The Jane Austen Society by Natalie Jenner Page 0,80
next to Adeline, ever intent on her notes before her.
And—just like that—just like it always happens—Adam Berwick was in love.
* * *
Adam walked Adeline home in the darkness as far as her front gate. She was thinking of inviting him in for supper, but he seemed distracted and quite unlike his usual self. She wondered if the launch of the society had been a little too much for him, given how naturally shy he was. She did not recall him saying a single word at the meeting. That was a shame, because on his occasional visits during her recent illness and loss, they had taken to discovering their mutual love of Jane Austen, and she had found him to be an extremely insightful reader of the books.
On this walk home they had been discussing Adam’s favourite character, Elizabeth Bennet.
“I never thought it believable,” Adeline was saying, “that someone as smart as Lizzie would fall for a cad like Wickham.”
“It was all Darcy’s doing,” Adam replied, “slighting her at that first ball. Gets her back up—makes her want to find reasons to dislike him.”
“‘She is tolerable; but not handsome enough to tempt me.’ Ouch.” Adeline laughed. “It would take some doing to get me back after words like that, I can tell you. But you’re so right—she is vulnerable for once to a fake like Wickham because Darcy’s hurt her, and it’s getting in the way of her seeing things clearly.”
Something about all of this was starting to ring true for Adeline herself, but she quickly pushed the thought out of her head as she rested her gloved hands on top of the gate, feeling it sink a bit on its hinges under the weight.
“Dr. Gray asked me today to fix that for you,” Adam remarked. “I’ll be round in the morning.”
“Dr. Gray worries too much.”
“Does he?” Adam said quizzically. “Always seems fine to me. Good chap.”
“Are you sure you won’t come in, for some supper?”
Adam shook his head and started to turn back down the lane with a quick wave goodbye behind him. She noticed he was walking in the opposite direction from the small terrace house he shared with his mother. She wondered where else he could be going at this time of night.
She walked up the garden path in the moonlight, bending down frequently to pick up a stray leaf or twig, her compulsion for gardening having returned just in time for spring. As she felt for the front-door key in her coat pocket, she thought she heard a noise behind her and turned around.
Benjamin Gray was standing there in the moonlight, just a few steps from her front door, his hands in his coat pockets, his head bare.
“God, you startled me again. You have to stop doing that.” She turned to open the door, then realized something. “Did you follow me here?”
He stepped up onto the porch until he was standing over her. “What were you and Adam talking about?”
“Excuse me?”
“On your walk home together—what were the two of you talking about?”
“I’m not discussing this with you,” she said in irritation, and went to open the door again, but he firmly turned her back round to face him.
“Fine.” She sighed impatiently. “We were talking about Jane Austen—what did you think we’d be talking about?”
“Are you in love with him?”
“You’re nuts, do you know that?” she exclaimed. “You practically let me get fired, you accuse me of being a drug addict, you do everything you can to push me away all these years.…”
“What do you mean, pushed you away all these years?”
“My God,” she muttered, “you even hired my archnemesis from college, a world-class spy.…”
“Adeline, what on earth do you mean, pushed you away all these years?”
She dropped her head beneath his gaze to look down at her boots.
“I don’t understand.” He sighed, looking up at the full moon and then down at the ground, too, his right hand across his brow.
“You don’t understand? Well, then, I must understand too much.”
“Adeline, please, just listen to me.” He tried to take her hand, but she would have none of it.
“Listen to what? Listen to how lonely you are, when both my own husband and baby have been dead and buried less than a year? What incredible timing for you!” Her voice was rising in anger with every word.
“Adeline, please, just let me in, so we can talk about this.”
“No, stop, you’re ridiculous—this is ridiculous—you have no right, do you hear me?” She turned the key in the lock, but