Jane Odiwe Jane Austen Sequels

Chapter Ten When they arrived back at the rectory, Ellie whipped Liberty out of the car as quickly as she could so that Jess might have a chance to say goodnight to Charlie on her own. She heard her coming upstairs half an hour later but pretended to be asleep as Ellie was sure Jess wouldn’t really appreciate being cross-examined there and then. That could wait for another day. Liberty was not very well in the night, and predictably, in the morning said she couldn’t possibly get up and go to the dig. Everyone agreed that it would probably be best if she stayed in bed to sleep it off and when Mrs Hill was told a little white lie that Liberty had eaten something that hadn’t agreed with her, she seemed unperturbed, saying she would keep an eye on her though she was due to go out later to visit one of her sisters at Dummer, a nearby village. Ellie volunteered to come back in the afternoon to check on her and so they all left for Steventon, choosing to walk as it was yet another ...

When the girls got to the Deane Gate Inn that evening, (an old tavern Mrs Hill told them Jane would have known well as a coaching stop,) they could see quite a number of the volunteers gathered in the main room, a large space with a low-beamed ceiling. Liberty said that she knew Greg and Will were going, and suspected Melanie and some of her friends would be there. The film crew were all staying at the inn so the chances were that they’d make an appearance too. Ellie got some drinks and found her way to the others who’d managed to find a table opposite the door so they could see who was arriving. They soon spotted Charlie and Henry who walked in with a young girl none of them had noticed before. The three of them came over to say hello though Ellie saw that Henry hung back and seemed more interested in looking round the room than he did at them, and as usual his response to their greeting was hardly a grunt. ‘This is my sister, Zara,’ Charlie said introducing them to a tall, slim...

Chapter Eight On the following morning, I awoke with thoughts of Tom still in my head. I was dying to tell my sister Cassy all about him, but she was away visiting her beloved fiancé Tom, and spending Christmas with his family once he went away to sea. I wished to tell her everything, but then I was not sure she would be very pleased with the way I’d behaved. To dance three times with him had raised some eyebrows, and I knew those who liked to talk would be watching me even more carefully the next time we were together. I would write and tell her something about him, but perhaps not just yet. In my bedchamber, hidden under the bed was my box of delights, all my writing to date. I fetched it out hauling the mahogany box onto the coverlet, disturbing the dust lurking below to sparkle in sunlit shafts like powdered diamonds. Opening the heavy lid with impatient fingers I couldn’t wait to fetch my scribblings out, to glance through the familiar pages. I stroked the papers one by ...