Christmas with Mr Darcy (an Austen Addicts story) Page 8

  ‘Ah, there you are, Benedict,’ Dame Pamela said as she entered the room in a flurry of burgundy.

  ‘Pamsy!’ he said, springing out of the armchair and puffing a plume of smoke into her face. ‘Merry Christmas, darling sister!’

  ‘Yes, yes. Merry Christmas to you too,’ she said, accepting his kiss none too graciously. ‘Sit down, Benedict,’ she said, taking a seat on the sofa opposite him.

  ‘You seem a little flustered,’ he said.

  Dame Pamela nodded, twisting the great diamond ring once again. Benedict’s eyes were almost out on stalks as he noticed it. ‘What exactly are you doing here, Benedict?’ she asked him a moment later.

  ‘What do you mean?’ he asked. ‘I’ve told you, I came to see you, Pamsy!’

  Dame Pamela glared at him, her expression echoing her role as Lady Catherine de Bough and he instantly knew that she didn’t believe him.

  ‘We don’t see you from one year to the next and then we only get the occasional phone call when you’re in financial difficulties.’

  ‘Well, I’m sorry if you think I’m a bad brother.’

  ‘I didn’t say that. It’s just the way you are and we’re used to it but it makes me wonder what you’re doing here now,’ she said.

  Benedict took a deep breath. ‘What’s this all about?’ he asked.

  ‘You tell me.’

  ‘You’re the one who’s anxious,’ he pointed out.

  Dame Pamela sighed. ‘You’re right. I am. Something’s gone missing. Something very precious.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘The first edition.’

  Benedict stubbed out the fat cigar in a little porcelain dish on a mahogany side table, making Dame Pamela wince. ‘It’s missing?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘And what’s that got to do with me being here?’

  Dame Pamela blinked but didn’t say anything.

  Benedict nodded slowly. ‘I see,’ he said at last. ‘You think I’ve got it, don’t you? You think I’ve come here like some petty thief to take whatever I could get my hands on. Is that it?’

  ‘No,’ Dame Pamela said but her voice didn’t seem to back her up.

  ‘You really think I’d do something like that? Just come here and steal from you?’

  ‘Benedict, I don’t think that at all but-’

  ‘Because that’s all I am to you, isn’t it? I’m the brother who’s just after a handout.’ He stood up and marched towards the door and, before Dame Pamela could stop him, he’d stormed out, slamming the great door behind him.

  Dan was doing his best to straighten the drunken angel on the top of the Christmas tree yet again as Dame Pamela left the Yellow Drawing Room.

  ‘She’s been at the whiskey again,’ Dan said as he saw his sister.

  ‘I could do with a glass myself,’ Dame Pamela said.

  Dan came back down to earth from the ladder. ‘What’s wrong?’

  Dame Pamela shook her head and Dan could see tears swimming in her bright eyes. ‘I can’t find the first edition,’ she said.

  Dan’s mouth dropped open. ‘Pride and Prejudice?’

  Dame Pamela nodded.

  ‘How long’s it been missing?’

  ‘I couldn’t find it this morning,’ she said.

  ‘But you put it back in the safe last night?’

  ‘That’s just it – I really can’t remember but I’ve looked absolutely everywhere and I’m at my wits’ end!’

  ‘Calm down,’ Dan said, placing his hands on his sister’s shoulders. ‘Now, if you’ve looked everywhere and Higgins has looked everywhere-’

  ‘He has.’

  ‘Then we need to make an announcement.’

  ‘But it’s Christmas Day!’ Dame Pamela protested.

  ‘Yes, and somebody might have gone off with one hell of a Christmas present,’ Dan said. ‘Merry Christmas by the way,’ he added.

  ‘Yes, Merry Christmas,’ Dame Pamela said absent-mindedly.

  ‘I think we should make an announcement as soon as possible,’ Dan continued. ‘Look, we’ve got that talk about Jane Austen’s use of dialogue starting in twenty minutes. Why don’t you do it then?’

  Dame Pamela looked to her left and then looked to her right as if trying to find an excuse or an exit out of the awful situation she now found herself in.

  ‘But what if I’ve just misplaced it somewhere?’ she asked.

