The Jane Austen Society by Natalie Jenner Page 0,88

alike.”

He laughed again. “Yes, poor thing, we are. Is the catalogue complete then, well and done?”

“Yes, tonight. I finished it all tonight.”

He shook his head at her. “Amazing. Truly. Listen, will you trust me with this, with the notebook?”

“Yes,” she answered slowly. “I can’t let you take the letter, though. But I made a copy.”

“Of course you did. No, you are absolutely right, you cannot risk losing or disturbing any of the contents in here. Your estimations are right-on, by the way. We’re looking at a hundred thousand pounds at least, if not hundreds. It would be one of the greatest estate-library sales in history, whoever inherits it. We have to do everything we can to keep this intact for now, everything—for Miss Frances, for the society, yes, but most importantly for our understanding of her.”

“I completely agree,” Evie said. “I was hoping you would feel the same way.”

“We both love Jane Austen,” he replied with a wink. “Why ever would we not?”

Chapter Twenty-four

Alton, Hampshire

February 1946

Colin Knatchbull-Hugessen was an indiscreet and silly man of forty-two years of age. He had been living the bachelor life in a small row house on the outskirts of Birmingham. One day in February, as he was checking the racing times in the morning paper, his eye caught the following announcement in The Times:

Notice of the establishment on December 22, 1945, of a society dedicated to the preservation, promotion and study of the life and works of Miss Jane Austen. The Jane Austen Society is working with the Jane Austen Memorial Trust, a charity founded to advance education under the Charities Act, to acquire Miss Austen’s former home in Chawton as a future museum site. Subscriptions and donations of funds from interested members of the public, to advance this purpose, are welcome and may be remitted to the Jane Austen Memorial Trust, care of Andrew Forrester, Esq., High Road, Alton, Hampshire.

At the very same moment that Colin was skipping quickly past this announcement, he received a telephone call from his late mother’s solicitor with the news that James Edward Knight was dead.

The solicitor had learned of the death through remarkable diligence. Since being retained by Colin’s mother decades earlier, he had had his clerk check the principal probate registry in London every three months to search for the surnames Knight, Knatchbull, and Hugessen. He also sent his clerk every few months to Winchester to check the local Hampshire registry as well, knowing his late client had been a direct descendant of Fanny Austen Knight Knatchbull, the eldest of the eleven children of Edward and Elizabeth Knight. The lawyer was worried that a will might enter probate and Colin’s chance to claim an inheritance from such a vast and landed family could be missed within the twelve-month window provided for at law.

Colin was less concerned with his family tree than the lawyer. The news of James Knight’s death moved him not at all. He had no real connection to the family, and little interest in genealogy or history in general. He liked to visit his local pub for a pint—or two—every afternoon, bet on the horses, go to football matches, and occasionally bed the waitress at that same pub in exchange for small gifts of a varying nature.

Over the telephone the lawyer carefully explained to Colin the potential windfall he could receive through the death of this distant relative connected to the world-famous writer Jane Austen. To Colin’s mind, Austen was a romance novelist of some kind, although he had enjoyed the Laurence Olivier–Greer Garson adaptation of Pride and Prejudice a handful of years ago. He also knew that his most unsuccessful attempts to bed ladies of a certain age seemed proportionately connected to their love of this writer—which had probably contributed to a certain enmity he felt towards the authoress on his own behalf.

The lawyer urged Colin to appear in person at the Hampshire probate registry to file a claim under the Inheritance Act as promptly as possible. In the meantime, the lawyer would write to the executor on record for the estate, a Mr. Andrew Forrester, explaining the entitlement of Colin Knatchbull-Hugessen, as the closest living male relative of James Knight, to the latter’s entire estate, excluding the right to residence in the Chawton cottage held by Frances Elizabeth Knight and the living allowance, and the gifts in stipend for the servants.

This was the letter that Andrew Forrester read to Frances Knight two weeks before the next scheduled monthly meeting of the Jane Austen