A Jane Austen Encounter (26 page)
Read A Jane Austen Encounter Online
Authors: Donna Fletcher Crow
Tags: #Fiction, #Literary, #Mystery, #British mystery, #Suspense
Elizabeth broke from the curve of Richard’s arm for a closer look. “The original
Watsons
manuscript. The one stolen from the University of London!”
“That’s right,” Brian agreed.
“And you’re what—a, a thief working for a private collector?” Elizabeth challenged.
“Private detective,” he amended.
“Working for the university?” Richard guessed.
“Close enough. Actually, my client is a loyal alumnus who wants a new library wing named after him. But it comes to the same thing.” He looked at Elizabeth. “Sorry about grabbing your bag in Winchester, but I saw you making notes and I needed to get a look at them.”
“You could have asked.” She turned back to Richard’s arms.
Brian pulled the spluttering Gerri to her feet. “I rang the police. It would be polite to meet them out front.”
But Richard stopped him. “Wait. How did you track the manuscript to Godmersham?”
“My client,” he held up his hand with a glance at Arthur, “who shall remain nameless—before you ask—was convinced the original of
The Watsons
was stolen by a fanatical collector. He hired me to track down collectors by interviewing antiquarian booksellers and scholars.
“Finding the ‘lost’ Godmersham library was serendipity. Everything pointed to it being here, but I wasn’t certain until Frances Whipple told me he believed the books had never left the house. He knew who bought the books from the Godmersham library at the auction. He remembered because he had bid against him.”
Richard’s next question was stopped by loud swearing from the hallway below, followed by heavy footsteps pounding up the stairs. “What is going on up here? Who let you in?”
Walter James charged through the doorway. He came to a sudden halt, his head twisting from one group of occupants to another. “What are you all doing here? This is private property. Who broke that door? I’m calling the police.”
“I’ve already done that, Mr. Knight,” Brian said.
“Knight?” Richard and Elizabeth said together.
“That’s right, isn’t it?” Brian challenged.
“Of course it is. I’m looking after my family’s property.”
“Do you mean to say you’re the current, er— knight?” Richard wasn’t exactly sure about the family titles, but he was quite sure the head of the family was active in the Jane Austen Society—even president, maybe? And on the board of Chawton House Library. So who was this man claiming to be?
“Edward Knight had plenty of descendants. I don’t have to have a title to care about my heritage, do I?”
“Of course not. And you have a grand collection.” Richard spoke with his most placating voice.
Walter James Knight smiled.
“It’s the addition you’ve made to it that I’m concerned about. Or should I say, the way you obtained your prize addition?” Brian held up the box he had removed from Geraldine’s pocket and took out the tiny Jane Austen manuscript it contained.
Even in the dim light, it was apparent that Walter James paled. “I didn’t steal it. You can’t steal what’s already yours. I was just returning it to its rightful place.”
Outside, the sound of tires on the gravel indicated the arrival of the police. “We’ll let the authorities settle that, Mr. Knight. I suggest you get a good lawyer to argue the point for you.” The detective started to move both his prisoners forward.
Arthur stepped forward. “I’ll help you, shall I?”
Instead of giving him charge of one of the captives, Brian handed the valuable manuscript to Arthur. “I’d be pleased to have you take this. I know I can trust you to deliver it to your father.” Together they marched the miscreants down the stairs.
Once they were gone, it was as if the room heaved a great sigh and the Headington boys, who had remained stock-still and silent through the preceding exchange, exploded in demands for an explanation of the drama that had played out in front of them. Richard explained as clearly and as briefly as he could about the original Jane Austen manuscript that had gone missing from the library at the University of London, and about how they had been set on the trail to track it down with the ruse of a false letter hinting at a nonexistent document.
He also stressed to the housemaster how resourceful and helpful the boys had been, while avoiding any explicit reference to the lock-picking. “Without their quick thinking and action, the results might have been far less happy.” He pulled Elizabeth closer and kissed her thoroughly, which elicited a round of applause from the entire boys’ choir.
Chapter 22
THE LATE AFTERNOON SUN was golden and the street beside the table at the Chilham Tea Room reflected warmth as Elizabeth and Richard sat over their steaming cups of tea reviewing the events of the day.
Richard reached across the tiny table and lightly touched the white wrapping on Elizabeth’s head. “You’re sure you’re all right?”
“Quite absolutely sure. At least, nothing one of those scrumptious-looking lemon tarts wouldn’t fix.”
Richard signaled the waitress, then turned back to her. “When I saw you lying on the floor . . .” He took a deep drink of tea to hide his emotion. “When did you regain consciousness?”
“Oh, I was never unconscious. But I didn’t want Gerri to hit me again—or try anything with that knife. I think it’s called playing possum.” She grinned. “I wanted to signal you, but I was afraid I’d give the game away.”
“As it turned out, you played it just right.”
“Do you think Gerri would really have harmed Nilay?” Elizabeth’s voice was tight.
“I don’t know, but we couldn’t have taken the risk of finding out.” Richard smiled at the memory of their parting from their new friends. Their enthusiastic hugs—and startling suggestion—were the only things in the whole stressful event that had made Elizabeth cry. And he couldn’t say he had been entirely dry-eyed.
“Richard . . .”
“Hmm?”
