Searching For Captain Wentworth (45 page)

Mr and Mrs
Austen were calling to pay their respects, to thank
Mr Glanville for the wonderful day they had enjoyed
together and
to issue an
invitation. They wished us all to join them at the Three
Cups Inn in the evening as they were leaving the
following day.
‘Please,
gentlemen, I implore you not to break my heart.
Parting from dear friends is always so difficult
and you will make
my happiness
complete if you will only spend our last evening in
Lyme in the company of my husband and myself. Mrs
Randall, I
beg you will
join us for some supper and cards.’
Eliza Austen looked like a winsome child with her playful
eyes and fine, arched brows raised coquettishly
towards the
gentlemen,
whilst simultaneously managing to bestow her sweetest
smile upon the ladies. It was impossible not to
love her and I could
see how
easily she must have captured Henry Austen’s heart. She
charmed everyone.

‘If I cannot
convince you by myself alone,’ she went on before
anyone had a chance to answer, ‘I will add that
there is a great
inducement, a
little concert that I am sure you will all enjoy. We
have met a very interesting young lady who is
staying at the Three
Cups. She
is a travelling soprano … a Miss Fanny Howells, though
I can vouch for the fact that her voice is most
excellent and not as
one might
think from her unfortunate name.’

Everyone laughed
and Eliza smiled with appreciation that
we’d all enjoyed her joke. ‘By great demand, she is
to perform this
evening with an
accompaniment of pianoforte and harp. Now, tell
me, can you think of anything more delightful?’

Mr Glanville
readily answered. ‘Dear Madam, with such
inducements, it is nay impossible to refuse. I am
sure we shall all
be delighted to
accept your most kind invitation.’

With the evening
arrangements settled, the Austens rose to
leave. Eliza looked at me across the room and
smiled. ‘Miss
Sophia, I simply
must beg your company for the rest of the
morning. Do you think you could oblige me? I very
much need
your advice on a
small matter that I know will interest you. May
she accompany me to our carriage, Mrs Randall? I
promise I shall
return her
later.’

‘May I go,
please?’ I begged.

She couldn’t
really refuse me.

I followed Mrs
Austen out of the room almost skipping with
pleasure. Although I wasn’t entirely certain, I
wondered if she had
something to
tell me about Charles. When we reached the carriage,
to my great surprise, the door opened and there was
someone I’d
not expected to
see.

‘Miss Austen!’ I
cried with delight.

Jane beamed and
grasping my arm in her customary way
invited me to take a seat. ‘Forgive me for this clandestine
behaviour, but I have not been in Lyme for long and
I confess I
wished to
surprise you. We arrived in Dawlish early this morning,
and I persuaded Henry to come and fetch me. I could
not wait to
see how you like
Lyme and I have not had a chance to talk to you
for so long. I hope you will forgive me for not
calling on your
family.’

‘Well, the
delight is all mine, Miss Austen, and there is
nothing to forgive I’m so glad to see you, I did
wonder if we might
just miss one
another altogether.’

Eliza Austen
settled herself into the carriage on the other side,
all the while chatting about the arrangements she
was making for
the evening.

‘Are you coming
back to the inn, Jane?’ her brother asked as
the carriage bowled away.

‘If I know
Jane,’ Mrs Austen broke in, ‘she’ll be wanting Miss
Elliot to go scrambling over rocks with her, or
clambering on the
Cobb.’

‘You know me too
well, dearest Eliza,’ said Jane, leaning over
to squeeze her scented glove. ‘What do you say,
Miss Elliot? Shall
we walk?’

The carriage set
us down outside the inn at the bottom of the
hill. Henry and Eliza waved us off and Jane took my
arm as we
turned towards
the steps leading down to the sands. ‘I hope you do
not mind my very devious methods to get you on your
own, Miss
Elliot, but I
wanted so much to talk to you. I’ve missed our
conversations. You went away when I most needed a
friend.’

‘Oh, my dear,
Miss Austen, how I have needed to talk to you
too, I have so much to tell you about Mr Glanville!
But, I see from
your expression
that you look most troubled. Is there anything the
matter?’

‘My brother has
a request that he would never dare to ask you
himself. Forgive me, Miss Elliot, but he wishes to
know if what he
has heard in the
town is correct. Does Mr Glanville pay his
addresses to you? Are you in love with him?’

I laughed aloud,
and saw her smile. ‘Miss Austen, I could
never love a man like him and with all due thanks
to your sister-in-
law, I feel I
might be spared the fate I was beginning to think I
would not escape. With luck, he will marry my
sister yet.’

‘I am so pleased
to hear it and I know that this news can only
delight Charles.’I hardly dared think about what
she might mean,
but my heart
responded with a quicker beat. Jane paused, but she
still looked very thoughtful.

‘What is it, my
friend? You look most upset.’

‘Miss Elliot,
when you went away I realized I might never see
you again or have a chance to explain. You must
have thought me
very remiss. I
have never given you a satisfactory account for all
that happened in Bath.’

‘Believe me,
Miss Austen you do not need to say a word or
justify anything to me. I thought that was
understood.’

