At Home with Mr Darcy Read Online Free PDF Page B

Robyn asked when she was quite sure Dame Pamela had finished.
    ‘Emma Thompson’s crying scene in Sense and Sensibility ,’ Roberta suggested.
    ‘Yes but you have to build up to it – you can’t just fast forward to it – you have to experience the whole thing and I’m not sure we’ve time for that as we’ve got to prioritise Pride and Prejudice on this trip,’ Robyn said.
    ‘Captain Wentworth’s letter to Anne – I could read that to her,’ Rose offered.
    ‘And we certainly have time to watch the whole of the 2005 Pride and Prejudice again,’ Doris Norris said. ‘She simply has to melt after that.’
    Suddenly, everybody was talking at once, swapping ideas and exchanging plans.
    ‘She’s a wordsmith,’ Warwick said. ‘She’s bound to appreciate that famous passage from Northanger Abbey about novels. I’ll see if I can wiggle that into a conversation with her.’
    ‘I’m not sure I want you wiggling anywhere near that journalist,’ Katherine said, looking alarmed.
    ‘And we can tell her about the life Jane led and how she turned down a marriage proposal and stayed true to herself and her art,’ Mrs Soames said gravely.
    ‘And how the world lost her when she was much too young,’ Doris Norris said, shaking her head ruefully.
    ‘Shush! She’s coming,’ Robyn said, sounding the alarm. Everybody moved at once, crashing into each other in an attempt to look natural.
    Melissa Berry eyed them warily as she entered the living room of the Wye Hotel. She might have thought them a complete bunch of crazies but she had absolutely no idea what they had planned for her.
     
    Horseshoe Cottage felt strange without Robyn, Dan thought as he tidied up the kitchen having fed Cassie her breakfast and handed her over to her babysitter for the day. He hated not being able to take care of her but he had a business to run now. The Purley Hall Riding Centre had been up and running for almost a year with a book full of regular pupils from pony-mad girls in pink jodhpurs to adults wanting to improve their technique. There was also a party of special needs children who came once a week to build their confidence on the quieter horses. Dan adored teaching them. He got such great satisfaction seeing the smiles on their faces.
    Then there was Jack, the young man who was desperately trying to learn to ride in time for his wedding next year when he wanted to surprise his fiancée by riding into the reception venue. The only trouble was, he had no natural skill at all when it came to riding. Dan had given him a leg up onto Gemini – one of the more docile ponies in the yard – and he’d promptly fallen off the other side. Luckily, he hadn’t been hurt. Only his pride had been dented a little and Dan had had the good grace not to laugh.
    Business, he thought as he strode up the driveway of Purley Hall towards the stable yard, was good. He now found it hard to imagine any other life for himself and would often reflect on his days spent working in the city of London, trapped in an office with wall-to-wall meetings, suffering eyestrain and headaches. No, he thought, he was one lucky man to be living and working in the beautiful Hampshire countryside with his dear family.
    Entering the yard, he inhaled deeply, luxuriating in that wonderful smell of horse, hay and leather. He rolled up the sleeves of his checked shirt, revealing arms that were already tanned as well as toned, and got to work cleaning out the stables. It was a job that he could easily have left for one of the girls they employed but Dan had never been one to shirk physical work and he enjoyed working up a bit of a sweat. There were twelve horses to take care of now including one that had come to them in the strangest of manners.
    Last winter, the skinniest of horses had been found tied to a gate on the Purley estate. There’d been an envelope fixed to the rope and, inside, had been a hastily written note.
    ‘Plese look arfter this hors.’
    No other explanation.