It didn’t take long for the introductions to take place between Cassandra and the two new arrivals, and despite the situation Rose couldn’t help but be amused by the avid interest on both hers and Morgan’s faces as they realised who each other was.
Both the Austen ladies seemed keen for James to cover himself up, and urged him to don the boots and greatcoat (the former borrowed from William, the latter left behind by Jane’s brother, Henry, on his last visit from London), and he had barely done so when Rose saw Edward Knight coming towards them.
He eyed James keenly. ‘An improvement, but we shall have to do better. You had best come with me, sir.’
James’ startled gaze flew to Rose. ‘But I have to get back! I can’t stay here!’
‘Pray, do not take on so, Mr Malcolm.’ Jane came to stand before him. ‘I shall do as you wish, and return you both to your home directly, but we cannot repeat the recklessness of our recent adventure, for our arrival was almost witnessed. We must wait until darkness falls.’
Edward grunted. ‘You would do well to not repeat your foolish adventure at all.’
Jane turned away, but not before she had exchanged a small smile with Rose.
‘One should not travel such a distance on an empty stomach either.’ Edward’s gaze roamed over the gathered party; then, he sighed. ‘The cottage cannot accommodate such numbers. You had best dine at the great house before you leave.’
‘Thank you.’ Rose spoke a little more loudly than usual in an attempt to cover Morgan’s ‘Oooo!’ and her friend caught herself, curtsied out of turn and muttered her thanks.
‘I will collect Charles and meet you at the gate, sir. Mr Trevellyan?’ Edward turned to Aiden. ‘You will accompany your friend.’
It wasn’t so much a question as an instruction, and Aiden bowed. ‘As you wish, sir.’
Morgan’s eyes were darting from Edward to James to Aiden and then back again as she took everything in, and Rose touched her arm.
‘This is awesome!’ Morgan’s excitement was almost tangible as she turned to Rose. ‘We’re going to dine in that big house we did the tour of last week!’
‘I will see you later.’ Aiden’s voice in her ear had Rose spinning around to look at him. He smiled reassuringly. ‘It will be okay. Jane will get them home. Make the most of your afternoon with Morgan.’
Morgan was looking between them with renewed fascination, and he smiled at her before turning to join Edward as he made his way back down the garden.
James hesitated before following them, and Rose thought for a moment he was going to protest again, and insist on being taken home immediately. To her surprise, however, he turned to Jane.
‘I’d like to apologise to you for my attitude earlier. I didn’t believe what you were saying or even in you.’ He glanced at Rose, then bowed awkwardly to Jane. ‘I hope you’ll excuse me; the circumstances were rather… demanding.’
Jane studied him in silence for a moment, and Rose held her breath. ‘’Tis quite forgotten, sir, and you do yourself a disservice. Your concern for your friends is admirable. Rashness is much in the common way when one’s loved ones are under a perceived threat.’ She cast a look at Morgan, who was wrinkling her nose and frowning, then turned back to him with a sigh. ‘Such disruption was never my intention. The best of deeds can go awry, can they not?’ She smiled. ‘Come, Mr Malcolm. I find I can forgive your impertinence if you can forgive my impetuousness.’
Rose bit her lip. She could tell James was trying to be certain he knew exactly what the lady stood before him was saying, but then he smiled too, performed a much neater bow and turned to Morgan.
‘I hope to be in a better state when I see you later.’ He dropped a kiss on her cheek and, ignoring Jane’s tsk, raised a hand to Rose before turning to follow the others.
Watching him go, Rose could feel agitation seeping into her shoulders again. Morgan didn’t seem to have picked up on Aiden’s words, implying only James and Morgan would be leaving. Should they just go back and be done with it? But what if… She felt restless and out of sorts again. How was she to even unravel any of this mess?
‘What’s that smell?’ Morgan was pulling a face.
‘Partly it’s the manure on the fields, only it’s a bit more pungent than we’re used to.’ Rose lowered her voice. ‘Wait until you smell some of the food.’
‘What’s the other part?’
