The Mysterious Death of Miss Jane Austen

by Lindsay Ashford

  He sat me down at the dining room table and read the will aloud: “To Miss Sharp, who has not only been a loyal and compassionate companion to me, but also a patient and devoted teacher to my servant, Rebecca, I leave the means to further a talent that deserves wider expression.” He looked up and, seeing my welling eyes and uncomprehending face, explained what the bequest meant. I was to take possession of two houses owned by Mrs. Raike. They lay beside the River Mersey in Liverpool, he said: adjacent properties that formed part of a terrace of villas in a district called Everton. Her wish was that I would transform the houses into a school for girls, with myself as headmistress and Rebecca and her father as housekeeper and caretaker. She had left me an additional sum of money to execute the necessary work.

  I wrote to Jane the same day, wishing with all my heart that I could sprout wings and fly to Chawton to deliver the news in person. I began to entertain all manner of foolish fantasies, the chief of these being that Jane could come and live with me, writing in a room overlooking the river while I taught in the schoolroom below. It was foolishness, of course, for I knew that Jane would never leave Cass and Mrs. Austen, even if she wanted to, which I doubted. Her last letter had been full of optimism; she felt much better, she said and was able to walk into the town of Alton—some three miles distance from the cottage—although she was not yet strong enough to make the journey there and back on foot. She had finished her latest novel, for which she had still to settle on a title, and was longing to read it to me. She added as a postscript that Anna had just given birth to her second child—another girl—and Henry had been ordained in Winchester. The whole family had been to hear him preach his first sermon at St. Nicholas on the Sunday after Christmas.

  I wrote to tell her that I would come to see her as soon as I had settled in Liverpool and got the scheme of work for converting the houses underway. If Cass and Martha were both at home when I visited I proposed to take a room at the Greyfriar Inn across the road. It gave me a huge thrill writing those words: Mrs. Raike’s generosity had made me a woman of independent means.

  I was a little surprised that Jane did not write back straightaway. The time soon came for me to leave Yorkshire and still there was no word from her. I wrote again the week after my arrival in Everton, thinking that she had perhaps sent a letter to the temporary lodgings I had taken in Doncaster when Mrs. Raike’s house was sold. It was not until the end of May, when work on the new school had begun, that I received an envelope bearing her familiar hand. I frowned at the postmark, which was not Chawton but Winchester:

  Your kind letter found me in bed, for in spite of my hopes and promises when I wrote to you, I have since been very ill indeed. An attack of my sad complaint seized me within a few days afterward—the most severe I have ever had—and coming upon me after weeks of indisposition, it reduced me very low. Now I am getting well again and indeed have been gradually though slowly recovering my strength for the last three weeks.

  My looks have improved a little, for my face was black and white and every wrong color. I must not depend on ever being very blooming again. My chief sufferings were from biliousness, weakness, and languor and as our Alton apothecary did not pretend to be able to cope with it, better advice was called in. The applications of Mr. Lyford from the Winchester hospital have gradually removed the evil and I am about to go and reside in a house there for several weeks to see what he can do farther toward reestablishing me in tolerable health.

  I am now a very genteel, portable sort of an invalid. The journey is only sixteen miles and Cass and I are to be conveyed there in my elder brother’s carriage, which will be sent over from Steventon on purpose. Now, that is the sort of thing which Mrs. James Austen does in the kindest manner! But she is in the main not a liberal-minded woman, despite the recent death of my Uncle Leigh-Perrot bringing vast wealth ever closer. It is too late in the day, I fear, for her character to be amended.

  I have not mentioned my dear mother; she suffered much for me when I was at the worst but is tolerably well. Martha too has been all kindness. In short, if I live to be an old woman, I must expect to wish I had died now, blessed in the tenderness of such a family and before I survived either them or their affection. You would have held the memory of your friend Jane in tender regret also, I am sure. But the providence of God has restored me, and I may be more fit to appear before Him when I am summoned than I should have been now!

