Sensing Selma (Jane Austen Association #5)

PROLOGUE

Keely

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THE CHILLY AND RAINY night had left us with a cool and damp morning.

Water still glistened on the streets that were dotted with puddles.

Every pedestrian I passed carried an umbrella, ready for the rain that would surely fall despite the promise of a bright and sunny day.

I shivered and pulled my sweater a little tighter around me to stave off the cold.

I arrived at the small church in Bath early, hoping to have a moment to get everything ready before the others arrived.

The Jane Austen Association Book Club hadn’t met for six weeks.

As a co-founder of the club in America that now had a chapter in the U.K.

, I wanted everything to be perfect. I’d spent the better part of the previous evening preparing finger sandwiches, a few salads, and I’d even made a batch of chocolate chip cookies.

Parking as close to the door as I could, I got out of the car and was surprised to find the sun already warming the air.

I brought out the box of salads and cookies and set it by the door. Then I carefully got the tray of sandwiches out and slammed the car door shut.

As I balanced the tray of sandwiches with one hand and struggled to unlock the church door with the other, Abbie pulled up and parked beside my car.

She was a heaven-sent. Not only did she help start the U.K.

branch of the club, but she stepped up to take the place of my friend and co-founder Ayra Patel, as the Assistant Director and producer for my Jane Austen films.

“Keely!” she shouted as she hurried out of her car. “Let me help you with that.”

“As usual, your timing is impeccable.”

She took the keys from my hand and unlocked the door. “Are you bringing all of this inside as well?” she said, looking down at the box by the door.

“Yes. Would you mind?”

She grabbed the box and followed me inside.

“It’s cold and damp in here after the cold night we had. We’d better leave the doors open to let the warm air come in.”

With the tip of her shoe, she pushed a stone up against the open door to hold it in place. “What do you have in the box?”

“The usual...salads, cookies, tea, sugar, coffee.”

“Wait a minute. Did you say cookies? You made cookies?”

I smiled as I put everything out on the long table set up at the back of the small church.

“Did you thank your wonderful husband for letting us use his church again?”

She waved the comment away. “You know Gabriel. He’s more than happy to see us using it. As he once said; the Tillsbury’s church is everyone’s church.”

I’d just finished placing the last bowl of salad on the table when members began to enter the church. After brief greetings, everyone chatted amiably as we waited for more members to arrive.

As usual, the conversation turned to our favorite Jane Austen line, their favorite choice of words or their favorite ending.

With everyone finally in attendance, including two new faces I’d not had the chance to greet, we settled in to read a chapter from Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility.

Chapter One

The family of Dashwood had long been settled in Sussex. Their estate was large, and their residence was at Norland Park in the center of their property where for many generations they had lived in so respectable a manner as to engage the general good opinion of their surrounding acquaintance.

Captivated by the familiar lines, the members hung on every word Abbie read.

Margaret, the other sister, was a good-humored, well-disposed girl, but as she had already imbibed a good deal of Marianne’s romance without having much of her sense, she did not, at thirteen, bid fair to equal her sisters at a more advanced period of life.

“You read beautifully,” one of the newcomers was quick to tell Abbie as she finished reading the first chapter.

“Thank you,” Abbie said. “I do pride myself on my ability to read aloud, but I have to admit that Jane Austen makes it so easy. I honestly think that anyone reading her words would sound good.”

The young woman laughed. “You may be right.”

“Perhaps you’d like to try and read the next chapter.”

The woman instantly blushed. “Oh, no. No. I couldn’t.”

“You’re new here, aren’t you?” Abbie said, extending her hand. “I’m Abbie Moore.”

“Yes.” She shook her hand. “I do believe I saw you here at church last Sunday... with Pastor Tillsbury.”

“My husband. Yes. I’m here every Sunday.”

“I’m Susan Selma.”

“Selma? Of Selma Sanctuary?”

“Hello,” I said, butting into their conversation. “I’m Keely Lee, president of this little book club.”

“Nice to meet you.”