  ‘But what if you haven’t? What if somebody else has picked it up – by accident even – and doesn’t even realise what they’ve done? Or maybe somebody’s seen it. It might all be resolved in no time and you’ll be able to relax again.’

  Dame Pamela nodded. ‘All right,’ she said. ‘I’ll make a brief announcement.’

  ‘Good,’ Dan said, ‘and I’ll have a good hunt around in the meantime. Maybe Benedict could help.’

  ‘Oh, that’s another thing,’ Dame Pamela said.

  ‘What?’

  ‘We had a little misunderstanding,’ Dame Pamela said.

  ‘What kind of misunderstanding?’

  Dame Pamela began with the ring twisting again. ‘I might have accused him of taking the first edition.’

  ‘Oh, Pammy!’

  ‘Don’t scold me! I feel dreadful enough as it is!’

  ‘But you don’t really think he’s taken it, do you?’

  Dame Pamela sighed. ‘I don’t know what to think,’ she said.

  ‘Right, well, you go and get ready for the announcement and I’ll have a look for Pride and Prejudice. And Benedict. Okay?’

  ‘Okay,’ she said. ‘Thank you, Dan. I don’t know what I’d do without you.’

  They both smiled at each other and left the hallway just as the angel on the Christmas tree nose dived towards a red bauble.

  Chapter 13

  Doris Norris was trying to relax. She’d been looking forward to the morning talk about Jane Austen’s use of dialogue but her mind kept drifting back to the night before. It was silly really. She’d taken off her engagement ring because her fingers had swollen. But where had she put it? By the sink? On the dressing table? She really couldn’t remember and she couldn’t find it anywhere.

  She looked down at the thin gold band of her wedding ring. She never took that off; it hadn’t budged since the day Henry had placed it on her finger at their wedding and had kissed her so passionately that the feathers on her mother’s hat had vibrated in alarm. The ring wouldn’t actually come off now even if she wanted it to. It was a part of her and she would take it with her into the next world.

  But where on earth was the engagement ring? It hadn’t been an expensive ring but the garnets were much loved by her and she’d worn it every day since her husband had presented it to her on a day out in Brighton. They’d walked along the sea front eating ice cream, the salt wind in their hair, and he’d taken her hand in his and told her that he wasn’t Mr Darcy but that he hoped he could make her happy anyway. He’d been hiding the ring in his jacket pocket which explained why he’d constantly been tapping it all day. Doris had guessed what he was up to but had managed to look surprised all the same and they’d celebrated with a fish supper before catching the last train home.

  She’d lost her dear Henry eight years ago and now she’d lost his ring. She blinked the tears away as Dame Pamela entered the room. She’d try to put the ring out of her mind for now and look for it again later.

  Dan had turned Dame Pamela’s study upside down searching for Pride and Prejudice but it obviously wasn’t there. He’d hunted through her bedroom and had looked in all of the public rooms too, scanning the shelves of books everywhere in case it had been put away by mistake but there was no sign of it. Of course there wasn’t, he thought. He didn’t want to scare his sister but he had a nasty feeling about this whole business. He’d been nervous the moment he’d seen it in the dining room, his sister proudly displaying it to a room full of relative strangers. She wouldn’t have them called strangers, though. She’d told him umpteen times that the bond of Jane Austen t
urned fans into friends and friends into family but Dan didn’t buy that. As far as he was concerned, somebody had stolen the first edition and he intended to find out who it was.

  It was as he was climbing the stairs that he spotted Benedict. He was standing on the landing looking out on to the snowy landscape.

  ‘Hello,’ Dan said as he approached him.

  ‘Oh, hello,’ Benedict said, turning around. His face looked pale and the lines around his eyes looked deeper than usual.

  ‘Pammy told me what happened,’ Dan said, deciding to just come out with it and speed the healing process up a bit.

  Benedict nodded as if he expected no less. ‘I can’t understand it, Danny boy,’ he said, using his old nickname for his little brother. ‘How can she think that of me?’

  Dan put his hand on his brother’s shoulder. ‘Let’s get a cup of tea.’

