Jane Actually

Wallace, the regional coordinator for North Texas.”
    “Good to meet you. Sorry it must be under contentious circumstances, but we’ll soon sort this out.”
    The women nodded in agreement, a little flustered by his attention and his seeming implication they would sort things in Jane’s favour.
    “Er, perhaps you should remove those buttons,” he observed, and vaguely pointed. “It might unnecessarily antagonize Dr Davis.” They both looked down at their “I Believe in Jane” buttons in surprise, and then hurriedly removed them.
    The door opened again and admitted Stephen Abrams.
    “What are
you
doing here?” Mary demanded. He paused in the doorway, uncertain what to do.
    “I asked him to attend,” Jane explained. “I believe him to be blameless in all this, as he has tried to explain to you. He had the good sense to contact me and may truly be a third party. After all, he has fallen out of favour with Dr Davis and you certainly do not care for him.”
    Ms Johnsson and Ms Wallace understandably were confused by this exchange and also unnerved by Jane’s digitized voice. To date, all their transactions with the famous author had been with Mary or with Jane via email. To hear her flat, digitized voice was disturbing.
    Mr Pembroke approached Stephen and offered his hand. “Alan Pembroke. I have no idea who you are, but Jane seems to vouch for you.”
    “Uh, nice to meet you. Stephen Abrams. Dr Davis is my graduate advisor.”
    “Oh. That puts you between a rock and a hard place, doesn’t it?”
    “Yeah, I guess it does.” He turned to address Mary. “Look, I really knew nothing about this. You’ve got to believe me.”
    “Time for that later, young man,” Mr Pembroke observed. Stephen had left the door open and standing in the doorway were Alice Davis and Courtney Blake. As in a Western movie trope, all conversation in the room had stopped and everyone was staring at the new arrivals.
    “Dr Davis, please come in,” Ms Johnsson said with a hesitant smile. Her words broke the impasse and Alice and Courtney entered.
    “Dr Davis, I think you know Cindy Wallace, the North Texas regional coordinator.”
    “We’ve talked,” Alice said, and curtly nodded to Ms Wallace.
    “And you are …” Ms Johnsson said to Courtney, unsure who the man was.
    “Courtney Blake,” he supplied. “You may have read my book,
The Real Jane Austen
.”
    “I haven’t had the … pleasure yet,” Ms Johnsson said, frostily. She then introduced them to Mr Pembroke.
    “So glad you could come,” he said, as if he’d invited them to dinner. He shook hands with Alice and tried to hide his wince occasioned by her firm grip. Then he turned to Courtney. “I’m afraid I’m unaware of your involvement in this, Mr Blake.”
    “He’s with me,” Alice said, as if that explained it all.
    Courtney coughed and said, “Actually I’m the one who found the documents.”
    “What documents?” Mr Pembroke asked.
    He was about to offer further information but was stopped by a cold look and a question from Alice: “And where is Miss Austen?”
    Mary almost spoke up but remembered Jane wanted to be on her own for this.
    “I am directly before you, Dr Davis. I appreciate your coming and allowing us to resolve this privately,” Jane said.
    Alice was unfazed at Austen’s “voice,” but Courtney took a half step back.
    “I make no promise to keep this private. In fact, events outside my control will make it very public.”
    “Well, that’s as may be. Now may I introduce my avatar, Mary Crawford.”
    Mary stepped forward and extended her arm. They shook hands quickly. “You should be taller,” Alice said, and her eyes dismissed Mary.
    “Is that video camera working?” Alice suddenly asked, and pointed to a camera on a tripod in a corner of the room.
    Ms Johnsson responded, “Not yet, I’ll turn it on, if you insist.”
    “Perhaps … Stephen, would you mind filming what will transpire here?”
    Stephen was taken aback by the request from his mentor. He felt like she was trying to make him a party to her accusations.
    “That’s an excellent suggestion,” Jane said. “Would you be so kind, Mr Abrams?”
    Stephen nodded his agreement after some hesitation. Ms Johnsson then took the camera from the tripod and gave him some quick instructions.
    Once the camera was recording, Alice continued. “We can resolve this in a matter of minutes, if Miss Austen can simply identify a certain document and give a brief