  Sick or well, believe me your ever attached friend,

  Jane Austen

  Thank God, I breathed as I set the letter down. Clearly she had been very ill, but she was getting better. How sensible of Cass, I thought, to take her to Winchester, where she could convalesce under the watchful eye of Mr. Lyford, the man who had cured her. I sat down immediately to reply, writing of my great joy at her recovery and the plans I had for the school, which I hoped she would be able to visit when she was feeling stronger.

  But when the next letter arrived from Winchester, I didn’t recognize the hand. My stomach lurched as I broke the seal and saw Cassandra’s name at the bottom edge of the paper. Cass and I did not correspond in those days, so I knew straight away that she had written in her sister’s stead. Jane must be taking longer than expected to recover her strength, I thought; perhaps the doctor has told her not to overtax herself while she convalesces. The address at the top of the letter was Chawton Cottage. “They are home then,” I said aloud, the wave of panic ebbing a little. My eyes darted down the page:

  I grieve to write, dear Miss Sharp, what you will grieve to read. My darling sister Jane, the sun of my life, the gilder of every pleasure, passed away at Winchester in the early hours of the eighteenth day of July. Though she suffered much in her last weeks on this earth, she never once complained. She was the soother of every sorrow, always composed and cheerful. It is as if I had lost a part of myself—

  Twenty-Five

  My first instinct was to throw the letter through the window into the swirling gray depths of the Mersey. I told myself it wasn’t real; it wasn’t true. I doubled over as I lurched toward the casement, retching and gasping for breath. Then, with trembling hands, I read it again. The loops and curves of the words began to writhe like snakes. I felt the same suffocating sense of panic I had felt when my mother died: the thought of never being able to see or talk to Jane again was unbearable. I felt as if my heart had been ripped from my chest.

  My next impulse was to leap onto the first mail coach heading south. Despite the evidence I held in my hand, I simply could not accept that she was gone unless I saw her lifeless body with my own eyes. But Cass’s letter was dated the thirty-first of July: she had been dead for two weeks. Her funeral must have taken place already—they had buried her without telling me; I could not see her, even in death. How could they do that? Did they not know what she meant to me?

  Of course they didn’t; how could they? The answer came from within, from that part of my brain that saw things as the outside world would see them: a world that would not understand nor wish to understand the nature of my love for Jane.

  The wave of nausea surged through me again. I slumped against the nearest piece of furniture, causing it to thud against the wall. Rebecca must have heard it, for she came running up the stairs to see what had happened. I tried to tell her, but the words would not come out. I gave her the letter to read for herself and she cried with me when she realized that the woman whose books she loved above all others was dead.

  I have little memory of the days that followed. Somehow I collected myself sufficiently to write letters of condolence to Jane’s family. I said nothing, of course, about the hurt I felt at not being able to pay my last respects, for I could well imagine the state of shock Cass must have been in at the time, cut off from the person who was dearer to her than anyone in the world. About a week later Cass wrote back. She sent me two precious mementoes. These were a silver bodkin, which Jane had used for her needlework, and a lock of her hair, a portion of which I fashioned into a tiny plait. I had it mo
unted in a gold ring, encircled in stones of moss agate, the color of her eyes. I wear it on the third finger of my right hand and in the mirror it becomes a wedding ring.

  ***

  It was early September when I made the journey to Hampshire. The school was ready to open its doors, but the first pupils were not due to arrive until the fifteenth of the month, so I seized the chance to do what I dreaded and yearned for in equal measure.

  The mail coach from Liverpool was hot and airless. By the time it rolled into Winchester the sky had turned a sulfurous yellow-gray. I had two hours to spare before boarding the coach that would carry me to Chawton, time enough to find the place I had visited every night in my dreams for the past six weeks. Cass had offered to accompany me, but it was something I needed to do alone.

