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Murren burst back into the stall with such an arm load of blankets she could barely walk or see. She sort of half dumped the blankets on John and half tripped at the same time. So she and the pile of blankets went tumbling down onto her poor employee. "John!" she said, having worked herself up nearly to tears in the amount of time it took to go chase down the blankets. "John! Don' die an' lea'e me! Ah need yer!" She clung to the mountain of blankets, half sobbing into it. "Ah don' wan' yer ter freeze ter death!"

It was true too. He was so sweet and kind and helpful and she loved having such a cheerful man around the farm. Besides, he was really useful when it came to getting things from high places! And he always did what she told him to without arguing. He was perfect. And by this point, she really didn't know what she was thinking or saying anymore. She was just so convinced John would die and leave her and well, lots of people had done that already and she really didn't want another one to do it. She had to give him the will to live! Give him something to live for--maybe he could hear her in his unconscious state.

"John!" she called through the blankets. "John, yer've go' ter li'e. Yer've got ter! AH LO'E YER JOHN!" In the back of her mind, she wondered if a pay raise might have been a better motivator.

Murren's tears nearly instantly dried up at John's sudden proposal. She blinked down at him--which in itself was kind of odd since she was usually looking up at him. "Wot?" She didn't think she heard that just right. Clearly she had wool in her ears or something. But did he just--? What? What?

Murren was so confused. Half a minute ago, he was dying! This was a really bizarre plot twist. She definitely had to think about it. Not that she didn't like John--and they HAD gone on a date. But she couldn't imagine marrying a man whose hand she'd never held, or that she'd never kissed. Saying yes seemed a bit rushed, didn't it? At least she thought so. And this was so impulsive! Especially for John. He didn't seem like an impulsive man at all, in the slightest. More like a 'wouldn't even wrinkle the sheets' and 'probably irons his underwear' sort of man.

Hrm. What to do? Well, she had no idea. She didn't want to hurt him by rejecting his offer and besides, maybe she did want to marry him, you know, one day. So saying no would kind of be burning her bridges and she definitely did not want to do that! She didn't even like burning things usually. Well, sometimes. Like that one time they had a huge bonfire and they were roasting marshmallows--burning the marshmallows had been fun. And sometimes you had to burn rubbish and all that, just to get rid of it. But burning bridges was totally different. It was also illegal. That made a huge difference as well.

But at any rate, she didn't know what to say so she sneaked another look at John's face just to try to gauge what he was thinking. But goodness did John look awful! All pale and sort of 'bleh' as if he was about to be sick or something right then and there. Which she supposed did make sense since he'd nearly died. Oooooh! Oooh! That was it! He was delirious! Okay, this made sense. This was something she could deal with, definitely. So instead, she just threw her arms around him gratefully. "Yer ali'e! After all tha' Ah thought yer were gonna die! Though Ah thin' yer deler'ous or sommat, blurtin' out somethin' like tha' out o' nowhere!" She pulled away and placed a hand on his forehead. Surprisingly, he didn't seem feverish.

"Well, let's get yer up ter th' 'ouse fer now," she said. "Yer need ter rest fer a bit--passin' out like tha'...OH! John, did yer see the lambs? Cutest little thin's yer e'er saw!"

That's right! Distract him from the crazy thing! And then drag him to the house and throw him in a hot bath and wrap him in blankets and make him soup to make sure he didn't suddenly die on her just when she thought he was getting better! It was the perfect plan.

"O'course yer can!" Murren said, glad John seemed to have forgotten about his awkward proposal. She'd have to remind him about it later after she managed to get him to drink something and be less crazy. She was forgetting, of course, that most people got crazier than usual when drunk. But that was fine. She was sure John could handle his liquor reasonably well. But anyway. Back to the task at hand.

"An' their our lambs, yer know?" she said. "Yer 'elped deli'er them so Ah guess yer can take a bit o' ownership 'o them. At leas' yer can name them. Ah don' mind unless yer thinkin' ter name them somethin' like Francis and Merryweather Bombooledycarp"

She didn't think he'd go with anything that hard to say. At least she hoped not. She didn't want to have to say it every time the names came up. Then again, she didn't often call her animals by name so it probably wouldn't be too much of an issue. Still, that would just be hard to remember...though she'd probably end up remembering now that she was thinking about it so much so in the end, it was probably fine if he named them that if he really wanted to. Maybe she should tell him?

Oh...whatever. He probably knew already. He seemed to understand her very well so she doubted she had to just come right out and say it for him to be on the same wavelength.

"Och, those're foine," Murren said, nodding. "But...wot mo'ie are yer talkin' about then? Ah 'ave ter say tha' Ah don' really get out ter see many mo'ies these days. Ter much ter do aroun' th' farm an' all tha'."

She gathered up all her things, pausing to quickly use hand sanitizer before dumping everything in the bucket. She started out of the little stall, leaving Anne with her babies there. "Come on, John. We shoul lea'e 'er there ter care fer th' babies. Yer can come back out before yer go 'ome if'n yer wan'. But yer know, yer fainted an' all so yer need to go get some tea in yer. Wan' ter come oop ter th' 'ouse and 'ave some? B'soides, we 'ave ter celebrate a bit yer know?"

She stepped out of the stall and let the door shut behind her, trusting that John would follow after her. She wanted to drop the things off in the store room before heading back inside. It was cold anyway. She wanted to sit by the fire and warm up a bit, and it would be good for John to do the same.

"Well, yer should jus' stay fer tea then," Murren said. "Et's abou' tha' toime anyway. An' Ah've got more than enou' food fer th' both o' us." She glanced back at John as she clapped the dust off her hands and started out of the barn. "Wot sort 'o thin's do yer loike John? Ah've got scones, an' bread, an' butter, an' jam, an' seedcake, cold 'am, and macaroni wi' cheese, an' mutton, an' apple tart, an' anythin' else yer could wan'."

There were also pickles, egg salad, pudding...and loads of other things in the pantry. She probably had enough food to feed an army for several weeks but since she was the only one who ever ate at her house, she barely ever even made a dent in it. She should start making John have tea with her more often.

"Wot do yer thin'?" she asked as she started down the walk to the house.

[exit to the house]