Cassandra, who had remained silent for some time, smiled kindly at Morgan. ‘It is best you do not comprehend the source, Miss Taylor. There is much to adjust to.’
‘Luckily, I’m not here for long, no offence.’ Morgan winked at Rose.
Rose tried to smile as the tension in her shoulders increased. Despite being thankful she’d had the chance to tell Morgan and James about what had happened to her the previous week, and grateful as she was for their seeming to accept the validity of where they were and how they’d got there, there was so much more to tell.
‘I think we may need to make some adjustments to Miss Taylor’s gown before this evening, Cass.’ Jane gestured towards Morgan’s hem, which she was currently standing on.
‘I will see if we can find a better-fitting garment for her.’ Cassandra gave them an all-embracing smile and turned to head back to the house.
Rose stood quietly between Jane and Morgan, watching her go. The weather was perfect, the sky the watery blue so typical of autumn, a gentle breeze weaving through the leaves hanging perilously on to the branches of the nearby trees.
Then, Morgan slapped Rose’s arm.
‘Ow!’
Morgan was grinning from ear to ear, looking much more herself. ‘You and Aiden! Tell me. Now.’
‘Oh, that.’ Rose glanced at Jane, who raised a brow.
‘I do not believe I have been told this particular story either.’
Warmth filled Rose’s cheeks under Morgan’s determined gaze and Jane’s curious one. ‘I don’t know how to start. And I’m not going to kiss and tell!’
‘Which means you’ve definitely been kissing.’ Morgan and Jane exchanged a knowing look.
‘Indeed. I confess I have been a witness.’
Morgan laughed delightedly and clapped her hands together, then met Rose’s gaze and laughed again. ‘There I go again! So? Forget the kiss, tell us all.’
Rose gestured vaguely down the path Aiden had recently trod. ‘There’s not a lot to say, really. After you left us outside your apartment, he walked me home and we…’ Rose looked from Morgan to Jane, then shrugged. ‘We found out we had a mutual…’
‘Admiration?’ suggested Jane.
‘You both fancy each other! I told you!’ Morgan punched a fist in the air, then, at Jane’s look, dropped her arm to her side. ‘Sorry. Getting a bit carried away.’
Rose sank onto the bench Morgan and James had recently vacated. ‘I couldn’t quite believe it. In fact, we’d barely had a moment to accept it when…’ Her gaze fell on Jane, who grimaced apologetically.
‘Forgive me; I had no notion of your attachment being so recently formed.’
Rose shook her head. ‘I know.’ Then she looked at Morgan. ‘It’s incredible and wonderful and at the same time like a dream I can’t wake up from. Like so many things recently.’ She looked at Jane, then raised her hands in a helpless gesture. ‘How did this become my life? Two weeks ago, I didn’t think Aiden knew my name, I was worried Morgan and mine’s friendship might not work in person, and I spent most of my free time daydreaming over what life would be like living inside the pages of a Jane Austen novel.’ Rose waved a hand, embracing her surroundings and the two young women before her. ‘Now, I’m having a hard time not thinking of what Aiden and I could name our children, my best friend is flat hunting in my home town, and my favourite author cares so much about me, she kidnapped two people I love and brought them to the past.’
Jane made a small sound. ‘It was never my intention, Rose.’ She glanced at Morgan, then smiled. ‘But nonetheless, I am pleased for you it has happened.’
‘Aww, you know what she means.’ Morgan put her arm around Jane’s shoulders and hugged her, prompting an expression on Jane’s face Rose wished she could capture on her phone.
Then, Rose frowned. ‘Wait. How did this happen anyway? Morgan, what on earth were you and James doing in the car park in Chawton? You should both be in Bath!’
‘Your phone was in the trunk. I told you, I tracked it. I was so worried about you! Then, we got to the car, and James knew it was Aiden’s and I thought he’d murdered you and we’d find your body in there!’
Jane’s brows rose and she exchanged a look with Rose, who shook her head at Morgan. ‘You watch too much CSI.’
Morgan grinned. ‘I was so relieved when the trunk only held… well, a trunk!’