Jane looked out
to sea. Dressed in a scarlet cloak over a white
linen gown, the bright colour suited her dark
chestnut hair. Tendrils
of
dancing curls were teased from her tam o’shanter by the breeze,
quivering like the egret feathers of the military
cockade on her hat.

I couldn’t take
my eyes off the locket she wore round her neck on
a long gold chain. I didn’t mean to stare, but I
knew I’d seen it
before. I had a
memory of seeing it in a painting, one of Jane as a
girl. Octagonal in shape, the miniature it had
contained in the
portrait was now
hidden from view, closed over with a circle of
gold.

Jane saw me
staring, her hand reaching instinctively to cover
the locket. ‘May I ask, are you in love with my
brother Charles?’

I was completely
taken aback at such a direct question, and I
hesitated. I didn’t know if I wanted to admit it to
myself, let alone
anyone else, but
I did want to tell Jane the truth.

‘I will speak
from my heart. Yes, I believe I am in love with
him, Miss Austen.’

‘I do not mean
to ask out of curiosity, but if you are in love
with him, as I think he is with you, I know this
will help you to
understand my situation.’
She paused to look searchingly into my
eyes. ‘You are so different from people I meet ordinarily. Indeed, I
suspect like me, you have something of the wild
beast about you,
an independent
spirit that will not be tamed.’

‘I think every
woman has that within her which would set her
free, if only she could act on her inner feelings
and be true to
herself.’

We’d reached the
Cobb and mounting the steps felt the full
force of the wind high up on the topmost level. On
either side, the
waves crashed
relentlessly, white spray misting the air. ‘Would not
this spot be the very perfect place for a dramatic
incident in a
novel?’ Jane
quizzed, her eyes dancing with delight at everything
around her. ‘Of course, I’ve often found that the
irony of dramatic
incidents is
that they happen far more quietly in real life. And with
such stealth, in fact, that they subside away and
disappear as
quickly as the
spume on the waves.’

I was conscious
of a memory, stirring deep inside, which
refused to surface. Jane took my arm, pulling me
closer. ‘I met the
man you saw me
with when I was just a girl: we were secretly
betrothed.’

‘Please, Miss
Austen, I beg you. Do not make yourself
unhappy. You do not have to explain to me.’

‘It wasn’t until
I was nineteen that we really became
acquainted and when acquainted we fell rapidly and deeply in love.
Oh, the exquisite felicity of youthful devotion!
Such a delightful
period of
happiness we spent together in Kent, that happy county
… at least, until his family made sure we could
meet no longer.’

‘But, why should
his family be so opposed to the match?’

‘High hopes that
I might come into money from my mother’s
side were not enough where real ambition was
concerned and it
became
increasingly obvious that I was not their preferred choice,
particularly after my Great Uncle died. He’d
commissioned my
portrait when I
was a girl thinking that the picture would introduce
me to the world as an eligible young lady, and help
seal the
alliance.’

I knew exactly
which painting she was talking about and the
memory of seeing it at the exhibition flashed into
my mind.

‘So the portrait
had quite a significance?’

‘At least, it
did to those who knew about the painting. I
imagine it will never see the light of day now, but
will be hidden
from the world
in some dusty attic.’

‘But is there
nothing that can be done? Surely, you are both of
an age where you may follow your own hearts now.’

‘The ending of
my great romance is not a happy one, nor can
it ever be. My own Robin Adair is a younger son
– he has had to
make his
own way in the world, his profession taking him overseas.
Time and duty conspired to keep us apart, Miss
Elliot. For almost
eight years we
were separated, not able to see one another.’

‘I cannot think
how painful that must have been, to have such
a situation forced on you.’

‘A young man
must seek his fortune and if he is beholden to
his parents, he is obliged to carry out their
wishes. But, even
knowing our case
was hopeless and that we could never be
together, I could not forget him. My attachment to
him was such
that no one else
could claim.’

‘Oh, Miss
Austen, women’s nature is to truly love with tender
feeling. Sincere affection married with steadfast
constancy belongs
to our
disposition.’

‘Too true, Miss
Elliot – indeed, we cannot help ourselves. It
seems a woman’s lot is to love longest when existence
or when
hope is gone. I
discovered it was not possible to recover from so
strong a devotion of the heart to such a man.’

‘No one could
who truly loved, I’m sure, Miss Austen.’

‘When he arrived
back in Bath on leave last year, we found
ourselves in the same circles once more.’

‘Did no one
suspect your partiality?’

‘We were careful
to hide our feelings and avoided one another
in society. Nobody knew, except Cassandra. He
sought me out
again and again
… we snatched precious moments together in the
quiet of secret walks in the gardens or along the
Gravel Walk
whenever we
could.’

I felt so sad
for her, but so happy that Jane had experienced all
that is so magical about being in love.

‘And then we met
at Lyme.’

‘Where you spent
a glorious time together.’

Jane nodded.
‘Our feelings had not changed and I knew I
could never stop loving him, even if all hope of
being united was a
false one.’

‘But you will
rally again, Miss Austen. Forgive me for being
so bold, but there is time enough to be with the
one you love.’