“N&S: John Thornton, Love Lessons”, Ch. 55 (PG): Domestic Bliss?, May 09, 2014 Gratiana Lovelace
(An original fan fiction copyrighted by Gratiana Lovelace; All rights reserved; Based on the Elizabeth Gaskell novel, North & South and its 2004 BBC adaptation; No copyright infringement intended)
[I will illustrate my story using my dream cast from the 2004 BBC production of “North & South” and other actors for additional characters: Richard Armitage for John Thornton, Daniela Denby-Ashe for Margaret Hale, Lesley Manville for Mrs. Maria Hale, Tim Pigott-Smith for Mr. Richard Hale, Sinead Cusack for Mrs. Hannah Thornton Ogilvy, Jo Joyner for Fiona Thornton Ogilvy, Brendan Coyle for Nicholas Higgins, Graham McTavish as Dr. Cameron Ogilvy, Holliday Grainger for Angharad Ogilvy MacIntosh, Simon Woods for Baird Ogilvy, and Emma Ashton as Mrs. Dillard, John Light as Henry Lennox, Tim Faraday as Watson, Gillian Anderson at Carlotta Quint Watson, and Jeremy Northam as Dr. Miles Houghton, etc] [(1) story logo]
Author’s Mature Content Note: “N&S: John Thornton, Love Lessons” is a story with mature themes of love and relationships set within a period drama of the 1850’s and beyond. As such there will be heartfelt moments of love and sensuality (S)--as well as other dramatic emotions, including some violence (V)--and I will rate those chapters accordingly. If you are unable or unwilling to attend a movie with the ratings that I provide, then please do not read that chapter. This is my disclaimer.
Author’s Recap from the previous chapter: Little Lady Blythe Ogilvy and Lissa Dillard were grief stricken at the prospect of having to part when Blythe returned to Scotland the Monday after Fanny/Fiona Thornton’s wedding to Baird Ogilvy. But fate intervened when John Thornton found a solution that benefitted everyone in offering the new Scottish Mills Assistant Under Overseer position to Lissa’s father, Mr. Dillard, and he accepted it--planning to move his family to Scotland in two weeks. Eventually, everyone will have to return to their homes--or their new home in London in the case of Fiona and Baird Ogilvy.
“N&S: John Thornton, Love Lessons”, Ch. 55 (PG): Domestic Bliss?
After enjoying two more days of Thornton-Ogilvy family togetherness in Milton, it is time for Cameron’s daughter Angharad MacIntosh and her family to return home to London, and for Baird and Fiona to travel to London on Wednesday May 7th to begin their lives together. It is a bittersweet parting as the four couples spread to the four winds--since Hannah and Cameron are also traveling, to their castle in Scotland again. But John and Margaret will join them in two weeks time when they also travel to Scotland as John reviews the progress made in refurbishing the old Scottish Mill’s buildings to get them ready for new machinery and training of the workers. For now, each of the four couple’s has a brief week’s respite of privacy in their own homes.
Margaret will be resting more as her pregnancy advances--and new school teachers take over from her at the Mill school. But Margaret also manages to visit her ailing parents in Crampton on Thursday--with another promised visit after church on Sunday. John wishes that he could spend more time with Margaret, but with running Marlborough Mills while also helping to shepherd the new mill project in Scotland, John is taxed beyond most people’s limits--working until 9 o’clock in the evening most nights, finding Margaret asleep in their bed when he arrives home.
After John removes his clothing, washes up, and slides into bed wearing only his night pants, he sees the charming site of his beloved wife Margaret sound asleep. Margaret’s long auburn hair lies uncoiled in soft curls about her shoulders. Her hands lying over her growing fully six months pregnant belly hold a small book about the subversive notion of anti-authoritarian parenting style so prevalent in the Victorian era [(2)].
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"N&S: John Thornton, Love Lessons", by Gratiana Lovelace (2013-2014) (Done)
FanfictionJohn Thornton has an eager mind, starved for intellectual stimulation. But what John could not have foreseen was that just as his mind needs nourishment, so does his heart. Mr. Hale's proud, beautiful, kind, stubborn, and compassionate daughter Mi...
