Pride, Prejudice and Jasmin Field by Melissa Nathan Read Free Book Online Page A

as they came into the lounge. Jack Hayes’s smiling face appeared round the doorframe first, followed almost immediately by his tall, slender frame. He ambled in, all jollity and eagerness to please. His cheeks were as rosy as ever and his eyes shone with warmth and interest. He was a tall man, but next to Harry, he looked slight, and beside Harry’s crow-black hair, his blondness looked almost silly.
    The genuine pleasure that Jack exhibited at being there would have eased the tension somewhat, had it not been for Harry’s seeming indifference. Jack greeted them all warmly, kissing his sister and her friend on the cheeks and shaking Charles’s hand vigorously. Harry stood in the corner and nodded his greetings to them, without a smile. Everyone was delighted by him. He made no reference to having met Maxine or Charles at the auditions and, as general conversation began, he let Jack do all the talking, preferring instead to study the various ornaments in the room. Sara grew more and more irritated with her brother. Why wouldn’t he shut up, so that Harry could talk? After twenty tense minutes, the hired butler came in and announced that dinner was served.
    The dining room was vast and decked out in rich red and gold with sumptuous velvet curtains swept up
    at the sides of the sash windows. A suit of armour occupied the corner of the room, somewhat unnerving those with sensitive dispositions. Sara had arranged the place cards so that she was sitting opposite Harry. Maxine and Charles were facing each other and Jack was at the head.
    As they ate the gazpacho soup, Sara could wait no longer.
    ‘The last time we were all in the same room, Mr. Noble, we were all desperate for your approval,’ she said, with pretence at a coy smile. She had insisted on calling Harry Mr. Noble ever since he’d won the Oscar. He had never expressed displeasure at it, so she had kept it up whenever she was trying to be more intimate with him.
    ‘Oh yes,’ said Maxine, affecting surprise at the subject. ‘Can you put us out of our misery and tell us if any of us made the grade?’
    She and Sara laughed in amazement at the idea and Jack joined in willingly. Charles was now preoccupied with his soup. The food had taken away what nerves he had felt at the thought of meeting Harry Noble. Harry Noble was just a man but soup was soup. Even if it was cold.
    ‘Oh, you can assure yourselves I approved heartily of you all,’ said Harry, and continued to eat.
    Sara tried again.
    ‘Did any of us spring to mind when you cast the part of… say … Elizabeth Bennet?’
    Harry kept on drinking his soup.
    ‘Perhaps that girl - now what was her name?’ Sara laughed gently, ‘You called her the Ugly Sis—’
    Harry interrupted. ‘Jasmin Field.’
    ‘Yes, that’s right — I think she’s Georgia Field’s sister,’ said Maxine.
    Jack looked up.
    ‘Oh yes,’ pretended Sara. ‘She was petrified, poor thing, I felt mortified for her. Mind you, she made a sterling effort, I thought, didn’t you?’
    Harry put his spoon down and wiped his mouth with his well-pressed serviette.
    ‘Yes, sterling,’ he said, placing his serviette on the table. ‘So sterling that she is our Elizabeth Bennet.’
    There was a stunned silence.
    ‘Marvellous!’ said Jack genuinely.
    ‘Elizabeth Bennet?’ gasped Sara. ‘Lizzy?’ she tried, hoping that she might have misheard.
    ‘Yes,’ said Harry simply. ‘Delicious soup, by the way.’
    Sara struggled to keep her voice composed. ‘I must say I am most surprised,’ she managed. ‘After all, when you first saw her you called her an Ugly Sister. Aren’t you at all concerned that that’s what the audience will think too?’
    ‘No.’
    ‘Surely you can’t have a short, busty, ugly Lizzy Bennet? It will spoil everything.’
    ‘When I first saw her,’ corrected Harry, ‘she was standing in the shadow. I couldn’t see her face properly from there. Especially her eyes.’
    ‘Her eyes? What have they got to do