A Life Together - A North and South Continuation

Chapter Twenty Five

All good things must come to an end, yet both Margaret and John were very sad indeed to leave their blissful piece of heaven that they had found. Happily exhausted, they sat side by side on the train - too close should anyone civilised happened to see them, even for a married couple. They found themselves seemingly unable to be apart, two magnets of opposite poles drawn together.

Margaret reminded herself that soon they would be back in Milton, amongst those who knew them (and judged them severely, she added silently). It would not do at all to be constantly draped over her husband. She shuffled away from him to the other side of the bench, looking out of the window.

She felt his eyes on her back.

"Where'd you think you're going?" he asked, tugging her back to him. "You're not getting away that easy, love."

"I'm practising." Margaret said firmly, shuffling along so she was pressed right against the wooden side of the carriage.

"Practising?" he asked in amusement. "For what? How to displease your husband?"

Margaret laughed and shook her head. She did not wish to displease him - though she was sure there would be plenty of times when they were both displeased with one another.

"For being back in Milton. I will not be able to touch you so freely, so I am making sure that I am used to behaving properly. I'm afraid we have become quite uncivilised in our time away. It simply will not do." Margaret said firmly, eyes fixed out of the window.

They had been entwined almost the entire week, constantly touching somehow. Brushes of fingers as they passed each other the salt at dinner, or a hand lingering on Margaret's waist as he helped her in and out of carriages, there was always the need to be close. Yet even the smallest, most innocent of caresses would be seen and remarked upon. Men and women, even husbands and wives, were not supposed to be so tactile.

"A pity. If only we were a country man and his wife, free to live in the middle of nowhere and do nothing but work the fields and work each other at night..." he murmured in a low voice.

Margaret went flame red at his coarse words, almost choked in her shock at his sudden innuendo. He had grown in confidence these past few days, knowing how to please her - and how to send her quite mad.

"John Thornton, hold your tongue!" Margaret laughed. "You would go mad with boredom within a week. You are born to be a man of trade, living in a city. You would not know what to do with yourself in the country. Let alone the South, you yourself once told me that you would never live there!"

"Aye, that's true enough. I can't pretend I won't be glad to get back - yet at the same time I could spend forever alone with you."

"Real life must prevail, unfortunately." Margaret said with a smile. "I do hope everything has run smoothly in your absence. I would feel dreadful taking you away and giving you more work to do on your return."

"I took you away. I'm sure there will be a stack of urgent papers, but for once I don't care. September is approaching and I'll be sitting as a Magistrate in the quarter sessions, so things will be even busier. Not forgetting the fact my sister is due to give birth in two months and will be the most unbearably demanding patient when she enters confinement. Let me be a man on his honeymoon just a few hours longer."

"Fine." Margaret relented, her will remarkably weak compared to its usual iron strength. "I must say, that was the most wonderful week of my life."

"Aye, mine too." he rested his forehead against her hair, closing his eyes. The train rattled them around, yet he held them steady. "I love you."