Mr. Darcy Forever (9 page)

Tomorrow was the promenade and the official beginning of the Jane Austen Festival. It was always a day to look forward to and Mia had no intentions of her past clouding over such a day and so she closed her eyes, quite determined to dream of frivolous things like girls in bright bonnets and men in tight breeches.

The day of the promenade dawned and, as the clouds cleared, the sun got brighter and brighter, making the honey-coloured stone of the houses of Bath glow with warmth.

As Sarah stood looking out of the window down onto the street below, she couldn’t help but feel excited about the morning ahead. She hadn't slept very well but that was normal when she was in a strange place. At one point, she’d got out of bed and had sat in a little chair with a lamp on, reading a few chapters from
Northanger Abbey
. Sarah loved the line ‘Catherine felt herself in high luck’ from Chapter 3 and she couldn't help hoping that some of that luck might come her way. She felt ready for it. The past few years had been rather luck
less
. But Bath was a magical place where anything could happen. It was where Catherine Morland had met Henry Tilney and it was where Captain Wentworth had declared his love to Anne Elliot.

Sarah had gone down to breakfast in a pair of jeans and a t-shirt but was now in full Regency splendour, her white muslin dress trimmed with burgundy looked serenely understated and elegant and was very much Sarah. She loved the neatness and grace of fashion in Jane Austen's time and often wished that fashion would forego the graceless jeans and trainers of the twenty-first century and return to a time when women flitted around in pretty dresses and weren't afraid to be feminine.

She had removed all vestiges of her modern self from the digital gold watch to the contact lenses she wore. Even though they would never be noticed, Sarah liked to do things properly although her hair was sporting a colour that probably hadn't been available in Regency England. She looked in the mirror, thinking that the colour looked natural enough, tucked neatly under her bonnet.

Leaving her hotel, Sarah walked out onto the street and couldn't help feeling rather conspicuous in her costume for she was the only one that she could see who was wearing such an outfit. An awful horror struck her - what if she'd got the date wrong? What if she'd arrived in Bath a week early? But that could never happen to somebody like Sarah who planned every day down to the last minute in it.

Sure enough, approaching the bridge into town, she saw a young couple ahead of her, both in Regency costume. How happy they looked together, their arms intertwined. Once again, Sarah felt the full weight of being on her own. She liked to think of herself as an independent woman. She was happy being her own boss and she didn't feel that she needed anybody to tell her what to do in life but it was at times like this when a companion made all the difference. She thought about Jane Austen's novels and how most of her heroines had confidantes. Elinor had Marianne, Elizabeth had Jane and Charlotte, and Catherine Morland had Isabella - she may not have been the most trustworthy of companions but she'd been a companion nevertheless. But, walking through the streets of Bath on her own, Sarah felt more like Anne Elliot for she had never quite been a part of things but always hovered on the outskirts of companionship. Even Anne’s relationship with Lady Russell had been wanting because she could never tell her mentor of her true feelings.

‘
But Anne got her happy ending,’ Sarah told herself, ‘right here in Bath too. She had to wait for it but it came.’

And, with this feeling of optimism, Sarah took a deep breath and headed into the heart of the city.

* * *

‘
Mia! Have you seen my bonnet?’ Shelley shouted from the hallway. As Mia walked out of her bedroom to look down the stairs, she couldn't help thinking that it wasn't often you'd hear such a question in the twenty-first-century life.

‘
Wasn’t it on your mannequin?’

‘
Lady Catherine? Yes but it isn't there now,’ Shelley said. ‘My goodness - if Bingley has got hold of it, I swear he'll be sent to the dogs’ home before the end of the day.’

Mia started the hunt for the missing bonnet upstairs but it wasn’t in any of the rooms. ‘It’s not upstairs,’ Mia called as she joined Shelley in the kitchen a moment later.

‘
I can’t go without my bonnet,’ Shelley said. ‘I’ve been looking forward to wearing it all year.’ She was buzzing around the kitchen looking under tables and chairs when Pie entered the room.

‘
Oh, Pie – you’ve got my bonnet,’ Shelley said.

He muttered something and handed it to her.

‘
What did he say?’ Mia asked as he left the room.

‘
I have absolutely no idea.’

‘
Maybe he's a secret cross-dresser with a fetish for Austensian bonnets,’ Mia said and they both giggled.

It was at that precise moment that Bingley charged into the room like a cannonball, careening into Shelley at full speed.

‘
BINGLEY!’ she shouted. ‘
Must
you do that?’

Mia laughed.

‘
Lord Almighty! Why can't he simply walk into a room? He always has to be firing on all cylinders!’

‘
He’s adorable,’ Mia said, giving him a pat on his chestnut head. He looked up at her and must have decided that Mia wanted to get to know him better because, before she knew what was happening, his front paws had left the ground and had been placed on Mia’s shoulders.

‘
Nooooooooo!
’ Shelley cried out on Mia’s behalf. Mia took a step back and Bingley collapsed to the ground. ‘Oh, your dress!’ Shelley said, stepping forward to examine it for damage.

‘
It’s okay, I think,’ Mia said.

‘
Yes, apart from one great dirty paw print on your left shoulder.’ She manoeuvred her friend towards the sink and started dabbing at her with a damp cloth. ‘I’m so sorry! That dog is a thorough nuisance. I can't think why I got him. Only last week, he ate my entire lasagne and the week before that he completely destroyed my limited edition Captain Wentworth cushion!’