‘And you, Jane?’ Rose turned to the lady, who looked a little sheepish. ‘What made you travel to the future again?’
‘I had… an engagement I was obliged to attend.’
Rose frowned. ‘What sort of engagement?’
‘She came over from the museum.’ Morgan beamed at Jane. ‘I was so relieved to see her.’
Jane stepped away. ‘I must leave you. If we are all to dine with Edward, we need to hem whatever skirt Cass has found.’ She turned away, then said over her shoulder, ‘Rose, if you could bring Miss Taylor to my bedroom? We had best conceal our practice from Mama.’
She hurried down the path, and Rose sighed. What had Jane been up to?
‘Hey.’ Morgan came to sit beside her, bundling her skirts into her lap. ‘You okay?’
Rose nodded. ‘Yes, I’m fine.’ She summoned a smile, trying to push away the anxiety crowding in upon her. Time was ticking away, and so was the day. If Jane was intending to take James and Morgan back, she’d better make the most of the time, especially if she might go with them.
‘Come on.’ Rose got to her feet. ‘We need to make you presentable if we’re to dine at the great house.’
Rose smiled as she perched on a chair in Jane’s room. Morgan had such joy for life, she was already embracing her sudden appearance in 1813, questioning both Jane and Cassandra on etiquette, and constantly having to be told to remain still on the low stool she stood on so the latter could shorten the hem on the charming dress they had loaned her.
Jane, on the other hand, seemed to be avoiding Rose’s eye, but she was determined to satisfy her curiosity.
‘Why did you use the charm today, Jane?’
There was no response, and Cassandra nudged her sister. ‘You had best speak of it. To be certain, in the circumstances, does Miss Wallace not have a right to comprehend your purpose?’ She raised her kind eyes to Rose and smiled. ‘I only wish I understood!’
Jane handed her sister another pin, then let out a huff of breath. ‘As you wish.’ She laid the remaining pins she held on the mantelpiece, rummaged in the sewing box and extracted a sharp, thin tool and walked over to where Rose sat.
‘Raise your feet.’
Rose blinked. ‘I beg your pardon?’
‘Please be so kind as to do as I ask.’
Bewildered, Rose lifted her feet off the wooden floor, and Jane bent down and inserted the tool into a crack between two boards. With a swift flick of her hand, the board lifted to reveal the cavity below, and Jane straightened and stood back.
‘There.’
Rose stared into the empty space. ‘Where?’
Morgan twisted around on her pedestal. ‘What’s up?’
‘Miss Taylor?’ Cassandra gently turned Morgan back to face her.
‘Oh! Sorry!’ Morgan laughed. ‘I have my back to you, Rose. You’ll have to give me a running commentary.’
Eyeing Jane in confusion, Rose shrugged. ‘You went forward in time to…’ She stopped. Absolutely nothing came to mind.
Walking over to the bed, Jane reached under her pillow and extracted the pouch in which she kept the charmed necklace.
‘You recall, do you not, the effect of the charm on the safe in Sydney Place, Rose?’
Rose cast her mind back to the previous week with little difficulty. ‘Yes, of course. When the necklace was inside the safe, it created some sort of… portal through time.’
‘Wow!’ Morgan twisted round again, then turned back. ‘Sorry, Ca— Miss Austen.’
‘And thus you recall my use of it?’
Where was Jane going with this? ‘You used it.’ She glanced over at Cassandra, but she was busy threading a needle, the thread held between her teeth. ‘You used it to exchange letters with your sister.’
‘Indeed. And for what else do you recall?’
With a frown, Rose tried to focus on when she’d first met Jane in Bath and what she had told her. ‘Only you could open the safe if the charm was inside?’
‘This is also true. But that is not my meaning.’
‘Must you tease so, Jane?’ Cassandra’s exasperation with her sister was evident, and Morgan glanced over her shoulder at Rose and winked. ‘Can you not speak plainly and enlighten your friend?’
Jane made a small sound. Rose wasn’t sure it hadn’t been a suppressed snort, and she tried not to smile as Jane turned to face her. ‘Do you recall how I was able to support myself in the future?’