  They walked down to the kitchen together. Higgins was bustling around arranging shortbread for after the first lecture of the morning and Benedict pinched a slice from one of the trays. They waited until Higgins had left and then Benedict sat down at the long pine table in front of the AGA.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ Dan said as he made them both a cup of tea. ‘This hasn’t been much of a homecoming for you, has it?’

  Benedict swallowed the last of his shortbread. ‘I guess I’ve brought this on myself,’ he said. ‘I know I’ve done my fair share of running to Pamsy for handouts over the years. I suppose it’s only fair that she suspects me now when I turn up out of the blue.’

  ‘It wasn’t fair of her to accuse you like that. I guess she’s just really worried about this book.’

  Benedict took a sip of the tea that Dan handed him. ‘What on earth’s she doing buying such a thing? What did it cost her?’

  ‘Well, I remember hearing something about the auction a few months back. I think it was the best part of two hundred thousand pounds.’

  Benedict spluttered on his tea. ‘Good grief! Two hundred thousand pounds – for a book?’

  ‘A very special book,’ Dan said as he sat down opposite him. ‘Isn’t it the nation’s favourite novel? It’s certainly the most loved of all of Jane Austen’s and fans will pay a premium for something like that especially a first edition.’

  ‘You could buy a house with that kind of money,’ Benedict said.

  ‘But Pammy has a house already.’

  ‘Or start a business.’

  Dan looked at him. ‘You haven’t taken it, have you?’

  Benedict’s eyes widened. ‘What?

  ‘Sorry,’ Dan said, quickly shaking his head. It’s just when you mentioned starting a business.’

  Benedict glared at him. ‘Look, I know I might have made a mess of things in the past but that’s all going to change and I don’t need to steal or take handouts from my sister in order to do it.’

  Dan nodded and noticed that Benedict had turned quite red. ‘Okay,’ he said, ‘enough about this first edition. So, tell me your plans for the future.’

  Benedict cleared his throat and turned even redder and then reached out across the table to steal another piece of shortbread in an attempt to delay answering the question.

  Dame Pamela walked to the front of the audience who were seated in the library for the morning lecture. She beamed a smile.

  ‘Merry Christmas, everybody!’ she said and everybody chimed the same wish back at her except Mrs Soames in the front room who was checking her watch in disapproval of Dame Pamela being two minutes late.

  ‘I’d like to make a very short announcement before the talk this morning.’ She took a deep breath. ‘I seem to have misplaced the first edition of Pride and Prejudice.’

  There was a gasp from the audience.

  ‘And I’m hoping you can all keep a look out for it. I’m sure it will turn up sooner or later but it’s very delicate and I’m conscious that it might get damaged.’

  ‘It’s been stolen!’ somebody hissed from the middle of the room.

  ‘Somebody’s taken it!’ another voice said.

  ‘I’m sure it’s nothing to worry about,’ Dame Pamela said, her hands flapping in the air like anxious butterflies. ‘It’s just me being absent-minded.’

  ‘You wouldn’t get me being absent-minded with a book that’s worth a fortune,’ Mrs Soames muttered from the front row.

  ‘Now, it’s my very great pleasure to introduce Dr Katherine Roberts who is going to talk to us about dialogue in Jane Austen’s work.’

  There was a round of applause as Katherine stood up and made her way to the front of the room. Dame Pamela walked down the aisle between the rows of chairs towards the door. She normally stayed for all the talks but she couldn’t settle with the book missing and so thought it better if she left.

  ‘Pamela?’ Robyn, who’d been sitting in the back row with Cassie sleeping in her arms, stood up. ‘Is there anything I can do to help? Do you want me to have a good hunt around?’

  Dame Pamela shook her head. ‘Dan’s already onto it and Higgins has spent hours searching everywhere too.’

  They left the library together, Cassie in Robyn’s arms. ‘Oh, this is awful,’ Robyn said. ‘Do you think somebody’s taken it?’

  ‘I don’t even want to consider that possibility yet,’ Dame Pamela said. ‘I mean, we’re all friends here, aren’t we?’

  ‘I like to think so but maybe the temptation got too much for someone.’

  ‘But we’re such a small community. The risk of being caught is too great,’ Dame Pamela said. ‘Especially with us all being snowed in.’

