Christmas with Mr Darcy (an Austen Addicts story) Page 5

‘You looked as if you were searching for something,’ she said, suspicion in her voice.

  ‘No, no. Not to worry,’ he said, straightening his jacket.

  Katherine nodded and then walked across to the window. It had been dark for hours but the falling snow was still visible in the light thrown out from the windows.

  ‘How on earth are we all to get home?’ she said.

  Warwick came and stood behind her, pushing her long dark hair aside and kissing her neck. ‘We’ve only just arrived!’ he said.

  ‘I know but-’

  ‘But nothing,’ he said, turning her around to face him. ‘Don’t worry about the journey home or the state of the roads or if we’ll have to dig the car out by hand and push it all the way back to Sussex.’ He kissed the tip of her nose.

  ‘I wasn’t worrying,’ she told him. ‘At least, I wasn’t worrying until you said all those things. I was merely thinking that I’ve never seen so much snow and-’

  ‘And wouldn’t it be wonderful if we got snowed in at Purley Hall and had to stay forever and ever,’ Warwick interrupted.

  ‘Well, it might be wonderful for a little while but we’ve both got to get back and write our books and I’ve got students to teach and my neighbour really can’t be expected to look after Freddie and Fitz forever,’ Katherine said.

  Warwick stopped her mouth with a kiss. ‘Your cats will be fine. Your students will be fine. But I won’t be fine if you don’t give me one hundred percent of your attention right now.’

  Katherine smiled, took a deep breath and then obliged him.

  The dining room looked magical. The fire was roaring and all the candelabra had been lit. The women glittered in dresses bejewelled with beads and sequins and the men looked resplendent in crisp shirts and waistcoats.

  Dinner was eaten to the sound of gentle chatter and, after the main course was finished, a great cake was wheeled into the dining room. It was three tiers high and a delicate pink and was lit with forty-one candles to mark the age of Jane Austen when she’d died.

  There was plenty for everyone to have seconds and even thirds and it was all washed down with champagne and a special toast to celebrate Jane Austen’s birthday.

  ‘Don’t drink too much, Mia,’ Sarah warned her sister. ‘We need to keep our minds sharp for the quiz this evening.’

  ‘There can’t possibly be any questions I won’t know the answer to. I’m a walking encyclopaedia when it comes to Jane Austen,’ Mia boasted.

  ‘You might be surprised,’ Sarah said. ‘I’ve heard the quiz can be surprisingly tough.’

  Chapter 8

  ‘Into groups! Into groups!’ Dame Pamela chorused, clapping her hands together and sending a thousand sparks shooting around the library from her diamond rings.

  The guests quickly got themselves into little groups around tables that had been laid out with after dinner mints and sheets of pretty note paper and pens. Doris Norris joined sisters Roberta and Rose, Gemma joined Adam and Kay, and Robyn and Dan joined Katherine and Warwick.

  ‘Everybody knows that I adore a quiz!’ Dame Pamela began, standing to the left of the great fireplace, ‘and this is a special Christmas-themed quiz.’

  A cheer went up in the library.

  ‘And there’s a special Christmas prize too. A beautiful set of hampers from Fortnum and Mason filled with Christmas goodies.’

  Necks craned to get a look at the prize.

  ‘And runners up prizes of signed photographs of me as Lady Catherine de Bourgh in Pride and Prejudice.’

  ‘A hamper’s more use,’ Mrs Soames said to her neighbour.

  ‘So, let the quiz commence!’ Dame Pamela said. ‘Question number one. Janeites have another reason to celebrate the Christmas season because it marks Jane Austen’s birthday but what was the exact date of her birth?’

  Katherine and Robyn exchanged glances as if to say that no question could be easier for an Austen fan, for who wasn’t aware of when their idol had came into the world?

  ‘The sixteenth of December 1775,’ Warwick whispered.

  ‘Of course,’ Katherine said, writing the answer down in her neat script with a fountain pen that Warwick had bought for her for her last birthday. He’d had it engraved with the words ‘so much in love’ which was a quotation from Pride and Prejudice and Katherine loved it dearly.

  ‘Next question,’ Dame Pamela said, ‘it’s a quote and I want to know who wrote it and whom they wrote it to. Ready? “You are all to come to Pemberley at Christmas.”’

  ‘Oh!’ Dan said. ‘That’s from-’

  Robyn hushed him. ‘Don’t give answers away to the opposition!’ she warned him.

