I Was Jane Austen's Best Friend (28 page)

‘There are two horses coming up the drive,’ he called out.

‘Is it William Chute?’ Henry had been yawning in a bored sort of way, but he suddenly sounded
interested and he put his book down on the table.

‘No,’ said Charles. ‘It’s Newton Portsmouth and someone in naval uniform with him.’

‘Cassandra, Jane, Jenny, put this room in order,’ scolded Mrs Austen, scurrying around picking up books and shaking cushions.

The Honourable Newton Wallop was the second son of the Earl of Portsmouth, and Mrs Austen was very fond of the aristocracy. She had some far-distant ancestor who was the brother of a duke.

‘Who’s with him, Charles?’ she asked as she tipped Mr Austen’s Sunday sermon into the wood scuttle beside the fire.

‘Let me see,’ said Frank, getting up and going to the window. ‘It must be Frederick. No, it’s not, it’s Captain Williams. He must be staying at Hurstbourne Park or with the Portsmouths. What can he want? You remember him, Mama? I introduced him to you at the Assembly Rooms on Saturday. Do you know, Papa, Captain Williams had his own ship when he was eighteen years old?’

‘Lucky him,’ murmured Henry.

‘He must be a very worthy young man,’ said Mrs Austen warmly.

‘His uncle is an admiral,’ said Henry. ‘That’s a piece of good luck that any of us would enjoy having. Being worthy has nothing whatsoever to do with it.’

‘Don’t be ridiculous, Henry,’ scolded Mrs Austen. ‘And why are you lounging around here? You should be
over at Laverstoke House paying a visit to Miss King. It will impress her if you come in this weather.’

Henry rose reluctantly to his feet, giving a look of dismay at the sight of the rain pouring down on the sodden lawn outside.

‘Well, Mama,’ said Jane pertly, ‘if your son should have a dangerous fit of illness, if he should die, I hope that it will be a consolation to you that it was all in pursuit of your orders — and of Miss King, of course.’

‘Nonsense,’ said Mrs Austen. ‘People don’t die of a little rain. I go out in the rain every day myself.’

My heart began to beat faster. I looked across at Jane, but I had no time to make contact with her as her father had caught her by the hand.

‘Jane, dear, give me back my sermon. No one listens much to my words, so this sermon will do perfectly well some Sunday next year. And who is this Captain Williams?’

‘Good gracious, Mr Austen, it’s the young man that I told you about, the one that was so taken by our Jenny. You must remember, Mr Austen; I told you all about him last Saturday night at bedtime. Jenny, dear, leave those cards there; Jane will attend to them. You just run upstairs, take off that brown calico and put on your blue muslin, the one that you wore to church on Sunday.’

‘I’ll go with her to brush her hair,’ said Jane swiftly. ‘Cassandra will tidy the cards away.’

Mr Austen looked as if he didn’t remember too well who Captain Williams was. Probably he had heard a lot about Miss King and then fallen asleep before the bit about me and Captain Williams. However, he slipped his sermon into his waistcoat pocket, straightened his wig and sat up, resigned to losing his after-dinner doze.

Frank went out to the front door and Jane and I raced upstairs.

‘What a shame that it is raining so hard,’ said Jane as she brushed my curls around her finger. ‘If it had been fine, then you could have taken your beau for a walk in a pretty little wilderness, just like the girl in
The Mysteries of Udolpho.
’

This made me giggle a little. I was quite excited. Lavinia at Mrs Cawley’s Seminary for Young Ladies was always boasting of having a ‘beau’ who came calling.

‘I expect that he has just come to see Frank,’ I said, trying to sound offhand, but Jane wasn’t fooled.

‘You’re not still scared that he will tell anyone about Southampton, are you?’ she asked, looking at me enquiringly.

I told her that I wasn’t because Captain Williams had promised faithfully not to tell anyone.

Jane’s eyes narrowed. ‘It sounds as though he cares for you,’ she said. ‘Oh la …’ And then the door was pushed open. It was Cassandra.

‘There, you look very nice, Jenny. Come on, come
downstairs. There’s nothing to be afraid of. Captain Williams is just doing the civil thing, visiting neighbours of the Portsmouths.’

‘I’m not scared,’ I said. I wasn’t going to be patronized by Cassandra — after all, she’s only two years older than I am.

