Margaret of the North (49 page)

"That desolate atmosphere
was already there right after the workers left on the day we closed."  He
said sadly and was thoughtful again for a minute or two.

"I told you early in our
acquaintance that my responsibility was the efficient running of the mill and
anything outside of that was not my concern.  That is still true when it comes
to the way workers spend their money or what they do outside the mill.  But I
am now persuaded that I must take some interest in their general well-being
because it affects how well they work.  You showed me that."

She exclaimed, "Me?  But
how?"

"Williams told me that since
Christmas, more work is getting done.  That has helped keep us from being too
far behind on our schedule even with mill closings caused by severe weather. 
It must be what you did for the mill on Christmas."

"Well, I would like to think
that it helped but I believe the decision you made in their favor was not lost
on them.  They appreciate how you agonized about asking your mother to stop
coming to the mill.  I am sure Nicholas made them fully aware of that."

He nodded with a satisfied
smile.  "Yes, he has been an ally.  The terrific firebrand all the other
masters are leery of has been a helpful bridge between me and the other
workers."

He put his journal on the side
table, got up, and sat next to her on the sofa.  "Listen and do not
distract me from what I wanted to do—tell you how grateful I am for the many different
ways you have helped."  He took the book she was still holding on her lap,
and placed it on the tea table.  He clasped her hands and pressed each one to
his lips. 

"Thank you," he
murmured simply, gazing at her with soft smiling eyes.

Calmer now, she leaned against
him and laid her head on his shoulder.  He held her close and they were both
silent for a long moment.

She looked up at him.  "I
must take advantage of your good mood and ask you something I have been mulling
over for weeks now."

"Go on."  Then, teasing
her a little, he added, "I am ready to acquiesce to anything you
ask."

She straightened and said,
"I want to start a medical clinic, mainly for the sake of mill children
but it will serve every worker who comes to it."

He smiled broadly.  "You
have been mulling!  That would be a big step, a very big one, in fact.  But I
think it the best possible way to help workers.  Even Mr. Bell might agree it
is a worthwhile use of profits from his investments."

She smiled, pleased that he
approved.  "Well, you knew Dr. Donaldson was here twice for tea about a
week ago.  We talked about my plans.  Dr. Hartley came, too, the second
time."

A scowl flitted across John's
forehead and he listened, warily.  Margaret continued, choosing her words
carefully.  "Dr. Donaldson thought I had a good idea and knew, from our
first meeting, that I was worried about finding a doctor for the clinic.  Dr.
Hartley came to offer his services for half his usual fees two afternoons a
week.  That may not be enough but it is a start.  Now, I have to talk to you
about where we can hold the clinic and finding someone who could assist him
and, perhaps, provide nursing care even on days the doctor is not around."

"The smitten Dr. Hartley
could not say no to you.  I heard that he is rather busy, much sought after and
not only for his medical skills.  Yet, he finds the time to help here." 
John sounded irritated.

"You are not going to be
jealous, are you?  You know I would never do anything to encourage him."

"No, you would not." 
He scowled again.  "The problem is the good doctor does not need your
encouragement.  Your idea about the clinic was probably all he needed to cement
his ardor.  Blast these Americans with their pioneering spirit and enthusiasm
for equal treatment for all."

"John, you do not mean
that."

"No.  In fact, I admire
them; they embrace modernity more than many of our noble
parliamentarians."  He paused, then grinned mischievously.  "You gave
me just the right incentive to help you.  I suspect the doctor hopes you would
volunteer to assist him, if only temporarily.  I will help you find him an
assistant.  As for space, what about my old office or the dining hall?  They
are usually free most afternoons."

He paused again, then smiled
wickedly, another idea hatching in his mind.  "I have a better idea.  We
will clear and close off an area for him next to my new office.  We have a
large space there.  That way, he does not have to worry about his instruments
and medicines and he can choose any time and any day to work."

"That is a better choice, I
think.  We can open all day with a doctor's assistant and we can even expand
services later."  She reached over and, pulling his face next to hers with
both her hands, she kissed him.  "Now it is my turn.  Thank you, my love,"
she whispered, grateful for his open-mindedness and his good humor, flattered
by his jealousy, and wonderfully surprised by the influence she had over him.

**************

Mrs. Thornton returned in the
spring, accompanied by Watson who took her and Jane directly from the train
station to a flat renovated out of several bedrooms on the top floor of the old
mill house.  The large bedroom that had been occupied by John and Margaret was
divided into a bedroom and sitting room for Mrs. Thornton.  Other bedrooms were
turned into a drawing room, an extra bedroom, kitchen, dining room and a
bedroom for Jane.  The flat was repainted or re-papered and new curtains were
hung in the same colors as before.  All her furniture and decorations from the
new house had been brought back and arranged in much the same way as she had
them before.

When they arrived at the flat,
Margaret and John, Elise in his arms, were in the drawing room, waiting with
tea and tiny cakes and sandwiches that Dixon had especially prepared.  Margaret
was the first to approach, giving her mother-in-law a brief hug as she welcomed
her back.  To Margaret's surprise, Mrs. Thornton hugged her back and whispered
a sincere "Thank you."

John and Elise followed right
behind Margaret.  He gave his mother a kiss on the cheek and said to his
daughter, "Give grandmama a kiss, Elise."  The child looked at her
grandmother and turned away, hiding her face on her father's shoulder.

Mrs. Thornton, surprised at being
addressed "grandmama," remarked wryly, "She has probably forgotten
me.  I have been away six months, about half her life."  Elise raised her
head, looked towards her mother and reached out, saying "Mama."

