"N&S: John Thornton, Love Lessons", Ch. 82 (PG-13): Wooing, September 14, 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/Fanny Thornton Ogilvy, Brendan Coyle for Nicholas Higgins, Graham McTavish as Dr. Cameron Ogilvy, Holliday Grainger for Angharad Ogilvy MacIntosh, Simon Woods for Baird Ogilvy, Emma Ashton as Mrs. Dillard, John Light as Henry Lennox, Tim Faraday as Watson, Gillian Anderson at Carlotta Quint Watson, Jeremy Northam as Dr. Miles Houghton, Gerard Butler as Lord Jamie Ogilvy, Juliette Lewis as Lady Thistle Ogilvy, and Helena Bonham Carter as Brigid Gordon, etc.] [(1) story logo, top right]
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. As such there will be heartfelt moments of love and sensuality (S)--as well as other dramatic emotions (D), 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: During Audrey Grace Thornton's fourth birthday party weekend, Nicholas Higgins had his first courting opportunity with Nanny Brigid Gordon in the form of lawn bowling with John and Margaret after luncheon. However, it has been over twenty years since Nicholas courted a lady--his late wife Sharon, God rest her soul. And Nicholas will need some help to woo the lady of his choice now--Brigid Gordon. But with John Thornton's wooing skills tempered by his now wife Margaret's help during their courtship five years ago--the grape incident almost derailed John and Margaret at the start, but for Margaret's sense of humor--Nicholas Higgins may need more than John Thornton's advice to woo and wed the feisty Brigid Gordon.
"N&S: John Thornton, Love Lessons", Ch. 82 (PG-13): Wooing
The week passed not quickly enough for Nicholas Higgins, despite being consumed with Marlborough Mills finishing a large cotton fabric order and sending it off on the Saturday morning train of June 28th. Nicholas looks forward to seeing Mrs. Gordon again this coming Sunday afternoon on the morrow, though he has not planned an activity yet--more than taking a stroll about the Thornton Manor garden. But Nicholas will soon discover that John and Margaret have taken each other into their confidences and joined forces in matchmaking for their friend Nicholas Higgins and their Nanny Brigid Gordon.
To that end--matchmaking--Margaret has arranged to take the children to meet her husband John, their father, at the Thornton Village Park for a family picnic and feeding the ducks Saturday afternoon. And afterward, they plan to tour the latest of the recently completed housing hubs of eight homes in the last of their mill worker housing development project. These homes will be filled by other tenants who had been previously sharing a home in Thornton Village while awaiting their home being built--rather than them continuing to live in the squalor of the Princeton District.
John had invited Nicholas to join them for the picnic since he lives in Thornton Village. So each man dashes from the Mill to his respective home to freshen up before John Thornton and his family collect Nicholas Higgins at his Thornton Village cottage. The open Thornton carriage stops in front of the small two story three bedroom stone overseer's cottage that is Nicholas Higgin's home. There is green grass and a flower garden in front--Nicholas' daughter Mary's doing--and a plot of land behind for a kitchen garden and such. Nanny Brigid holding her son Arthur and carrying the baby necessities for he and baby Douglas in a bag, smiles approvingly at the cottage.
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"N&S: John Thornton, Love Lessons", by Gratiana Lovelace (2013-2014) (Done)
FanficJohn 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...