  ‘But that’s from Pride and Prejudice,’ he said excitedly.

  Robyn smiled across at Katherine and Warwick. ‘That’s the only Austen novel he’s read,’ she explained, nudging him gently in the ribs.

  ‘Okay, then,’ Katherine said. ‘Who said it, Dan?’

  ‘Well, I don’t know that much,’ he admitted.

  ‘It’s Elizabeth,’ Robyn said. ‘It’s right at the end in a letter she writes to the Gardiners.’

  Katherine nodded in agreement and wrote it down.

  ‘A tough one now,’ Dame Pamela said. ‘In the winter of what year did Jane Austen receive a marriage of proposal from Harris Bigg-Wither?’

  There was a ripple of laughter around the room as there always was at the mention of his name.

  Warwick took a deep breath. ‘Well, I’m stumped.’

  ‘It must have been the early eighteen hundreds,’ Robyn said. ‘Eighteen-’

  ‘1802,’ Katherine finished.

  ‘Give Robyn a chance!’ Warwick said. ‘She was probably going to say that.’

  ‘Actually, I was going to say 1803,’ Robyn confessed.

  ‘That might be right,’ Warwick said.

  ‘It’s 1802,’ Katherine said. ‘Trust me.’

  ‘Ready for the next question?’ Dame Pamela asked. ‘Which festive drink in the eighteenth-century was made from arrack, water, lemon juice, sugar and spices?’

  ‘Warwick?’ Katherine said, pointing her fountain pen at him.

  ‘Why would I know the answer to that?’ he said.

  ‘Because you’re known to like a tipple!’

  ‘Oh, all right – it’s punch,’ he said with a grin.

  ‘Next question,’ Dame Pamela said. ‘In Emma, who was – and I quote – “snowed up at a friend’s house once for a week”?’

  ‘Oh, it’s that odious Mr Elton,’ Robyn said. ‘His poor friends have to endure him for a whole week! Can you imagine.’

  ‘Could be worse,’ Warwick announced. ‘Could’ve been Mr Collins.’

  Robyn nodded. ‘Imagine having to entertain both of them at once. Wouldn’t that be awful?’

  ‘They’d probably absolutely adore each other,’ Warwick said.

  ‘I don’t think they would,’ Katherine said. ‘I think Mr Collins would probably feel threatened by Mr Elton.’

  There was no time to discuss the fictional meeting between these two literary anti-heroes any longer for Dame Pamela was ready with the next question.

  The library clock ticked and chimed each quarter hour and the fire crackled as the questions came thick and fast. Finally, it was time for the last question.

  ‘Which novel paints this Christmas scene?’ Dame Pamela paused and then began the quote: “On one side was a table occupied by some chattering girls, cutting up silk and gold paper and on the other were tressels and trays, bending under the weight of brawn and cold pies.”’

  ‘It’s Persuasion,’ Katherine said.

  ‘Are you sure it’s not Emma?’ Warwick asked.

  Katherine shook her head. ‘No, it’s definitely Persuasion.’

  ‘Boy, am I glad you’re on our team,’ Warwick said, picking up her hand and squeezing it.

  ‘Well, I’m afraid I wasn’t much use,’ Dan said with an apologetic smile.

  ‘You just need to read a few more of the novels,’ R
obyn told him.

  ‘Don’t forget to put your group’s name on the top of your answers,’ Dame Pamela said, ‘and coffee will be served as the answers are being marked.’

  ‘Oh, what shall we call ourselves?’ Robyn said.

  ‘We could use “Bennets and Bonnets” again,’ Warwick said.

  ‘But Dan’s new to our group this time,’ Robyn said. ‘We should have a new name.’

  They sat mulling it over for a moment.

  ‘Snow and Snowibility?’ Dan suggested.

  They laughed.

  ‘That’s not bad,’ Warwick said.

  ‘There you go – at least I was good for something!’ Dan said.

  Robyn kissed him on the cheek and stood up. ‘I’m just going to check on Cassie. We shouldn’t leave your poor brother with her all evening.’

  Benedict Harcourt looked very much at home in the West Drawing Room with Cassie in his arms.

  ‘How are you getting on?’ Robyn asked him as she entered the room.

