Jane Austen Stole My Boyfriend (13 page)

I nod; she looks interested, but I think I have made rather a mess of it. Harry and Jane come up at that moment. Harry very nicely asks Phylly to dance and she bounces up from the seat and looks
triumphantly at Jane.

And then Newton comes to claim Jane once again and I am still waiting, scanning the crowd, looking for Thomas. Now he is talking with another lady. He knows so many people here at Bath.

I can see Newton’s sister deep in conversation with Elinor – they are laughing and talking as though the best of friends. And now the music begins.

Then Thomas comes to claim me and everything is wonderful again. I decide not to think about relations. My brother and sister-in-law don’t like Thomas, and his uncle and sister don’t
seem to like me. I’ll worry about it tomorrow, I tell myself.

Evening has come and the windows at the top of the walls have turned dark – they are like black mirrors, and the reflections of the five chandeliers sparkle in their panes. The fires burn
with a red glow, but the crowd is so thick that I have a feeling that we are in our own little bubble of light.

‘I have written to your brother,’ says Thomas softly in my ear. ‘I am going to see him tomorrow. I shall set off first thing in the morning and be back in Bath by
evening.’

And then he is gone, crossing hands with Phylly while Harry twirls me around and I skip neatly under our clasped hands.

‘You’re a good dancer, Harry,’ I say, and he smiles.

‘Thanks to Mrs Austen! She wouldn’t let any boy get away with doing it clumsily. We boys, the four of us, had such fun at the parsonage in the winter evenings. My father and mother
aren’t too sociable, and the old manor house is a terrible tumbledown old ruin – old as the great King Henry VIII, they say – but there was always a welcome for us at the
Austens’.’

And then Thomas was back and he and I went down the line. Jane, I notice, is chattering happily with Newton Wallop and both of them are laughing again. I look to see if Lavinia is dancing, but
she isn’t – just standing beside her mama, fanning herself so vigorously that no one can see her face. Phylly comes up to her and starts chatting. They both look across at Jane. I turn
back to Thomas and blush when I see the look in his eyes.

‘What are you going to say to Edward-John?’ I ask when we reach the end of the room.

‘I will make him see reason,’ he says airily, and then he frowns. ‘Why on earth does my uncle allow Elinor to dance with Sir Walter Montmorency?’ He spits the words out
through clenched teeth. His expression is dark and stormy. ‘I don’t care for that fellow; I’ve heard some stories about him, some scandal...’ He looks down at me and seems
to decide to say no more.

‘He looks very charming,’ I say. I must confess that I don’t want to talk about Elinor. ‘Anyway, your uncle seems to like him.’

Thomas shakes his head. ‘I don’t trust my uncle,’ he says. ‘He’d like to make a splendid match for Elinor – she’s barely sixteen, too young to be
thinking of getting married. She’s young for her age,’ he adds hastily as he sees me smile. ‘She’s scared of the admiral though, and she’ll do anything to please him.
The trouble is that he can’t resist telling everyone that she will have a dowry of twenty thousand pounds from him when she marries with his approval.’

‘What about you?’ I ask anxiously. ‘Do you have to get his approval before you marry?’

Thomas shrugs. ‘He can keep his money, as far as I am concerned. I want to choose my own bride.’

He hasn’t said no, I notice. I want to ask him whether he will forgo any fortune from his uncle if he marries me, but he is looking across at his sister again. His face softens as he
watches her. ‘It’s different for poor little Elinor. She’s a child that craves approval. She can’t stand up for herself.’ He looks down at me and says, ‘Will you
try to keep an eye on her for me, Jenny? Perhaps you and your cousin could befriend her. She is very shy and timid. It would do her good to have some girls of her own age to have fun with.
She’s a funny girl; I can’t make her out. She’s always trying to please, and it makes her seem scared stiff half the time. It’s as if she has no mind of her own. She
shouldn’t be thinking of marriage for another few years.’

I smile to myself when I think how Thomas asked me to marry him although I am not much older than his sister. Privately I’m not sure that his view of Elinor as a sweet little child is
quite accurate. There was something rather spiteful in the way that she looked at me and she definitely seemed to be gossiping about me to Newton’s sister. However, I promise him that Jane
and I will do our best to be friendly.