Mrs. Thornton said, "Oh, she
is talking already, is she?  But she cannot be one year old yet!"

"Just a few words,"
John replied as he handed his daughter back to his wife.  "The usual. 
Mama and Papa, of course.  No, yes.  Clap.  She learned that because she likes
to clap.  Her first birthday is early next week so you're home in time for
it."

In her mother's arms, the child
grew bolder, looked at her grandmother again, smiled and putting her hands
together, said, "Clap!"

Mrs. Thornton returned the smile
and clapped.  Margaret, pleasantly astonished once again, smiled warmly at her
mother-in-law and then at her husband.

Mrs. Thornton was, in fact, glad
to be back to the familiar smells, sounds, and places in Milton.  In London,
she hardly ever went out.  Fanny required her attention constantly and during
much of winter, the weather kept everyone within.  Mrs. Thornton devoted her
effort to pampering her daughter but she did make time to reflect on the talk
she last had with her son.  She had to, after John impressed upon her how much
Margaret meant to him.  She knew then that if John had to make a choice, he
would choose his wife over his mother.  It was a crushing realization that she
struggled to accept.

Inevitably, she was influenced by
seeing how different the Watson household was from the one she left behind.  It
ran fairly smoothly despite Fanny being a nervous mistress who fell apart at
the smallest problems.  She had learned enough from her mother's coaching; the
servants were properly trained; and Watson, who indulged her and even seemed to
encourage her feminine frailties, employed a middle-aged, competent personal
maid.  This maid was at Fanny's disposal all day, advising her on what to do
when problems arose in the household.

Mrs. Thornton thought Watson a
good match for her daughter.  He had been proud of snatching what he considered
a price in the young, pretty, and vivacious Miss Thornton who was nearly half
his age.  She did not have as much settled on her as other women he might have
chosen but that did not matter.  He was himself very rich, a fact that he knew
greatly favored his acceptance.  Once married, he was good-humored and gentle
with Fanny, beguiled by her feminine if sometimes infantile—Mrs. Thornton
admitted this sadly—whims and attitude.  He catered to all her expressed
desires and was patient with her inept and clumsy way of running the house.

Still, Mrs. Thornton could not
help wondering if, underneath Watson's affection for his wife, lay some
underlying contempt that even he might not admit to himself.  She had, on
occasion, seen an expression in his eyes very near that sentiment, often accompanied
by a fleeting scowl and a clenching of his jaw when Fanny could not grasp what
he was saying or asking her to do.

By contrast, Mrs. Thornton
remembered the great mutual attachment evident between Margaret and John, the
sort one had for someone outside of oneself and which she doubted her daughter
was capable of.  Mrs. Thornton also saw an ease and openness in Margaret's
manner which told her that Margaret would rarely hesitate—any more than John
would with his wife—to let him know what she felt and thought.  Above all,
however, what her son and his wife uniquely had was passion.  She could see it
in how they looked at each other, how they touched, how they talked, and she
was certain, how they quarreled and made love.  She never saw anything akin to
it between Watson and Fanny and, in fact, she very seldom saw it among the
couples, young and old, she was acquainted with.  She herself had it for the
first few months of her marriage but it quickly wore out.  Why, she could no
longer recall but she did have memories—vague now—of those months being the
closest to heaven she had been on earth.

Mrs. Thornton knew that, for
John, going through life with anything less than passion in everything that
mattered to him, meant not living to the fullest.  Eventually, she understood
that marriage did not interest him before Margaret because he had not met
anyone who saw and responded to that passion.  In admitting that no one but
Margaret, among those young women she knew in Milton, could match her son's
capacity for loving and living, Mrs. Thornton thought that she finally saw in
Margaret what John had seen in her.  She was now more determined to try to like
Margaret, however uncertain she was that she would ever understand how this
young woman's mind worked.  The new living arrangements should ease the
day-to-day tensions of living in the same house and strengthen her will to keep
her resolve.  Such was Mrs. Thornton's frame of mind on the day Margaret
welcomed her back.

**************

April started with a happy celebration
of Elise's first birthday to which the Thorntons had invited a few children
from the neighborhood and from among the families of John's colleagues.  The
large conservatory was decorated for a tea party and a table prominently graced
with a birthday cake was set in one corner.  In the adjacent dining room,
refreshments for adults were laid out. 

Mrs. Thornton who had come in the
morning, borne by a cab John had sent to her apartment, sat in one corner of
the room watching the celebration.  She had luncheon with John and Margaret as
well as Edith and Captain Lennox who arrived by train a few days earlier with
their four-year old son Sholto, and his nanny.  Edith, Elise's godmother, came
to help Margaret prepare and celebrate.  Fanny's husband, Watson, felt that as
godfather, he had to be at Elise's first birthday, so he scheduled a meeting in
Milton around the day of the party.  Fanny, wary of traveling a couple of
months after delivery and anxious to make the most of her residence in London,
sent her excuses, adding that they were soon to return to Milton, in any case. 
John had also expressly asked Nicholas Higgins to bring the Boucher children to
the party but Higgins very gratefully, yet firmly and politely, declined the
invitation.

Dr. Hartley came when the party
was nearly over.  After greeting his young patient and handing her a gift, he
was whisked by his host to the dining room to partake of the spread there. 
After coaxing the doctor to try some hors d'ouevres especially prepared by
Dixon, John started some small talk that lasted while the doctor ate.  When Dr.
Hartley finished, John poured more drinks for the two of them and led Dr.
Hartley to the relative quiet of the drawing room.