I resisted the urge to turn around and see what he meant, but I could guess. Ellen had taken my advice.
Basingstoke bustled with traffic and had more roundabouts than anyplace on earth. We finally made it to the station, and Tom parked the van just outside the entrance.
“I’ll get the luggage,” he said to the others, and I knew the time had come. I walked over to Ellen and linked my arm through hers.
“I need to talk to you.”
She looked at me, surprised. “What's wrong?”
There was nothing else to do but just say it. “I’m not going back to London with you. I’m staying here.”
“What do you mean you’re staying here? As in England ‘staying here?’” Her arm went rigid.
I nodded. I’d known she wouldn't like it, and there was no way I was going to convince her I wasn't being ridiculously impulsive. The only saving grace was that she did like Tom.
“What about New York?” she asked with a glance toward the van, where Tom was wrangling the luggage. “How can you change your mind about something like that? You’ve wanted that your whole life.”
“Um, Ell, not to be a smart aleck, but that's a little bit like the pot asking the kettle why it's black.” I shot a glance at Daniel, who was standing nearby, waiting for us.
Her mouth fell open. “That's different.”
“How?”
“Because it just is, that's all.”
“A well-formulated argument.” I smiled. I couldn't help myself. “I think we’ve both come to see that it's time to let go of old dreams. Time to come up with some new ones.”
“But it's so far away.”
That was her real objection, I knew, and it was my biggest regret. Finally, after all these years, we’d managed to establish a bond as sisters, and now we were going to be farther apart than ever, geographically speaking.
“We can Skype,” I said.
“I don't even know what that is.”
“Video chat. Over the Internet. Besides”—I put my arm around her—“won't you be moving away from Dallas to be with Daniel?”
She looked surprised. “Well, I guess so…”
“Aw, c’mon, Ell. Didn't it occur to you that you and Daniel would have to live in the same city? And I don't see him giving up a well-established business.”
“There will be an ocean between us.” She looked so forlorn, and I felt the same way.
“An ocean, we can transcend. Not speaking to each other, that's the really big divide we’ve overcome.”
She started to cry in earnest, sniffling and wiping at her tears. “When did you get to be the wise one?”
I glanced at my watch. “About five minutes ago, I think.”
I loved the smile that spread across her face. “I think Jane Austen would appreciate the irony of all this.”
“I know. Mom would too. She turned us into the Dashwood sisters after all.”
“So you’re really staying? With Tom?”
“I’ll get a job in a shop or something for now, so he and I can have a chance to get to know each other. Mom's estate gives me a little cushion. We’ll see what happens from there.”
Daniel walked over to us, rolling Ellen's little suitcase, and I gave him a fierce hug. “Take care of her. I mean it.”
He looked at me in confusion. “You’re not going?”
I laughed. “Ellen will explain it to you on the train.”
Ellen had stepped away and was talking to Mrs. Parrot. I walked up to them and reached inside my handbag to retrieve Cassandra's diary. Then I turned to Mrs. Parrot and held the book out to her. “Ellen gave you Jane's diary, and I’m going to do the same with Cassandra's.”
Her eyebrows shot up. “Are you sure?”
I didn't have to look at my sister to know that she agreed with my decision. “I think they should both be with the Formidables.”
Ellen frowned. “Mimi—”
“It's okay, Ell. I know this is the right thing to do.” The Austen sisters had given something to Ellen and me far more precious than a valuable diary or two. I was only returning the favor.
“Thank you.” Mrs. Parrot looked pleased and touched, as well as a little vulnerable. I’d never thought I would see that. She paused and then cleared her throat. “But I have consulted with the membership committee, Mimi, and we should like you to be the keeper of Cassandra's diary.”
“What?” I couldn't believe it when Mrs. Parrot pressed the book back into my hands.
She nodded to Ellen. “We would ask you as well, my dear, to safeguard Jane's, but we have strict requirements that any member must be a resident of the United Kingdom. Since your sister has elected to stay—”
“I understand.” Ellen looked at me with the funniest smile on her face. “Somehow it seems fitting.”
I looked down at the book in my hand in astonishment. “But if I have this, it means…”
“That you are the newest Formidable. There will be some paperwork, and the matter of meeting one or two of the others. But as your mother was well known to many of them…”
I looked at Mrs. Parrot and tried not to let my jaw hang open. “Me? A Formidable?”
She chuckled. “You always were, my dear. You just didn't know it.”
A week ago, I would never have imagined the good-bye scene that Mimi and I enacted in front of the Basingstoke train station. The ferocity of the hug, the copiousness of the tears, the men waiting patiently for us to finish our lengthy farewell.
All along, we had been looking for the wrong thing. We thought we were supposed to unearth some big secret between the sisters, but it had never been about the secrets that Jane and Cassandra Austen kept from each other. It was about the secrets they kept for each other, from the world. I wanted to say that to Mimi, but instead I just hugged her.
“Mom outsmarted us,” I whispered in Mimi's ear, laughing and crying at the same time.
“Yes, she did.” If she had hugged me any tighter, I wouldn't have been able to breathe. But I didn't care.
We couldn't have been more pleased for our mother to be right.
About the Author
Beth Pattillo’s love for Jane Austen was born when she studied at Westfield College, University of London, for one glorious semester. Her passion quickly became an obsession, necessitating regular trips to Enland over the past twenty years. Her most recent journey included a Hampshire pilgrimage to visit many of the sites included in this book. When not dreaming of life “across the pond,” Beth lives in Nashville, Tennessee, with her husband and two children.
Table of Contents
COVER PAGE
HALF TITLE PAGE
TITLE PAGE
COPYRIGHT
DEDICATION
PLACES
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
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