The Watsons Revisited

By Celia Andrews

Four girls each with their own ‘take’ on 18th century social restrictions conditioning life in a village with an ailing, widowed father: Emma, arrived back into the family after being brought up by an aunt in a rather more social, sophisticated atmosphere;  Elizabeth, facing the burden of running a household and caring for an ailing father after a failed romance; dotty Margaret the youngest; selfish Penelope ‘escaped’ to friends in London. Their two brothers, one married into money, one struggling to make a living as a doctor, know they have a responsibility for the girls’ futures.

And then there’s the young unmarried Vicar, and the Castle family - widowed dowager, young Lord, his sister and wayward brother, and hangers on - whose lives intertwine with the Watsons. And the village gossips who play their part in the dramas that unfold after a dramatic event has long reaching results.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Austin Macauley Publishers
• Release date: Dec 8, 2023
• ISBN: 9781035806683

Celia Andrews

Celia Andrews spent her working life as a journalist, including theatre critic, with ‘free time’ as vicar’s wife, both of which she fictionalised in her three published novels and short story collection. She is also a published poet. Her BA in English Literature further deepened her love of Jane Austen’s works and, unable to bear not knowing what happened to the characters in the unfinished The Watsons, she has written this for the benefit of others wanting to know. Her own life began dramatically as a foundling in a park, then very happily adopted.

Book preview

About the Author

Celia Andrews spent her working life as a journalist, including theatre critic, with ‘free time’ as vicar’s wife, both of which she fictionalised in her three published novels and short story collection. She is also a published poet.

Her BA in English Literature further deepened her love of Jane Austen’s works and, unable to bear not knowing what happened to the characters in the unfinished The Watsons, she has written this for the benefit of others wanting to know.

Her own life began dramatically as a foundling in a park, then very happily adopted.

Copyright Information ©

Celia Andrews 2023

The right of Celia Andrews to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by the author in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.

Any person who commits any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.

ISBN 9781035806669 (Paperback)

ISBN 9781035806676 (Hardback)

ISBN 9781035806683 (ePub e-book)

www.austinmacauley.com

First Published 2023

Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd®

1 Canada Square

Canary Wharf

London

E14 5AA

Acknowledgement

Thanks to John, Jane and Matthew for their wonderful encouragement.

Synopsis of Jane Austen’s

The Watsons

The Watson family is introduced at a ball and visits afterwards. The heroine, Emma, has just arrived back to the home village after having been brought up by an aunt and knowing very little about any of her family. Her widowed father is ailing and the household is run by the eldest daughter, Elizabeth, a pleasant girl overburdened with her responsibilities and suffering from a broken romance. The youngest girl, Margaret, is an airhead and the other, Penelope, permanently staying with a friend some miles away and a selfish egotist. The elder brother, Robert, ‘in trade’ and married into money, lives in London taking very seriously his responsibilities to get his sisters well married and the other brother, Sam, is a doctor carving a future for himself elsewhere and much alarmed at the attentions paid by visiting militia to the girl he hopes to marry when more affluent. Our hero, Mr Howard, is the local Vicar living with his widowed sister and her family, including young boy Charles, but still beholden to the upper-crust family at the Castle, the Osbornes, where he was once a tutor. That family includes: a widowed dowager, young Lord and his sister and wayward brother and hangers on, Tom Musgrove, who Margaret fancies, and Miss Carr. The social events have endeared Emma to Mr Howard.

Chapter One

Emma, when they had departed, found herself in some trepidation over how she should go on when encountering Mr Howard next at church. His cheerful, unaffected manners plus, it must be admitted, his apparent pleasure in her company, gave her the hope that some opportunity of meeting him for the first time after their dancing together would arise before such a public meeting. This hope remained with her until the very Saturday morning, and caused her to be guilty of what she acknowledged to herself to be most unseemly behaviour. She found herself suggesting to Elizabeth a walk into town to ‘accustom herself to its principal streets, shops and parades’ for no other real purpose than the hope of a chance encounter with the clergyman.

What she condemned in herself as a breach of the rules of modesty she found amply punished in the event. Elizabeth, ever eager for any outing among acquaintances, promptly agreed to accompany her without any suspicion of an ulterior motive on Emma’s part. Margaret, in suggesting herself as a second companion, had no such forbearance, instantly including Emma in her own desire of meeting Tom Musgrove.

