At Home with Mr Darcy (6 page)

‘Dan?’ she said a moment later.

‘Hey, Robyn!’

‘Are you at the stables? You didn’t pick up the house phone.’

‘No. I was in the garden with Cassie. Just got back inside.’

‘How is she?’

‘She’s fine,’ he said.

‘Yeah?’ Robyn said. ‘And you? You sound out of breath.’

‘I’m fine too,’ he said.

‘Are you sure?

‘Of course I’m sure.’

‘How are the dogs and the hens? And the horses?’ she added, knowing how much Dan doted on his charges.

‘
Everyone’s
fine,’ he told her again. ‘Tell me about your day.’

So she did, recounting the memorable trip to Chatsworth and the incident with Mrs Soames and the Emperor Fountain.

‘Now that’s a sight I’m glad I missed out on,’ Dan said.

‘You should have seen her in the ladies with her bottom under the hand dryer. You would have been so proud of me – I didn’t laugh once! I was the consummate professional.’

He laughed. ‘You were made for that job,’ he said. ‘You’re so good with people.’

Robyn sighed. ‘But you and Cassie are the people I really want to be with.’

‘And you will be – really soon,’ he said.

‘I miss you both so much.’

‘Nonsense!’ he said. ‘I bet you didn’t think of us
once
as you were walking around the grounds of Mr Darcy’s house.’

‘That’s not true!’ Robyn protested.

Dan laughed. ‘We miss you,’ he said.

‘Don’t say that or I’ll catch the first train back home.’

‘No, no,’ he said. ‘Stay and enjoy every minute and we’ll be waiting here for you when you come home.’

She smiled. ‘Love you,’ she said.

‘Love you too.’

Robyn put her phone down, her eyes misty with happy tears and then she took a deep breath because she had a fun-packed evening to prepare for.

That evening, once everybody had rested and dined, Robyn fixed the chairs so that everybody had a good view of the TV screen and the 2005 film adaptation of
Pride and Prejudice
was shown. Melissa Berry was there, under sufferance, and looked totally bored by the whole thing.

‘She’s fiddling with her phone,’ Doris Norris whispered to Roberta. Dame Pamela turned around in horror and glared at the offending instrument. Melissa Berry looked up and caught the great lady’s eye.

‘I’ve just got to reply to this text,’ she said.

Dame Pamela cleared her throat and, with a groan, Melissa put her phone away.

‘Make sure it’s on silent,’ Mrs Soames barked.

Melissa took it out of her bag again and switched it off, mouthing the word, ‘Satisfied?’ to the back of Mrs Soames’s head.

‘Here it comes!’ Rose announced as Elizabeth and the Gardiners set off for Pemberley.

‘It’s the view from the end of the Canal,’ Roberta said as Keira Knightley stood up in the carriage and laughed.

‘Oh, I didn’t walk that far,’ Doris said.

‘And there’s the Emperor Fountain,’ Annie said.

‘We all know what happened there,’ Roberta said in a none-too-quiet whisper. Warwick immediately guffawed and Dame Pamela let fly a funny little squeal. Mrs Soames shifted uneasily in her chair but remained silent.

As they approached the scene where Elizabeth meets Mr Darcy in the misty morning meadow, the whole room seemed to be holding its breath. Robyn looked across the room towards Melissa and noticed that even she seemed to be spellbound by the scene and that her eyes were glittering with tears. Robyn frowned. Had she got that right? Were they really tears or was it just the reflection of the television screen?

Robyn had her answer a moment later when Melissa got up and hurried out of the room and she didn’t need to think twice before following her.

‘Melissa?’ Robyn cried after her, catching up with her at the foot of the stairs. ‘Are you okay?’

Melissa turned her head away so that Robyn couldn’t see her face and sniffed loudly.

‘I’m fine,’ she said unconvincingly.

‘You don’t look or sound fine,’ Robyn said gently.

‘It’s just hay fever, okay?’

Robyn blinked in surprise at the blatant lie. ‘Why don’t I get us a couple of drinks and find somewhere quiet to sit?’