  The cool, dark interior of the cathedral was a welcome relief from the heat outside. The scent of burning tallow and a whiff of incense hung in the air. As a child, I had found the smell of churches comforting, but I felt no such sensation now. There were few people about, just a handful of curious visitors come to see the tombs of ancient kings and queens. It didn’t take long to find the tablet of black marble, newly laid in the north aisle of the cathedral. The sight of her name carved in stone paralyzed me. It was a while before I could bring myself to move close enough to read the inscription properly:

  In Memory of JANE AUSTEN youngest daughter of the late Rev. GEORGE AUSTEN, Formerly Rector of Steventon in this County she departed this life on the 18th July 1817, aged 41, after a long illness supported with the patience and the hopes of a Christian. The benevolence of her heart, The sweetness of her temper, and the extraordinary endowments of her mind obtained the regard of all who knew her and the warmest love of her intimate connections. Their grief is in proportion to their affection they know their loss to be irreparable, but in their deepest affliction they are consoled by a firm though humble hope that her charity, devotion, faith, and purity have rendered her soul acceptable in the sight of her REDEEMER.

  “What about her books?” I said the words aloud, as if the family was gathered there before me. The sense of injustice I felt at this glaring omission temporarily numbed the pain of seeing her grave. Then the enormity of it hit me: her body was lying there, beneath that stone, just inches from my feet. I sank onto a nearby pew, my breathing too fast and too shallow. I tried to calm myself, but my eyes were drawn back to that black slab with its dreaded affirmation of death. Shutting out the sight, I slumped onto the kneeler.

  My relationship with God had not been close since the death of my parents; I was the kind of Christian who went through the motions but found it impossible to believe that a benevolent, all-powerful spirit watched over me. But the prayer that I sent up now came straight from my heart: Oh God, if you truly do exist, grant me some sign that she lives on; give me some hope that I might see her again in the hereafter.

  I crossed myself and opened my eyes, steeling myself for the empty nothingness I expected. But up ahead something was moving. I could see a woman and a child, hand in hand, coming down the north aisle toward me. The child—a dark-haired girl of about six years old—suddenly broke away and ran ahead. I watched, spellbound, as she came to an abrupt halt right in front of Jane’s tombstone. Kneeling beside it, she traced the letters with her finger. “Look, Mama,” she said, as the woman caught up, “it’s my name!”

  I had to fight back the urge to jump up and hug her. With tears blurring my eyes, I shuffled along the pew in the opposite direction and made my way out into the stifling heat of cathedral close. I walked in a sort of daze through Kingsgate to College Street, where I stopped and sat down on a low wall. It was very peaceful there, away from the main thoroughfare. All I could hear was the cawing of rooks in the tall trees that shaded the little street. When I had recovered myself, I walked slowly past the houses, searching for number eight. This was the house where Jane had spent the last few weeks of her life.

  When I found it I stood for a while on the pavement opposite, looking up at the first floor windows. I wondered if one of these had been Jane’s bedroom. I had planned to knock boldly on the door, ask to see the chamber where my friend had taken leave of her mortal self. But somehow it seemed unnecessary; I felt as if she had stepped from her grave and was standing beside me.

  ***

  I could see someone working away in the garden as the coach pulled into Chawton. I thought it was Mrs. Austen, digging away as usual in her vegetable patch, but as I walked toward the house, I saw that it was Cass. I called her name and she straightened up, wiping dirt-streaked hands on her overall.

  “Oh, I’m so sorry!” She fanned out her hands in a helpless gesture at her clothes. I noticed that she wore a ring on the same finger as me, tiny pearls encircling the braided hair within it. “Was the coach early? I wasn’t expecting you for another half an hour.”

  She settled me down in the parlor and went off to change. The house was silent then, for Mrs. Austen was in bed with a chill and Martha had gone off in the donkey cart to visit her sister in Steventon. As I glanced around the room, I caught my breath. There was a new picture on the wall: Jane’s face, with that funny, sharp look I remembered so well, captured in pastels. Cass’s work, I guessed. I went across to the portrait and stood in front of it. Her eyes were on a level with mine but looking past me, toward the door; that small mouth was set firm as if she had spotted an unwelcome visitor come to interrupt her work and was about to mutter some needling remark.

