The Jane Austen Society by Natalie Jenner Page 0,50

father.”

Evie walked farther into the room. Above the fireplace was a beautiful, almost life-size portrait of Edward Austen Knight, Jane’s brother, shortly after his grand tour of Europe as a young man. He had inherited several well-known estates from the Knights, and two of Jane’s other brothers had been successful naval commanders, sailing to places as far away as the Caribbean and the China seas. Evie thought about the Austen women being circumscribed by the four corners of England instead, venturing perhaps as far north as the Peak District and as far south as Southampton, but in the main staying in villages such as Chawton. Evie wondered if she, too, would be stuck here forever. Wondered what on earth would ever be her ticket out.

“Miss Knight, I hope you know how much everyone looks forward to this to-do. It’s awful kind of you and your father to welcome everyone into your home like this.”

“Thank you, Evie. It’s a family tradition after all—and family tradition is important. Will your own parents be able to come?”

“Dad is still having trouble walking with the canes, but Adam Berwick is going to pick him up at the house and pull his wagon right up to the church to let him off.”

“Oh, Evie, how wonderful for you. Two years is a very long time to be confined to bed.”

As soon as the words left her mouth, Frances realized that she had, in her own way, been voluntarily doing much the same thing. In that moment something dawned on her, the sense of spiting the little good fortune she’d been left with, and she was religious—and superstitious—enough to pay attention.

“Evie”—Frances stood up from the window seat—“I think I will go to the service this year after all. I should like to add my prayers to your father’s. He is a very strong man. But I’m sure you know that.”

At rare moments such as this, when Miss Knight seemed up for conversation, Evie was dying to say something to her about the late-night cataloguing. She truly cared about Miss Knight and wanted her to be less depressed and fretful, and part of Evie’s hope with the secret project was to uncover enough indisputable treasures to help keep the Knight family legacy alive and thriving. But her instincts told her that the longer she could go unimpeded by anybody else’s concerns or priorities, the greater the chance she might trip over something of import. The idea that she could ask her own questions and decide where to look for answers was intoxicating to her.

Evie was a born academic; she just didn’t know it yet.

So instead the girl nodded and headed off to the kitchen for her tea, and Frances looked up at the oversized oil painting of her ancestor above the mantel. She accepted, for the first time, that she was doing, in her own small way, the best that she could. She wasn’t sure that Jane and Cassandra Austen would have expected anything more than that.

Chapter Fifteen

Chawton, Hampshire

Christmas Eve 1945

The villagers streamed into the parish church, full of the excitement of the season. Parents let their smallest children run about the gravestones in the twilight, and the men and women were all wearing their finest outdoor hats and coats against the frosty air.

The Stones descended from the Berwicks’ wagon, the four children having walked alongside during the trip from the farming fields at the perimeter of town. Adam helped his mother and Mrs. Stone get down from the wagon, then attended to Mr. Stone, who was unable to bend his legs due to his injuries but could finally shuffle a bit with a cane in each hand.

Dr. Gray was already inside the church, looking about, wondering if this year Miss Knight would make an appearance. His nurse, Harriet, was in the same row as him, along with her older unmarried sister, but he was avoiding too much social interaction. He was still smarting from the completely inappropriate and insinuating phone call that Harriet had made to the Grover cottage in advance of his recent visit.

The Berwick and Stone families entered slowly together to take their seats in the back rows, and then there was quite a bit of commotion as Miss Knight herself entered, accompanied by Evie Stone and the stable boy Tom. As her physician and longtime friend, Dr. Gray knew how much effort this must be for Frances, and he gave her an encouraging smile as she walked down the aisle to take her traditional