowers which she held against the gown.
‘There, that’s perfect. But where is Miss Hale?
She really must give up the rambling habits she acquired in Milton.
A well-bred lady should never go out without a servant. ’
Put out by the refutation of her taste, Dixon replied shortly, ‘Miss Margaret is not such a fearful, fanciful creature as you suppose her to be—’
‘Oh, Margaret! At last! I have been looking for you this past hour or more. But how flushed you are, poor child! I dare say you have been wandering up and down the avenues.’ Edith was at her most caressing.
‘Edith, I have just spoken with Captain Lennox. Is it true that Mr. Thornton is to dine with us this evening?’
Edith huffed in displeasure. ‘Henry has exceeded a brother-in-law’s limits tonight.
I had my numbers done up beautifully to accommodate his Mr. Colthurst, and he has the effrontery to ask if he may bring that Mr. Thornton, pleading that he is your tenant and in London on some business. It quite spoils my numbers!’
Where Margaret had been flushed before, she was now white. ‘Do not mind your numbers—I shall not come down to dinner after all. Dixon can fetch a tray for me here, and I will come down to the drawing room after I have had a chance to lie down.’
Edith was astonished and affronted. ‘Not come down to dinner! Henry would be most disappointed. You must come, Margaret. Never mind me. I shall cope with the numbers. You do look pale, but it is exhaustion from your walk. Rest for a few moments, and Dixon and I will help you dress. You know we had planned for you to talk about Milton to Mr. Colthurst, and now he might speak with Mr. Thornton as well. Mr. Colthurst can ask him questions about all the subjects in which he is interested, and Mr. Thornton’s opinions may help shape Mr. Colthurst’s next speech in the House. ’
There was no help for it; Margaret understood she must go. Glancing at the bed, however, she made a gesture of repulsion. ‘I cannot wear that gown—it is too fine. Dixon, I want the sage green gown, the one with the ribbons about the neckline.’
Dixon was astonished. ‘What, that old thing? You haven’t worn it since the night of that dinner at Marlborough Mills—’
‘Never mind. It will suit me for this evening.’ Let him see me in something familiar, she thought, rather than dressed as a grand dame he would despise.
Let him recognize me as the same daughter of a parson who lived in Milton for a time.
Let him not hate me so much that he will not even speak to me this evening.
Her hands shook as she placed her bonnet and reticule on the bed.
Edith chattered away in happy expectation, blind to Margaret’s agitated spirits. ‘I asked Henry if your Mr. Thornton was a man one would be ashamed of, and he got quite angry with me. So I suppose he is able to sound his h’s, which is not a common Darkshire accomplishment—is that so, Margaret?’
‘Mr. Lennox did not say why Mr. Thornton was in town?’ asked Margaret in a subdued voice.
‘His business has failed, or something of the kind—what was it? Oh, Dixon, that’s lovely—that gown may be a bit dated, but the colour is perfect on her, and highlights her skin.
And the blossoms will be perfect in your hair.
Miss Hale will do us great credit this evening.
I wish I were as tall as you and as slender.
But I daresay you will lose your figure too when you have a child—’
‘Edith,’ Margaret interrupted, ‘What about Mr. Thornton?’
‘Oh! Henry will tell you all about it. He did say that Mr. Thornton is very badly off and a respectable man, so I must be civil to him. Come, go with me and rest on the sofa for a quarter of an hour. You do look quite ill—as I feared, that walk did you no good.’
Mr. Lennox arrived early and was surprised when Margaret approached him at once, her cheeks reddened as if by strong emotion. She posed the same questions concerning Mr. Thornton that she had asked Edith, anxious for clarifications to Edith’s unsatisfactory responses.
‘He has ventured to London to inquire about sub-letting Marlborough Mills and the house and adjacent properties. He cannot hope to keep it in his present penury, and deeds and leases must be reviewed and agreements signed. Edith was rather put out by the outrageous liberty I took in inviting him, but I thought you would like to have some attention shown him, given the terrible breakup of his fortunes.’
‘Yes, of course,’ Margaret replied hastily. ‘But, is it indeed so very bad? Must he give up the house as well as the mill?’
‘Yes. As it stands, he hasn’t two pence to rub together. Shame, really, for such a promising man of industry.’
He stepped away from Margaret at a sound from the hall. ‘Oh, here he is now!’
Margaret’s former feeling of weakness was nothing to what she felt now, as the object of her trepidation crossed the parlour threshold and held out his hand to Mr. Lennox.
She felt hot and cold at once, by turns elated and terrified of his reception of her.
Would he be cold or merely polite? She was not sure which would be worse.
She clasped her hands until the knuckles whitened.
While Henry introduced Mr. Thornton to Edith and Captain Lennox, Margaret studied him and was struck by the quixotic idea that he was exactly as he had been and yet totally different.
It had been more than a year since she had last seen him.
She thought he looked older and worn by cares, but his carriage was erect and his dark hair thick.
He held himself with the same noble mien she had previously termed arrogant.
She knew better now; he had much to be proud of, and she was glad to see he carried his cares like the strong, confident man she knew him to be.
Her eyes swam with tears. While she had endured much, so had he—the strike, the loss of her father’s friendship, and now the mill and his home.
She blinked rapidly. She would not have him see her in such agitation.
She noted he was in evening dress, and she was struck by the blaze of crimson at his neck.
She recalled of a sudden coming unawares upon him at the Great Exhibition.
He had worn such a cravat then, and she remembered how handsome she had thought him.
His eye scanned the room as he exchanged pleasantries with his hosts until he pinned Margaret with his brilliant gaze.
She saw his expression ignite with pleasure, and he took an unthinking step toward her before halting.
His lids came down over his eyes and the glint was gone, and she feared herself unforgiven.
Henry led him toward her, and he came up with the regulated manners of a distant acquaintance which wounded her more than she thought possible.
‘Miss Hale, how do you do? I am sorry for the loss of your old friend, Mr. Bell. My mother wished me to convey her condolences.’ He held out his hand in the familiar gesture of old, and she slid her fingers into his warm palm.
Her mouth went dry at the feeling of his skin against hers.
She felt lightheaded for a moment. When he released her hand, her composure returned.
‘Thank you, Mr. Thornton. I understand you visited him in his final illness?’
‘Yes, but I reached his lodgings too late. He had slipped into a deep sleep before I arrived.’