A Hussy and a Liar!

Birley Cotton Mill

Honestly, things are going from bad to worse in North & South, and I can’t put the damn thing down, I’m loving it.  Even worse is the Milton accent that the wonderful reader is using….. it’s infiltrating my thoughts.  I sound like Higgins (the union man) when I’m thinking about something!  I even sound like Higgins whilst working on this.  I need help……!

Well, anyway, to sum up so far – Mrs Hale died not long after Bessy died.  But worse than that, her long lost son Frederick came to say his goodbyes.  Well, he wasn’t lost (he lives in Spain) but he was involved in a mutiny and is a wanted man.  Margaret wrote him a hurried letter about their mother and he came at once.  But Dixon (she’s the haughty servant) was out shopping in Milton and recognised a sailor who had been on the same ship as Fred.  Knowing that he might be recognised, court martialled and hung he must make his escape.  Mr Hale suggests he use the quieter railroad station to depart from and Margaret accompanies him but is unfortunately seen by Mr Thornton who mistakes her brother for her lover. 

Waiting at the station, bad luck has it that the sailor now works as a porter there, and makes a scene when he sees Fred.  There is a scuffle and Fred knocks the porter from the platform, but the train arrives at that instant and he is able to make his escape to London.  Margaret goes to look for the porter but he’s no-where to be found.  Later, Margaret is visited by a policeman who is investigating the death of the porter who, although was seen after the scuffle, died a short time later.  Margaret had been identified as being at the scene but she flatly denies it.  When Mr Thornton, who is also a Magistrate, finds out that Margaret may be somehow involved, he directs that there is not enough evidence for an inquest as the porter was a known drinker and was in the advanced stage of disease.  When Margaret realises what Thornton has done she is relieved but also mortified as in his eyes she is now a hussy and a liar!!  Four more discs to go…….

Creepy............

Shadows of Death ~ this is my lunchtime book as it’s short stories but I really haven’t had a lot of time to read it – there's always interruptions and the phone  (I’m chained to my desk at work!)  I have however almost finished the first of the stories The Shadow out of Time.  Lovecraft really does create this creepy, dark feel to his stories. The protagonist has had a three year episode where he was not himself.  He knows, but others would not believe, that his body had been taken over by one of the Great Race and during that time his mind was transported to that body.  Once he had recovered from the horror of being in an alien body he studied for a while in their libraries.  When his mind was returned to his body, all that he learned was to be wiped from his memory, however he did remember still in his dreams and fragments of thought.  He wrote some papers about it and it was mostly ignored.  One day he receives a letter from an archaeologist who is digging in the desert in WA and has come across strange blocks with hieroglyphs that our narrator has written about so he goes to see for himself…….. It’s full of typical Lovecraftian words to try to impress the horror of what is about to unfold.  It’s great!

Harry Potter ~ I managed to listen to a bit more today.  The plot is a little bit slow so hoping it picks up a bit, but still enjoying the characters.

Flatland ~ almost finished, it’s been a bit of chore really!

I’ve just found out too that our library system’s eAudio Books can now be uploaded to your iPod.  It used to be that I could only listen on my laptop which was really inconvenient.  I’m not sure if the MP3s expire like the WMAs do, but my first download is going to be Hell House by Richard Matheson, which was recommended to me by ‘BradleyonFilm’.  So here's to another night of reading.........

and dreaming............