‘I don’t have a plan,’ Sarah said, surfacing again, ‘which is highly unusual for me, but this is a highly unusual situation.’ For a moment she made a mental list of how the evening might go.
1. See sister from afar.
2. Contrive to meet sister.
3. Apologize to sister for having stolen and married the man she loved.
4. Run out of room in tears after being slapped by sister.
Sarah sighed. Perhaps it was better that she not make that particular list.
‘I really don’t know what I’m going to do,’ she confessed to Lloyd.
He took her hand and squeezed it, and her eyes opened wide with pleasure at his sudden touch. ‘Why don’t you let the evening pan out naturally? Just see what happens? Don’t try to force anything.’
‘Okay,’ she said with a nod, half expecting him to release her hand, but rather thrilled when he kept hold of it.
***
‘Are you sure I let out the dress enough?’ Shelley asked as they entered the arts centre.
‘The dress is fine, Shelley. Don’t fuss. Where shall we sit? There aren’t many seats left.’
‘Over there, in front of the stage. Isn’t that where you like to be?’
Mia gave a little smile but didn’t answer. ‘How many men are there?’ she asked as they found the two last remaining seats together.
‘Not enough,’ Shelley said, quickly eyeing up the men on offer. ‘And most of them are ancient!’
‘That’s always the way,’ Mia said, and then they both fell silent as the dancers entered the room.
The first half of the evening was delightful, with the dancers performing for the audience. The music was soft and sweet, and the costumes were mesmerizing, their pretty fondant colors swirling across the floor. A little earlier than Jane Austen’s time, the women’s dresses were more Marie Antoinette than Elizabeth Bennet. Curly white wigs were worn, and everywhere, there was an abundance of lace and bows.
‘Make me a dress like that one,’ Mia whispered to Shelley, pointing to a resplendent dress in pink. It was the sort of dress that would have forced the wearer to walk through most doors sideways, because it was so wide.
‘I love the lacework,’ Shelley said, and Mia nodded, looking in envy at the frothy lace at the end of the sleeves. ‘They just don’t make clothes like that anymore.’
‘Yes, but imagine running for a bus in a dress like that, or trying to find a seat on the tube!’
‘But the romance of it all!’ Shelley said.
‘Yes, modern life is definitely lacking something, isn’t it? I suppose that’s why events like this are so popular.’
‘But I’m not sure I like the men’s clothes so much,’ Shelley said.
‘No, lace doesn’t work so well on a man, does it?’
‘They all looked like fops,’ Shelley said and then giggled.
‘No, Mr Darcy’s clothes were much more manly,’ Mia said.
Shelley nodded. ‘You couldn’t stride across a muddy meadow in that poor excuse for a pair of shoes,’ she said, nodding to the feminine footwear that one of the men was sporting.
Shortly thereafter, things got lively, with the audience being encouraged to join in. The room was soon filled with willing volunteers. This was what a lot of the Austen fans had come for, to dance, to feel the same giddy delights that Catherine Morland and Jane Bennet might have experienced when dancing with the men they loved.
One of the women from the dance group walked up onto the stage and began giving detailed instructions for the participants.
‘I’ll never remember all that,’ Mia said to Shelley.
‘Don’t worry; nobody ever does, and it’s much more fun when it all goes wrong. Just keep moving!’
Mia kept on moving, and sure enough, before long she was moving totally in the wrong direction, with arms twisting left instead of right and her feet tumbling over each other. It wasn’t as bad when she partnered with Shelley, because they just laughed, but when they had to cross over and switch partners, Mia was paired with a very sour-faced woman who tutted and shook her head in disapproval.
‘Other way, girl!’ the woman bellowed above the music, her huge bosom shaking alarmingly in disdain.
‘Oh, you poor thing,’ Shelley said afterwards. ‘Trust you to have to dance with that dreadful Mrs Soames.’
But worse was to come, much worse.
***
‘Come on, then,’ Lloyd said at the other side of the room.
‘But I thought you weren’t dancing,’ Sarah said.
‘Well, I can’t have you being a wallflower all evening, can I?’
