Both the Austen sisters gave him withering looks.
He spread his hands. “I’m only telling you the way it is. You don’t have to act as if I am responsible for all of it, now do you?”
“So,” said Jane softly, “if this is the case, then all of that story about being teased and being allowed to watch her with some other man, that would be…”
“A fiction,” said Byron. “Something entirely made up, something to excuse his association with Miss Seward, to explain it away to Mrs. Blethens, but that never happened at all.”
“With all these possible lies, how will we ever see the truth?” said Jane.
“Well, exactly,” said Cassandra. “I think you set the entire business aside and let it be. It’s sordid. It’s impossible. It’s maddening.”
“Sorry,” said Jane to her sister. “We shall speak of something else, then, something more pleasant?”
“Oh, please,” said Cassandra.
IT ENDED UPthat they had not missed the funeral after all.
They all went, but Lord Byron did not sit with them. He sat in a pew with Mr. Beaumont, who was there alone, since his wife was not up and moving yet and the babe was far too young to be brought to the church.
Jane, Cassandra, and their mother sat in a pew together, and they noted that Edward was not there, but perhaps he hadn’t heard about the tavern owner’s death, or perhaps they had not thought his association to her close enough to warrant attendance. It was true that this might have been something that Edward’s late wife Elizabeth might have overseen, but she had died four years back in childbirth, and Edward had not remarried.
After the funeral, they did not all go out to the graveside. Mrs. Austen would have liked them all to go home, but Jane found herself taken aside by Byron, who told her that he had spoken to Beaumont.
“Your theory, as it happens, is accurate,” said Byron.
“Which theory?” said Jane.
“The theory of Beaumont and Hardy,” said Byron. “Well, Hardy had no interest in return, as it happens. But, yes, it was exactly as you say. Beaumont convinced her to bring Hardy into the business, and then eventually, Beaumont may have madeadvances towards Hardy. I can tell you that he was forward at that age. I met him when we were but sixteen, I should say. He was fearless. He went after what he wanted.”
They were standing outside the church now, and Jane felt as if they shouldn’t be discussing this so close to holy ground. She was curious, however, so she did not stop him. “And what he wanted was… other men.”
“It’s perfectly natural,” said Byron with a shrug. “You’ve seen male dogs go at each other, undoubtedly.”
Jane furrowed her brow. “Well…” She squared her shoulders. “All right, perhaps you are correct. But even so, it is notconsiderednatural, not at all.”
Byron shrugged again. “Yes, well, people are frustratingly narrow-minded, are they not?”
She wasn’t sure what to say to that.
“This is neither here nor there, I suppose.” He glared at her. “I must say, I am disappointed in your prejudices, Miss Austen. You’re a writer. You know what it is to get inside the minds and hearts of your characters, and you know, deep down, that people are motivated by pure intentions, by and large. So, to decide that I must have nefarious ones—”
“People are indeed not motivated by pure intentions, by and large!” interrupted Jane, rather shocked that he would say something so foolishly naive. “People are primarily motivated to please themselves.”
Byron considered. “Well, yes, you’re right, that is true. But what I mean is, people are not trying to do wrong things.”
“They think of themselves first and others second, and it is quite easy to do wrong things when one isn’t worrying about the harm one may do.”
“And what harm is done by two men together in that way?” He raised his eyebrows.
She found herself, again, at a loss for words.
“Oh, never mind it,” said Byron. “You have said you don’t wish to hear about it, and I would be absolutely happy to abide by that, but it keeps coming up. So, let me finish and I shall tell you all that I have discovered.”
“I am not stopping you,” she said, and she may have been a bit sharp with her words.
He looked a little chagrined. “All right, here it is. It seems that, when Mr. Hardy was reticent, Beaumont moved on to a different quarry. It was once, only once, he says, but that Hardy knew of it, for Hardy was jealous.”
“Jealous of what?” said Jane. “I thought he had spurned Beaumont’s advances.”
