Excerpt of Writing Jane Austen by Elizabeth Aston

Email from [email protected]

To [email protected]

Henry stood at the door of Georgina’s room, holding a weighty textbook in one hand and marking his place with a finger. He looked at his lodger with concern. “Gina, why the screech of terror? What’s up? Why are you looking at that screen as though it had grown fangs?”

“It’s an email from Livia.”

“Okay, fangs is right. What does she want?”

“She wants me to ring her.”

“I’ll get the phone.”

“I don’t want to ring her. It’s bad news.”

“What precisely does she say in her email?”

“Ring me.”

“That’s it?”

“That’s it.”

“You can’t deduce from those two words that it’s bad news.”

Oh, but Georgina could. Good news, Livia rang her. Bad news, she expected the recipient to foot the cost of the call. Except that it didn’t actually cost Livia anything to make a call, it wasn’t as though Georgina were on the other side of the Atlantic.