Sarah smiled, glad he’d decided to give it a go, because it wasn’t much fun sitting and watching everyone else have all the fun.
‘But what about Mia?’ she asked as he led her to the floor at the start of the next dance.
‘She’s on the other side of the room,’ Lloyd said.
Sarah looked uncertain for a moment and glanced down the length of the room as if trying to gauge the distance between them both.
‘It’ll be fine,’ Lloyd said. Sarah gave in, and five minutes later, she was glad she had. Together they slipped some circles, got two-hand turns down to perfection, and cast each other down the outside. Sarah felt sure that Lloyd had grossly misrepresented himself when he told her he couldn’t dance. He was a wonderful partner, and Sarah was proud to get several envious glances from the female dancers around her.
‘I haven’t had such a good workout in ages,’ Lloyd said as they came to the end of yet another dance. ‘You don’t mind if I sit the next one out, do you? I think I’ll take a few shots with the old camera.’
Sarah nodded, not sure what to do. Part of her wanted to join Lloyd on the sidelines, but the other half wanted to continue dancing.
‘Take your partners,’ the organizer called from the stage.
Sarah looked around the room and caught the eye of a kind-looking woman who was also searching for a partner.
‘I know I’m not exactly Mr Darcy,’ the lady began, ‘but I generally move in the right direction.’
Sarah laughed, and her fate was sealed. She hadn’t realized it, but she was now in the middle of the room and ever closer to her sister.
Chapter 34
Mia hadn’t laughed so much in ages, and it felt good. Shelley had been right to insist on her going out that night. The memory of Alec was fading fast, each dance step taking her further away from her encounter with him. He was consigned, once more, to the past. He had broken her heart once, but she wasn’t going to let him do it again. She would dance him out of her system once and for all.
‘You look happy,’ Shelley told her as they met in the middle of their dancing quartet.
‘I am,’ Mia said, smiling at her friend. ‘I really am!’
The dancing went on, and Sarah was impressed with her new partner. Her name was Doris Norris, and despite her age, she seemed inexhaustible.
‘One has to keep active at any age,’ she told Sarah in between dances, and Sarah agreed.
During a long set dance called ‘Irish Lamentation,’ it happened. Somebody somewhere in the room turned the wrong way and caused absolute mayhem, because everybody seemed to lose their partner at the same time. Sarah wandered around trying desperately to find Doris Norris once more, but she didn’t find Doris. She found Mia.
Suddenly, after three years of being apart, Sarah and Mia were dancing together, their arms intertwined and their fingers locked. There was no escaping for either of them, as everybody had partnered up again.
At first Sarah couldn’t believe it. How had it happened? She hadn’t planned it. She hadn’t meant to be on that side of the room at all. Lloyd had told her everything would be all right, and it wasn’t, but at the same time, wasn’t this what she wanted?
‘Mia!’ she began tentatively as they moved across the floor together. Her sister’s face was stony and shocked. Her eyes looked empty and haunted, and Sarah’s vibrated
with tears at the sight of them. It hurt her more than she could ever have imagined that her sister was not pleased to see her, but what had she expected, open arms and all to be forgiven? ‘Mia, talk to me. Please.’
They circled around each other, hands locked together, but each of them distant.
‘I’m sorry,’ Sarah said simply. ‘I can’t tell you how sorry I am. If you knew how many hours I’ve spent regretting what I did.’
Mia said nothing.
‘I so wanted to talk to you,’ Sarah went on, undeterred by the lack of response. ‘You’re my darling little sister, and I’ve always taken care of you, and I couldn’t bear being apart from you, not knowing where you were or what you were doing.’
Sarah was interrupted as the dance forced them apart for a moment. Sarah panicked, thinking Mia would escape her, but a moment later, they were back together again.
‘Please—talk to me,’ Sarah begged her.
‘What do you expect me to say?’ Mia asked at last.
‘Anything. Anything at all.’
‘What are you doing here?’
‘I hoped to find you,’ Sarah said, raising her voice above the music. ‘I know how much you loved dancing, and I thought you might be here tonight.’