Melissa shook her head. ‘I’m going up to my room.’

‘Oh,’ Robyn said.

Melissa started up the stairs.

‘Are you sure you don’t want to stay? We’re going to watch some clips from the BBC version of
Pride and Prejudice
in preparation for our trip to Lyme Park tomorrow. I think you’d enjoy it.’

Melissa shook her head. ‘No,’ she said. ‘I couldn’t.’

Robyn frowned as she watched the retreating back of Melissa. She was the most uncommunicative person Robyn had ever met but she couldn’t help wanting to talk to her all the same. Something was
obviously
upsetting her.

The next morning, after a hearty breakfast during which Doris Norris had sustained a ten-minute bout of hiccups much to the chagrin of Mrs Soames, who said that Doris had been eating far too many Bakewell puddings for one small person, the minibus left the hotel, crossing the border from Derbyshire into Cheshire.

‘Now, I hope you won’t be too disappointed to find out that the model of Mr Darcy that was in the lake in front of the house is no longer there,’ Dame Pamela announced as they arrived at Lyme Park.

A few of the company groaned.

‘Where’s it gone?’ Roberta asked.

‘I believe it was sent to Australia,’ Dame Pamela said.

‘Darcy down under?’ Annie said.

‘I would have paid good money to have him in my garden pond,’ Doris said. ‘Just imagine what the neighbours would say.’

Ten minutes later, they arrived at the house via a shuttle bus, which saved walking up the steep steps from the car park, and they made their way together towards the entrance, entering a courtyard that the eager Janeites recognised instantly.

‘Those are the steps Mr Darcy ran down in the adaptation when he was trying to stop Elizabeth from leaving,’ Rose said, pointing.

‘Yes but did he come down the left-hand side or the right?’ Roberta asked as they made their way towards them. These things were of great importance to an Austen fan.

‘The left, I think,’ Rose said.

The group entered the house and walked around in awed silence.

‘It’s such a dark interior, isn’t it?’ Dame Pamela said after a few minutes.

‘All that Elizabethan wainscotting,’ Annie said. ‘I’m not sure I like it.’

‘You can see why they filmed the interiors elsewhere,’ Robyn said. ‘It may look the part of Pemberley from the outside but the interior is so much older. What do you think of it, Melissa?’

‘Well, it’s not quite to my taste but I can see its appeal.’

Robyn nodded, thinking that Melissa was in a better mood this morning and wondering if she’d written any more about them all yet.

After the tour, the group entered the gift shop which was full of Mr Darcy items that were irresistible to them.

‘It’s Mr Darcy that sells,’ the man behind the till said as Doris Norris approached with a handful of books and postcards. ‘We’ve tried some other books but everybody wants Darcy. Even those postcards of Elizabeth Bennet weren’t popular enough to continue stocking.’

Doris Norris smiled. ‘Mr Darcy is a one off, isn’t he?’

‘He certainly is,’ the man said. ‘Keeps us busy in here, that’s for sure.’

Roberta joined Doris at the till and paid for her ‘I heart Mr Darcy’ bookmark. She only had five similar ones at home which, as any voracious reader knows, is nowhere near enough.

The group split up as they left the house and entered the gardens. Katherine took Warwick’s hand and led him back towards the car park.

‘Where are we going?’ he asked. ‘I thought you wanted to see the gardens and then have lunch with everyone.’

‘I do but I want to see something first.’

They walked through the car park and along a track which took them through a gate and out onto the moorland where sheep were grazing. It was nice to get away from the weekend crowds and to breathe in some real country air.

‘It says it’s a fifteen minute walk,’ Katherine said, looking at the guide they’d been given.

‘To where?’ Warwick asked.

‘All will be revealed,’ she said. ‘We might even get the place to ourselves.’

‘Unless Mrs Soames decides to stomp after us.’

‘Don’t even joke about it,’ Katherine said. ‘God, that woman! Have you heard the way she speaks to her daughter?’

‘Frequently.’

‘I don’t know how Annie puts up with it.’

‘No,’ Warwick said. ‘She’s a sweet soul, isn’t she?’

