“Desperate to keep her affection, her husband agreed to her terms. He hired a witch to cast a spell to draw Jane’s spirit out from the grave and trap her in ghost form. The witch gave the ghost to Frederick in a bottle, to be opened inside jail cell number one in the Darcy Jail, a cell that the founder was to instruct no one ever to use. But even if the cell were opened with a key, Jane’s ghost would still be trapped because the witch had cast a spell befitting Jane: only when she is witness to the coming together of true soul mates will the spell be broken and will Jane return to Great Britain so she can be with her true love.”
More beer. My eyes focus below the cypress tree where Dave puts his arm around Ginny’s shoulders as she leans her head against him. Maybe they will make it. Maybe Dave really will grow up.
“But what came of Vivian through all of this?” Skip asks me. “Why did she get even more embittered?”
“Vivian became obsessed with Jane Austen’s message of love, but as hard as she tried, she was never able to rekindle that former magic with her husband.” I turn to face Skip. “The way I see the legend is as a parable. Vivian was trying to hold onto something she’d lost—her husband’s love—by holding onto Jane Austen’s ghost as a symbol of true love.”
I gulp down the rest of my beer and Skip does the same with his.
“This is heavy,” he says. “So Vivian never had the happy ending she craved.”
I shake my head and glance back toward Logan.
I can’t believe he hasn’t had sex with Gigi.
I literally can’t stop thinking about it.
“Both of these couples have a shot to make history.” Skip glances at Logan and Gigi and then over at Ginny and Dave.
“That’s true.”
I look for an extra beat at Logan.
“It’s never as easy as boy meets girl, is it?” Skip says. “No matter what century.”
I guess not.
“Over to you now, Macey.” He returns to his iPad. “Why did you vow to never marry?”
I let out a long breath. “You know, Mama was obsessed—obsessed—with Pride and Prejudice. Calls it her Love Bible. And she means it.”
“It’s the greatest romance novel ever written,” Skip concurs.
“And my mother used it for all it was worth. Even made me memorize the most important parts. Like when Darcy tells Elizabeth, ‘You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you.’”
Skip sighs ecstatically.
“Mama would sigh just like you’re doing now.” I smile despite myself. “‘Would you listen to that?’ she’d say. ‘That is true love. That is a man showing real love and respect for a woman.’”
“So you’ve been sitting around waiting for your Mr. Darcy to show up in Texas?” Skip asks me.
I never should have had a beer. I certainly shouldn’t have practically chugged it. I already had that half a bottle by the cooler, and I’m not a drinker. One drink is enough to loosen my tongue. It always has been.
“No. Maybe when I was little. But once I became a teenager, I knew that marriage just wasn’t for me. Relationships aren’t for me.”
“Why not? What makes you different than anyone else?”
Again, maybe if I’d stayed completely sober, I wouldn’t have answered Skip’s question with?—
“Love is always hard, but when you’re supposedly cursed, it throws a whole new wrinkle into it. I’d always vowed to be the opposite of my mother in romantic relationships—you know, I never wanted to lose myself in a man and in needing that man to be my everything. I didn’t want the world to go cold if he wasn’t there to keep me warm.”
“Beautifully said.” Skip types hastily. “But what do you mean—cursed? That sounds serious.”
“My mother’s word. She thinks I’m cursed.” I hold out my arm and show him the inside of my wrist. “A freak accident that gave my mother proof I’m destined to share the ghost of Jane Austen’s fate. Unless the soul mates free the ghost, Austen Macey Henwood’s heart will stay locked up as well.”
“And she believes this why? Sounds like she’s a bit theatrical.”
“She is. Who else would steal a page out of Vivian’s diary and make her oldest daughter hide it for fear of the town finding out she’s jinxed? Yeah, sure, the page says something about the eldest daughter of the jail keeper and a scar she bears, but so what? The whole thing’s stupid.”