  ‘I don’t think that would put anybody off,’ Robyn said. ‘Not somebody who was serious about it.’

  ‘Don’t you?’ Dame Pamela said, her eyes wide with worry.

  Robyn shook her head. ‘If we can’t find the first edition anywhere and nobody comes forward with it then perhaps we’d better think seriously about what we’re going to do next.’

  Chapter 14

  Roberta was fidgeting and it wasn’t because of the itchy tweed skirt she was wearing although that was enough reason to make anybody fidget. She was fidgeting because she was nervous and she couldn’t concentrate any more on the talk.

  ‘What is it?’ Rose demanded of her sister, nudging her in the ribs with an angry elbow.

  ‘Don’t do that! You know I hate it!’ Roberta whispered.

  ‘Then stop fidgeting!’

  Roberta sighed. Rose could be such a bully sometimes. Honestly, they were both in their seventies now but, sometimes, it was as if they were still children.

  Roberta stood up abruptly and grabbed her sister’s arm and marched her out of the library and into the hallway.

  ‘What do you think you’re doing? I wanted to stay and ask that nice Dr Roberts some questions,’ Rose said.

  ‘But this is important.’

  Rose sighed. ‘What have you done?’ She’d learned over the years that, whenever her sister, Roberta said ‘this is important’, she’d done something wrong.

  ‘It’s about the first edition,’ Roberta said.

  ‘Of Pride and Prejudice?’

  ‘No, the latest Warwick Lawton novel! Of course of Pride and Prejudice!’

  ‘Sarcasm doesn’t become you, Roberta,’ Rose said.

  Roberta sighed. ‘I’m sorry but I’m really worried. I think I’ve done something terrible.’

  ‘You’d better tell me what’s going on right now,’ Rose said, pushing her up the stairs. Once they’d arrived in their twin bedroom and closed the door, Roberta walked over to her bedside table and picked up three old books and brought them over for Rose to see.

  ‘What are these?’ Rose asked.

  ‘I think it’s the first edition.

  Rose’s face paled. ‘You took it?’

  ‘I found it in the library. Dame Pamela said we could borrow any of the books in there. I didn’t think I was doing any harm.’

  ‘Is it the first edition?’ Rose said, taking one of the volumes from her sister.

&n
bsp; ‘I don’t know,’ Roberta said. ‘How do you tell these things?’

  ‘I have no idea,’ Rose said. ‘I wasn’t wearing my glasses when Dame Pamela held it up at dinner.’

  ‘Neither was I but it certainly looks old.’

  Rose opened the cover and looked inside. ‘I can’t see a date anywhere but it’s quite badly damaged. Maybe the page with the date has been torn out. Are there dates in the other two volumes?’

  Roberta sat on the edge of the bed and opened the other volumes. ‘No. I can’t see anything. This page is awfully damaged. Maybe the date was on here.’

  ‘We’ve got to return it to Dame Pamela right away,’ Rose said.

  Roberta looked truly terrified. ‘Oh, please don’t make me!’

  ‘Tell her you took it by mistake. She’ll be so relieved to have it back that she won’t care about anything else.’

  ‘I’ll be arrested!’ Roberta shrieked. ‘They’ll put me in prison!’

  ‘Nobody’s going to put you in prison,’ Rose said. ‘Now, get a grip of yourself.’

  ‘Can’t I just put it back in the library? That is where I got it from.’

  Rose looked thoughtful for a moment. There was some sense in what Roberta was saying and she didn’t want to cause a fuss – not on Christmas Day. Maybe returning it to the library – quickly and quietly – was the best option.

  ‘Okay,’ Rose said. ‘We’ll return it to the library.’

  ‘And then maybe we could alert somebody to it – pick it out from the shelves and ask if it’s the first edition?’ Roberta said.

  ‘Let’s just get it back to the library first,’ Rose said.

  But, as they walked downstairs with the three volumes hidden in a hessian bag, they saw that their plan wasn’t going to work because there was a group of people in the library chatting to Dr Roberts after her talk.

  Roberta turned to Rose, her face full of anguish. ‘What do we do now?’ she whispered.