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said.
    They were to spend the entire day at Chatsworth. With the enormous house, extensive gardens and grounds as well as the restaurant, cafes and deluxe shops to be visited, there was enough to entertain any holidaymaker let alone a Janeite who needed to do nothing more than wander around with a trusty copy of Pride and Prejudice in their hands.
    The group soon split up with most making a beeline for the house first. Robyn was one of them, drifting around in a dream as her eyes roamed from fine old portraits to decadent pieces of furniture. She gloried in crossing the black and white floor in the Painted Hall just as Keira Knightley had done in the 2005 adaptation, and nearly screamed for joy when she saw her first view of the Emperor Fountain from one of the bevelled glass windows.
    It was an enormous house with so many splendid rooms that it made Robyn feel quite dizzy. Like Elizabeth Bennet when she visited Pemberley, Robyn made sure she looked out of each window at the landscape beyond, glorying in the immaculate gardens and the countryside in which they were set.
    ‘ “To be mistress of Pemberley might be something!” ’ she quoted to herself, remembering Elizabeth’s words as she’d thought about what her future might have been had she accepted Mr Darcy’s first proposal. Robyn smiled. How would she have reacted if Dan had revealed himself to be the master of a property like Pemberley? Would she have swooned at the thought of being its mistress? She didn’t think so. She probably would have run a mile because their home at Horseshoe Cottage was her idea of perfection. Of course, she was also lucky enough to be able to work at Purley Hall which was grand by anybody’s standards. No, she thought, as beautiful as they were, the Chatsworths and Pemberleys of the world were suited to other people – not her.
     
    After touring the house, Katherine and Warwick found themselves walking behind Melissa Berry. She had shunned the house in favour of the gardens and was now making her way towards the stable block where the restaurant and shops were.
    ‘Shall I tackle her now?’ Warwick asked Katherine.
    ‘I don’t like your use of the word tackle ,’ Katherine said. ‘It sounds like you’re going to get her in some sort of head lock.’
    ‘I wish I could,’ he said, ‘then maybe I could make her see reason.’
    ‘You haven’t got to make her see reason,’ Katherine said, ‘only the joys of Jane Austen.’
    ‘Isn’t that the same thing?’ Warwick asked with a lopsided smile that still melted Katherine. ‘Leave her to me. You go and buy yourself a book or something in the shop.’
    Katherine laughed. ‘I don’t need any encouragement to buy books.’
    They entered a wide courtyard where tables and chairs were set out and people were eating and drinking in the sunshine. There was a small fountain in the middle and a bar at the far side selling drinks and ice creams. Melissa Berry was heading towards the bar.
    ‘Can I get you a coffee?’ Warwick asked as he approached her.
    She jumped in alarm. ‘I thought you lot would all be in the house following in the footsteps of Mr Darcy,’ she said.
    ‘We’ve just been round,’ he said.
    They both bought coffee and went to sit on a couple of the bright purple seats.
    ‘How long have you been a journalist?’ he asked.
    ‘A couple of years,’ she said, sipping her coffee.
    ‘And you like it?’
    ‘Sure,’ she said. ‘Do you like being a novelist?’
    ‘So you know about that?’
    ‘It’s my business to know about the people I write about,’ she said, her face blank and unreadable. ‘So, do you like it?’
    ‘I love it,’ he said. ‘It’s the kind of job you couldn’t do unless you love it.’
    ‘I guess,’ she said and there was a pause.
    ‘So,’ Warwick began again after taking a sip of his coffee, ‘have you read much Jane Austen?’
    ‘No,’ Melissa said bluntly. ‘Just a bit of that Pride and Prejudice one and some stuff about