The Particular Charm of Miss Jane Austen

by The Particular Charm of Miss Jane Austen (retail) (epub)

  Just then, there was a crackle as the loudspeakers came to life, and a disembodied voice made a brief announcement about fire exits, switching off mobiles and a request not to take photographs, particularly of the presenter. This was greeted by a loud groan from one section of the stalls, followed by much laughter from everyone else, but then there was a lull as all eyes turned to the stage and Aiden walked on.

  There he was, in the flesh. He looked exactly as always, and Rose smiled faintly at the collective sigh from around her as he shrugged out of his jacket and tossed it on the chair before pulling his wire-rimmed glasses from his shirt pocket and putting them on.

  The disappointment she’d known would come as his eyes scanned the audience briefly, passing over her and Morgan without a hint of recognition, hit much harder than she’d expected, and her hand flew to her throat as it tightened threateningly.

  Morgan leaned in again, no doubt to tease her, but then she stopped and patted Rose’s hand awkwardly. ‘Hey, are you okay?’

  Rose nodded but didn’t look at Morgan in case she spotted the hint of tears in her eyes. ‘Yes, of course.’

  With another reassuring pat on her hand, Morgan sat back in her seat again, and Rose swallowed hard, her gaze fixed on the white, portable screen, unable to look over to where Aiden was sorting through his slides – slides she had been working on only days ago.

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  ‘I’m sorry to keep you waiting.’ As his familiar voice rang out, Rose chanced a quick glance in his direction. He was perched on the edge of the small table, placing his slides and even the laptop in peril. ‘I had a slight mishap on the way in.’ He reached down and waved the broken strap of his bag. ‘It left things slightly out of order.’

  A general murmur of reassurance spread through the room, with someone calling out, ‘You’re always worth the wait, Doc!’ followed by a ripple of laughter.

  Aiden smiled self-consciously and ran a hand through his already tousled hair. ‘Ah… right.’ He got to his feet and walked round to his laptop, hitting a key and picking up the remote and pointing it at the screen. An image appeared on the large screen on the stage, a familiar drawing to Rose, of Steventon Rectory when Jane used to live there.

  ‘Sooo.’ Aiden stared at the image for a second, then turned to face them. ‘Let’s talk Steventon, shall we?’

  ‘We can talk anything you like, Doc!’ A few people laughed again, but most were watching him expectantly.

  ‘Okay; so, I think I recognise some of you from previous years.’ Aiden scanned the faces turned up to him, then smiled faintly. ‘You’ll be pleased to know, therefore, that this year, I’m sharing some new facts with you, along with images of formerly unseen artefacts, a couple of which we can accurately date to the period the Austen family lived in Steventon.’

  There was a frisson of excitement at this as, once again, Aiden’s gaze roamed over the crowd, and Rose watched him, unaware she was holding her breath. ‘If you’re a well-behaved audience’ – he paused deliberately – ‘I might even let you in on a few of my secret discoveries.’

  As people smiled and a few cheered, he suddenly turned his head towards the area where Rose and Morgan sat and for a fleeting second – so fast she wasn’t quite sure it had actually happened – their eyes met. She swallowed quickly, but he was already launching into his presentation, the first slide flashing onto the screen. Had she imagined it? No, she definitely hadn’t. Morgan had said there was something different about her – and why shouldn’t there be after all she’d experienced? She had to start believing her own eyes.

  Rose turned her attention to the talk, one she knew by heart. As always, when Aiden was talking about history, about his work in particular, he was a heady mixture of animated intelligence and intensity. Glancing quickly to her left, she could see the rapt faces, all silent now, drinking in his every word – though whether it was because of the content or simply because he had such a lovely voice, she couldn’t tell. She just hoped her own face was arranged in some semblance of polite interest, because her heart was doing flip-flops in her chest. She had never met anyone who had this effect on her.

  Rose tried not to watch him, staring fixedly at the slides as they flipped onto the screen. Her eyes, however, seemed to have a will of their own and returned time and again to where he stood, reeling off the prepared words of his talk, or rambling off at a tangent as something would strike him, his hands moving expressively as he expounded on one theory or another. He has such lovely hands, mused Rose, watching keenly as he gripped the edge of the table for a moment to reach for a map to show them.

