Jane Actually
Austen memorabilia. And it could help to disprove Austen’s identity.
Or, on the other hand, it might help prove it. The more he’d thought of it, the more he wondered if he might find himself in Austen’s good graces by finding additional proof of her identity. Either way, he would come out ahead.
“But Mum left all these bills,” Mrs Westerby added, and after a pregnant pause, “although how I could afford to conserve and authenticate the letter …”
“Maybe if you were to explain this to your mother. Have you talked to her since she died?”
“Oh no, I’ve never had any interest in the Internet.”
Her statement baffled Courtney. He’d gotten the impression mother and daughter were close—a natural assumption when he’d learned Mrs Westerby, an elderly, widowed, childless woman was living at home and taking care of her even more ancient mother. It seemed impossible that any person facing death nowadays wouldn’t have made some arrangement to communicate with the family they’d be leaving behind.
“Oh, well perhaps I can talk to your mother.”
“You can certainly try, but she had no interest in the Internet either.”
“Then I suppose … she never had her identity recorded before her death?”
“What’s that?”
“Never mind,” he said. That information gave him some comfort. If Mrs Westerby’s mother didn’t record her identity, then she’d be in a poor position to object to a sale. Perhaps he only needed to convince one old lady.
“Well, as to the costs of authentication and preservation … that might not be a problem,” he said. “Perhaps if we were to talk to the British Museum … or more likely the British Library … if some institution was to buy the letter, well that would be like giving it to the great British public, wouldn’t it?” He remembered reading somewhere that you could convince a Brit of anything if you just referred to the great British public.
“And I’m sure we can find someone to help with the authentication. I have a friend with the University of Chicago in America, a great Janeite scholar, who might know what to do. And an auction house like Sotheby’s might just defray any fees from the eventual purchase price.”
“Well, isn’t that clever. I would never have thought of that. But I still don’t know that Mum …”
“Maybe it’s too early to worry about that. The first step is to decide if … to get the letter authenticated.”
“Oh dear, I suppose that won’t be here in Glooston.”
“No, it probably won’t.”
“I do hate travelling so. I can’t remember the last time I left the village. I don’t suppose … could you run it up for me?”
Courtney paused before answering, trying his best to contain his pleasure at her request.
“I suppose I could, although I hadn’t planned to leave quite yet.”
“There’s no hurry, of course,” she said.
“But I could leave tomorrow,” he said, although he realized he in fact had no idea where he might take the letter. “Then again I should do a little research before I take it from … take it for you. Once I get back to the hotel, I can get on the Internet and plan the next step.”
“That sounds a plan, but you don’t have to leave right now. I can open another box of biscuits.”
“That’s very kind of you, but …”
“Then you can look at the boxes.”
“What boxes?”
“That’s not the only thing of Austen’s that Mum left. There are more in the loft.”
Courtney smiled and said, “You know, those digestive biscuits might just hit the spot.”
1 Perhaps the closest American analogue would be a graham cracker; perhaps not
Despatch boxes
Journal of Jane Bigg-Wither
“I t’s a tin despatch box. Well, it’s three boxes,” Courtney said. He was obviously extremely excited and his head was jerking around animatedly, but some of that could be attributed to the quality of the Skype call.
“What’s a despatch box? What are you talking about?” Alice asked irritably. His call came at 6 am and awakened her because she’d forgotten to turn off her smartphone. She’d heard an unfamiliar buzzing and when she’d activated her phone, discovered it was receiving a Skype call.
She’d forgotten she’d installed the application at the insistence of Courtney before he’d left for England.
Courtney had been so excited about his discovery and had wanted to call her immediately, but an indifferent Wi-Fi connection at the hotel delayed him and it was only
Weitere Kostenlose Bücher