Mr. Darcy Forever (7 page)

It was as she was running around the final corner that the strangest thing happened and she collided with something solid. Dazed, she fell to the ground where she lay stunned for a moment.

‘
Are you okay?’ a man’s voice asked and a face appeared alongside her own.

Mia looked up and nodded although she felt a little shaky.

‘
Here, let me help you,’ he said, taking her arm and helping her up. ‘Nothing broken, I hope,’ he said.

‘
I – I don’t think so,’ she said, looking up and seeing him for the first time. He was tall with neat dark hair and bright grey eyes that winked at her in the sunlight. His face was lightly tanned and he was wearing a navy T-shirt and dark tracksuit bottoms which skimmed over an athletic build.

‘
I’d be absolutely mortified if I'd hurt you.’

‘
But it wasn't your fault. I wasn't looking where I was going.’

‘
No, I wasn't looking where I was going.’

‘
I didn't expect anyone else to be around. I'm afraid I was in the world of my own,’ Mia said.

‘
And you're sure you’re alright?’ he asked as they walked slowly along the path together, her arm linked in his.

‘
I think so,’ she said. ‘Just a little dazed.’ She looked up into his face and noted how very handsome it was. Yes, she was feeling dazed alright. Then something dawned on her. ‘You’re the man who called at the house last night, aren't you?’

He nodded. ‘I hope I didn't scare you,’ he said. ‘You didn’t think I was some mad axe-man?’

Mia stifled a giggle. ‘Oh, no. We just wondered who it was. I mean, one doesn't expect visitors in the middle of nowhere.’

‘
I was just jogging by and I noticed your car window was open.’

‘
Really?’ Mia said. ‘Gosh! That’s very unlike my sister – she’s usually a stickler for that sort of thing.’

‘
Not that anything would be stolen around here.’

‘
Well, thanks for thinking of us. Ouch!’

‘
You okay?’

‘
Yes,’ Mia said with a little hobble. ‘I think I’ve just grazed my knee. It stings a bit.’

‘
Let’s get you back. My name’s Alec, by the way,’ he said. ‘Alec Burrows.’

‘
I’m Mia,’ she said with a little smile, thinking that a grazed knee was definitely worth the introduction.

Shelley was downstairs flipping through a copy of
Regency World Magazine
when Mia entered the room.

‘
Oh, it's you,’ she said, looking up. ‘I’d forgotten you were here.’

Mia sat on the sofa next to her. ‘Sorry,’ she said.

‘
It’s okay.’

‘
No, it's not. I didn't mean to be rude. It's just-’

‘
You can't help it?’ Shelley interrupted.

Mia groaned. She'd forgotten how annoying it was to be teased by Shelley.

‘
I was going to say, it just feels odd being back in Bath. It seems an age since I was here.’

‘
It seems an age since you were anywhere outside that grotty little flat of yours. What have you been doing there?’

‘
What do you mean?’

‘
You haven't told me anything. You don't keep in touch. You don't return my phone calls. I've been worried about you.’

‘
I’ve sent you postcards.’

‘
Oh, yes, the informative postcards,’ Shelley said. ‘They really keep me up-to-date with what’s been happening.

‘
I’m sorry,’ Mia said. ‘I’ve been a crap friend.’

‘
Yes, you have but at least you're admitting it and at least you're here now. That's the main thing. We can do some serious catching up now, can't we?’

Mia nodded. ‘But shouldn't we get our costumes sorted out first?’

Shelley's eyes widened and a huge grin filled her face as she nodded manically. ‘Wait until you've seen the ribbon I've bought. It's the most amazing yellow you've ever seen. It's like a little piece of sunshine!’

Shelley was up from the sofa and out of the room before you could say
Northanger Abbey
and Mia followed her.

‘
I hope you've still got that sewing machine because I think my dress needs letting out a little.’

‘
You haven’t put weight on, have you?’

‘
Well, not much.’

‘
Better bring your dress in and we’ll see what the damage is.’

They met up a moment later in Shelley’s bedroom. It was the largest room upstairs and was wondrously light and airy with a double bed on one side and a little workshop on the other. Shelley adored fiddling around with little bits of fabric and had made Mia’s dress and her own in perfect Regency style.

As Mia entered, she smiled at the scene before her. By the window was an old pine table on which sat an ancient sewing machine and little heaps of ribbon and swatches of fabric in every colour imaginable. There was a rail against the wall from which dresses were hanging. Mia remembered Shelley's obsession with rooting around charity shops and jumble sales when they'd been students.

‘
You never know what you're going to discover,’ she'd with a jolly smile on her face.

Judging by how full the rail was, Shelley had discovered
everything
. There were dresses, skirts, shirts and scarves in all the colours of the rainbow. Stripes jostled with dots and cottons snuggled up next to velvets. It was a feast for the eyes and Mia couldn’t help reaching out and stroking a gold brocade jacket.

‘
This is lovely,’ she said.

Shelley turned around and nodded. ‘I think I’ll be able to make the most gorgeous Spencer jacket from that.’