  Lovely hands. Rose sighed, then flinched as Aiden stopped suddenly, the unfurled map hanging loose for a moment. Morgan made an involuntarily sound and then coughed to try to cover it, and Chrystal threw her a startled look before smiling at her. Oh. My. God. Did I say that out loud?

  Rose’s skin went cold, then really warm. Morgan had her hand over her mouth trying not to laugh. No hiding indeed!

  Meanwhile, Aiden had barely missed a beat and was holding up the map to the audience now as he wound up his talk – was he done already?

  ‘Now, before I open up the floor for questions, is anyone taking the tour to Hampshire in the morning?’

  Rose glanced around; there was a fair show of hands. The escorted trips to Jane Austen country had become so popular over the years, they now did two, and sometimes three, during the festival to accommodate the demand.

  ‘Good, good.’ Aiden stared into the distance for a moment as a hush settled on the audience. Then he seemed to recall where he was. ‘Right. Well, if you’re on that trip, I’ve got a team on a dig in Chawton I need to check in with; you’ll probably find me by the church, as we’re working on a project there. Feel free to come and say hello.’

  A buzz of noise followed this, and Rose frowned. That wasn’t on the official programme. She turned to Morgan, who grinned at her.

  ‘Good job we chose to go on Tuesday’s tour, huh, and not Monday’s.’ Then she laughed, keeping her voice to a whisper. ‘He might regret inviting people to say hi, though. Doubt he’ll get a chance to do much work once the bus arrives!’

  ‘Right – any questions?’ The doctor had perched his glasses on his head, clearly pleased by the number of hands shooting into the air. ‘Yes – the lady there.’ He pointed into the audience. ‘In the… er… blue bonnet – yes, the one with feathers rather than fruit.’

  There was a murmur of laughter.

  ‘Are there any seats left on the coach tour?’ The laughter increased, and Aiden smiled, causing Rose’s heart to flutter alarmingly again.

  ‘I believe it’s already sold out.’ Most of the hands were reluctantly withdrawn as a collective ‘Awwww’ could be heard.

  ‘Er – anyone else? Anything else?’

  He fielded a few questions about the dig, but most of them were about him: what had drawn him into archaeology? What find had given him the most pleasure? Where was he going next?

  ‘This is more like a chat show than a Q&A,’ Morgan hissed in Rose’s ear. ‘Ask him one of your intelligent questions; go on.’ She nudged Rose hard in the ribs.

  Rose shook her head. Having a new perspective on Aiden and what may be possible for them was a big enough challenge for now. She wasn’t about to start speaking up in public as well.

  Sinking back in her seat as the questions continued to come, Rose chewed on her bottom lip. The lecture was as good as over; with Aiden heading off to Chawton tomorrow on what was clearly his current project, the likelihood of him returning was slim. Yet she couldn’t let it end like every other year…

  ‘Right. If that’s all the questions, I’ll say thank you and—’ Aiden’s voice broke into her thoughts, and Rose looked over to where he stood on the edge of the stage. ‘Yes? The lady at the back – you had another question?’

  ‘Yes, I wondered if you had any photos of the metal comb you mentioned finding? I’d love to see it.’

  There was
a general murmur of approval to this, but Aiden frowned. ‘I do, but I’m not sure if I brought them…’ And he turned and looked straight at Rose. ‘Do you remember seeing them when you were sorting through things?’

  The surprise left Rose speechless for a moment, but her heart began to race under his stare, and she could feel warmth filling her cheeks as so many eyes turned in her direction. Morgan nudged her foot, and Rose sat up a little in her seat and cleared her throat. ‘Yes – yes, I do.’

  There was an expectant pause, and then a smile almost touched his lips.

  ‘And, er – can you, by any chance, remember where this was?’ There was some gentle laughter at this.

  ‘Sorry. Yes, of course. At the back of the blue folder.’ Rose pointed over to the small table. ‘I think it was the section labelled “Day 3 Finds”; I put them in order according to their catalogue number.’

  Aiden turned to flick through the folder for a moment, and Rose sank lower into her seat, trying to breathe slowly, evenly. That did not happen; it didn’t.

  Morgan was grinning at her, and Rose muttered, ‘You’re incorrigible!’ as her heart slowly resumed its normal pace.

