Katherine was giving her talk in the library and chairs had been set out in neat rows. She walked up and down the beautiful room trying to pace out her nerves. No matter how many times she gave a talk, she always got nervous because each talk and each audience was different and there was no telling how it was going to go.
In one hour, this will all be over, she told herself.
‘You all right?’ Warwick asked her.
She hadn’t seen him enter the room and she beamed him a smile as he approached her. ‘I’m fine,’ she said.
He gave her arm a quick squeeze before anyone saw.
‘Did you hear about Robyn and her fiancé? Ex-fiancé, I should say,’ Warwick said.
‘No. What happened?’
Warwick told Katherine about the scene on the stairs. ‘Mrs Soames told me. Sounds like she had a front-row seat.’
Katherine frowned. ‘I wouldn’t be a bit surprised. Speaking of front-row seats, I’m betting she’ll bag one of these ones.’
‘Don’t mind if I get one too?’ Warwick asked.
‘As long as you don’t heckle.’
Sure enough, as the room began to fill, in walked Mrs Soames, plonking her considerable bottom on the seat right next to Warwick. He rose an eyebrow and Katherine rolled her eyes heavenwards at his misfortune.
It was almost time to begin and as everyone made themselves comfortable, clearing throats and rustling clothing and bags, Dame Pamela entered the room and the accompanying round of applause filled the air.
‘Hello, my dear,’ she said to Katherine. ‘How are you?’
Katherine exchanged air kisses with the dame and then stood to one side, allowing herself to be introduced.
‘Dr Katherine Roberts is a lecturer at St Bridget’s College in Oxford and is an expert on the life and works of Jane Austen. She’s spoken at our conference in the past and it always gives me great pleasure to welcome her.’ Dame Pamela led the applause and Katherine began her talk.
‘“It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a fortune must be…”’ she stopped, gesturing to the audience to finish the famous opening sentence of Pride and Prejudice.
‘“In want of a wife,”’ the audience chimed, their faces smiling. Well, apart from Mrs Soames, who wasn’t looking impressed by Katherine’s opening.
‘Yes, “In want of a wife,”’ Katherine continued undeterred. ‘And it’s the importance of marriage in Jane Austen’s novels that we’re going to explore this morning.’
***
Robyn surprised herself by how much she was able to eat and with each mouthful, she began to feel a little more human again. Her tears had dried and she hoped that her face had returned to relative normality again. She hoped she had cried all she was going to cry over Jace. It wasn’t that she was hardhearted—far from it—it was just that she’d known this day was coming for some time and had been carrying the weight of it with her. Now it was over and she felt a strange kind of lightness. She wouldn’t have to see him again. She wouldn’t have to worry about leaving her films playing on the TV and risking his foot flying through the set. She could leave her precious books lying around without worrying that they’d be spoiled. In short, she could be herself.
She took a last sip of sweet tea before getting up from the chaise lounge. She really should think about getting back to her room to tidy herself up and trying to catch some of Katherine’s talk.
It was then that something caught her eye. One of the bookshelves wasn’t quite flush. There was a definite gap behind it. Robyn stared at it for a moment and then realised what she was looking at.
‘It’s a secret door!’
Curiosity got the better of her, and she went to investigate. It was one of those doors that was also a shelf filled with books, and the thrilling thing about it was where it led.
Robyn dared to push it open a fraction and saw a light-filled room at the centre of which stood a large oak desk strewn with papers.
It’s an office, Robyn thought, Dame Pamela’s private office, and the sight of it made Robyn gasp because it was the most horrendously messy place she’d ever seen. There were cabinet drawers left half open, spilling their contents onto the floor, and a side table on which sat a mountain of eight-by-ten photographs of Dame Pamela. Robyn peered at them and noticed that they were covered in a fine layer of dust. There was a dark wood settle up against one of the walls, and it was heaped with envelopes. Robyn took a step towards it and examined a couple of them. They were all unopened, and it was then that Robyn remembered Dame Pamela telling her that paperwork had never been her strong suit. She wasn’t kidding! The whole place looked more like a museum rather than a working office and no matter how much Robyn loathed her job at the college, her fingers itched to get to work restoring order in Dame Pamela’s world and before she knew what she was doing, she sat herself at the desk and began to work.
***
Katherine was examining the difference between the marriages of Mr and Mrs Bennet to that of Mr and Mrs Gardiner in Pride and Prejudice when a mobile phone started to buzz from the front row. As a university lecturer, she was quite used to students interrupting her with their ever-present mobiles, and the reprimands were always severe. But it wasn’t a student’s mobile that was buzzing. It was Warwick’s.
Katherine paused a moment as he answered it. ‘Sorry!’ he mouthed to her, and she watched as he hurried out of the room.
‘Well, how rude can you get?’ Mrs Soames bellowed from the front row. ‘Do continue, Dr Roberts,’ she said.
Katherine bristled. She didn’t need Mrs Soames’s permission to continue.
***
Warwick felt terrible about having to run out of Katherine’s talk, but what else could he do? Ever since his agent had left that message threatening to come to Purley, he’d been hoping she’d ring back so he could do his very best to persuade her not to come.
‘Warwick, darling! How are you? How’s life at Purley?’
‘Nadia! I was in a talk!’
‘Oh, sorry, hon! Let me call you back later.’
‘No—don’t go! What’s all this about you coming down to Hampshire?’ he said, determined to get it sorted out straightaway.
‘Yes, isn’t it marvellous? My mother-in-law was coming over for lunch today, but she had to cancel. Got a rotten cold, but it’s worked out in my favour because I can now come to the dance tonight,’ Nadia said.
‘It’s rather a long drive, isn’t it?’
