Jane Actually

kindness that I feel quite at home.” She said the last with such a knowing smile that Mrs Enderby suddenly knew she was addressing the woman she had long admired. Jane Austen was home, at home among the grounds she had known two hundred years previous, and that knowing smile reminded Mrs Enderby that it was
they
who had come to her home.
    Melody thanked Mrs Enderby, who returned to her task of finding more chairs.
    “That was very well done, Mary,” Jane told her avatar. “I only hope the others can be swayed by your charms.”
    “Great job, Mary,” Melody also said independently.
    After a further five minutes, Mrs Enderby returned and asked that they return to the tent flap and wait for their cue as the afternoon’s presentation would shortly begin, and then she left them to enter the marquee.
    From the tent, they could hear the volume of the crowd increase and then settle down.
    “Thank you everyone for your patience while we skirted the health and safety laws and brought in more chairs. There does seem to be an unusually heavy turnout …” the emcee said. He waited for the polite laughter to run its course.
    “Although some of our overflow crowd may be attributable to the more than usual press coverage today … they also seem to know that we have a special guest.
    “But before we begin, we have a few announcements. As you know, Professor Janet Todd was originally scheduled to give her talk,
The Real Mr Darcy
, and has graciously agreed to reschedule that talk for 3 pm tomorrow in this same marquee. We are sorry for the change, but if you’ve remembered to give us your email addresses, you should have known of this weeks ago.
    “Oh, and there is a red Fiat parked on the lawn beside the house. Please move it to the meadow immediately.”
    Melody and Mary heard some laughter as apparently a member rushed to move his car. Mary took the laughter as a cue to remove her coat and handed it to Melody.
    “Finally, I know that some of you may have misgivings about our ‘surprise’ guest and that you may be uncertain how to address her as you may have never met an ‘avatar’ before. All I can say is that civility must be our guide, something I am sure we have learned from the writings of Miss Jane Austen, whom I now have the pleasure of introducing. Miss Austen?”
    Mary took a quick deep breath, let it out and then opened the flap and stepped through into a marquee filled with several hundred almost silent people. She remembered the advice she had once gotten from a teacher: “Eventually someone will clap.”
    She paused after entering, thinking eventually was a very long time until she heard that first tentative clap, then joined by another and another until most of the audience, remembering that civility would be their guide, were applauding.
    She offered a little bow to the audience before proceeding to the emcee and took his proffered hand, to which he responded with a little bow as well, and relinquished the lectern to her, still amid the audience’s applause. She stood there a few seconds, waiting for the applause to die down, and then spoke:
    “Thank you Mr Carlisle and members of the Jane Austen Society. It is a privilege, an honour and any number of other good and wonderful things to be here today, addressing you on the day of your annual general meeting.
    “I should say this is not my first AGM; my most recent was in 2007, although it’s understandable you might have overlooked me.” Mary waited a beat and was rewarded by tepid and confused laughter. “Happily I can now stand before you and thank you for your continued interest in my writing.
    “I know many of you are still in shock that the AfterNet has recognized my identity. You have been free to speculate about me for a long time, but now you may be uncomfortable about those speculations … and that I am also free to speculate about you!
    “If that is your concern, please know that my long perspective has left me philosophic about criticism, although I can understand that my unkind remarks in the letters Cassandra did not burn might leave you wary of my unvarnished opinion. But again, fear not. I have learned a measure of discipline, especially when I know one’s tweets and postings may potentially be archived for eternity.
    “Now let us move to the proximate reason for my visit today:
Sanditon.
I am, after all, an author on a book tour. I thought I might share with you the circumstances of when and how
Sanditon
was completed,