‘
I’m sure he didn't mean to,’ Mia said, ‘and don't worry about my dress. I think Elizabeth Bennet might very well have sported a paw print on her shoulder, don't you think?’

Shelley grimaced, not looking convinced. ‘How about a shawl?’

Mia nodded. The shawl was the epitome of Austen heroine elegance and was very handy for accidentally dropping if one saw a handsome hero to pick it up.

Shelley disappeared upstairs and returned with a pretty sky-blue shawl which matched the trim of Mia’s dress perfectly. She draped it over her friend’s shoulders, covering up the offending paw print.

‘
We’d better get going,’ Mia said and Shelley nodded.

‘
Bonnets at the ready?’

Mia smiled. ‘Oh, yes.’

They left the house, their tiny purses hooked over their arms and hiding all manner of modern necessities like lip glosses and mobile phones. Shelley was also holding a pretty white parasol which she’d told Mia was for fighting off any potential rivals if there was a real-life Mr Darcy at the promenade rather than for shielding herself from the sun.

‘
Are you sure Pie’s all right giving us a lift into town?’ Mia asked.

‘
It’s the least he can do after all the tidying up I do after him,’ Shelley said. ‘But he'll have to get a move on if we're going to be on time.’ She turned back to look at the house but there was no sign of Pie.

‘
Oh, look – there’s Gabe!’ Shelley said, waving her parasol in the air at him.

‘
Hello,’ he said from his front door. ‘I wish I had a hat to tip. You look splendid – both of you! Off to promenade the streets?’

‘
Of course,’ Shelley said. ‘Oh, won't you come too, Gabe? You’d look fabulous in costume, wouldn't he, Mia?’

Mia glanced at him quickly. ‘Any man looks good in costume,’ she said and then bit her lip. That had sounded very rude and she hadn't meant it to.

‘
And what about my arm?’ Gabe said, tapping his sling.

‘
You could be Horatio Nelson,’ Shelley said, suddenly inspired. ‘Now there’s a real hero for you.’

‘
But wouldn’t I have to lose an eye as well?’ Gabe said with a laugh.

Mia couldn't help but smile at his comment and noticed that he was looking at her. What was his problem? Had he never seen a woman in Regency costume before?

‘
Bingley not accompanying you?’ Gabe asked.

‘
You must be joking! He'd rampage and wreck the whole promenade. I’ve shut him in the kitchen,’ Shelley said. ‘He’s been a bad boy this morning. Just look what he’s done to Mia’s dress.’ She pulled Mia’s shawl down to reveal the offending mark.

‘
Oh, dear,’ Gabe said but there was the beginnings of a smile playing around his lips and Mia couldn’t help but smile too. ‘Shall I give him a walk?’

‘
Oh, would you?’

‘
It would be my pleasure.’

‘
He’s always such a darling for you. I can never handle him properly.’

‘
That’s because he knows he can get away with things with you. You've got to be firmer with him, Shelley.’

‘
I know but it's so hard.’

‘
I’ll get him now, shall I?’

Shelley smiled and nodded, watching as Gabe entered the house. ‘Honestly, I don't know what I'd do without Gabe. He really is marvellous. You should get to know him.’

Before Mia could protest, Shelley was shouting again.

‘
PIE! Oh, where is he? How very provoking he can be. Honestly, he wouldn’t get a job as a taxi driver.’

Mia grinned as Pie emerged from the house. His hair was in disarray as usual and he wasn't smiling.

‘
If only Pie could be more like Gabe,’ Shelley whispered.

They followed Pie out into the road and Mia couldn’t help smiling when she saw the vehicle that was to take them into Bath. It was a small white van. Well, it had once been white but was now more of a dingy beige owing to the layers of dirt that had accumulated over goodness only knew how long. It wasn’t exactly the finest of vehicles on the road but it looked functional enough and it certainly beat the long walk into town in their fancy gowns and delicate shoes.

‘
What is it, exactly, that Pie does?’ Mia whispered, looking around the van as they squashed into the back seat together.

‘
I’m not sure,’ Shelley whispered back.

‘
Didn’t you ask? I mean, when he came to rent your room?’

Shelley shook her head. ‘He just handed me these two references and a wad of fifty-pound notes and I said thank you. I’m sure he did try to tell me but I couldn’t understand what he was saying.’

‘
Is he foreign, do you think?’

Shelley shrugged.

Mia thought it very mysterious and she wasn’t at all sure she’d want to be sharing a house with somebody she knew so little about but there was also something a little romantic about it. It turned Pie into a sort of Heathcliff-type character where one could imagine all sorts about his background. Maybe he was a prince from for a faraway country or ... or maybe not. She couldn’t imagine it herself.

Putting all thoughts of Pie’s romantic past out of her mind, Mia looked out of the window as the van descended the steep hill into town. It was this side of town around which Jane Austen and her sister used to walk. Lyncombe Hill, wasn’t it? Mia tried to imagine the sisters making the ascent in the restricting fashions of the day. It wouldn’t do for Mia. As much as she adored her muslin dress and dainty shoes, she still liked to be able to stride out in a pair of jeans and sturdy boots.