At Home with Mr Darcy by Victoria Connelly Read Free Book Online Page B

is my perfect home. But it was so exciting to see the Painted Hall and to walk in the steps of Elizabeth.’ She tapped the photo of Keira Knightley on the cover of her paperback. ‘The rest of the rooms in this version were filmed in another house, weren’t they?’
    ‘Yes,’ Katherine said. ‘Wilton House near Salisbury.’
    ‘Perhaps Dame Pamela will arrange a weekend there one day,’ Robyn said, gazing out across the immaculate lawns towards the house. ‘Do you think Jane Austen had Chatsworth in mind when she wrote Pemberley?’ she asked after a moment.
    ‘Well, it’s a little ambiguous,’ Katherine said. ‘It could well be Chatsworth and she mentions it at the beginning of volume three when they first arrive in Derbyshire.’
    Robyn nodded and flipped through the pages. ‘Here,’ she said a second later. ‘She writes "all the celebrated beauties of Matlock, Chatsworth, Dovedale or the Peak."‘
    ‘That’s right,’ Katherine said. ‘But the date of Pemberley is never given. The Gardiners are speculating about it after the house tour, remember?’
    Robyn nodded again. ‘I think the word used is "conjecturing".’
    Katherine laughed. ‘You know the novel better than I do,’ she said. ‘Perhaps you should come and take some of my tutorials some time.’
    Robyn grinned. ‘I’m just a fan – not an academic. I doubt if I could teach anyone anything more than how wonderful Mr Darcy is.’ Robyn’s eyes scanned the pages again. ‘Here’s a description,’ she said a minute later. ‘"It was a large, handsome, stone building, standing well on rising ground."‘
    ‘But that could be any date at all,’ Katherine said.
    ‘Do you think Pemberley could be older than Chatsworth?’
    ‘I really think it might be. After all, you wouldn’t "conjecture" over the date of a contemporary building, would you?’
    Robyn looked thoughtful. ‘Perhaps it’s actually Haddon Hall – that’s near Bakewell just as Pemberley was.’
    Katherine nodded. ‘Yes, it could well be.’
    ‘But that has a far more Brontëan feel about it, don’t you think? All medieval turrets and castellations.’
    ‘But that’s a modern audience’s interpretation of it. Jane Austen might have viewed it quite differently and it could still be all elegance inside as Pemberley was described.’
    ‘It’s stood in as Thornfield in at least two adaptations of Jane Eyre , hasn’t it?’ Robyn said.
    ‘You’re a Brontë fan too?’
    ‘It’s hard not to be,’ Robyn said, ‘although the Brontës come a very poor second to Jane.’ She read some more of her book quietly to herself. ‘There are woods mentioned and a river and bridge just like here at Chatsworth,’ she said a moment later.
    ‘You know, I think there are probably elements of Chatsworth in there – the interior of Pemberley certainly has the elegance of Chatsworth but lots of writers amalgamate difference places and then throw in a good measure of their own imagination too. I think, for most Austen fans, Chatsworth will always be Pemberley just as Castle Howard will always be Brideshead.’
    ‘You think it foolish to try and find the real Pemberley?’ Robyn asked.
    ‘Not foolish, exactly,’ Katherine said. ‘I think we all carry it inside us, don’t we? We each have our own individual version that no film director can ever really create for us.’
    Robyn laughed. ‘I think it’s funny that Elizabeth tells Jane that her feelings for Mr Darcy began when she saw "his beautiful grounds at Pemberley",’ she said.
    Katherine laughed. ‘I know. But don’t forget that that’s when she learned about his true character from the housekeeper.’
    ‘Of course,’ Robyn said. ‘Our Elizabeth would never have married simply for a beautiful home – however stunning it might be.’
    Robyn’s mind drifted, once again, across the miles from Derbyshire to Hampshire and she wished with all her heart that she could glimpse what her beloved Dan was doing at that very