At Home with Mr Darcy Read Online Free PDF Page A

reporter’s?’ she asked.
    Doris and Robyn nodded.
    ‘Then we’re in trouble.’
    It was then that Melissa strode back into the room. Robyn quickly grabbed the notebook from Katherine and returned it to Melissa’s chair just in time.
    ‘Everything okay?’ Melissa asked as Katherine quickly returned to her seat next to Warwick.
    ‘Yes, yes.’ Robyn said. ‘Just getting up for a stretch. I’ve been sitting down too long today.’
    ‘Me too,’ Doris said. ‘My old bones need to get up and about every so often otherwise they’ll seize up.’ She did a funny little jig and Melissa’s eyebrows rose a fraction. Luckily, Dame Pamela distracted them with a clap of her diamond-encrusted hands.
    ‘Does she always wear so much jewellery?’ Melissa asked.
    ‘Always,’ Doris said. ‘Wonderful, isn’t it? She’s like Elizabeth Taylor only with a little more class.’
    Robyn giggled. Doris Norris could be ever so naughty sometimes.
    ‘I now have the results of the quiz and a very good job you all did too. It was pretty close but we have a definite winner with an incredible twenty out of twenty.’ Dame Pamela paused, holding up a hand and making sure she had everybody’s undivided attention. ‘And the winning team is,’ she said, pausing again for dramatic effect, ‘Soames on the Roam! That’s Mrs Soames and her daughter, Annie.’
    There was a big round of applause and Mrs Soames deigned to smile but it was so brief that it could have just been a facial twitch.
    ‘You see, Mother,’ Annie said, ‘I told you Mother Shipton’s cave wasn’t in Derbyshire.’
    ‘What are you talking about, girl? I never said that,’ Mrs Soames said, her great bosom rising in defence. Annie rolled her eyes.
    ‘Congratulations, ladies,’ Dame Pamela said, moving forward to shake their hands. ‘You will, of course, be receiving signed photos of me in my role as Marianne Dashwood in my heyday and I have gift vouchers for you here to spend at Chatsworth House tomorrow.’
    Mrs Soames snatched the vouchers from Dame Pamela.
    ‘I’d better take care of these,’ she said to Annie. ‘You always lose things.’
    ‘I don’t always lose things,’ Annie said, taking a sip of tea to try and calm herself. This, she thought, was going to be a very long weekend. She’d dreamt of visiting Chatsworth House and Lyme Park – the two Pemberleys – for years but she was beginning to wonder if a weekend spent in her mother’s company was too high a price to pay.
     
    Out in the foyer, Robyn, Doris, Katherine and Warwick were in deep discussion about Melissa Berry’s notepad.
    ‘What else had she written?’ Robyn asked.
    Katherine frowned as she tried to remember. ‘She said that Jane Austen has had her time and that people should be focussing on modern writers now – writers who have something to say about the world we live in.’
    Warwick scoffed. ‘But Jane Austen is still relevant today. I bet this woman would say the same thing about Shakespeare and Dickens. Just because they were writing in a different century doesn’t mean they’re outdated and have nothing to teach us.’
    ‘Of course,’ Katherine said. ‘We all know that and it’s something I always try to remind my students of too but it seems that this journalist is very set in her ways.’
    ‘It seems like she’s written her article on us already,’ Warwick said, shaking his head.
    ‘Dan warned me about this,’ Robyn confided.
    ‘Did he?’ Doris said.
    Robyn nodded. ‘He said we’re easy targets and that we really shouldn’t have courted the press at all but Pammy was delighted at the idea of a journalist coming along with us.’
    ‘Ah,’ Katherine said, ‘this may come back to haunt her.’
    ‘We’ve got to warn everyone,’ Robyn said. ‘Don’t you think? I mean, we can’t just sit back and do nothing, can we?’
    ‘But what can we do?’ Doris asked. ‘The girl’s obviously made her mind up about us.’
    A little smile spread itself across