I look thoughtfully over at Elinor. She is still dancing with Sir Walter. He is a very elegantly dressed man in pale primrose-coloured breeches. His hair is rather long, but it suits him. He has
a very handsome face, almost as though he is a carved statue. I wonder what the scandal was, but guess that Thomas won’t tell me. Elinor is looking up at him timidly, her uncle watching her
with a smirk on his face. Obviously he approves of her partner!

And then Thomas dances down the line and I wait, marking time. I see Elinor glance over at me. A look of dislike crosses her face. She stands on tiptoe, her mouth at Sir Walter’s ear. He
looks across at me and doesn’t lower his voice.

‘A country parson, no breeding, no family, no fortune? What can your brother be thinking?’

My heart sinks.

And then Thomas is back and together we dance to the end of the line. Now we will wait here until our time comes to dance again. I decide that I won’t tell him about Sir Walter’s
words. I don’t want to cause any bad feeling, and I still hope that Elinor and I might be friends eventually.

While we mark time Thomas starts to tell me about his home on the Isle of Wight and how his house is near to his uncle’s, and both of them overlook the sea but Thomas’s house has a
woodland to the back of it.

‘If only I didn’t have this trip to the East Indies,’ he says, ‘and if only you could come and visit in May. The beech woods are full of bluebells then. I’d love to
see you standing there among them – just you and the carpet of blue and green. It would make such a beautiful picture. Your eyes are the exact shade of the bluebells.’

And now the bell goes for supper. Everyone is streaming through the door leading to the Octagon Room. The card players are coming in from the card room. Elinor and her
governess are just ahead of us and the admiral pushes his way past us to join them. There is no sign of Sir Walter Montmorency now, and the admiral looks angry. Colonel Forster comes up to ask Jane
for the after-supper dance, and she writes his name on her little dance card. I see Lavinia glare at Jane and whisper to a girl sitting next to her. I do hope Jane is not getting herself a
reputation in Bath! And then we have reached the opposite side of the Octagon Room and manage to enter the tea room. The room is almost as beautiful as the ballroom, the walls a delicate shade of
salmon pink and the three fairy-tale chandeliers lighting up the dozens of circular tables spread with snowy-white linen cloths. At the top of the room there is a row of white marble arches and
beyond a long table spread with the most delicious food: sweetmeats, jelly, biscuits, cold ham, turkey and many other wonderful things.

‘Oh la,’ says Jane from behind us. She is with Harry now and I am touched to see how happy he looks. I’m glad I thought of suggesting that he come to the Assembly Rooms.

Jane seizes me by the hand. ‘Let’s join Eliza,’ she says rapidly. ‘The tables are just for six so that will save us making conversation with my mother and my aunt and
uncle – not to mention dear Phylly!’

Eliza and her escort are already sitting at a table just next to one of the four fireplaces. She is smiling and waving so I follow Jane while Thomas and Harry go to get a tray of food and cups
of tea for us.

‘Jenny,’ says Eliza softly, ‘your dear uncle, Mr Leigh-Perrot... who is his heir?’

I look at her in astonishment and she laughs. ‘You don’t think of these things at your age,
ma chérie,
but they are important, nonetheless. There are no children and
will never be, so the fortune – and it is a considerable one if you add Mrs Leigh-Perrot’s to her husband’s – well, it will doubtless be left to one of the family –
perhaps one of his nephews.’

‘To Jane’s eldest brother?’

‘Or to Edward-John,’ says Eliza. ‘Don’t think your brother won’t have thought of this. Let’s make sure that Mrs Leigh-Perrot is in favour of your marriage to
Captain Williams.’

Harry and Thomas have returned with two large trays of food, and Eliza turns her attention back to her French escort. She is speaking French to him but calling him ‘Monsieur Baddy’,
which he seems to find very funny. They are discussing whether they like syllabub or not – they all do, except Harry, who thinks it is too sweet. Thomas and I are in our private little world,
eating very little but just looking into each other’s eyes. I find the courage to tell him how much I am going to miss him. I can hardly bear to think that he will be away for almost a
year.

‘How much do you love me?’ His mouth is very close to my ear. Everyone is talking so loudly and music is playing in the background so that there seems to be a solid wall of sound all
around us. I turn my head so that my mouth is near to him. ‘I love you more than the sun and the moon and the stars,’ I say, and I don’t really care if someone hears.