  “Why did you leave us, Jane?” I whispered. “Why didn’t you tell me you were dying?”

  I wheeled around at the sound of the door, jumping away from the picture like a child caught stealing cake.

  “It’s not very good, I’m afraid.” Cass smiled. “I wish we’d had her painted in oils by a real artist.”

  “You’re too modest. You’ve captured her perfectly.”

  “I can make a copy for you, if you like.” She sank down on the sofa and I saw that her eyes were brimful of tears. I went to hug her, but that only made things worse. In a moment we were both wiping our eyes and trying to compose ourselves.

  “I still can’t talk about her without weeping.” Cass shook her head, as if her grief was an unpardonable weakness. I nodded, although I ached to know what had happened in those last weeks of Jane’s life. My head was full of questions, but I had no wish to upset Cass further. So I deliberately changed the subject, asking after Anna and her babies.

  “She’s longing to see you,” Cass said. “She said I was to send you over to Wyards as soon as you had unpacked. The little girls are real beauties, although they’re wearing her out at the moment.”

  “Is it far?”

  “Only half an hour on foot. I’d take you myself, but I can’t leave Mama.”

  “I’m sure I’ll find it,” I said. I was pleased to be going alone, for it would give me the chance to talk to Anna without the fear of upsetting Cass. After a bite of lunch, I made my way through the village, turning off the Winchester road into a narrow lane. The sky had lightened a little, sending shafts of sunlight on the tufts of cow parsley that stuck out from the hedgerows like bristles from an old man’s chin. Jeweled clusters of blackberries were turning ripe and I couldn’t help imagining Jane, her fingers stained with juice instead of ink, dancing up the lane ahead of me.

  It wasn’t long before I spotted Wyards, a farmhouse set back from the road at the end of a muddy track. Anna and Ben lived in half of it and the line of baby clothes strung between two trees told me which side was theirs.

  “I’m sorry the house is such a mess.” Anna shrugged as she showed me into the parlor. I saw that her mourning gown was smeared white at the shoulder and her stomach bulged under her bodice. I wondered if she was with child again. Jane’s words came back to me very clearly: She will be another poor animal. I hoped very much that it was not another pregnancy, just extra weight put on after the second baby.

  Julia, her youngest, was asleep in a basket in the corner, but little
Jemima began scrambling all over her mother’s lap the moment she sat down. I tried my best to distract the child with a toy I had bought: a doll with horsehair plaits that could be undone and brushed out with a tiny tortoiseshell comb. After a while, she settled on the floor at my feet and Anna began to tell me what Cass had been unable to relate.

  “The last time I saw Aunt Jane was on Easter Sunday.” As she said it a tear rolled down her cheek to join the beads of perspiration on her upper lip. She drew the back of her hand across her mouth. “Caroline and I walked over to the cottage to see her after church. She looked very much altered in the face and she was so weak—she had not the strength enough even for talking very much.”

  “But she wrote her last letter to me in the third week of May,” I said, “and she sounded in such good spirits; she said she had not been well and that she was going to Winchester for treatment, but there was no hint of her being seriously ill.”

  “She did seem to improve,” Anna sniffed. “My father called in on me after visiting her at the end of April, and he said she looked much better. I couldn’t go myself because Jemima and Julia had chicken pox, one after the other.” She paused and glanced over her shoulder at the basket, where the baby lay, pink and motionless. “My stepmother was Aunt Jane’s most frequent visitor; she called at the cottage nearly every day with newly laid eggs and milk from her own cow for Martha to make into possets, and when the time came to go to Winchester, she offered their carriage to transport her.” The tilt of Anna’s eyebrows betrayed her feelings about this; evidently she was as surprised as Jane had been at Mary’s uncharacteristic generosity. “She was with her right up until the end, you know,” she went on. “She said it wasn’t fair to expect Aunt Cass to nurse Aunt Jane all alone.”

  “But what about Martha?” I bent to pick up the doll, which Jemima had thrown across the floor with a chuckle of delight. “Couldn’t she have gone to Winchester with them?”