Mia gave a funny little laugh. ‘So you’re both here to try to find me, are you?’
‘What do you mean?’
The two of them were parted for a brief moment as the dance continued.
‘Mia? What did you mean?’
‘Nothing,’ she said abruptly.
‘Then tell me how you are,’ Sarah tried again, once they were linking arms. ‘I’ve tried so hard to find you.’
‘I didn’t want to be found,’ Mia said abruptly.
‘No, I guessed. But you’re okay?’
‘What do you think? Did you imagine I’d be lying at the bottom of the River Thames by now?’
‘Mia—’
‘You did the very worst thing you could possibly do to a sister, but I’m a fighter, Sarah. You should know that about me. I don’t give up easily.’
‘I know,’ Sarah said, wounded that Mia thought she knew her so little. ‘I’m glad. I mean—you know what I mean, don’t you?’
‘I don’t know anything about you anymore,’ Mia said, her voice cold and monotonous. ‘You’re a stranger to me. Worse than a stranger, for I never want to become acquainted with you.’
The reference to Persuasion cut Sarah at the very bone. It was the cruelest thing her sister could have said to a fellow Jane Austen fan.
The dance came to an end, the two sisters stood opposite one another for a protracted moment, and then Sarah watched as Mia turned and disappeared into the crowd.
‘Mia!’ she shouted after her. Where had she gone? She didn’t want to lose her again. Not when she’d only just found her. ‘Mia!’
‘Sarah?’ Lloyd was beside her in an instant.
‘She was here. Lloyd—help me find her.’
‘Okay, okay!’ he said, placing a hand on her shoulder.
‘Don’t let her get away!’ Sarah said, desperation making her voice high and unnatural.
‘I won’t let her get away,’ Lloyd said, and the two of them separated in search of Mia.
***
The air outside felt cold and crisp after the claustrophobic atmosphere of the Chapel Art Centre, and Mia stood for a few moments breathing deeply. What had just happened? She closed her eyes. It didn’t feel real. Had she imagined it?
‘Mia!’ A voice called her name, and Mia turned around to see that it was Shelley. ‘What’s going on?’ she said, handing Mia her coat. She put it on, feeling the eighteenth-century Mia being abruptly replaced by the twenty-first-century one.
‘Why did you leave me?’
‘When?’
‘On the dance floor. Where did you go?’
‘I’m sorry, some idiot stepped on my foot, and when I looked up, you were gone.’
‘It’s all your fault!’ Mia said.
‘What’s all my fault?’
‘Sarah!’
‘Sarah’s here?’
Mia nodded.
‘Well, where is she?’
‘I don’t know. I needed to get away from her.’
Shelley frowned. ‘But don’t you think you should talk to her?’
Mia shook her head.
‘Just say, hello. You can’t go wrong with hello.’
‘But I did go wrong.’ Mia bit her lip. She couldn’t believe what she’d actually said to Sarah, and she was far too embarrassed to confess it to Shelley.
‘Let me go and find her for you,’ Shelley said.
‘No, don’t!’
‘But you might not get another chance like this.’
‘I don’t want to talk to her.’
‘She’s your sister, Mia—please talk to her.’ Shelley reached out to touch her arm, but Mia flinched and then broke into a run. She couldn’t stay there a moment longer. She needed to get away.
‘Mia!’ Shelley shouted after her.
Mia didn’t stop. She wanted to get away from everyone. It seemed as if the whole world were after her that day.
***
‘I can’t see her,’ Lloyd said as he and Sarah left the arts centre.
‘I can’t lose her. We have to find her!’
‘Who was the girl she was with when she came in?’
‘Shelley,’ Sarah said. ‘She attended drama school with Mia.’
‘Do you have her phone number?’
Sarah looked at him and nodded. ‘I’ve got her mobile number, but when I tried to get in touch with Mia before, Shelley didn’t know where she was.’
‘She does now.’
‘We don’t need to ring her,’ Sarah said, nodding to where Shelley was standing on the curb. ‘Shelley!’
Shelley turned around and gasped. ‘Sarah!’
‘Where’s Mia?’