“Stav and Nilay’s idea—well, all the boys, really—that you apply to be their housemaster—it’s not entirely off the wall, is it? And you could carry on with your writing and . . .”
“Certainly worth considering. It would probably only be interim until they could fill it with someone more suitable. If we could get visas and all that . . . I’m not sure what would be involved.”
Elizabeth’s smile was radiant.
Arthur and Claire approached from the other side of the square, holding hands, accompanied by Paul and Beth. Beth had her notebook out, apparently conducting an interview. “All right,” Arthur said, “it’s sure to come out anyway. Sir Cyril Langton is my father. I took the job as Muriel’s assistant to get her help tracking down the lost manuscript. She loved the idea and was a great help. I just didn’t realize she was planning to use it all for her own advancement. And I certainly never suspected she would do anything so underhanded as to devise a fake letter.”
“I still find it hard to believe we were part of such a convoluted plot.” Elizabeth shook her head. “We certainly played into her hands. I feel so gullible.”
“I’ll have to say I’m glad you did. Without your part, that manuscript might never have been discovered.”
“And recovering the manuscript will make a sensational final chapter for Muriel’s book. We just need someone to write it.” Paul looked at Richard.
Before Richard could answer, though, Claire cut in. “You’ll be coming back to Bath, won’t you? To the Regency Ball this Saturday? We—” She gazed at Arthur with a soft smile. “We have something to announce and we’d love to have you there.”
Elizabeth jumped up and embraced them both. “Oh, congratulations! Of course we wouldn’t miss it.” She paused. “That is, if you can find me a Regency gown. I rather fancied the one with the pink Spencer in the Centre.”
“It’s yours. For the night, that is,” Claire promised.
The others moved on and Richard sat musing. “It’s strange, but somehow by getting to know Jane better, I feel as if I know myself better.”
Elizabeth nodded. “Yes, I know what you mean.”
“We started all this with so many questions. Not just about some lost manuscript, but about the direction of our lives. Now things seem to be making sense.” He was quiet for a moment.
“So. . .?”
“So I’m thinking about how two brilliant American professors made an important literary discovery and solved a murder. I’m thinking that writing a murder mystery would be a lot more fun than writing a scholarly paper.”
And so it was.
AUTHOR’S NOTES
MY READERS OFTEN ASK, “How much is true?”
That’s always a valid question in novels like this one that are works of fiction, yet full of references to real people and real places. The visits Elizabeth and Richard make to Jane Austen’s homes are based as closely on my experiences as possible—minus the skullduggery, of course.
All quotations and references from Jane’s letters and works are as accurate as I could make them. It is true that the original manuscript of
The Watsons
was divided as recounted—and one section “went missing.”
My goal is always to give my readers a “you are there experience” through the eyes of my characters. I hope this has served as such for you—until you can make your own pilgrimage.
Donna Fletcher Crow
Boise, Idaho, 2013
REFERENCES
— “Jane at Prayer”, adapted from “Prayer I,”
Three Prayers and a Poem by Jane Austen,
Friends of Godmersham Church, Kent.
Austen, Jane,
Emma
, from Jane Austen, The Complete Works, 2011, Doma Publishing House.
Austen, Jane,
Northanger Abbey
, from Jane Austen, The Complete Works, 2011, Doma Publishing House.
Austen, Jane,
Persuasion
, 1959 ed., Dell Publishing Co., New York.
Austen, Jane and John Coates,
The Watsons
, 1958, Signet, New York.
Austen-Leigh, James Edward,
Memoir of Jane Austen,
1871, Richard Bentley & Son, London.
Austen-Leigh, Richard Arthur and William Francis,
Jane Austen, Her Life and Letters,
1913, Smith, Elder & Co., London.
Chapman, R. W.,
Jane Austen, Facts and Problems
, 1948, Clarendon Press, Oxford.
Collins, Irene,
Jane Austen and the Clergy
, 2002, The Hambledon Press, London.
Fullerton, Susannah,
Jane Austen & Crime
, 2004, Jones Books, Madison, WI.
Lascelles, Mary,
Jane Austen and Her Art,
1939, Clarendon Press.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
DONNA FLETCHER CROW is a former English teacher, a lifelong Anglophile and Janeite, and a member of the Jane Austen Society of North America. She is the author of forty-three books, mostly novels of British history. The award-winning
Glastonbury
,
A Novel of Christian England,
is her best-known work. She is also the author of three mystery series. Her newest titles are:
An Unholy Communion
, The Monastery Murders;
A Tincture of Murder,
The Lord Danvers Victorian true-crime novels; and
A Jane Austen Encounter
in The Elizabeth & Richard Literary Mysteries. Donna and her husband live in Boise, Idaho. They have four adult children and twelve grandchildren. She is an enthusiastic gardener.
To read more about all of Donna’s books and see pictures from her garden and research trips go to:
http://www.donnafletchercrow.com/
You can follow her on Facebook at:
http://ning.it/OHi0MY
Donna Fletcher Crow © copyright 2013
All rights reserved as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
StoneHouse Ink 2013
Boise ID 83713
http://www.stonehouseink.net
First eBook Edition: 2013
Cover design by Fuji Aamabreorn
The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to a real person, living or dead is coincidental and not intended by the author.
Published in the United States of America
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