‘
Gosh, you’re so clever. I wish I had a skill like that. You could make a fortune.’

‘
Well, it’s funny you should say that,’ Shelley began, picking up a length of scarlet ribbon, ‘because I have sold a few things recently.’

‘
You have?’

Shelley nodded. ‘I made up a dress for someone I met at last year’s festival and they told a friend and then – well, it’s snowballed a bit.’

‘
That’s brilliant!’

‘
Yes but it’s so time-consuming. I mean, I love sourcing the materials and picking out designs from all my old books, and making the garments but it’s all the other stuff like fittings and posting them and chasing cheques. It’s a bit too business-like, you know?’

Mia nodded, knowing that her friend had always loved the practical side of drama school but had floundered miserably when it had come to writing coursework.

‘
You need an assistant,’ Mia said.

‘
Are you offering?’

‘
I can’t leave London.’

‘
No? Are you sure? I mean, I have this spare room here just begging for a lovely tenant and Bath is so much fun. Honestly, you wouldn’t miss London at all.’

‘
But what about auditions?’ Mia said.

Shelley sighed. ‘You’re still hung up about that life, aren’t you?’

‘
And you’re not?’

‘
I guess I never was,’ Shelley said. ‘It was fun as a student but I think I only went to drama school to annoy Dad. He wanted me to go into his business as some lowly-paid teabag tester or something.’

Mia giggled. ‘But you’re doing that now.’

‘
I know,’ Shelley said, rolling her eyes to the ceiling. ‘I think I missed my true calling. I should’ve done something in fashion.’

Mia nodded. At drama school, Shelley had always been far more interested in the costumes than in the acting and could often be found backstage with a mouthful of pins.

‘
Okay, then. Let’s be having you,’ Shelley said and Mia began to disrobe. Shelley immediately leapt across the room to push the door closed. ‘Don’t want Pie copping an eyeful, do we?’ she said. ‘He doesn’t seem to care if I see him naked. He’s always walking around with no clothes on. I really must say something.’

‘
Aren’t you a bit – well, anxious, living with a total stranger?’ Mia asked.

Shelley looked thoughtful for a moment. ‘No,’ she said at last. ‘I feel wonderfully safe around him. Isn’t that funny?’

Standing in her underwear, Mia picked up the sweet muslin dress that hadn’t been worn for over three years and pulled it on over her head.

‘
Oh, my goodness!’ Shelley said at once. ‘You
have
put on weight! This dress will never do up. I’ll have to get work on it right away.’

Mia’s face flushed scarlet. ‘Sorry, Shelley. I guess I eat when I’m unhappy.’

‘
Oh, I’m lucky. I starve.’

Mia smiled. Her friend had always had a full figure and Mia had never seen her off her food ever. She
always
had an appetite.

‘
Look at me, I’m skin and bone,’ she said.

Mia admired her comely figure. ‘Yes, like Marilyn Monroe,’ she said.

‘
Well, not to worry. I can soon fix this,’ Shelley said, taking a seat at her trusty sewing machine. ‘And I’ve got the perfect piece of ribbon to finish it off with. You’ll look just perfect tomorrow. Why don’t you go and make yourself a cup of tea? I’ve left the 1995 copy of
Persuasion
in the DVD player. You can watch that if you want. I’ll give you a call when I’m ready for you.’

Mia nodded. She knew Shelley preferred to work without an audience and she couldn’t resist the pull of
Persuasion
. Amanda Root and Ciaran Hinds would be just the thing to get her in the mood for the promenade tomorrow. It was one of Mia’s favourite film adaptations
and she loved trying to recognise the locations used in Bath, imagining herself walking in those same locations in her own Regency costume. That was one of the privileges of the Jane Austen Festival - one could make believe that one was in the very heart of an Austen novel or, at the very least, a film adaptation. The streets of Bath were amongst the most beautiful in the world and were certainly the most romantic to walk around in costume.

There was something very special about wearing a costume. It made you feel as if you were somebody else entirely. It was like an armour against reality and you could make-believe that you were quite another person and that was a very seductive feeling.

Going through to the kitchen at the back of the house, Mia made herself a cup of tea in one of the “I Love Darcy” mugs, smiling at her friend’s collection of Austen paraphernalia. There was a Jane Austen tea towel hanging over the cooker door, a film locations calendar on the wall from which a handsome Henry Tilney was staring down, and a shopping bag with the words “Obstinate, headstrong girl!” was hanging on the back of the door.

Stirring a spoonful of sugar into her mug, Mia left the Austen-infested kitchen and walked through to the sitting room, stopping abruptly at the door. Shelley’s lodger, Pie, was slouched in a chair in the corner of the sitting room, his head in the racing pages of a newspaper. He didn't look up as Mia took a seat but made some sort of a grunt, perhaps in recognition of her presence, she couldn't really be sure. For a moment, she looked at his shock of brown hair and his stubbly chin. He was rather striking, she thought, in a very rough sort of way.