‘Mrs Soames told her to put something back in the shop and that she couldn’t possibly need any more Darcy trinkets. It was so humiliating for her.’

‘I wonder why she came away with her mother if she knew what a nightmare it would be.’

‘I guess she’s a pretty big Janeite to be willing to put up with Mrs Soames for twenty-four hours a day.’

They strode across the field, the summer wind in their hair.

‘I feel like Elizabeth Bennet,’ Katherine said.

Warwick grabbed her around her waist. ‘So you do,’ he said with a laugh.

‘Warwick!’ she cried, laughing at his boldness as he kissed her.

‘There’s only the sheep to spy on us up here,’ he said.

‘What on
earth
do you mean?’ she said, knowing
exactly
what he meant.

‘Let me kiss you again,’ he whispered in her ear.

She batted him away playfully. ‘Come on,’ she said. ‘I think it’s just over here.’

‘Spoil sport!’ Warwick shouted after her as she took off up the track.

‘Hurry up!’ she cried, turning back to look at him. ‘It’s here.’

‘
What’s
here? What’s this all about?’ 

‘Just come and see.
Quickly!
’

‘Wow!’ he said a moment later and Katherine laughed because they’d found a little piece of landscape that was oh-so-familiar to them.

Rose, Roberta and Doris were taking a slow stroll down to the Dutch garden which was reached by a long slope away from the house.

‘It’s a proper sunken garden, isn’t it?’ Rose said.

‘This is where Elizabeth walked with the Gardiners in the adaptation,’ Roberta said as they saw the intricately laid out garden complete with statues, urns and a pond with a water feature in the middle.

‘Oh, dear,’ Doris said a moment later. ‘It’s roped off. I so wanted to walk where Jennifer Ehle had walked.’

Rose nodded, knowing how important these things were to fans.

‘It’s like the time I went to Florence,’ Roberta said. ‘I was going to find the spot in that loggia where Helena Bonham Carter’s Lucy Honeychurch sat in the film version of
A Room with a View
but it was completely covered in scaffolding. I couldn’t get near it.’

‘What a shame,’ Doris said. ‘What did you do?’

‘Oh, I went and had the biggest pizza known to mankind and bought a nice leather handbag,’ Roberta said with a chuckle.

Robyn was standing on the lawn in front of the house. She’d been hoping to talk to Melissa but had lost her in the excitement of the shop and hadn’t seen her since. The gardens at Lyme Park were extensive and it was going to be tricky finding her if she didn’t want to be found.

It was as she was walking up the path which Mr Darcy and Elizabeth had walked along in the BBC adaptation that she saw her.

‘Melissa!’ she called. The young woman turned around, a resigned look on her face at having being discovered. ‘I’ve been looking for you.’

‘Why?’ Melissa asked as Robyn approached her.

‘I was worried about you after last night. Is everything okay?’

‘Why shouldn’t it be?’

Robyn shrugged. ‘Because you look permanently distracted and teary and can’t leave your phone alone for more than ten minutes.’

Melissa started walking away. ‘It’s none of your business.’

‘I know,’ Robyn said, ‘but I can’t help feeling a bit responsible for the welfare of everyone on this trip and I don’t like seeing anybody sad.’

‘You should become a journalist,’ Melissa said.

Robyn frowned. ‘Me? Why?’

‘Because you like stories and you never give up.’

Robyn laughed. ‘I can’t imagine me doing your job. You’ve got to be pretty thick-skinned, haven’t you?’

‘I suppose,’ Melissa said. ‘There are a lot of knock-backs.’

Robyn nodded. ‘Is that what’s getting you down at the moment? Work?’

They walked along a path that skirted an immaculate lawn.

‘It isn’t work,’ Melissa said. ‘I love my job.’

‘Personal then?’

‘Yes,’ Melissa snapped but then she stopped walking and turned to face Robyn. A strange moment passed between them in which neither of them spoke. They seemed to be simply moving towards each other, gauging one another.

‘Look,’ Robyn said gently, ‘I’m a pretty good listener. Why don’t you tell me what’s going on?’