  ‘Here we are.’ Aiden turned back to face the room, waving some photographs in the direction of the lady who had asked the question. ‘I’ve got to leave after this, but I’m happy to stay until…’ He glanced at his watch. ‘Say, eight? So if anyone has anything else they’d like to have a look at, please come up to the front. Thank you, everyone.’

  There was a loud round of applause and a few more whistles from around the theatre, and people began to get up and gather their belongings.

  ‘Doctor Trevellyan! Aiden, excuse me.’

  Rose’s skin went cold. ‘What you are doing?’ she hissed at Morgan, who was waving at Aiden and beckoning him over.

  ‘Let’s not waste the opportunity.’ Morgan winked at her as Aiden came to stand in front of them at the edge of the stage.

  ‘Oh, hi.’ He smiled at Morgan. ‘Did you have a question for me?’

  ‘Yes, but not about archaeology.’ Morgan’s smile widened as she quickly moved her leg, Rose’s kick misfiring as her foot connected with the front of the stage instead.

  No one else seemed to notice the thud, though Rose would swear Aiden’s eyes had flickered and… was he smirking, or had she imagined the edges of his mouth curving upwards slightly?

  ‘Great lecture! Good to see you again. Wanted to let you know – Rose, James and I are all heading over to The Raven now. You’re welcome to join us if you’re up for it.’

  He didn’t answer straight away, and Rose, who had been staring anywhere but at Aiden, slowly looked up. He wasn’t smiling, but he was watching her, and it gave her courage.

  Swallowing the trepidation of the old Rose, she said as confidently as she could muster, ‘We’d love to see you there.’

  Aiden nodded. ‘Would’ve loved to be there, but I’m afraid I’ve got to head back to Hampshire. Need to catch up first thing with the team on what they’ve been up to whilst I’ve been in Bath.’

  Morgan shrugged. ‘That’s a shame. Well, we’ll see you in Chawton, then.’

  ‘You’re on the tour?’

  ‘Wouldn’t miss it – would we, Rose?’

  ‘Er – no. We wouldn’t.’

  ‘Good. Well – excuse me.’ He nodded at them both and turned away.

  Morgan leaned forward with the pretence of picking up her sweater so she could catch Rose’s eye. ‘Mad at me?’

  ‘No,’ Rose said tersely, but then she unbent, a smile forming. ‘Of course not. I’d already embarrassed myself enough, so what does one more thing matter?’

  ‘You did start, it you know,’ Morgan said, her eyes sparkling with suppressed laughter.

  ‘Not intentionally! I had no idea I’d said it out loud.’

  ‘Don’t worry – I doubt anyone except the Doc noticed – it’s not like you gave into the urge to applaud again. He was probably so tuned in to you, he was aware of everything you were doing.’

  ‘Stop it, Morgan!’ Rose still didn’t believe Morgan’s exaggerated sense of how attractive Rose was, but there was something she was slowly beginning to realise: an invisible pull between them. Aiden was definitely aware of her in his audience today, and he seemed to be avoiding her eye as much as she was trying to avoid his.

  They got to their feet, and Rose looked over towards the stage. Several people had taken Aiden up on his offer, and he was presently crouched at the front of the stage talking to them.

  Turning to follow Morgan, her reluctance to leave was tempered by knowing she might see him one last time on the following day. As they reached the doors, Rose hesitated and glanced back over her shoulder. Aiden seemed to be rummaging around in his jacket for something, leaving the remaining members of the audience to study the photographs.

  Rose turned and followed Morgan out into the foyer and then out into the street where they turned to walk towards Queen Square.

  They had barely gone two paces when her phone rang. ‘Why don’t you text James to meet us in The Raven?’ Rose stared disbelievingly at the name on the screen: Doctor Trevellyan.

  Morgan looked up from her texting. ‘Aren’t you going to answer it?’

  ‘Oh, yes!’ Rose connected the call, putting the phone cautiously to her ear as they continued to walk along Barton Street. ‘Hello?’

  ‘Hi. It’s… Aiden.’ He sounded so close, Rose threw a frantic look over her shoulder, thinking for a minute he’d followed them.

  ‘Er, hi! Did you – did you need help with something? Your laptop…’

  ‘No, not at all. I – it’s – I didn’t get a chance to say thank you; you know, for… everything.’

