Austenland

He was right. They were completely occupied with staring into each other’s eyes. Jane noted that Amelia seemed fluster-free for the first time since Captain East had arrived. If they were acting, they were doing a mighty fine job.

“You think it’s real . . .“ said Jane.

“It is not right to watch.”

“If we don’t watch, who will? Seems a shame to waste the moment with no audience to witness it.”

Their lips moved now Rehearsing lines? Or . . . Captain East leaned forward, Amelia tilted her head back. Her hand trembled on his chest. His lips met hers, briefly, gently. It clearly wasn’t enough, and he seized her. She wrapped her arms around his neck, and their faces merged beyond distinction in the darkness. It looked pretty serious, the kind of affection those two might reserve for a sealing-of-the-engagement moment.

Suddenly, it wasn’t like watching a movie—their passion seemed real and watching it started to feel like voyeurism. Jane wondered, Did Amelia the woman really love George East the man? The actor? Could she? What would happen to her heart when she left Pembrook Park?

“I’m in agreement with you now about the not-watching part,” she said.

Jane and Mr. Nobley walked back to the house in silence, the air around them thick, dragging with awkwardness. Witnessing confessions of love and first kisses can be enchanting when you’re with someone comfortable, someone you’ve already had that kiss with, and can laugh about it and feel cozy and remember your own first moment. Seeing it with Mr. Nobley was like having a naked-in-public dream.

“It’s only natural to confuse truth and fantasy as they play parts in a theatrical,” said Jane. “They start to feel as their characters would.”

“True. Which is one reason why I was hesitant to engage in this frivolity. I do not think pretending something can make it real.”

“I find it a little alarming that we agree on something. But do you think, in their case anyway, do you think those feelings could run deeper?”

Mr. Nobley stopped. He looked at her. “I wondered the same.

“I suppose it’s possible.”

“It’s more than possible. They reside in compatible stations in life, they have like minds, their sentiments seem suited to each other.”

“You sound like a textbook on matrimony. I’m talking about love, Mr. Nobley. Despite falling in love over a script, do you think they have a chance?”

Mr. Nobley frowned and rubbed his sideburns briskly with the back of his fingers. “I. . . I knew Captain East in the past when he loved another woman. Her changes, her cruelty broke him. He was a shell for some time. If you had asked me last month if another woman’s attentions could make him a whole man again, I would have said that no man can recover from such a wound, that he will never be able to trust a woman again, that romantic love is not air or water and one can live without it. But now . . .“ He breathed out. He had not looked away from her. “Now I do not know. Now I almost begin to think, yes. Yes.”

“Yes,” she repeated. The moon hung in the sky just over his shoulder, peering as though listening in, breathless for what was next.

“Miss Erstwhile.”

“Yes?”

He looked at the sky, he took several breaths as if trying to locate the right words, he briefly shut his eyes. “Miss Erstwhile, do you—

Captain East and Miss Heartwright passed by, walking close without touching. Mr. Nobley watched them, his frown deepening, then he looked back over his shoulder at nothing.

What? What?! Jane wanted to yell.

“Shall we go inside?”

He offered his arm. She felt dumped-on-her-rear disappointment, but she took his arm and pretended she was just fine. Soon the warm safety of roof and walls cut off the luscious strangeness of night in the garden. Servants scurried, candles blazed, the preparations for the play were lively and unconcerned with a moment in the park.

Without another word, Mr. Nobley left her alone, his jacket still around her shoulders. It smelled like gardens.

* * * TWO HOURS LATER, THE DRAWING room converted, the costumes wrapped, the electric-kerosene lamps flickering in a semicircle at their feet, the performers enacted the thirty-minute ode to love and the Mediterranean, Home by the Sea.

Miss Charming kept a ferocious grip on her script and gave oily air kisses to Colonel Andrews. Amelia was calm and sweet, melting into her dialogue with Captain East as though into his arms. Jane knelt beside Mr. Nobley, the wounded war captain, as he nearly died, and did her best to sound earnest. Old Jane would’ve run away or laughed self-consciously throughout. New Jane decided to feel as enchanting as Miss Charming and performed each line with relish and passion. It didn’t matter that she wasn’t a very good actress. Mr. Nobley’s character miraculously recovered all the same, leading to the part where he stood and took her hands. They were still cold. He paused, as though trying to remember what came next.

He looked. Looked at her. At her and into her. Into her eyes as though he couldn’t bear to look away. And there was a delicious curl in his smile.

“I love you,” he said.

Zing, thought Jane.

It was his line, more or less, though simplified. Stripped of similes and farms and rain and moon and all, it pierced her. She opened her mouth to say her own line but couldn’t remember a single word. And she didn’t want to.

He leaned. She leaned.

Then Aunt Saffronia, who’d been laughing encouragingly during the parts that were supposed to be sad and clapping gleefully whenever a new character came onstage, now cleared her throat as though intensely uncomfortable. Mr. Nobley hesitated, then kissed Jane’s cheek. His lips were warm, his cheek slightly scratchy. She smiled and breathed him in.

At length, the six actors stood side by side, pretending the bright yellow wall of the drawing room opened to a view of the Mediterranean Sea, and said their closing lines.

Jane: Trying to sound actress-y. “At last, we are all truly happy.”

Miss Charming: Pause. Crinkling of paper. Frantic searching for line. “Indeed.”

Amelia: With a shy smile for the tall man beside her. “Our travels are ended.”

Captain East: With a manly smile for his lady. “We can rest peacefully in each other’s arms.

Colonel Andrews: As always, with panache! “And no matter where we may roam.. .”

Mr. Nobley: A sigh. “This will always be our home.” His voice unhappy with the line. “By the sea.”