Mr. Darcy Forever (18 page)

‘
Oh, I always have to speak my mind,’ Mia said.

‘
And doesn’t that get you into trouble?’

‘
All the time,’ she said and then gave a little laugh. ‘But I can’t be any other way, I’m afraid.’

Gabe stared at her.

‘
What?’

‘
I admire that,’ he said. ‘There aren’t enough people who are honest and open in this world.’

‘
Shelley is,’ Mia said.

‘
Oh, yes. Shelley’s brilliant. Have you been friends long?’

‘
Since drama school.’

‘
She’s been a really good friend to me,’ Gabe said.

Mia smiled. ‘Well, she certainly seems to like you.’

Gabe frowned and his eyes narrowed. ‘What’s she been saying?’

‘
Nothing. Only that you are very nice,’ Mia said with a little blush.

‘
Shelley means well but she’s a meddler, I'm afraid - in the nicest possible way.’

‘
You mean she's tried to match you before?’

‘
Every other week,’ he said.

‘
Oh, dear.’

‘
I mean, I don't mind. I’ve actually met some very interesting young ladies like Mary the Goth with the purple lipstick and eyes like a giant panda.’

Mia smiled.

‘
And Janice who didn't stop talking the whole two hours she was here.’

‘
I suppose friends always think they know best,’ Mia said.

‘
I think Shelley expects the world to be like one of those romantic novels she’s always reading.’

‘
That’s the only problem with novels,’ Mia said. ‘They give readers such high hopes that the real world can often be a bit of a let down.’

Gabe looked as if he was about to say something but a sudden mass of chestnut fur tore into the room.

‘
Bingley!’ Mia said in shock.

‘
I must have left the back door open again,’ Gabe said. ‘He’s always finding his way in here.’

Mia watched as Bingley made himself at home by Gabe’s feet.

‘
We’re old buddies, aren't we?’ Gabe said, bending down to pat Bingley’s head.

‘
He certainly looks at home here. You really should adopt him. I don't think Shelley can handle him.’

‘
Oh, you'd be surprised. I've seen her with him and she's brilliant. I think she just puts on an act about him being too much for her. We all like something to moan about, don't we?’

‘
I suppose so. What's yours, then?’

‘
I don't know,’ he said. ‘Aches and pains here and there.’ He nodded to his arm. ‘Exercise seems to do me more harm than good now.’

‘
But you're quite old now,’ Mia said. ‘I suppose that's to be expected.’

Gabe laughed. ‘Don’t sugar-coat it for me, will you?’

Mia bit her lip. ‘I didn't mean to sound rude and I'm sorry if I did but…’

‘
What?’

Mia looked at him. ‘Well, you said Shelley has been trying to matchmake you but – well - do you think you will find someone? I mean if you haven't found the right person by now.’

‘
But I did find the right person.’

Mia frowned. ‘Then what happened? Didn't she love you? Was it unrequited love?’ she asked, imagining him writing reams of poetry to a callous woman who didn't return his affection.

‘
No, it wasn't unrequited love. In fact, we married.’

‘
Oh, so you're divorced? I’m so sorry.’

Gabe shook his head. ‘It wasn't divorce that took her. It was meningitis.’

‘
She died?’ Mia’s eyes were wide with horror. ‘I'm sorry - I didn't know.’

‘
Nobody does. It happened before I came here and I try to keep that part of my life private. I'd hate to think of the pity that would be laid at my doorstep if someone like Shelley knew the truth.’

‘
Was she very young?’

‘
Twenty-nine.’

Tears brimmed in Mia’s eyes. ‘That’s so awful. That's only a few years older than me.’

Gabe nodded. ‘We’d only been married three years.’ He paused for a moment, bending down again to pat Bingley's comforting head. Mia looked around the room.

‘
Is this her?’ she asked, gazing down at a small silver photo frame on the bookcase. It was of a young woman with long red hair and a smiling face.

‘
Yes,’ Gabe said, looking at the photo.

‘
She’s so beautiful.’

Gabe got up from the chair and picked up the photo and, for one terrible moment, Mia thought he was going to cry. Her and her big mouth. Why was she so nosy and why did she always have to ask too many questions?

‘
What was her name?’ she said, knowing it was probably wrong to ask yet more questions but quite unable to help herself.

‘
Andrea,’ he said.

‘
How did you meet her?’

Gabe smiled. ‘It was a mutual friend.’

‘
Like Shelley trying to match-make you?’

‘
Yes,’ he said. ‘Only she managed to get it right first time.’

‘
Then it was love at first sight?’

‘
Not exactly. Well, not for Andrea but it was for me.’

Mia smiled and noticed that his eyes were bright and wide as if remembering the first time he’d seen Andrea.