  ‘All I did was tell you where the photos were!’ Morgan pocketed her phone and smiled widely, tapping a fist rapidly against her chest, but Rose shook her head, trying to hear what he was saying.

  ‘And retyped my speech and rescued my entire presentation the other day.’

  Despite her desperately fluttering heart, Rose laughed. ‘Okay. But anyone could have done the same.’

  ‘I don’t agree.’

  There was silence for a moment, and Rose glanced at Morgan, who was staring unapologetically at her. They had reached the corner of Queen Square, and she pointed to the right to steer her friend towards The Raven.

  Aiden cleared his throat. ‘Sooo – anyway, as I said, I wanted to thank you.’

  ‘You just did.’

  ‘No – I mean, can I treat you to a drink or something? A meal, even?’

  Rose’s heart almost stopped, then started hammering. Would he be able to hear it?

  ‘Are you still there?’

  ‘Oh, yes. Sorry. That would be nice.’ Bit of an understatement. Then Rose frowned. ‘I thought you had to leave?’

  ‘I’m afraid I do right now, but you did say you would be in Chawton tomorrow. I – well, if it works for you… I thought perhaps then?’

  A jolt of anticipation shot through Rose, and she bit her lip to try and contain her smile. ‘Yes, of course. That would be perfect. Do you… did you have a time in mind?’

  ‘No. I mean, yes.’ The uncertainty in his voice, after seeing his confidence on the stage, was endearing. ‘How about one o’clock?’

  They had reached the corner now, and she and Morgan came to a halt as she tried to take in what he was saying.

  Then she remembered her friend. ‘Oh! But Morgan would be – I’m sorry, can you hold on a moment?’ Morgan was shaking her head fiercely and making a cutting motion with her hand, and Rose lowered the phone to her side. ‘What?’

  ‘What’s he saying? Whatever it is you can finish that sentence “Morgan would be happy to make herself scarce”.’

  Rose sent Morgan a beseeching look. ‘He wants to take me for a drink, or lunch, as – you know, as a thank you.’

  ‘Of course he does.’ Morgan’s smile widened. ‘So what’s the problem?’

  ‘Tomorrow at one, but we�
��re supposed to have lunch before the tour—’

  ‘Good. Great! Say yes.’

  ‘But you’d be having lunch on your own! Oh.’ Morgan sent her an amused look. ‘I forgot; it’s you. You’ll be fine.’

  ‘Yes! I’ll be fine.’ Morgan glanced to Rose’s right. ‘Hi, James. Rose is ditching me for your dishy friend tomorrow; hold on.’

  Rose made a shushing motion but Morgan whispered, ‘Lock him down, we’ll meet you inside,’ and hooked her arm through James’s as they turned to walk down to the pub entrance.

  Putting the phone back to her ear, Rose drew in a shallow breath. ‘Yes. That would be lovely. Thank you.’ Then she remembered what she’d been saying before Morgan interrupted her. ‘Morgan’s meeting… some people she knows then.’

  ‘Great. See you tomorrow?’

  Rose glanced up at the sky and tried to feel as nonchalant as Aiden sounded. It didn’t work, so she closed her eyes and imagined his face instead. ‘Yes. See you then.’

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  For the rest of the evening, Rose had barely been able to think of anything other than ‘the phone call’. Aiden was, intrinsically, one and the same person, wasn’t he? A person who had seemed genuinely interested in her in the strange, other-world reality. It didn’t mean he would develop the same interest in her per se, but… it didn’t mean he wouldn’t either.

  Rose’s preoccupation continued as she and Morgan walked into town the following morning, and it was only after they’d reached their destination she noticed something was not quite right with her friend.

  ‘Are you okay?’

  They stood with over thirty other people in the Avon Street car park, waiting to board the coach to Hampshire. There was palpable anticipation all around; everyone was chatting and smiling and clearly in the mood for a fantastic day out, which is why the uncharacteristic silence of her friend struck Rose so forcibly.

  ‘Yeah, I’m good.’ Morgan smiled, but Rose wasn’t convinced. Her friend wasn’t making any overtures to those around them yet, which was unlike her, but more noticeable, she hadn’t teased Rose once about the impending lunch with Aiden.