Free Mr Knightley’s Diary by Amanda Grange Page A

it,' she said.
    'You must give me your recipe,' said Elton. 'I will write it down.'
    He took out a pencil, but as soon as he began to write, he discovered it had no point. He scratched and scraped at the paper, until I thought he would wear it through!
    'Surely your pencil is not making any mark?' asked Emma.
    He looked sheepish, then brightened. 'I have my knife--a moment!--I will mend it,' he said.
    He was as good as his word and took out his knife, but by the time he had sharpened it, there was no pencil left.
    'Pray, do not concern yourself, I am sure my recipe is no better than any other,' said Emma.
    But Elton would not give it up.
    'I would so value it--I am sure it must be superior,' he said with a simper.
    I snorted, and took up my newspaper. How could the man bear to make such a fool of himself? He continued with his antics, however, feeling in his pocket for another pencil, and it was as good as a farce. If not for the fact that Harriet might be hurt by the tangle, I would have laughed at his goings-on.
    Emma, meanwhile, saw her opportunity for furthering the cause of her friend.
    'Harriet, do you not have a pencil that you could lend to Mr Elton?'
    Harriet blushed and found one, handing it to Emma.
    'Pray, give it to Mr Elton,' she said.
    He stopped patting his pockets and looked at it as though it was a priceless object, instead of a pencil. He took it from Harriet, but looked languishingly at Emma.
    I wondered if I was making too much of it, and if it would come to nothing in the end, but when I spoke to John as he walked back to the Abbey with me, I found that he thought as I did, that Emma was Elton's object.
    'Shall I warn her?' I asked him.
    He said that, if the opportunity arose, he would mention it himself.
    Monday 21 December
    I walked over to Hartfield today, and when I arrived, I found the house looking festive. Emma and her friend had spent the morning decorating the banisters with greenery, and the children had helped them. They had decorated the pictures and mirrors in the drawing-room with sprigs of holly, which were thick with berries. The portrait of Harriet, elegantly framed, and hanging above the mantelpiece in the sitting-room, had been similarly adorned.
    The children had been infected with the holiday atmosphere. They were playing boisterously, and Emma and her sister were trying to protect their father from the children's high spirits.
    Further excitement had been caused by a flurry of snow. Unluckily for the children, the flurry soon stopped, and Henry spent the rest of the afternoon asking when it would start again.
    The subject affected everyone variously: Isabella was so keen to please her children that I think she would have caused a snowstorm if she could; Mr Woodhouse was worried that snow would cause all manner of accidents, and decided that the only thing to do if it snowed would be to stay indoors; Emma shared her time between hoping for snow with the children and hoping for a lack of snow with her father. Harriet helped with the children, keeping them away from Mr Woodhouse, except in small doses. This endeared her to Isabella, and the atmosphere was a happy one.
    Even so, I could not help wishing that Harriet was at the Martins'. Everyone was kind to her at Hartfield, but at Abbey Mill Farm she would have been someone of consequence, particularly if she had been betrothed to Robert Martin. She would have had a place in her own right, instead of being there as someone's guest.
    Tuesday 22 December
    An invitation came from the Westons, inviting me to dinner at Randalls on the 24th. I was about to answer it when John arrived.
    'I would have been here earlier, but Isabella has been showing the children to all her friends, and I could not have them until they had returned to Hartfield. It is a pretty thing, when a man may not have his children until his wife has done with them!' he said.
    The boys were eager for their riding lesson, and whilst John and I encouraged them, we talked of