Past and Present - A Modern Day Romance of North & South

CHAPTER SIX - SEARCHING FOR COMMON GROUND

Richard was talking about the state of English cricket and although he endeavoured to attend to what his friend was telling him, John found his thoughts straying inexorably to Margaret. Where was she? Surely it didn’t take this long to put a few clothes on? Question after question spun through his mind with increasing intensity, even as he politely smiled at a comment Richard made about the current position regarding England’s somewhat inspired bowling which was helping their cause immeasurably before making some response of equal enthusiasm in return.

Even in conversation, his ears strained to hear the muted patter of Margaret’s footsteps on the stairs. With a very brief and almost imperceptible turn of the head John glanced surreptitiously towards the doorway, hoping that, by some miracle, she’d suddenly appear there if he willed her hard enough to do so. He was impatient to see her, to read what her eyes would reveal. She had looked so enchanting, so vulnerable, so utterly exquisite, standing up there on the landing with her wide eyes and long drenched hair clinging around her startled face, her lithe, barely shrouded body encompassed by an invisible cloud of perfume that reminded him of a garden filled with flowers. She had taken his breath away so utterly and completely that it had been a wonder that he’d even managed to form the necessary words to speak when she’d asked him why he’d been upstairs in the first place, barely able to constrain the sharp tug of desire that had shifted his feet in her direction. Only the sudden look of uncertainty that had leapt into her eyes had stopped him from throwing all sense aside and reaching for her...

Never in his life had he been so captivated by a woman. She was such a crazy concoction of contradictions: one minute so self-possessed and opinionated, so fired up and ready to condemn him for every injustice she felt him capable, and yet the next so demure and endearingly diffident, as though she would fall prey to one barbed comment. The effect was cumulatively intriguing, if not a little exasperating. Up there on the landing it had taken every shred of restraint he possessed not to march straight up to her and take her in his arms – and God knows he wasn’t a man generally given to acting rashly! The persona he had spent the majority of his life carefully cultivating had certainly never courted impetuosity, much less sought the inclination to do so. Every time he saw Margaret, however, it was like a lightening bolt surging through him, sending shockwaves through every bone and muscle, every nerve and fibre, igniting his innards with a fire that showed no sign of abating.

“Goodness, Margaret! There you are!” Maria cried in what appeared to be quite evident relief at the sight of her daughter coming silently and unobtrusively into the room to join them.

“We were just thinking about sending out a search party for you,” her father teased affectionately, pausing in his conversation as he looked over at Margaret briefly from where he stood by the bookshelf with John.

It was immediate, the feeling of John’s eyes coming to rest upon her. She didn’t need to look at him to know that his gaze was trained directly upon her, watching her every movement, tracking the fluid motion of her body, now hidden snugly beneath a simple red T.shirt and pair of jeans, as she made her way to the sofa to sit down beside her mother. She felt the heat of his look and glanced towards him, drawn by pure instinct to do so, only to regret it immediately when she saw that his intent gaze was aflame with that same consuming appreciation she'd witnessed upstairs, but mingled now too with a wistfulness she didn’t altogether understand.

“What have you been doing up there?” her mother chided, drawing her attention and effectively reducing her to feeling like a five year old in the presence of their guest.

Margaret felt herself writhe beneath the chastisement in her mother’s tone, her eyes dipping towards the floor as she tried to quell the fierce flash of crimson that lapped like a wave over her skin. She gave what she hoped would appear a nonchalant shrug and sighed. “Oh, I was just doing something and forgot the time.”