‘Come and sit beside me, Jenny,’ said my aunt in a motherly way when Jane and I went into the parlour. She was sitting next to Captain Williams on the sofa. Newton was chatting to Tom Fowle and Henry, and Mr Austen had started to doze off again. Frank was fetching one of his naval books from the bookcase and he looked a bit annoyed when Mrs Austen made room for me between herself and Captain Williams and sternly waved him away, while Captain Williams, who had jumped up from his seat, was bowing over my hand.

We sat down, side by side on the sofa. It wasn’t a very big sofa, and Mrs Austen is a large, wide-hipped woman, so it ended up with us sitting very close together.

It wasn’t easy to talk though. Everyone in the room was looking at us — the boys with curiosity, Cassandra with a degree of jealousy, Jane beaming enthusiastically. I didn’t dare look at Mrs Austen, but I knew that she was looking at me encouragingly.

‘You’re well after the ball?’ asked Captain Williams.

‘Very well,’ I said, wondering whether it was etiquette to ask him if he was well also.

‘You weren’t too tired?’ was his next question.

‘No,’ I said. ‘I wasn’t a bit tired.’ I could hear my voice sounding stilted and mechanical. I tried to remember all the things that Eliza had told me to do. But he wasn’t paying me compliments or speaking of love, so none of these was of any use.

Jane and I had been practising being sophisticated and flirting in our bedroom, but all I could think of was pinning the wrapper to my shoulders. He was so near to me that I almost felt a little faint. I had a sudden longing for everyone to go out of the room and then perhaps he would hold my hand or even put it to his lips as he did at the Assembly Rooms and that night at Southampton.

‘It was the first time that I have ever been to Basingstoke Assembly Rooms. I found them very pleasant.’ He was doing his best, but I didn’t know what to say.

‘It was my first time too,’ I said after a minute. I was conscious that Mrs Austen was listening to every word. She got up now and went across the room and opened the piano.

‘Let’s have a little music, Jane,’ she said. For once Jane did not argue but sat down on the piano stool. Mrs Austen leafed through the music books on the piano and then opened one and plonked it in front of
Jane. When the music came, it was soft and gentle, ideal for conversation. Mrs Austen stayed beside her to turn the pages. It was no good though. I just couldn’t talk to him. Not with everyone watching us. No matter what subject of conversation we tried, I could only answer
yes
or no. After a whispered suggestion from his mother, Frank had taken Newton to the stables to see a litter of pointer pups, and Tom Fowle and the other pupils had gone with them. Only Mr and Mrs Austen, Cassandra, Jane and I remained.

And Captain Thomas Williams, of course.

Eventually Newton and Frank returned. Cassandra slipped out to join her fiancé and Jane stopped playing the piano.

‘We must go now,’ said Newton, with a quick look at Captain Williams. ‘I have to call on neighbours with a message from my mother, but let me give it to you first of all. We are holding a ball at Hurstbourne Park this Saturday and all the Austens are invited. And Miss Jenny, of course. Here is the invitation card.’

Lord & Lady Portsmouth
request the pleasure of the company of
Mr & Mrs G. Austen & Family
at a ball to be held at
Hurstbourne Park,
Saturday 2 April 1791
RSVP

‘A ball!’ exclaimed Jane. ‘Oh, wonderful! I promise to save you a dance, Newton.’

‘Jane!’ exclaimed Mrs Austen, but I knew she was not really annoyed. Jane’s remark had raised a laugh and it finished that awkward silence that had fallen in the room. I laughed too. Suddenly I felt at ease and I looked up at Captain Williams with a smile. ‘Will you be there?’

He smiled back. ‘Only if you come,’ he said, and his brown eyes were dancing.

‘You should have taken him out for a walk until you found a pretty little wilderness — what does a little rain matter in the cause of true love?’ said Jane later when we were brushing our hair and I was telling her how stupid and embarrassed I felt and how I couldn’t think of a word to say to him when we were sitting side by side on the sofa in the parlour.

‘I’m not sure that would have been any better,’ I said doubtfully. ‘I just don’t think I am very good at things like that.’

‘I know what I’ll do,’ said Jane enthusiastically. ‘I’ll go through Mrs Radcliffe’s novels and I’ll make a list of things that young ladies say to their young men. Then you can learn a few sentences off by heart every night. I’ll hear you say them until you are word-perfect.’

