Happy Birthday, Mr Darcy (6 page)

‘Yes, well, I’m over that now and I can pass on my great wisdom to you,’ she said.

Warwick shook his head. ‘But I don’t need your wisdom. Every person has to make their own decisions in life. It’s virtually impossible to learn from somebody else’s mistakes; there are too many variables.’

‘Oh, I give up!’ Lily said and Warwick laughed.

‘You’re acting like I’m going to my execution rather than my wedding,’ he said.

‘And so you are, dear brother. And so you are!’

Katherine’s taxi pulled up at the front of Horseshoe Cottage just before one in the afternoon and, for a moment, she didn’t move. The taxi driver turned around.

‘This is the right place, isn’t it?’ he said, a puzzled expression on his face.

‘Oh, yes,’ Katherine said, reaching for her purse.

‘You okay? You look like you’ve seen a ghost. Not haunted, is it, this old cottage?’

She shook her head and paid him. ‘No,’ she said.

Robyn, who’d been sitting in the kitchen at the front of the house, eagerly awaiting her guest, leapt to her feet and rushed to the door, flinging it open and running down the garden path.

‘Katherine!’ she screamed, pulling her into an embrace. ‘Oh, I’m so excited, I can barely breathe!’

‘And I won’t be able to either if you don’t loosen your grip!’

Robyn laughed. ‘Let me help you with your things. Oh!’ she cried, spying the wedding dress on the back seat.

Katherine opened the taxi door and carefully took the dress out in its protective wrapping.

‘I’ll get your suitcase,’ Robyn said and the two of them headed into the cottage.

Katherine smiled as she took in Horseshoe Cottage. It looked just as she’d imagined it would. The living room housed a squashy sofa covered in tapestry cushions and two armchairs covered in books, newspapers and a couple of half-eaten dog biscuits.

‘Take a seat in the kitchen and I’ll make us a cup of tea,’ Robyn said. ‘I’ll just take your things upstairs.’

The kitchen was tiny but homely with a small square pine table in the middle of the room and a dresser at the back full of pretty crockery. There was a shiny blue Aga from which hung a polka-dotted tea towel, a baby’s bonnet and a pair of walking socks, and, on the worktop next to the dresser was an egg skelter filled with brown and white eggs, some of which were covered in straw and feathers.

Katherine walked over to the dresser and picked up a photo frame and saw the smiling, shining faces of Robyn and Dan. They were outside the Jane Austen House Museum in Chawton and had their arms around each other. Robyn looked inexplicably happy. She had, at last, found a man she could share her love of Jane Austen with. Katherine smiled and replaced the photo frame.

‘I’ve shut the dogs in the utility room so you don’t need to worry about paw prints on your dress,’ Robyn said as she entered the kitchen and Katherine was reminded of the exuberant Bingley in Bath. ‘And Cassie is with Dan and Pammy up at the hall so it’s just you and me.’

‘Is Warwick here yet?’

‘I don’t think so,’ Robyn said. ‘Dan would have rung. He’s up at the house waiting for him. He’s arriving with his sister.’

Katherine nodded. ‘Lily,’ she said. ‘She’s staying in the pub in the village.’

‘What’s she like?’ Robyn asked, pulling out a chair at the table for Katherine whilst she put the kettle on one of the Aga’s hotplates to boil. ‘I can’t wait to meet her.’

‘She’s an acquired taste,’ Katherine said with a wry smile.

‘Oh?’

‘She’s not like us,’ Katherine went on. ‘She hates novels and doesn’t believe in happy endings in life
or
in fiction.’

Robyn’s mouth gaped open in horror. ‘Hates novels? But novels are
life
!’

Katherine nodded. ‘I’m afraid it’s a hopeless case when it comes to Lily. Warwick’s not given up on her, of course, and posts her a copy of each novel he writes but I don’t think she ever reads them.’

Robyn’s face was full of anguish at such a declaration. ‘But to live in a world without novels-’

‘I know!’

‘And without believing in a happy ending!’

‘It’s unthinkable, isn’t it?’ Katherine said.

‘Has she tried Jane Austen?’

‘Warwick’s tried to convert her
so
many times. He bought her a box set of adaptations one Christmas but she posted them back to him with “Don’t do that again” written on a scrap of paper.’

‘Shocking!’ Robyn said, taking the kettle off the hotplate and making tea in two white mugs on which were written quotes from
Pride and Prejudice
. Robyn took the one which read, “In vain have I struggled” and gave Katherine the one which read, “How shall I bear such happiness!’

Placing a Regency-style sugar bowl and milk jug on the table, Robyn sat down next to Katherine.