“And I assume that the young woman coming our way is your sister, right?”

She smiled as the younger sibling joined us. “Yes. This is Holly, my beautiful, little sister.”

I looked at them. While there was clearly a family resemblance and they were both very attractive girls, the younger sibling did have something special about her.

Though both had beautiful blue eyes, Susan’s hair was dark and pulled back in a thoughtless ponytail while Holly’s hair was slightly lighter with pale highlights.

The appealing curls cascaded down past her shoulders.

“You’re Keely,” Holly said. “Keely Lee, right?”

I shot her a curious glance. “That’s right. How did you know?”

“I’ve heard a lot about the work you’ve done. All the Jane Austen stuff.”

“They’re from Selma Sanctuary,” Abbie told me, bringing the conversation back to where she and Susan had been when I’d so rudely interrupted.

“Well,” Holly said, clearly bitter. “We were from Selma Sanctuary. Now, we’re from nowhere. Absolutely nowhere.”

“Holly,” Susan said with hushed reproach. “Don’t bore these nice people with our tale of woe. It serves no purpose.”

The two sisters looked at one another, clearly in disagreement on how to deal with whatever situation they were going through.

“Not to pry,” Abbie said, “but I do have a good ear and if your situation leaves you in need of help of any kind, my husband’s church is always ready to assist parishioners anyway we can.”

“Our father recently died and left us penniless,” Holly blurted out without hesitation.

“And for some ungodly reason he has left the title to our family estate to some stranger... a complete stranger! A man named Jeremy Baker. Not only have we never heard of the man, but our mother, poor invalid woman that she now is, has no idea who he is either. And this morning we found out that we must move out of Selma Sanctuary, our childhood home, within the next two weeks.”

Susan’s face went red as she reluctantly nodded at her sister’s portrayal of their circumstance.

“Two weeks to find a suitable place to live,” Holly went on.

“Two weeks to empty everything we own out of the enormous house. Two weeks to find a means to pay for this new residence, should we be so fortunate to find it. Two weeks before we find ourselves out on the street sitting on a pile of our treasured belongings.”

“That’s enough, Holly,” Susan said. “We don’t want to turn this into a pity party.”

“And we wouldn’t be in such a pitiful state if you hadn’t lost your job,” Holly shot back.

Susan gasped in shock or anger, or both. She seemed prepared to say something in response to her sister but held her tongue.

“I very much empathize with your troubles,” Abbie said. “I’ll talk about it with my husband and see how we could help you.”

“Please,” Susan said. “We really don’t want to impose our troubles on you. I’m sure we’ll find a suitable place to live and everything will work out.”

A tense silence settled over us. It was heartbreaking to hear the young women’s story, and I wished we could do something to help.

As I looked around the church, watched the club members enjoying their lunch, I noticed Penny heading our way, her face glum.

“Penny!” I said. “I wasn’t expecting you to come. I thought you and Cliff were still away.”

She shook her head.

“Are you okay?” I said as she joined us.

She nodded, though without conviction.

“Susan and Holly, this is my lovely accountant, Penny Copperfield. Penny, these are the Selma girls from Selma Sanctuary.”

Penny nodded at the girls then looked at me. “I need to talk to you a moment, Keely.”

“Sure.” I excused myself and took a few steps away. “What’s going on?”

“I know this is last minute, and I wish I’d known of this sooner, but...”

“But, what, Penny? Even if it’s last minute, you can tell me anything.”

“Part of it is my fault. I hadn’t realized you’d be shooting Sense and Sensibility in Derbyshire. I should have known, but for some reason I assumed it’d be here in Bath.”

“Oh? And is Derbyshire a problem?”

She nodded and my gut tied up in knots. I couldn’t afford to lose her.

“I’m really sorry, but Cliff wants me to help out with his Roman Baths documentary series.

Even with the shoot being here in Bath it would have been complicated and taxing, but in Derbyshire.

.. well, it becomes downright impossible.

I mean, I do hope you understand... I promised Cliff that I would help out and. ..”