I couldn’t help laughing. I didn’t think that it would work for me, but I didn’t like to disappoint Jane.

‘I’ll try,’ I said.

‘You were all right at the ball though, weren’t you? I saw you talking to him. You didn’t look shy then. You’ll probably be fine on Saturday,’ she said, and I thought again about the look on his face just before he left when he whispered in my ear, ‘Keep all your dances for me, won’t you?’

Wednesday, 30 March 1791

There was great excitement at the breakfast table today. A letter came from Kent, saying that Edward, Jane’s brother who was adopted by rich cousins, would be arriving at Bristol today. He would be staying the night there and then would come by stagecoach tomorrow to spend a night here at Steventon.

‘He’s been on a Grand Tour,’ said Mrs Austen to me. Apparently Edward spent the last couple of years going from country to country in continental Europe and seeing all that was most interesting in each country.

‘Great buildings, works of art, miracles of nature … Edward has seen them all,’ finished Mrs Austen before flying out to the kitchen to order the cook to kill a couple of turkeys from the yard and hang them up, ready for tomorrow’s dinner.

‘Does Edward look like James or like Henry?’ I asked Jane when we were doing our schoolwork.

‘He’s like Cassandra,’ said Jane briefly. ‘He’s got grey eyes and blond hair — at least he had when I saw him last. We don’t see much of him here.’

‘Don’t you like him?’ I asked. There was something odd about the tone of her voice.

‘Oh, he’s all right. Quite nice really … nicer than James. He’s the third in our family. George is between James and Edward.’

I didn’t say any more then. I could understand
what she was feeling. There was James, the scholar, a Fellow at Oxford (and I gathered from Mrs Austen that you had to be a great scholar to be a ‘Fellow’) and then there was Edward, adopted by a couple so rich that they could send him wandering around continental Europe for two years just to complete his education. He would inherit their two estates, one in Kent and one in Hampshire, and their two grand houses. Edward would be very rich.

And then there was George, in between these two fortunate brothers.

And poor George has nothing.

Thursday, 31 March 1791

Just before dinner today we all walked up to Deane Gate Inn to meet Edward — even Mrs Austen herself came. The procession was led by Cassandra and Tom Fowle, followed by Mr Austen and the other pupils, and ended with Mrs Austen and Charles.

The sight of us caused great interest in the village and many people came to greet us or to enquire about our journey. From a distance I saw Bet trying to lead George into a field, but he broke away from her. He passed his father and brothers without a glance, but stopped opposite Jane and myself, making inarticulate noises and trying to see whether I had anything for him.

‘Off home, George! Go on, off you go. Bet, don’t allow him to bother the young ladies.’ Mrs Austen’s voice was not unkind, but it held the tone that the shepherd used to his dog, Rover.

I winced a little and I could sense how Jane was suffering. She was George’s sister and I was his cousin, and yet he was ordered away from ‘the young ladies’.

I felt I had to say something so I told Mrs Austen that Jane and I would walk back with George and Bet and catch them up straight away. I was surprised at myself to hear how firm and grown-up my voice sounded.

‘Come on, George,’ said Jane cheerfully. ‘You be a good boy now and we’ll bring you some cake later on.’

I think he understood the word ‘cake’ and he probably understood the shooing motions that Mrs Austen was making with her hands. In any case, he turned around and shambled off. Bet gave a rather scared and very apologetic look at Mrs Austen, bobbed a quick curtsy and then hurried after George. We went a little of the way with Bet and George, but once we saw that he was happy we returned to join the others. Mrs Austen turned her attention to me.

‘So you know George, Jenny?’ she asked, and cast a quick annoyed glance at Jane.

I nodded. ‘I’ve met him a few times in the village,’ I said carelessly. And then I turned away from my aunt and towards Jane. ‘Jane, is Edward as tall as Henry?’

‘No, he’s not too tall, not much bigger than Frank.’ Jane’s voice was as casual as mine, but she quickened her pace and together we overtook John Warren and Gilbert East.

‘Slowcoaches,’ I said teasingly over my shoulder as we passed, and I was amazed at myself. And then I thought about George.

‘Jane, I think you are right about George,’ I said in a low voice. ‘I think that we should try to persuade your father and mother to have him live in the house. We might succeed. We’ll have to think of some good arguments — like that it would save money. After all, I suppose they have to pay for the Littleworths to look after him.’