Somewhere in the World

Chapter 5

Chapter 5

 

Lovell, Massachusetts

April 1859

The house that Margaret found in the Oatlands neighborhood, hard on the outskirts of Lovell, was deemed highly suitable by her father and mother. Margaret was mildly surprised that her parents were in harmony over her choice because they often had diametrically opposed opinions on houses. Whereas Mr. Hale was happy if the library were bright and spacious and his bedchamber comfortable, Mrs. Hale fretted over the size and placement of the dining room and parlor, as well as her bedchamber; and she would be sure to take up Dixon’s laments if the kitchen and pantry were considered below standards. This house was not as large as their home in Williamsburg, but the rooms were spacious enough and filled with light, and the parlor was quite lovely with a southern exposure onto the quiet street lined with beautiful beech and ash trees. Mr. Hale commented that he would have pleasant walks to and from his school to maintain his health and appetite, and Mrs. Hale was secretly relieved that they did not have to live in the shadow of the factories with their noise and dirt.

The house in Oatlands pleased even the notoriously difficult Dixon, who constantly lamented that these large drafty northern houses could not hold a candle to the meanest shed in Williamsburg or Charleston. There was a good-sized room and antechamber for Dixon, as well as a room for Isaac and one that his two daughters might share. With a lighter heart than she had possessed since arriving in Massachusetts, Margaret sent word to Virginia to have their possessions sent north, and busied herself with a list of activities required to prepare their new home ready for habitation.

The next several weeks were consumed with cleaning floors and windows, sewing curtains for the large windows where their draperies from home would not suit, scrubbing out the stove in the kitchen and the fireplaces throughout the house, and sundry other chores. Isaac performed the heavier tasks, while Tarsy helped Dixon organize the kitchen and pantry and Margaret and Jessamy sewed curtains for the various windows in need of some dressing.

It was a pleasant way to pass time, Margaret thought idly as her needle passed deftly in and out of the fine fabric her mother had chosen for the parlor windows. But if she were to follow her own inclinations, she would much rather be out in the spring sunshine, where the flowers beckoned and the lilacs bloomed with a splendor she had never seen in Virginia. She missed the magnolia trees, but the lilacs were apt compensation with their rich shades of lavender and white and a scent that drove all thought from her head and made her feel strange longings.

She had not seen Mr. Thornton since their unfortunate first meeting, but her resentment still burned. She wished she could stop thinking of him as much as she did, and told herself that it was only because she had a score to settle with him. He had visited her parents at the hotel a few days after their altercation at the mill, and Mr. Hale was delighted with his new acquaintance. When Margaret had returned from Oatlands, he had pounced upon her with childlike glee. “You will never guess who has been to visit us, Margaret.” Before she could venture a supposition, her father exclaimed, “Mr. Thornton came to call! He is a very pleasant man, solicitous of our comfort and anxious to help us in whatever way he can.”