  He smiled up at Robyn and ruffled his hair. Like Dan and Cassie’s, it was a red-gold and was positively glowing in the lamp light as were his cheeks but Robyn assumed that that was from the tumbler of whiskey he’d been drinking.

  ‘We’ve been getting on famously!’ he said, squeezing Cassie’s tiny body.

  ‘Well, I can’t thank you enough for keeping an eye on her.’

  ‘How did the quiz go? Did you win?’ he asked.

  ‘We’ll find out in a few minutes. I’ll just pop this one to bed first.’

  ‘Want a hand? I can carry her upstairs if you like.’

  ‘Oh, that would be kind.’

  ‘It would be my pleasure,’ Benedict said, standing up with Cassie in his arms.

  They walked up the great staircase together and Robyn couldn’t help noticing that Benedict was smiling.

  ‘What is it?’ she asked him.

  ‘I was just thinking that I used to carry little Dan to bed like this.’

  Robyn smiled. It wasn’t often that she heard her tall husband described as ‘little’ and she tried to imagine the scene with the two brothers.

  ‘We didn’t get much time together with such a huge age gap, though,’ he said. ‘I just got to see him on the occasional family holiday and the rare family Christmas.’

  ‘And is that why you’re here now? To spend more time with the family?’

  ‘It is indeed,’ he said as they reached the attic room. Robyn waited for him to say more but he didn’t and she watched as he placed Cassie in the little cot next to the rocking horse. ‘Good heavens!’ he said as he saw it. ‘It’s old Cinnamon!’

  ‘He’s rather magnificent, isn’t he?’ Robyn said as she tucked Cassie into bed, stroking her hair. ‘Your sister said we can have him at Horseshoe Cottage but I can’t bear to move him. He looks so at home here.’

  Benedict gave the rocking horse a friendly pat. ‘Dad bought this for Gervaise,’ he said.

  Robyn nodded. Gervaise was yet another of Dan’s brothers she hadn’t had the pleasure of meeting. He was the businessman who was always flying off to destinations Robyn had never heard of.

  ‘Ah, he loved this horse!’ Benedict said and Robyn felt sure she could see tears swimming in his eyes. But he quickly shook his head, as if dispelling the past. ‘Right, let’s get back to that whiskey,’ he said.

  Robyn made it back down to the library just in time to hear the winners of the quiz announced.

  ‘With an astonishing twenty out of twenty,’ Dame Pamela said, ‘it’s “Mr Darcy’s Pride!”’

  ‘Who’s that?’ Robyn asked.

  ‘It’s dear Doris Norris!’ Katherine said.

  Everybody applauded and Doris Norris, together with Rose and Roberta, went to collect their Christmas hampers.

  ‘I can’t believe we didn’t win,’ Dan said.

  ‘I’m afraid we just can’t compete with the likes of Doris!’ Katherine said.

  ‘Badly done, Katherine!’ Warwick said and received an elbow in his ribs.

  ‘And, in second place, it’s Snow and Snowibility,’ Dame Pamela announced.

  ‘So we all win a signed photo of my dear sister?’ Dan said as everybody applauded them.

  Warwick grinned. ‘Just what you’ve always wanted, eh, Dan?’

  That night, once he was quite sure Katherine was asleep, Warwick got out of bed and, using the light from his mobile phone, searched through his suitcase once again.

  ‘Damn it!’ he cursed as he caught his finger on a notebook and gave himself a paper cut. As if he didn’t have enough of those already, he thought. Now, where was it? He was quite sure he’d put it in the little zipped compartment but it wasn’t there now. Maybe he’d imagined it. Maybe he hadn’t packed it at all which would put a real dampener on his plans because he couldn’t –

  Katherine stirred and Warwick turned the light off on his phone until he could hear the gentle rhythm of her breathing again and knew she was asleep. Once more, he turned the light on and hunted through his clothes again but it definitely wasn’t there. Defeated, he returned to bed, staring up into the darkness and praying to the saint of lost things that it was in a safe place somewhere back at The Old Vicarage.

  Getting back into bed, he sighed, unaware that Katherine wasn’t asleep at all. She’d heard Warwick get out of bed and search through his case, yet again, and had only been feigning sleep when he’d turned his light off.

  What had Warwick been doing? He’d kept a secret from her once before and she didn’t like the idea that he was hiding something else from her now.

  Chapter 9

  When Robyn opened her eyes the next morning, the first thing she saw was snow. It had settled on the sloping attic window and she gazed up into the myriad of glistening flakes.