‘Oh! Yes. You brought things with you from the past and sold them in the future, where they had a much higher value, at the antiques centre in Bath.’ Rose looked at Cassandra, who nodded encouragingly. ‘And sometimes, your sister placed things in the safe for the same purpose.’
With a smile, Jane nodded. ‘It was a most satisfactory arrangement. As you know, I could not send things back to the past unless they had existed back then. Thus, Cass was also obliged to keep me supplied with paper and ink, that our correspondence could continue uninterrupted.’
‘You know, you’re probably causing all sorts of problems for people who try to date antiques… imagine having a two-hundred-year-old thingamabobber that’s had a free ride through time.’ Cassandra had urged Morgan to turn around on her perch, and she faced them now, her features alive with interest. ‘Imagine the scandal!’
Jane raised a brow at Morgan, but continued. ‘Since we are now in Chawton, I needed to find a similar… contrivance, a substitute for the safe.’
‘So you can retrieve things to sell in the future when you stay for a while, like a toasting fork?’
Jane got to her feet, gesturing towards the hole in the floor. ‘It was a simple but effective solution.’
Rose frowned. ‘Was? And how does this explain today? What engagement did you have?’
‘Maybe she was meeting with a secret lover,’ piped up Morgan with a grin, but she sobered under Jane’s quelling look, then shrugged. ‘Well, I thought it was funny, anyway.’
Jane walked over to stare out of the window for a moment and said nothing. Then, she turned to face the room, leaning against the sill.
‘I was discovered.’
‘No!’ Rose stared at Jane in disbelief. ‘They knew who you were?’
Jane tutted. ‘Do not be foolish, Rose. Why on earth would they suppose me to be… me?’
Morgan was looking from Rose to Jane. ‘So what do you mean?’
Walking over, Jane picked up the scissors and offered them to her sister as she finished her sewing. ‘I was about to lift the floorboard,’ she gestured to the hole, ‘in my bedroom when one of the… what is they call them? Volunteers walked in. I had to improvise, profess to a fascination with the flooring and the display cabinet in one the other bedrooms housing the items that had been discovered under the boards over time.’
Rose frowned again. ‘But I still don’t see how…’
‘I was dressed much as I am today.’ Jane waved a hand at her authentic clothing. ‘They took me for a devoted follower… of myself.’ With a laugh, Jane turned her now sparkling eyes on Rose. ‘It was most amusing. They were inordinately impressed with my knowledge of both my home and Jane Austen.’
Cassandra turned Morgan about. ‘It is comfortable, yes?’ She held out a hand and Morgan stepped down from the stool.
‘Awesome!’ She did a twirl, the skirt skimming the floor but barely touching it. ‘How do I look?’
‘It becomes you very well, Miss Taylor.’ Jane smiled, then turned to look at Rose. ‘The lady who had come across me insisted on taking me to meet another lady, whom she explained was responsible for the volunteers. Hence my engagement earlier today.’
Rose was struggling to understand, but then realisation dawned and she started to shake her head in denial. ‘You can’t be… you’re a guide at the museum?’
Jane beamed. ‘Is it not both singular and invigorating? Did I not profess an interest in gaining an occupation when I believed myself stranded in the future? Now I have attended…’ She hesitated. ‘I forget the term…’
‘An interview?’ Rose spoke faintly. This was getting more ridiculous by the hour!
‘Indeed. And now I am engaged and obliged to attend…’ She reached down into the hole, which Rose had thought was empty, and withdrew a folded piece of parchment. ‘Here it is. I wrote it down, lest I forgot. Twice a week for just a few hours.’ She looked up. ‘Is it not diverting?’
Rose got to her feet, a hand to her head. ‘Oh yes. More than I can possibly say. I think… Morgan.’ She turned to her friend, but Cassandra had now helped her into a spencer and was already busy adjusting the sleeve length. ‘Do you mind if I wait in the garden for you?’
Morgan looked up and grinned. ‘Not at all. I’ve got so many questions, I could stand here all day!’
Jane was busy replacing the floorboard, and Rose smiled faintly at her friend and hurried from the room.