The young clerk manouvered silently around the piles of paper that formed a unique filing system, spread about the crowded room within the master's chambers in the Temple. He identified the stack that contained the necessary file relating to a Miss Margaret Hale and the sizable portfolio of properties held in the North of England, removed it from beneath a discarded single glove and delivered it to Henry Lennox, Barrister. He had requested the file after receiving a most unexpected correspondence from a tenant of Miss Hale's in the northern town of Milton. The tenant found himself in the position of wanting to buy out Miss Hale's share of the mill and purchase the building that housed one of his mill business. It was a very generous offer. He stated that he would be in London at the end of the month time and hoped to have an appointment with Mr. Lennox to discuss the matter in person.
Henry reviewed the file, noting that Margeret had invested a considerable amount of money, some 8,000 pounds, almost 8 years prior. Mr. John Thornton, had agreed to accept the funds as a loan, paid back the 8,000 and had set aside the principal. The assets continued to earn considerable interest, which Thornton added to the principal on a quarterly basis. Margaret's timing in making the investment couldn't have been better. The cotton industry had flourished over a 6 year period; those had been years of booming success in the north of England. Current conditions in Milton and surrounding mill towns had become difficult, with high unemployment and social unrest, due to a surplus of cotton goods in the market and the dried up raw cotton supply from the warring American south. "He must be mad," Henry thought to himself, "to part with available capital and purchase a building for a business that stood every chance of going bankrupt, like so many other manufacturing concerns."
He reached for ink and pen to begin his correspondence to Margaret to inform her of the offer from Mr. Thornton to purchase her ownership in the mill.
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The Journey Home
FanfictionThis is a continuation of the story of North and South, many years after the last meeting between Margaret and John. In 1854, Margaret was living with her aunt and cousin in London after the death of her father earlier in the year. John Thornton c...
