Jane Goes Batty

Jane put her hand to her forehead. “I was thinking about Walter,” she explained. “How am I going to tell him?”

“Tell him?” said Lucy. “Oh,” she added a moment later. “You mean about …” She thrust her upper incisors out and made sucking sounds.

“Charming,” Jane said.

“Sorry,” said Lucy. “We watched Dracula with Sarah last night.”

“She wasn’t scared?” Jane asked.

Lucy shook her head. “She thinks monsters are neat,” she said. “I thought she was going to cry when Dracula was killed at the end.”

“What an interesting child,” said Jane. “I look forward to knowing more about her.”

“So do I,” Lucy said. “Now what about Walter? What are you going to do?” When Jane didn’t answer right away she added, “You’re not going to break up with him again, are you?”

“No,” said Jane. “At least I don’t think I am.”

“Jane!” Lucy said sternly.

“All right, I’m not,” said Jane.

“Promise,” ordered Lucy.

“I promise,” Jane said.

“Cross your heart and hope to die?” Lucy asked.

Jane made a face. “Not much chance of that, is there?”

Lucy ignored her. “Now listen to me. You are going to stay engaged to Walter. You are going to marry Walter. I am going to be your maid of honor, and if I have to, I’m going to drag you down the aisle by your feet.”

“You’re going to be my maid of honor?” Jane said.

“Oh,” Lucy said. “Did I say that? I didn’t mean to—”

“But you would be?” said Jane. “If it comes to that?”

“Are you asking me to?” Lucy said.

Jane nodded. Lucy nodded. They both burst into tears and hugged each other. “There’s so much to do,” Lucy said between happy sobs. “We need to make a list. Have you thought about flowers?”

Jane laughed. “I think we have time,” she said as she wiped her eyes. “We haven’t even set a date. Anyway, there’s still the tiny matter of my having to tell him I’m a …” She imitated Lucy’s earlier imitation of a vampire.

“More important, what kind of dress do you want?” said Lucy.

Jane hesitated. “I don’t know,” she said. “Maybe something with an Empire waist?”

Lucy wrinkled her nose. “We’ll look at magazines,” she said. “And don’t worry about Walter right now. We’ll figure something out.”

“Maybe I should tell Ben,” Jane suggested. “Then he can tell Walter. I imagine he’s very good at that sort of thing, being a rabbi.”

Lucy’s face brightened. “Ben can marry you!” she exclaimed.

“I think he’d probably rather marry you,” said Jane.

“I mean you and Walter,” Lucy said. “Ben can perform your ceremony.”

Jane leaned against the counter. “This is all coming together rather quickly,” she said. “This morning it was all very vague in a we’ll-get-married-one-of-these-years way. Now we’re talking about flowers and dresses and rabbis.”

“You are going to be such a bridezilla,” said Lucy.

“A what?” Jane asked.

“A nightmare,” said Lucy. “Now snap out of it. Today is supposed to be a celebration. You can fret later.”

“That’s very easy for you to say,” Jane reminded her. “Let’s see how composed you are when Ben asks for your hand.”

Lucy picked up a bottle of wine and refilled their glasses. “It’s going to be fine,” she told Jane as she handed her a glass. “Trust me. We’ll get you through this.”

Jane took the glass. Lucy lifted hers and tapped it against Jane’s. “Have I ever let you down?” she asked.

“No,” Jane said. “You haven’t.”

“And I won’t this time,” said Lucy. “Now let’s get back to the boys before Byron has glamored them both into taking their shirts off.”

Jane took a sip of wine. “Actually, I wouldn’t mind so much if he did,” she said.

“Why, you sly old cougar,” said Lucy.

Back on the deck they found Walter, Ben, and Byron talking to Miriam. Seeing her there, Jane bristled slightly. Although she and Walter’s mother had declared a truce of sorts, her presence still made Jane uncomfortable. She would be relieved when Miriam was safely on a plane back to Florida.

“Jane,” Walter said, “my mother just gave us some wonderful news.” From the tone of his voice, Jane sensed that the opposite was true.

“I’ve decided to move to Brakeston,” Miriam announced. She fixed Jane with a steely stare. “I’m tired of the heat in Florida.”

Jane forced a smile. “That’s wonderful,” she said. She embraced Miriam, feeling the woman tense beneath her touch.

“Remember, a grandchild or I stake you,” Miriam whispered.

“Walter and I will get to work on that immediately,” Jane whispered back, “Mother.” She emphasized the final word and gave Miriam a peck on the cheek.

“Well,” she said, letting go of Miriam and lifting her glass. “Let’s have a toast, shall we?”

The others, even a reluctant Miriam, raised their glasses.

“As an old friend once said to me, ‘Forever is composed of nows,’ ” Jane said. “Here’s to the many nows to come.”

They all drank. Afterward their various conversations resumed. Jane separated herself from the group and stood at the edge of the deck, thinking about her future and what it might hold. A minute later Walter walked over to her.

“That quote,” he said. “It’s from an Emily Dickinson poem, isn’t it?”

“Yes,” Jane nodded. “I’d forgotten that.”

“You said it came from an old friend,” Walter continued.

Jane thought back to the lovely fall day that she and Emily had enjoyed together in Amherst. “I suppose that’s how I think of her,” she told Walter. “Isn’t that what our favorite writers become to us, old friends?”

Walter smiled. “I suppose they do,” he said. “Does that mean you and I are old friends?”

Jane took his hand. “We will be,” she said. “We will be.”

Acknowledgments

Writing a sequel to a book has been, for me, an undertaking fraught with peril. Often I have forgotten what characters look like, what they did in the previous book, and sometimes even what their names are. This admission frequently horrifies people, but it’s true. I am not a good literary parent.

Therefore it is an enormous relief to me that there are people to keep me from doing irreparable damage to my hapless creations. Chief among them are my editor, Caitlin Alexander, and my agent, Mitchell Waters. I cause them no end of worry, and they are very kind about not yelling any more than is absolutely necessary. I also owe a debt of gratitude to the copyeditors and proofreaders who caught my errors and made sure everything came out all right in the end.

Finally, I am enormously grateful to every single person who read and enjoyed Jane Bites Back and wrote to say so. Thank you.