The others at our table are playing a noisy game of ‘likes’ and ‘dislikes’ – everything that Jane likes Harry likes – even syllabub, which a few minutes
earlier he had said he disliked!

‘I don’t think your uncle liked me,’ I say to Thomas.

‘Probably jealous of me,’ says Thomas. He doesn’t seem to care whether the admiral likes me or not and that cheers me. I did wonder though whether the admiral was regretting
that Thomas was not having tea with an earl’s daughter.

‘What if he cuts you off without a penny for marrying a lowly person like myself?’ I say it in a light-hearted way and he responds instantly with an equally light-hearted ‘Who
cares!’ and I hope that he means it. Perhaps Thomas will also get twenty thousand pounds if he marries according to the admiral’s wishes. When he is away from me, will he remember that?
And will the thought of a marriage with someone like Newton’s sister, Clotilde, be more attractive to him?

And then I realize that Mrs Leigh-Perrot and Mrs Austen have come over and are standing beside me.

The three men stand up and Eliza introduces Monsieur Baddy (who turns out to be Monsieur le Comte de something or other). Mrs Austen mentions Harry’s name, and Mrs Leigh-Perrot nods at him
and tells him that he has grown since she saw him last – and Harry goes bright red. Then she looks at me expectantly.

‘Aunt, may I introduce Captain Thomas Williams,’ I say.

‘Delighted to make your acquaintance, Captain Williams!’ Mrs Leigh-Perrot sounds quite enthusiastic. ‘Harry,’ she says, just as if he were still a small boy,
‘perhaps I could borrow your chair? You could get me a cup of tea while I have a chat with Captain Williams.’

‘Would you like to sit down also, Mrs Austen?’ asks Thomas politely, but she shakes her head and says guiltily that she must get back to Phylly.

‘Let’s go and arrange our hair, girls,’ says Eliza gaily. ‘Monsieur Baddy –’ she taps him on the arm with her fan – ‘you behave yourself while I
am gone. You may fetch yourself one more cake, but only one. There are many dances to come, so not too much cake.’

And then we are on our way, pushing through the crowded tables, leaving Thomas alone with Mrs Leigh-Perrot. I see that Elinor is still sitting with her governess and her uncle, none of them
talking, and I feel sorry for Elinor. Perhaps we should have asked her to join our party. And then I get a shock. She is looking at me with a strange expression – almost as though she hates
me.

And yet, she has only just met me!

‘Look, Eliza,’ says Jane as we pass through the Octagon Room. ‘There’s still one table of people there in the card room. Don’t they want any supper?’

‘Hush, they’ll hear you,’ I whisper, but I realize that the people at the table have eyes and ears for nothing but cards and the bets.

‘
Oh la, ma chérie
,’ says Eliza. ‘There are some men, and women too, who cannot stop gambling. To give up a supper! Pouf!
C’est rien!
Nothing!
I’ve known men to put a fine house and a great estate on the throw of a card.’

Eliza looks around to make sure that no one is within earshot and then hisses, ‘Do you see that woman over there, the one with a very large hat with cherries and apricots on it?
That’s Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, and she cannot stop gambling; ‘tis said she owes fifty thousand pounds!’

I have a quick look at the duchess, a plump fair-haired woman with a very large hat, but I’m more interested in the handsome Sir Walter Montmorency and the expression of despair on his
face as he flings his cards on the table and pushes over the pile of money in front of him. He looks even more upset than the duchess, despite all of her debts. I begin to understand why Thomas
doesn’t want him as a husband for his sister despite his charm and good looks.

And then the dancing starts again. I forget about Elinor, forget about the admiral, forget about everyone, because I am in the arms of the man that I love...

Saturday, 23 April 1791

Such a wonderful evening at the Assembly Rooms! Dancing with Thomas, in the magnificent ballroom with its blue walls and five sparkling chandleliers. Having tea with Thomas in
the pink-and-white tea room, peeping into the long, thin grass-green card room. And last of all, saying goodbye.

If only we could have slipped outside to the moonlit street. If only we could have gone anywhere. I shut my eyes and try to imagine what it would be like to be in that bluebell wood with
Thomas.

But could I ever have said goodbye in a place like that?

So Thomas and I had to say goodbye in the Octagon Room under the watchful eyes of the Leigh-Perrots and Mrs Austen and half the population of Bath.