‘I don’t know. We were talking, and she just ran off. It’s the second time today she’s done that to me.’
‘Which direction did she go in?’
‘You won’t catch her, and I think it’s best if you don’t try,’ Shelley said.
‘But I’ve got to talk to her.’
‘I know,’ Shelley said. ‘I wanted Mia to talk to you too.’
Sarah felt her eyes fill up with tears again and then felt the comforting weight of Lloyd’s hand on her shoulder.
‘We’ll find her,’ he told her. ‘You’ll talk to her, and it will be fine.’
‘How can you say that? How can you know that?’
‘She’s staying with me,’ Shelley suddenly said.
‘Then I can see her tonight?’ Sarah asked, desperation in her voice.
‘I don’t think that’s a very good idea,’ Lloyd said. ‘You’re both so wound up tonight. I think both of you need some time to think this through.’
Sarah shook her head. ‘No, no, she’ll run away from me again. I know she will.’
Shelley took a step forward and picked up Sarah’s cold hands. ‘I’ll make sure she stays,’ she told her.
‘Will you?’
Shelley delved into her handbag for a piece of paper and scribbled her home phone number on it. ‘You’ve got my mobile number, haven’t you?’
Sarah nodded. ‘Don’t let her leave before I’ve seen her.’
‘I won’t,’ Shelley said. ‘I promise.’
Chapter 35
It was cold, dark, and late by the time Mia reached Shelley’s home. It had been silly to walk the whole way in her dainty little dancing shoes, but she’d needed to clear her head, and although the shoes were probably ruined, the walk had calmed her and given her time to think.
As she climbed the last steep hill and approached Southville Terrace, she saw that the light was on in Gabe’s front room. She paused for a moment, peered inside, and spotted him by one of the bookcases. He had his back to the window and was reaching up to take a book down, and Mia wondered which book he chose. Was it a dry and dus
ty book on architecture or a fabulously engaging novel?
Just then, he turned around, and Mia gasped, moving along the path quickly, so that he wouldn’t spot her staring. Whatever would he think of her?
She rang the bell on Shelley’s door, and when Shelley opened it a moment later, Mia was almost bowled over by an excited Bingley. Shelley’s eyes were wide and wild, and Mia soon found herself in the tightest embrace of her life.
‘Don’t keep running away from me like that,’ Shelley said.
‘I’m sorry,’ Mia said, feeling like a naughty child.
‘I waited for you for ages. I was worried!’
‘I just needed to walk for a bit,’ Mia said. ‘I didn’t mean to worry you.’
‘Why didn’t you ring me? I thought you’d been abducted by some mad Austen fan who likes a woman in costume.’
Mia shook her head. ‘I was fine.’
‘Well, come on in and have a hot drink. You must be frozen.’
‘I must go and apologize to Gabe.’
Shelley frowned. ‘What?’
‘I was rude to him earlier, and I feel awful. At least I can do one thing right today.’
‘Can’t it wait until tomorrow? It’s so late.’
‘His light’s on,’ Mia said. ‘I won’t be long.’
‘But I want to talk to you!’
But Mia was already retracing her steps down the path.
It felt funny knocking on Gabe’s front door, having previously squeezed through the fence and gone in the back door the last time. It felt so formal.
When he opened the door, he stood looking at her for a moment.
‘Hello,’ she said. ‘Can I come in?’
‘Of course,’ he said. ‘Are you okay?’
‘I wanted to apologize for earlier. I was rude.’
‘Do you want a coffee?’ he asked as he showed her into the front room.
‘No, thanks,’ Mia said. ‘Coffee makes me hyper at night, and I’m already wound up enough.’
‘I make a mean hot chocolate,’ Gabe said.
Mia couldn’t help smiling. ‘Okay,’ she said in a little voice.
‘Good.’
He disappeared into the kitchen, and Mia was left to look around the front room. It was lit by a couple of enormous lamps and looked wonderfully cosy. It was the kind of room you could easily settle into and never want to leave. Mia could quite imagine curling up in one of the big armchairs with a book and a cup of tea and whiling away many a happy hour.
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