‘It’s all Warwick could do to get Lily to come to the wedding,’ Katherine went on. ‘She’s been married and divorced twice and is quite opposed to weddings. In fact, she’s probably bending his ear about all that right now.’

‘Poor Warwick,’ Robyn said. ‘Maybe you’ll be able to convert her once you’re sisters-in-law.’

‘Well, miracles do happen,’ Katherine said.

Robyn nodded. ‘If there’s one thing Jane Austen has taught me it’s to believe in happy endings. I can’t bear the thought of somebody out there not having that optimism to lift their spirits.’

‘I know,’ Katherine said.

‘Anyway,’ Robyn said, ‘how are
you
?’

‘I’m fine,’ Katherine said, taking a sip of her tea.

‘Are you sure?’ Robyn asked, her head cocked to one side. ‘Because it isn’t long ago since my own wedding and I’ll never forget those nerves!’

‘You were nervous?’ Katherine asked in surprise.

‘Of
course!
’ Robyn said with a laugh. ‘Nervous that everything would go okay and that I wouldn’t fluff my lines. Nervous that Dan would turn up and not suddenly realise that he’d made a big mistake. Nervous that Jace might gallop up the aisle on a horse and disrupt everything! I think I was nervous in every way imaginable!’

‘But not nervous that you were making a mistake?’ Katherine said in a voice barely above a whisper.

Robyn shook her head. ‘No. I don’t think I was ever nervous about that.’

‘But how did you know – I mean,
really
know, that you were making the right decision?’

Robyn sat perfectly still for a moment, gazing into the middle distance. ‘I just knew,’ she said and then she caught Katherine’s gaze. ‘I’m sorry if that’s not very helpful but it was such a strong feeling that it completely vanquished the nerves in the end.’

Katherine smiled.

‘Katherine,’ Robyn began, ‘you’re not having second thoughts, are you?’

Katherine didn’t answer at first. She was staring into the sugar bowl as if it was the most important thing in the world. ‘No,’ she said at last. ‘Of course not.’

Robyn smiled and rested her hand on hers. ‘Good,’ she said. ‘I’ve never known a couple more suited than you and Warwick.’

‘Really?’

‘Really,’ Robyn said. ‘Why? Don’t
you
think you’re suited?’

‘Well, we’re just so different,’ she said. ‘Warwick’s so enthusiastic and demonstrative and I’m so – so –’

‘But you’re the same too,’ Robyn interrupted. ‘Your love of Jane Austen and books and writing and architecture.’

‘Yes,’ Katherine said and they smiled at each other.

‘Now,’ Robyn said. ‘Why don’t you go and settle in upstairs? Take a shower or go for a walk whilst I prepare lunch. There are some chairs out in the garden too if you just fancy sitting quietly. My favourite spot is under the apple tree near the hen run.’

Katherine nodded. At that moment in her life, it sounded like the most perfect place in the world.

It was Dan who answered the door to Warwick and Lily.

‘Warwick!’ he said, clapping him on the back and ushering him inside. ‘And you must be Lily.’

Lily looked up at the tall, handsome man who was smiling like an Adonis and couldn’t help blushing. ‘Yes,’ she said, shaking his hand.

Warwick smiled. Even Lily wasn’t immune to the charms of Dan Harcourt.

‘Pammy’s upstairs with Cassandra,’ Dan said. ‘We’re to have a spot of lunch in the kitchen. Higgins has it all prepared and then the afternoon is yours to settle in and relax.’

Lily made a funny guttural noise and Dan turned, blinking in surprise.

‘Everything okay?’ he asked.

‘Relax!’ Lily scoffed. ‘How can I possibly relax when my brother’s about to-’

‘Become happily married,’ Warwick interrupted, taking her hand and patting it gently but firmly.

Dan looked at the pair quizzically but was too polite to ask what was going on. ‘So,’ he said at last, ‘let’s eat, shall we?’

Chapter 10

After a delicious ham salad with fresh baguette and a generous slice of Victoria Sandwich washed down with several cups of tea, Warwick drove Lily into the village so she could book into her room at the pub.

‘That Dan’s rather attractive,’ she said as Warwick helped her with her bags into her room.

‘And very married,’ Warwick said.

‘I didn’t say I was interested,’ Lily said, flicking her short dark hair in annoyance. ‘I was merely making an observation.’

Warwick smiled. ‘My dear sister, you will never be immune to the charms of the opposite sex no matter how much you protest to hate men.’

‘I never said I’ve sworn right off men,’ Lily said, ‘merely marrying the brutes!’ She flopped down on the bed and kicked off her heels.