‘I’ve just got my new BMW,’ she said. ‘I’ll be with you in no time at all.’
Warwick scratched his head. How was he going to stop her?
‘Are you sure it’s a good idea?’ he said. ‘You know what you’re like, Nadia—you always overdo things when there’s alcohol around.’ There was a pause, and he wondered if he’d overstepped the mark.
‘Oh, you are funny!’ Nadia said. ‘Just because I like a little tipple now and again. I hardly ever get to let my hair down now, do I?’
‘I really don’t think it’s going to be any fun.’
‘Whatever makes you say that? Of course it will be fun! You’re forgetting that I’ve been before. What’s wrong with you, Warwick? You’re acting strangely.’
‘Nothing’s wrong. I just don’t think it’s worth your making the trip down here. It’s a really dull crowd.’
‘No crowd’s dull when Dame Pamela’s about. Anyway, I promised a client that I’d have a chat with her. I’ve got a script she might be interested in.’
‘Can’t you post it?’
‘No, I can’t. I said I’d give it to the lady herself. Warwick, what is the matter?’
‘I’ve told you—nothing!’
‘Doesn’t sound like nothing!’ There was a pause. ‘I know what it is—you’ve met somebody, haven’t you? Well, it’s about time, I must say. You don’t have enough fun!’
‘I’ve not met anyone,’ he said, perhaps a little too quickly to sound convincing.
‘Well, I’ll be leaving later this afternoon,’ she said. ‘So I’ll see you later, darling.’
‘Nadia—’ But it was too late; his agent had hung up.
***
Robyn was about halfway through opening a mound of post and sorting it out into neat piles when she heard her name being called. It was Dame Pamela.
‘Oh, there you are!’
Robyn dropped the envelope she was holding and looked up in shock. ‘Dame Pamela… I… I didn’t mean to touch anything.’
‘What are you doing?’ Dame Pamela asked, her voice curious rather than irate, for which Robyn was heartily thankful.
‘I saw the door was open, and I couldn’t resist taking a look. I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have just come in and made myself at home.’
‘You do look at home, I must say!’
Robyn shot up out of the seat. ‘I’m afraid I have this awful compulsion to tidy things.’
‘I wish I did,’ Dame Pamela said. ‘But, as you can see, this is a sorry state for an office. I can’t seem to hold on to my personal assistants, you see. I don’t know what it is,’ she said, holding her hands up to the ceiling with great theatricality. ‘If you know of anyone who wants to be stuck working for a curmudgeonly old actress in the middle of nowhere, you will let me know, won’t you?’
Robyn nodded. ‘You’re looking for a PA?’
Dame Pamela nodded, and then her eyes narrowed. ‘You’re not looking for a job, are you? You look as if you’re doing marvellously well sorting out my mess here.’
‘Oh, I have a job,’ Robyn said.
‘Well, that’s a very great shame, I must say,’ Dame Pamela said, and the two of them left the room together.
***
Katherine was coming to the end of her talk when she saw Warwick sneak in and take a seat at the back. She wrapped things up, took some questions, and was then greeted to a round of applause and a lovely thank-you from Dame Pamela, who had also sneaked out and sneaked back in. What was going on with everyone this morning? she wondered.
She was just about to make her way towards Warwick when she felt a large hand land on her arm. It was Mrs Soames, and she wasn’t looking very happy.
‘I read that book of yours,’ Mrs Soames said.
‘Oh?’ Katherine said, dreading what might be coming next.
‘Yes,’ Mrs Soames said. ‘It was very expensive. Luckily I managed to find a copy in a charity shop, and it had a wine stain on page seventeen so I got another one pound fifty knocked off it. You must have been paid handsomely for it.’
Katherine took a deep breath. ‘Writers of academic books aren’t paid very much at all,’ she said. ‘And I won’t have received anything from your purchase either.’
‘What do you mean? I paid three pounds for that book.’
‘And it would have all gone to the shop, not to me. Authors don’t get a penny from secondhand book sales.’
Mrs Soames’s mouth wrinkled unpleasantly. ‘Well, that’s not my fault, is it? And you can’t expect me to pay twenty pounds for a book, not when I can get it for three.’
‘Did you have any questions about the book?’ Katherine asked. ‘Or was it just its price you wanted to query?’
Mrs Soames bristled and her bosom rose in annoyance before she turned around and left the room. Katherine gave a big sigh. These people were sent to try us, she thought. It was the only explanation.
‘It was a wonderful talk. Wonderful!’ Doris Norris said, coming to see Katherine a moment later. ‘Lots of amusing moments, and I feel I’ve learned so much.’
‘Thank you,’ Katherine said, her smile restored to her once more after the Mrs Soames encounter.
‘You young women today are simply marvellous. Careers and everything! It’s wonderful. Simply wonderful!’
Katherine smiled and watched as Doris went off to talk to Rose and Roberta at the other side of the room.
And there was Warwick, coming towards her looking apologetic.
‘I’m so sorry!’ he said.
Katherine’s eyebrows rose. ‘If a student’s phone goes off during one of my seminars, there’s the severest penalty to pay,’ she said, her hands on her hips in her perfect lecturer pose.
‘Please, feel free to reprimand me,’ he said with a naughty grin, making Katherine smile.
‘Are you okay?’ she asked as they left the room together. ‘You seem a bit jittery.’
‘Probably just need a cup of coffee,’ he said.
‘Then let’s go and get one.’
He nodded but there was something about him that looked different. He looked slightly out of place all of a sudden. Probably something to do with that phone call, she thought. He really was a man of mystery, wasn’t he?
As soon as the thought entered Katherine’s head, it occurred to her—not for the first time—just how little she really knew about him.