I could see you were taken with his easy manners, probably closer to what you were accustomed to at my aunt’s, she said as they set out. But I should warn you he does not like a brown complexion above half and much prefers the fair. He told me so himself and in a most particular way.

In denying any such desire as a further encounter with Mr Musgrove, Emma was conscious of a certain deception. She had a motive, but not the one Margaret continued to impute to her.

In the event, both were disappointed. Both Tom Musgrove and Mr Howard stayed away from the town that day and the young ladies were reduced to mundane shopping.

The Sunday morning, therefore, found Emma resigned to a brief greeting from Mr Howard on the church steps, although whether she would look him boldly in the eyes as a pleasant dance partner or lower her eyes in deference to his situation, she had not decided.

Neither was asked of her. Mr Watson’s health on Sunday morning causing not a little alarm among his daughters, the doctor was sent for and all thought of any member of the family attending church was abandoned. The doctor’s grave face as he left his patient gave no release from their alarm. The only comfort he afforded was his opinion on leaving that it was not at the moment necessary for Robert, Sam or Penelope to be sent for. The morrow would be soon enough to send if there were no change for the better in Mr Watson’s condition.

They saw no one outside the household that day and Emma found herself forced into such intimate converse with both her sisters as she felt must repair all the distance forced upon them by her years away.

Elizabeth’s warmness of heart, deep concern for her father and wish of ensuring no disruption in the running of the household should cause him additional pain, increased Emma’s love and respect for her. Their shared vigil by his bedside she thought brought them closer than years of everyday proximity could well have done, besides showing each to the other in the most favourable light. Elizabeth forgot to lament Purvis and hope for the arrival on the scene of any other suitable beau and Emma, finally abandoning her regrets at loss of her former way of life, learned to consider herself entirely part of the new, more modest household.

Margaret probably felt equal distress at their father’s situation but, being less capable of materially assisting him or easing the burden on her sisters, she became fretful and impatient to be doing something, going somewhere.

My visiting the Edwards can do no harm. He is much better, would be her cry or, I am promised at the Robertsons. They will think it very odd. I will be back before Papa has missed me. Her sisters would impress on her the impropriety of her going about while news of their father’s grave illness must be in general circulation, she would argue and sulkily agree to stay.

Then on the Monday afternoon Margaret’s impatient vigil by the parlour window overlooking the road was rewarded by the appearance of a horse and rider which, just as she had despaired of it being possible, halted, allowing the rider to descend. Margaret flew through the house with news of the event, quite incapable of being hushed by her sisters’ concern against disturbing her father and calling her conviction that it was just like Tom Musgrove to call to lighten their spirits.

They were hurrying her out of their father’s earshot across the hall when Nanny opened the door to Mr Howard. Margaret, dismayed at first at the non-appearance of her favourite, was the first to recover as any visitor, and especially one with connections to Mr Musgrove and the Osbornes, must be a welcome diversion to the day’s tedium.

La, Mr Howard. You have saved our lives for I am sure we should have been an end to each other cooped up here with only ourselves for company, she said.

I come to enquire after your father Miss Watson, having missed him at church and having heard disturbing reports of him, and to offer any assistance in my power, he said, with an earnest expression that spoke his very real concern.

So good of you, Mr Howard. We have been distressed indeed and await the doctor’s opinion on whether to send for our brothers and sister, Emma replied on seeing Elizabeth too overcome by his kindness to reply and fearing an inappropriate response from Margaret.

And there is no improvement, no easing of his condition that could give you hope? he said, looking at each of them before finally resting his eyes on Emma. There had been no chance for her to reflect on how different this meeting was than the one she had envisaged and her answer was calm and unaffected. Elizabeth, having by now recovered her usual spirits, invited him to take tea with them, which he readily agreed to.

And I suppose you all go on the same at Osborne Castle? Margaret enquired as soon as they were all seated in the parlour. Miss Osborne and Miss Carr were going to Shepperton to choose a gown for the winter season. I seem to remember Mr Musgrove saying he was to take Lord Osborne to the races this Thursday.

"Margaret, Mr Howard has his parish duties and can hardly concern himself with