The Jane Austen Society by Natalie Jenner Page 0,45
gazing down at the small book in her hands.
“It’s amazing, though, how she tricks you with the surface of things,” Adeline finally answered, looking up at him. “When you think about Anne Elliot, for example, and this totally disastrous decision she makes at, what—eighteen, nineteen?—not to marry Wentworth, it has to be partly because her mother has died only a few years earlier. I can’t imagine feeling any different a year or two from now than I do today.”
Dr. Gray didn’t even try to persuade her otherwise this time, but just let her talk, hoping it would help her get out of herself, if only for a moment.
“Austen must have picked her to be fifteen when it happened for a reason,” Adeline continued. “In the book, the ages of everyone when the mother dies are set out fully, right from the start, when we know Austen was no stickler for details like that—but that is her way of cluing us in, that Anne is still in full mourning when she first meets Wentworth, and very vulnerable both to him but also to the ties and pressures of family, still so impressionable. So grief is in there, deep-seated in those books, even when it doesn’t look like it.”
“We all live with grief eventually, every last one of us. Austen knew that. I also think she knew she was dying when she wrote parts of this book, knew that nothing could help her, and so tried not to worry her family when there was nothing to be done.”
“She’s a better woman than me. I’ve got the whole village on edge.”
It was the first joke he had heard Adeline make in months, and again he felt the essence of life break through. Just a crack—but it was there.
“Listen, Adeline, when you are ready, I have a little project for you. Something else that I think might help. Ironically, it has to do with Jane Austen. Adam Berwick suggested it, of all people. Can we entice you out to hear more?”
“Not out, no, but we could meet here.”
The Adeline of old would not have let him pique her interest like this without demanding to know more. But it was a start, nonetheless.
“That’s fine. We understand.” He paused. “Everyone is very worried about you, you are right about that. But I know you. I know what you are made of.”
It was the most honest and personal thing she had ever heard him say, and she was sure her mouth was still open as he turned and left the room.
From the front window seat she watched him leave down the garden path. She let the kitten curl up in her lap, then waited until Dr. Gray was no longer in sight, before turning to his little present and opening it to page one.
* * *
“Right, well now, what is it you two wanted to talk to me about?”
Adam gave a little cough and looked as if he were going to bolt.
“Adam…” Adeline started, feeling more familiar with him ever since he had come by with the kitten.
The farmer shuffled a bit in his seat by the fireplace in the Grover front parlour. “We’ve been thinking, Dr. Gray and I, about trying to make a place in honour of Jane Austen. In Chawton. Maybe the old steward’s cottage.”
Adeline looked over at Dr. Gray, who was sitting on the small settee in front of the bay window. “The two of you cooked this up? Two men?”
“Yes, I’m afraid.” Dr. Gray grinned at her almost sheepishly. “It would be a big project—we’d need to incorporate as a charity or a trust of some kind, then find the money to acquire the property and any artifacts we can get our hands on, including a lot of what’s kicking about the old Knight estate, I suspect.”
“Have you talked to Miss Frances yet about any of this?”
The two men shook their heads.
“The Knights still own the cottage as far as I know,” Adeline said with her typical directness. “So you’re going to have to start there—and with old Mr. Knight so ill, it may not be the best time to raise any of this.”
“Well, what do you think?” Dr. Gray asked gently. “Would you be interested in helping?”
She narrowed her eyes at him. “Am I a project then, too?”
“No, not at all—I mean, I—we—wouldn’t ask if we didn’t think you’d normally want to help.”
“If I was still normal, you mean.”
Dr. Gray sighed and could feel both their eyes now upon him, making