“Penny, it’s all right. Of course, I’m disappointed. I mean, you did such a good job. I trust you and... oh, but I do understand.”

I glanced at Abbie who was still with the Selmas. Judging by the concern in her eyes, she’d heard Penny’s resignation.

“In addition to that,” Penny went on. “I do have a lot of work to do at my family home at Copperfield Corner.”

“Yes. I understand.”

Abbie, along with Susan and Holly, joined us.

“I’m sorry,” Susan said. “We couldn’t help but overhear.”

Abbie looked at me. “I told Susan and Holly about our movie production company and about our next project.”

“I knew you were the director of Jane Austen films,” Susan said, “but I didn’t know you were responsible for those fantastic screen adaptations that keeps winning awards.”

I smiled. “Yes. We’ve been working quite hard.”

“Did I hear you right?” Susan said. “You introduced Penny as your accountant?”

“That’s right,” I said, tenderly patting Penny’s shoulder. “And I’m afraid we’re going to be losing her on this next project.”

“Um.” Susan looked at me and hesitated. “If I may be so bold...”

“Please,” I said.

“I worked as an accountant with the Schultz and Brodeur firm for three years.”

“Worked? You mean you don’t work there anymore?”

“That’s right. They’ve recently moved their offices to London, and I’ve not been able to find other employment.”

Seeing a very bright light at the end of this unfortunate tunnel, I smiled. “I know Schultz and Brodeur. My husband, Hugh, has worked with them. They pride themselves on hiring only the best.”

Susan smiled and blushed.

“If you’re looking for work, I’d be more than happy to take you on.”

Her face lit up. “That would be wonderful.”

“Only one problem,” Abbie interjected. “This movie is going to be shot in Derbyshire, not Bath. Are you okay with that?”

“Absolutely.”

“Not to outshine my brilliant sister,” Holly said, her chin high. “But I was contacted about a month ago by a woman named Ayra something.”

Susan cast her gaze to the floor. Undoubtedly, this wasn’t the first time her little sister sought to outshine her, despite her claiming the opposite.

“Ayra is my music arranger and co-founder of the Jane Austen Association in America,” I said, puzzled. “Are you saying that she contacted you for...?”

“Singing,” Holly said. “I’m a trained singer. And I play piano. Ayra was rather vague when she spoke to me, simply saying that she was looking at various options. But she’d somehow gotten a hold of a recording I’d done last year that went viral on YouTube, and was impressed.”

Analyzing the situation, I chewed on my bottom lip. Would hiring the two sisters increase friction, for clearly there was friction between them. Or would they prove to be quite capable of doing their respective jobs... perhaps hardly needing to see one another.

“In Derbyshire,” I said, “we shoot at Moon Manor. It’s a large estate where Ayra lives, and her husband run as a boutique hotel.”

“Moon Manor,” Holly said, a dreamy look in her eyes. “I’ve heard of it. Some have said that it may be grander than Selma Sanctuary, though I seriously doubt it. But I certainly would be eager to make the comparison.”

“When we last filmed there,” I went on, “the cast and crew lived right there on the premises. A large portion of the manor has been turned into a hotel for tourists, but we’ve booked all of the rooms in order to be housed there during the shoot.

It helps me get the production done under a tight schedule. ”

“That’s brilliant,” Susan smiled.

“Would we live in Moon Manor?” Holly said, her eyes wide.

“That’s right.”

“Our mother,” Susan said, showing herself to be more concerned with the practical aspect of my proposal. “We can’t leave her on her own. She needs us... every day. She’s in a wheelchair, and while she can get up and take a few steps here and there, she is unable to tend to her needs.”

“I’m sure we could work something out.”

The book club members were growing restless and eager to get the meeting going again.

“We’ll settle this tomorrow,” I quickly told them. “I’ll call Ayra to make sure she’s on board, and then, well, I think we’re all set.”

Susan nodded, while Holly gave a small smile. Although they appeared a bit relieved, they still looked worried.