“Then I must make plans for your further entertainment. We shall go to the bookseller’s tomorrow and choose something else to read together. Another by Mrs. Radcliffe? Perhaps The Italian, or The Romance of the Forest?”

“Perhaps The Midnight Bell? I like the sound of that one.”

“The Midnight Bell it is, then. And we have not been out once yet in the curricle; Matthew tells me the horses are getting fat and need exercise. One fine morning this week I will drive you out to Bristol and you shall finally see Blaise Castle.”

Henry’s words, meant to cheer Catherine, instead distressed her. “I once thought it a real castle! I was such a foolish creature. How could you ever fall in love with me?”

He looked down at her with a warm smile, his eyes all affection. “How could I not love you, Catherine? How could any man of sense not see all your good qualities? You were not foolish, just innocent of the world; and as Mrs. Radcliffe has taught us, innocence — “ he reached out and extinguished the candle — “must always triumph.”

It was not very long before Catherine found herself agreeing with that sentiment; for when he was inspired, Henry could be very convincing indeed.

FINIS.

Acknowledgments

The authoress wishes to thank Cassandra Chouinard for her illustrations, which are not only beautiful but capture the fun of the story so well; Laura Boyle for pitching the idea and featuring the story so prominently on the Jane Austen Centre at Bath online magazine; Christina Hamilton for her expert copy editing; Laura McDonald for her patience and much-needed prodding, not to mention introducing me to so many wonderful books at Girlebooks; my Janeite Posse for posseing, in particular Team Tilney and the gang at Molland's who provided such great feedback and comments during the online serial publication of this Very Nice Story; my family, as always, for their encouragement of my writing and for embracing my Janeite freakiness, although they don't always understand it; and of course the incomparable Jane Austen for giving us these wonderful characters that continue to inspire me.

About the Author

Margaret C. Sullivan is the Editrix of AustenBlog.com, a compendium of news and commentary about Jane Austen's work in popular culture. She also created the website Molland's (www.mollands.net), a resource for Jane Austen fans. She is the author of The Jane Austen Handbook: A Sensible Yet Elegant Guide to Her World (Quirk Books, 2007) and contributed to the anthology Jane Austen Made Me Do It, edited by Laurel Ann Nattress (Random House, 2011). Margaret is a life member of the Jane Austen Society of North America.

About the Illustrator

At the age of 24, Cassandra finally changed her last name but is still entrapped in her famous sister's orbit, as you can see. (We shall get nothing more serious from her now...she is not in a sober mood.) A doodler since childhood, Cassandra Chouinard abandoned her painting studies to complete a master's degree in harpsichord performance at McGill University. Meanwhile, various stints as a street portraitist, student newspaper cartoonist, and vanity press illustrator attuned her eye to various details such as line, contour, and the all-too-quick approach of a deadline.