  ‘Dan?’ she whispered, turning over in bed and squeezing his bare shoulder.

  He blinked an eye open. ‘Cassie?’

  ‘She’s still asleep,’ Robyn said, remembering how he’d got up in the night each time she’d woken for her feed. He’d then cuddled and comforted her until she’d gone back to sleep. He’d then got back into bed and cuddled and comforted Robyn.

  ‘Look at the snow on the window,’ Robyn said.

  Dan rolled over and gazed upwards, a smile waking up on his face. ‘It’s like being in an igloo,’ he said, wrapping his arms around Robyn.

  They gazed up at the snow together for a few minutes before Robyn sighed. ‘We should get up.’

  ‘Do we have to? We could stay cosied up like this all day? It is Christmas Eve, after all.’

  ‘But it’s going to be a very special day, remember?’

  Dan frowned. ‘Oh, you mean the big surprise?’

  ‘Pamela wouldn’t even tell me what it was. She’s been planning it for weeks and I’ve no idea what it is. I walked into the office a few weeks ago and she was up to something. She was on the phone to somebody and hung up as soon as I walked in.’

  ‘What do you think it could be?’

  ‘I have no idea but she’s pretty excited about it,’ Robyn said reluctantly pulling herself away from Dan’s arms and getting out of bed to wake Cassie.

  The three of them then got washed and dressed, using a tiny bathroom along the landing that looked as if it had last been used in the nineteen-fifties.

  ‘Have you seen my watch?’ Dan asked as they were about to go downstairs for breakfast.

  ‘Your gold one?’ Robyn said.

  ‘Yes. The one Pammy bought me last Christmas.’

  Robyn glanced around the room. ‘When did you last see it?’

  ‘I thought I put it on the bedside table before going to dinner last night.’

  ‘Why weren’t you wearing it?’ Robyn asked.

  ‘It kept catching on my shirt sleeve so I took it off,’ Dan said.

  ‘Have you looked in the drawer?’

  ‘I’ve looked everywhere,’ he said.

  For one awful moment, Robyn was about to tell Dan that Benedict had been in t
heir room the night before but surely he wouldn’t have taken the watch.

  ‘I’m sure it will turn up,’ she said, and the three of them went downstairs to breakfast.

  Mia watched as Sarah darted around the room like a busy bee, straightening the curtains, the bedding and even a portrait on the wall above the dressing table which wasn’t in the least bit crooked. She was quite used to her sister’s ways, of course, but there was something different about her this time.

  ‘Sarah!’ Mia cried, looking at her watch. ‘Come on!’

  ‘What?’ Sarah looked up with a startled expression on her face as if she’d genuinely forgotten where she was and whom she was with.

  ‘It’s time for breakfast – remember?’

  Sarah sat down in the little armchair by the window, looking defeated. ‘Oh,’ she said.

  Mia’s forehead crinkled with worry. ‘What is it? What’s wrong?’ She walked across the room and perched on the window seat next to her sister. ‘You’ve been acting strangely ever since we got here.’

  ‘No I haven’t!’

  ‘Yes you have,’ Mia insisted.

  ‘No I haven’t.’

  Mia sighed. ‘Okay, no you haven’t been acting strangely since we got here. You’ve been acting strangely since we left home!’

  ‘I have not!’ Sarah insisted, determining to get up again but Mia grabbed her arm and stopped her.

  ‘Why won’t you talk to me?’

  ‘Because there’s nothing to talk about,’ Sarah said.

  ‘That’s not true,’ Mia said. ‘I can tell when something’s bothering you – your OCD gets completely out of control and you turn into some kind of whirling dervish. You can’t hide from me. Something’s wrong, isn’t it?’

  Sarah bit her lip and looked at her sister, knowing it was futile to try and hide the truth from her any longer. ‘I’m pregnant,’ she said at last.

  Mia’s eyes widened in delight. ‘Really? Since when?’

  ‘Since Lloyd took me for a weekend in Lyme Regis.’

  ‘Oh, that’s so romantic!’

  Sarah nodded. ‘He knows how much I adore Lyme and he loves it too and we had such a lovely time. We just walked around together, looking at all the old buildings and eating ice cream on the Cobb. But I didn’t plan on getting pregnant. I mean, we were kind of trying but it’s so early for us. I didn’t expect-’ she paused.