I Was Jane Austen's Best Friend (13 page)

‘You could say, “La, my dear cousin, my acquaintance is with admirals, vice-admirals, rear admirals, all kinds of admirals, but as for the inferior ranks I know little: post-captains may be very good sorts of
men, but to tell you the truth, I don’t know one from the other.” ’

She made me giggle, but I begged her to think of something that would be believed by her mother. I was feeling much better though. It did look as if Thomas had said nothing about meeting me at midnight. I promised myself that I would have a look at his portrait in my journal and see whether I could make him even more handsome. I would stick the primroses into my journal once they were pressed and I would think of him every time that I looked at them.

‘Or you could just open your eyes very wide and say, “I’m not sure, Aunt. Perhaps he was one of Augusta’s visitors.” Don’t worry about blushing — you often do blush when my mother asks you a question. Now let’s go down and see if there’s any toast left. I’m hungry again after the walk.’

As soon as James and Henry had had breakfast, we all went out into the barn where the play was going to take place. I could see that they had set plays there before because there were some pieces of old furniture, carefully covered over with straw, and a pair of old curtains were in a box at the back. Henry started to paint the scenery on big pieces of board, and Jane and I were set to work sweeping the stage while Charles and Tom Fowle put out some benches for the audience.

‘I’ve got some small parts for the Terry children and for the Digweed boys,’ said James.

‘Just so that their parents will come to watch your play,’ said Jane. ‘That should build up the audience numbers — otherwise we might just have our dear parents and no one else.’ I thought that was quite funny and I giggled, and then I was sorry because I thought James looked cross.

‘Why don’t you read the play to us while we’re working, James,’ said Henry, starting to paint a blue sky across the top of the board. The lime wash wasn’t quite dry, but he worked some white into clouds and it made the blue sort of hazy and the sky looked very realistic. I told him that I thought it was very clever and he gave me a lovely smile and told me that the play was set in Bath so he was going to do two sets of scenery, one outside the houses in the Crescent and one drawing-room scene.

‘Well, this is Jenny’s bit.’ James gave me a fright. I didn’t know that I would be called upon to say anything so soon. I had a feeling that James wanted me to be useless so that he could cast someone else. My mouth was dry and I could say nothing. He frowned a bit and then he said the words again and looked at me impatiently. Henry repeated them in a very high-pitched voice and that made everyone laugh so I relaxed a bit and repeated the sentence.

Then James read Jane’s bit. It was just, ‘
Yes, madam.
’ Jane didn’t like that and she put in a funny bit about hiding the book that I had been reading and getting out a boring book by Dr Johnson instead.

‘Oh, why not,’ said Henry when James objected. ‘It’s quite amusing.’ So Jane went on putting in funny bits and by the end of a quarter of an hour her part was bigger than mine.

‘Now you must say this in a very weak tone of voice, Jenny,’ ordered James. ‘Say, “
I think that I am about to faint.” 
’

I repeated the words but they didn’t satisfy James. ‘Your voice must be weak but clear,’ he objected. ‘You’ll never be heard in the back row if you speak like that.’

‘We haven’t got a back row,’ shouted Charles, ‘and we’re not having one either, because I’m going out now. I promised to help John Bond with marking the new lambs.’

‘Try it again, Jenny,’ said Henry, busily putting the finishing touches to a stately house.

I tried again, but I knew by the frown on James’s face that he didn’t think much of it.

‘Now, Jane, you say, “
Oh, my dear mistress has fainted.” 
’

‘That’s boring,’ objected Jane. ‘In any case, the audience can see — even the back row, if there’s going to be one — can see that she’s fainted. Why should I say that? It isn’t interesting or funny, and it doesn’t tell anything new.’

And then she clasped her hands together and shrieked, ‘
 “Oh, my dear mistress, don’t faint to that side; that’s not your best side. Faint to the right and
then you will be in a good position when the gentlemen come in.
” That’s better, isn’t it, Jenny? Go on — say your bit again.’

I said it, and it did sound much better this time, probably because I was trying not to laugh and that made my voice sound all quavery and when Jane said her lines then I collapsed in a heap, as elegantly as I could, but making sure that I was on my right side, and Henry clapped, sending a shower of green paint spots over his scenery.

Today was a very busy day. Now it is night-time and Jane and I have brushed each other’s hair and we are here in our bedroom; Jane is on the bed with her writing desk balanced on her knee, reading from a book and scribbling on a piece of paper, and I am sitting at the washstand, writing in my journal. We have two candles in our room now. Jane asked her father whether we could and he immediately said yes, so Jane fetched another one without asking her mother.

‘We need two because I like to read and Jenny likes to write in her journal or draw,’ she said to her father. I felt very nervous because I think that my aunt, Mrs Austen, is someone who has rules, and that one of her rules is one candle for each
bedroom. But Jane is right; we do need two candles.

‘What are you reading?’ I asked.