‘Will you be okay here?’ Warwick asked. ‘You’re sure you don’t want to join us at the hall for dinner later?’

Lily shook her head. ‘You go back and enjoy your last night of freedom as a bachelor,’ she said, ‘unless you finally see sense and do a runner, that is.’

‘I’m not going to do a runner,’ he said.

‘Yes, well, there’s plenty of time to make your mind up yet.’

Warwick shook his head in despair at Lily and bent to kiss her cheek. ‘I’ll see you tomorrow,’ he told her. ‘I’ll be the one standing at the top of the aisle, waiting for my bride and
not
doing a runner.’

‘We’ll see,’ Lily said.

It was seven thirty that evening when Katherine and Robyn walked up the driveway to join everyone at Purley Hall. The afternoon had passed by in a blur of reading, chatting, drinking tea and walking through the village and Katherine now felt a little more relaxed than when she’d first arrived thanks to Robyn’s hospitality and sweetness.

Higgins answered the door, looking resplendent in a shiny green waistcoat covered in gold fleur de lys.

‘Dr Roberts, welcome,’ he said, taking her jacket.

‘Good evening, Higgins,’ Katherine said, happy to see her favourite butler again.

‘Hello, Higgins,’ Robyn said. ‘How’s Cassie?’

But Higgins didn’t get a chance to reply because it was then that Dan walked into the hallway from the drawing room with a sleeping Cassandra in his arms.

‘She’s getting heavy,’ Dan said, bending to kiss Robyn.

Robyn stroked her daughter’s golden curls. ‘I hope she’s been a good girl for her Aunt Pammy?’

‘Certainly has,’ Dan said, just as his phone vibrated in his pocket. ‘Here,’ he said, passing Cassandra to Robyn.

‘My, she’s grown,’ Katherine said, stepping forward to admire the sleeping girl as she settled into Robyn’s arms.

‘Oh, yes!’ Robyn said, pride dancing in her eyes. ‘She’ll be dressing up and taking part in our Austen weekends before you know it.’ She looked up as Dan popped his phone in his pocket again. ‘Who was that?’

‘Oh, nothing important,’ he said but there was a look of anxiety in his eyes. ‘Hello, Katherine.’ He leant forward to kiss her. ‘How are you?’

‘Very well,’ she said.

‘All ready for the big day?’

‘Well, I-’

Just then, Warwick emerged from the drawing room and, striding across the hallway, took Katherine in his arms and kissed her passionately.

Dame Pamela, who had followed him, laughed. ‘Save it for the wedding night!’ she cried and the five of them went into dinner together.

As usual, dinner at Purley was a treat and they all enjoyed a perfect summer menu of watercress soup, an asparagus risotto and the lightest of lemon sorbets for dessert.

‘That was absolutely delicious, Dame Pamela,’ Warwick said, dabbing his mouth with a white linen napkin once the meal was finished.

‘But it will be nothing compared to tomorrow’s fare,’ Dame Pamela said. ‘Your menu looks absolutely divine!’

‘And all Austen-inspired,’ Warwick said.

‘Like everything else!’ Robyn said.

‘Naturally,’ Dame Pamela said. ‘I really don’t see how anyone can choose anything else when it comes to a wedding. I mean, all these horrendous Disney-themed weddings or people dressing up as characters from
Alice in Wonderland
. It’s absolutely awful!’

‘Each to their own, I suppose,’ Warwick said.

‘Yes but nothing can top Jane Austen. She encapsulates the very essence of Englishness with the elegance of the dress, the sobriety of the language and the perfection of the manners.’

‘You sound like you’re reading from a script again, Pammy,’ Dan said and then his phone vibrated again. ‘Sorry,’ he said. ‘I’ll switch it off.’ Robyn caught his eye as if to say,
what’s going on
but he cleared his throat and changed the subject. ‘So, will it be sunny skies tomorrow?’ he asked.

‘I have every faith in the weather,’ Dame Pamela said. ‘The stormy sky and rain was today and, no matter what the weathermen say, the sun
will
come out tomorrow. And, no, I’m not about to break into song.’

Robyn giggled. She was quite used to Dame Pamela’s occasional bursts into song in the office. Just a couple of days ago, her boss had worked her way through a medley from
Cats
,
Evita
and
Sunset Boulevard
. It always made Robyn smile although she had yet to pluck up the courage to join in herself.

‘So,’ Dame Pamela continued, ‘what an inspired idea to have your wedding in the year when we are celebrating the two hundredth birthday of
Pride and Prejudice.
’