‘
We’d both been invited to one of those awful dinners where you just know it’s going to be awkward and that the host is setting you up. Anyway, I was sitting opposite Andrea. She’d been introduced to me but had immediately struck up a conversation with the host’s husband that seemed to go on for hours and I couldn’t get a word in edgeways.’

‘
That’s very rude of her.’

Gabe smiled. ‘She told me later that she’d done it deliberately because she was too shy to talk to me.’

‘
Was she really shy?’

‘
Until the coffee was served and then she looked up and smiled at me and I was lost.’

Mia gasped. It was the most romantic thing she’d ever heard. He was
lost
. Had she ever had that effect on a man? She doubted it.

‘
I couldn’t take my eyes off her after that. I must have looked like a fool but I didn’t care. Then, when we were about to leave, she held out her hand to shake mine and placed a little piece of paper in it with her phone number on it.’

‘
And you called her?’

‘
The very next day.’

‘
And then what happened?’

Gabe’s forehead creased. ‘You don’t really want to know all this, do you?’

‘
Yes!’ Mia said. ‘I’m an Austen fan. There’s nothing I like more than a love story.’

Gabe smiled. ‘Okay,’ he said, ‘I’ll tell you but you have to let me top up that coffee first.’

Mia looked down at her empty cup. She couldn’t actually remember drinking it because she’d been so enthralled by his story.

‘
Okay,’ she said. ‘But then I want
all
the details.’

Shelley was having a dilemma. She and Mia were due to head down into town to attend a walking tour of Jane Austen’s Bath but Mia hadn’t yet come back from Gabe’s.

‘
Do you think I should go and get her?’ she asked as Pie walked into the living room, his mass of dark hair obscuring half his face. ‘She’s been in there for ages.’

Pie grunted his response which wasn't very helpful at all.

‘
I mean, I did send her round there but I thought she'd be gone only five minutes. Don't get me wrong, I’m delighted that things seem to be going well but I'm just a bit worried. What on earth can they be doing?’

Pie grunted again.

‘
You don't think they're-?’ Shelley's mouth dropped open but then she shook her head. ‘Gabe is a gentleman. They must just be talking.’ She paced up and down the room. ‘I’ve already lost my dog to Gabe and now it seems I've lost my best friend too.’ She looked up at Pie as if he might have something consoling to say to her but he just stared at her. ‘Haven’t you got to get to work or somewhere?’

He shrugged his broad shoulders and left the room.

Shelley sighed, knowing that there was nobody to blame but herself. She was the one who’d practically shoved Mia towards Gabe and she couldn’t very well complain if they really were getting on.

She walked through to the kitchen and gazed up into the face of Henry Tilney who was smiling down at her from the calendar.

‘
What would you do, Henry? Do you think I should go and find out what’s happening or leave them to it? What would Emma Woodhouse do? She was always match-making people, wasn’t she?’ Shelley puffed out her cheeks. She’d had no idea what a fraught business match-making was.

Next door, Gabe was making more coffee. Mia had followed him through to the kitchen and was watching him. He really was rather handsome, she thought, with his warm hazel eyes, thick fair hair and a gentle smile. And he looked as if he kept himself in shape when he wasn’t recovering from a broken arm. It seemed a shame that he was on his own. She was quite sure that there were thousands of women out there who would beat a path to his door if they knew he was available. He was too old for her, of course; she’d always dated men her own age and had never been tempted by the older man. But she was enjoying talking to Gabe. He was so easy to listen to and she felt like she’d known him for ages.

‘
So, come on - tell me what happened next,’ she said, desperate to get back to the story he had been telling her about how he'd met his wife.

‘
Well, I gave Andrea a call and we agreed to meet later that week. I chose this little Italian restaurant that I knew. It was one of those amazing hot summer nights and we ate outside in the courtyard. We hadn't talked to each other at all at the dinner party and I was so worried in case we had nothing to say to each other but the problem was shutting us up,’ he said, laughing at the memory. ‘We were the last to leave the restaurant that night and then we walked along the river, not wanting to leave each other's company.’

‘
What did you talk about?’

‘
Everything, really. Our jobs, our families, our hopes for the future and, the wonderful thing about it all was that it was so natural. Nothing was forced. You know when you’re with somebody and you have no idea what to talk to them about and you have those painful silences? Well, there were none of those with Andrea.’

He handed Mia her coffee and they returned to the living room. This time, Mia sat down on the sofa opposite him.

‘
You know, it feels funny to be talking about her like this. That's one of the things I haven't been able to do. When she died, there was so much sorting out to do - things to arrange and people to see and, well, there wasn’t much time to just sit and talk about her. Even if there had been, I don't think people would have let me.’

‘
You mean your family?’

‘
My family, Andrea's family - nobody really wants to talk much. I think loss isolates a person. I think everybody is far too nervous to ask you how you feel in case you have a breakdown in front of them. It's much easier not to say anything and hope that the pain goes away quickly and quietly.’