‘It’s a book about teaching people who can’t hear and can’t talk how to spell out letters using their fingers,’ she said briefly. ‘I found it in Father’s library. Look, it has pictures of how you make the shapes of the letters with your fingers and thumb. I was thinking that if I could teach George his letters, he could talk on his fingers. You see, I have tried and tried to teach him to talk, but he doesn’t seem able to learn.’

I said I thought that if he learned his letters, then he could learn to read also — more to please her than anything else. I’m not sure that George, from what I have seen of him, would be able to read. I told Jane that I would help her teach him.

Jane’s face lit up and she gave me a big smile. ‘Shall we start tomorrow?’

I came across to her bed and peered over her shoulder.

‘The A looks a bit like an apple with a stalk standing up,’ I said. ‘We can start with that. We’ll bring him an apple so that he knows what it’s all about.’

I was just going to put this journal away when I remembered that Mr Austen, when he heard about it, told me that I should write down my thoughts as well as the day’s events.

Let me see …

I suppose I’m thinking that it must have been sad
for Mr and Mrs Austen to have a child like George, someone who will never grow into a man like James or Henry. And how Mrs Austen is so fond of James, and Mr Austen is so fond of Henry. I wonder … are they extra fond because they are comparing these two, who are so handsome and clever, with poor George? I wonder too if they ever feel sorry for George. He doesn’t seem very well looked after down in the village. I think he just shambles about all day. When I saw him he was not properly washed and his hair wasn’t combed. If he were well cared for, he would have a look of Charles. He has lovely eyes, and when he saw Jane, they lit up.

And then I start to think about Henry. He is very nice. He paid me a lot of attention today. He admired my hair and how blonde it is. He praised my blue eyes and told me that they reminded him of sapphires. He told me that I am the perfect height, and that he doesn’t like girls who are too tall. When we rolled back the carpet in the evening and Mrs Austen played some tunes for country dances, Henry was my partner for all of them and Jane teased me about him.

He looks so very handsome, with his black hair tied behind with a black velvet ribbon and his hazel eyes smiling at me, that I would love to draw a proper picture of him. From the first moment that he arrived, he has paid me attention.

‘Isn’t Jenny looking so much better?’ That was the
first thing he said to his mother when we arrived back from Deane Gate Inn.

‘You were raving with fever when he saw you the last time.’ Jane made it sound very dramatic. ‘He was the one that carried you into the house. And he knelt by your bed and sobbed, “My own dear love, don’t you know me?” ’

I felt myself getting as red as if I still had a fever, but Henry just laughed and pulled Jane’s dark curls. ‘Jenny was beautiful even then,’ he joked, and then both he and James went into the parlour to have some breakfast and we all followed to talk to them.

‘How’s the romance getting on in
Jack and Alice?
’ enquired Henry, while James told his mother all about Oxford. ‘You know about Jane’s novel, I suppose,’ he said to me. He probably just said it to include me, because everyone knows about Jane’s stories.

‘Well, Alice proposed to Charles and was rejected,’ said Jane thoughtfully. ‘Wait a minute and I’ll read you a bit.’ She dashed across to her little portable writing desk that her father gave to her for her fifteenth birthday. She took out her notebook and read aloud in a very dramatic way:

‘
However, I was determined to make an end to the matter and therefore wrote him a very kind love letter, offering him with great tenderness my hand and heart. To this he returned an angry refusal, but thinking it might be rather the effect of his modesty than anything else, I wrote again offering my undying affection.
’

Henry was laughing and I giggled also. Jane was very good at imitating the style of the romances that she loved to read. I wondered what Henry would think of my journal and then I felt myself blush, despite myself. I wish I could learn not to blush. I am always doing it.

Jane has just asked me what I was writing and when I told her it was about reading out to Henry about Alice, she tossed me over a piece of paper.

‘Here, you can stick that in your journal,’ she said.

I read it through and raised my eyebrows. I told her I didn’t think that James would like the dedication. I believe he will think Jane is laughing at him, mentioning his two plays like that.

The Visit
A comedy in 2 acts
Dedication
.
To James Austen Esq
.

Sir
,

The following Drama, which I humbly recommend to your Protection and Patronage, tho’ inferior to those celebrated Comedies called. ‘The Schoole for Jealousy’ & ‘The Travelled Man’, will I hope afford some amusement to so respectable a Scholar as yourself, which was the end in veiw when it was first composed by your Humble Servant the Author
.

‘Well, Henry liked the dedication that I wrote for him. He said that he would pay me a hundred guineas.’ And Jane tossed me another piece of scrap paper.

I asked her whether Henry did pay her a hundred guineas, but I laughed as I asked it and she just laughed as well. From what I’ve heard of Henry and his spendthrift habits he probably couldn’t spare a hundred pennies.

To Henry Thomas Austen Esq
.

Sir

I am now availing myself of the Liberty you have frequently honoured me with of dedicating one of my Novels to you. That it is unfinished, I greive, yet fear that from me, it will always remain so, that as far as it is carried, it should be so trifling and so unworthy of you, is another concern to
Your obliged Humble Servant
,