The Sunstone Brooch : Time Travel Romance Katherine Logan (no david read aloud TXT) 📖

also enjoy finding the little nuances in people’s tastes. They remind me of how unique we all are. If we had the same taste in books, that would be boring.” She paused a moment to let that idea sink in, then said, “Since we have different impressions of Miss Austen’s writing, we can have a more robust discussion.”

“If writers write from their own experience,” TR said, “how is it that Miss Austen wrote so many masterpieces? She’s a shadowy figure who seems to have spent most of her forty-one years being dragged along in the wake of other people’s lives.”

“But the realistic nature of her narratives was universally praised,” Ensley said.

“And her characters had exciting lives,” JC interjected. “Miss Austen’s father was an orphan who worked his way out of poverty.”

She knew JC read widely, but Jane Austen? “Her mother’s relative was a duke, yet she was barely able to make ends meet.”

“Her aunt Philadelphia’s daughter lost her husband to the guillotine during the French Revolution,” JC said.

“Her brother George had a disability,” Ensley said.

“Her brother Henry bounced from one career to another until he became a clergyman,” JC said.

“The brothers, Frank and George, joined the Navy and lived exciting and dangerous lives,” Ensley added, laughing.

“You both know quite a bit about her,” TR said.

She smiled. “I know my Jane Austen history, sir, but until now, I didn’t know the extent of my husband’s.” JC was such an enigmatic person, and she found it difficult to imagine him relaxing shirtless on the beach with one of Austen’s books. Either he was that confident about his masculinity, or he was trying to impress a woman, or he was gay. She immediately ruled out the second and third options. If any man was confident about his masculinity, it was James Cullen Montgomery Fraser.

“I’ll bet Mr. Roosevelt enjoys Sir Walter Scott,” JC said.

“I certainly do,” TR said. “I’ve read his books over and over again!”

“Did you know Scott was one of Miss Austen’s earliest and most prominent supporters?” JC said.

“Are you sure you have the correct Scott?”

Ensley picked up the conversation from there. “There’s only one Sir Water Scott, sir, and Mr. Scott thought Pride and Prejudice was a finely written novel. He also thought Miss Austen had a talent for describing feelings and characters of ordinary life. And,” she said with a sigh, “he thought it a great pity that a gifted writer died so early.”

“I wasn’t aware that Scott was a fan of Miss Austen’s work,” TR said. “That’s very revealing.”

“And even Henry Wadsworth Longfellow agreed that Austen’s writings were a ‘capital picture of real life,’” she added.

“But he complained that she explained too much,” JC said.

Ensley gulped her coffee before asking, “Tell me this, Mr. Roosevelt. Future generations of readers will want to know. Do you dislike female authors, or is it just Miss Austen? I have a cousin who refuses to read female authors. Do you feel the same?”

“Not at all. At the risk of being deemed effeminate, as a child, I enjoyed Louisa May Alcott and the girls’ stories—Pussy Willow and A Summer in Leslie Goldthwaite’s Life, just as I worshipped Little Men and Little Women and An Old-Fashioned Girl.”

“How about Fanny Fern, the nom de plume of Sara Payson Willis? She’s still hugely popular, and her newspaper column was widely syndicated at the time. It was humorous and cutting and smart and accessible, and people gobbled it up.” Fern was one of several nineteenth-century female authors whose books Ensley read in a class titled Novels by and about Women in America, 1820-70.

“Not her, but I enjoy Julia Ward Howe and Emily Dickinson. Have you read Milton? I find he’s good for one mood and Pope for another, and then there’s Whitman and Browning, Lowell and Tennison.”

“From Milton to Pope, authors of the scribbling age.”

“You are well-read, Mrs. Fraser. I have a little library here at the ranch. You’ll find books by Parkman, Irving, Hawthorne, Cooper, Lowell, and a few Southern writers like George Washington Cable and Sherwood Bonner. The books are overflowing into other rooms. I’d enjoy continuing this discussion after dinner.”

Ensley buttered another piece of bread. “That sounds delightful. I’ll enjoy looking through your collection.” She wanted to give herself a high five but didn’t. All the pain and suffering she’d gone through to get here vanished into the delights of literature.

“And you, Mr. Fraser. What works of fiction do you enjoy other than Miss Austen?”

“I’m not as well-versed in popular fiction as my bride. I enjoy the Greek classics and Shakespeare, of course, but my power of concentration is so intense that the house can burn down around me when I read, and Ensley gets disturbed when I ignore her.” He smiled and patted her hand. “I’m afraid you’ve opened a can of worms. As long as she’s here, she’ll want your opinion of every book in your library.”

She’d be surprised if JC hadn’t already read every book Roosevelt had here. There was rarely a book she read in college that he’d hadn’t already read or had it on his TBR list. His goal right now was to direct TR’s attention toward her, and she could kiss him for it.

“I can imagine nothing happier in life,” Roosevelt said, “than an evening spent in the cozy little sitting room, before a bright fire of soft coal, my books all around me, and playing backgammon. Do you play, Mr. Fraser?”

“I do, although Ensley is a far better player.”

“I see.” TR sipped his coffee. “Normally, I wouldn’t consider your request to join the roundup, Mrs. Fraser. It’s a dangerous place for men, but if your husband doesn’t object and you agree to follow orders, then I won’t deny your request. But I insist on being the first person to read your manuscript.”

And just like that, she was allowed to go on a roundup with Teddy Roosevelt.

23

Washington, D.C.—Elliott

David flew the helo into Washington Executive Airpark, and while he took care of filing a flight