I Was Jane Austen's Best Friend Read Online Free

me saying triumphantly, ‘You’re in trouble!’ I had fallen asleep half sitting up and my journal was still on my knee. Quickly I pushed it under the blankets.
    ‘Why?’ I asked. I was scared of Lavinia. Could she possibly have seen me go out last night? Pretended to be asleep and then looked out of the window and seen me walk down the street at night by myself? I could hardly breathe, I was so terrified.
    ‘You didn’t close your curtain between the beds. You know that is not allowed.’
    ‘Mrs Cawley told me to keep an eye on Jane.’ My heart was thumping with relief as I told the lie. It was all I could think of to say, but at least Lavinia couldn’t have seen me leave the dormitory, otherwise she wouldn’t have bothered about something as trivial as keeping the curtains closed between the six beds in the dormitory.
    ‘No, she didn’t.’ Lavinia sounded very sure and she probably was quite certain: Mrs Cawley hates Jane and it was easy to guess that she would never have bothered asking me to look after her. ‘You’re just a liar, Miss Jenny Cooper. Well, I’m going to tell.’
    She bounced away and I could hear her callingdown the stairs. ‘Ma’am,’ she called, her voice sounding very sweet, ‘I’m sorry to report that Jenny Cooper has broken the dormitory rules.’ I got out of bed. Quickly I bent down and pushed the inkpot and the quill under the bed. I felt quite sick and dizzy when I stood up again. I was so tired and the floor was so cold that my teeth chattered and once again the water in my ewer had frozen to the sides of the jug. Another day without washing! Why had we been sent to this horrible place? My feet were frozen as I pulled on my long woollen stockings, then I put on my warm flannel petticoat, and then my gown. I wrapped myself in my shawl and waited. The other girls avoided looking at me.
    I didn’t have long to wait. Mrs Cawley marched into the room, followed by Lavinia smiling smugly.
    ‘Jenny Cooper,’ screamed Mrs Cawley, ‘you are a bad, disobedient girl. You will have to wear the backboard for two hours as a punishment.’
    I bowed my head obediently. And then I got an idea and asked if I could sit by the fire downstairs while I was wearing the board. I shivered a little and rubbed my hands together. I didn’t need to pretend to make my voice shake. I am scared of Mrs Cawley. Lavinia says that once Mrs Cawley beat a girl with a rod until the girl’s back was bleeding. I would die if she tried to beat me. I hate her.
    Mrs Cawley’s eyes narrowed when I begged to sit by the fire, and a sour smile came over her face. ‘No,you won’t,’ she said vindictively. ‘I’ll send one of the maids up with the board straight away and she will strap you into it. You just stay here in the dormitory until I send for you.’
    ‘It’s for your own good,’ said Lavinia after Mrs Cawley had gone. ‘You’ll never get a husband if you have round shoulders. You should practise standing up tall and then you might grow a little. That cousin of yours is taller than you and she’s a good year younger.’ And then with a contemptuous glance at Jane she swept out of the room. The other girls followed her, but Amelia, who I’ve noticed is kinder when she’s without her friends, stopped for a moment and waited until Lavinia had gone. Then she whispered, ‘What about your breakfast?’
    ‘I don’t suppose that I’ll get any.’ My voice sounded as if I didn’t care, and at that moment I didn’t. I wasn’t hungry; in fact, I felt slightly sick. I wanted to feel Jane’s forehead and I couldn’t do that while any of the girls was around. Mrs Cawley had forbidden me to touch Jane. She had an idea that no one could catch the fever unless they were touching a patient. Captain Thomas Williams told me that wasn’t true; it was breathing in bad smells and something called miasma that gave people fever. I didn’t care anyway. As soon as Amelia had gone out of the room, I felt Jane’s