Jane Actually

guess she wouldn’t be signing her book, of course. Maybe they can hire an avatar to do it. There have to be copies of her autograph somewhere, right?”
    Dan kept babbling away, envisioning the book tour and obviously very happy having a so-so client with his limited appeal book suddenly become a hot property. But all Courtney could think of was sitting next to an invisible Jane Austen disapproving of his book.
    “You have no idea how great it is having a real touring budget. I usually have to tell my clients to book their own tickets and tell them to stay with family … hell you know what I’m talking about! Well look, got to go. I’m very happy for you, Courtney.”
    Courtney silently cursed after his agent hung up and as he did so, he realized he’d been looking at the woman across the aisle and she’d correctly interpreted his four-letter word. She gave him a long, disapproving look and returned to her magazine.
    Courtney was embarrassed and disappointed that he’d allowed his fear and frustration to be evident to the old woman, although he certainly had justification. His book was essentially finished, and if there were no Austen claimant, it could stand on its own, but now that there was one, he desperately needed the letter. To actually know in her own words the name of Jane’s Lyme Regis lover 8 would be amazing, assuming of course it corresponded with his conjectures. And it would certainly make it difficult for the Austen claimant to refute him.
    He was travelling back to Bath to see if he could find proof the Gorrell family had any connection with the Austen family. And from there he hoped to trace the family forward. Unfortunately it meant nothing if he couldn’t find the old lady and the letter, the trail having run cold sometime in the 1980s.
    He tried to reassure himself that even if he were unable to find the letter, his book was solid enough, but he knew he might have pushed some of his suppositions a little far.
    He’d weathered criticism before, of course. His Byron biography was controversial, and he had been prepared to have some hard-core Janeites take issue with the book, although he had also hoped it would appeal to the incurable romantics who wanted to think Jane had actually experienced some real passion.
    Maybe I’m blowing it out of proportion. Maybe Austen won’t mind me revealing her affair. After all, that was a long time ago. Maybe if I contact her, she’ll give me an interview.
    He decided to look up her address on the net, but of course searching for Jane Austen produced a lot of results that weren’t relevant. Then he went to the AfterNet and searched for her again and found several stories about her identity being certified but that still didn’t produce an email address by which he might contact the one true Jane Austen.
    Then he went to facebook and the same was true again. There were several Jane Austen pages and many usernames like JaneAusten12 and janeaustenauthor and IAmJaneAusten, but he had no clue which was genuine.
    He’d assumed once she had proven her identity, Jane Austen would be easy to find, but he supposed it wouldn’t be any different than if he wanted to find Salman Rushdie’s email address. He thought that perhaps his agent might be able to find Austen’s agent and he could get a review copy to her that way. He was dialling his agent’s number but stopped before the final digit.
    And what if she says I’m making it all up. No, I don’t want to approach her until I can authenticate the letter. After all, no one’s said anything negative about the book. All the proof readers thought it well written and I made my arguments.
    He tried to quell the worry that only two of the reviewers to whom he’d sent the book were scholarly Janeites and he had sent them early incomplete drafts. He’d meant to send other drafts but kept delaying, hoping he might finally gain access to the letter.
    Maybe if I just found another Janeite, a real scholar, and I could explain to her about the letter. After all, we’re all in the same boat now.
    He looked at his folder on his laptop where he’d collected the various references he’d used in writing his book. He saw the
Persuasions
9 articles by Dr Alice Davis. She was a respected Austen scholar, even if she did have a reputation for promoting a feminist agenda. He’d early on considered interviewing her for his book, but she also had a reputation for not suffering fools gladly.
    The train was now slowing as