Oh, Jane, came Julietta’s reply, you cannot imagine the difficulty I am in! No sooner had I told Ashton that I wished to take the waters in Bath and to spend some time with you than he immediately dubbed this a capital idea and insisted that he would accompany me. As you know, he has a great admiration for you and simply will not hear of my coming to Bath alone. More than this, he says he is very tired and in need of just such a rest-cure. So I could not possibly entreat him to stay at home.

We will arrive on Wednesday and put up at an inn called The Bear (known, Ashton says, to Miss Austen, as she places Catherine Morland there in Northanger Abbey – and I am now struck by the many, many bits and pieces of arcane knowledge with which publishers cram their minds …)

Will you dine with us at the inn on Wednesday evening and then perhaps you will come for us on Thursday morning and escort us to the Baths?

From your dearest friend, Julietta Sims

Jane’s vexation and disappointment was profound. She had been imagining the elixir of entire nights spent with Julietta, but now her frustration was going to be unbearable. She would be with her lover. She would gaze on her beautiful body immersed in the green waters of the Baths, but not be able to touch her or be touched by her. Her mind turned and turned upon ways in which she could lure Julietta to her bed, but she could not see how, with Ashton by her side, it could be done.

Confiding her frustrations to her diary, she then sat down and scribbled out a desperate note:

‘I long for your l. O Julietta, I want to be your h again and put on my Paris “attire” and kiss you while I enter your c …’

But she did not send it. She did not admire the coarse-grained, needy person who had written it. She tore it into small pieces and distracted herself by selecting which dress she would put on for dinner with Ashton and Julietta.

When she made her way into the dining room of The Bear, much admired by repute in Bath, and saw Julietta seated at a candlelit table, with her dark hair piled in curls on her head and an opal choker encircling her neck, her first thought was that her lover appeared even more beautiful than she remembered. Jane’s progress to the table, following the raised arm of the maître d’hôtel, stalled for a moment as her eyes took in the sight of her beloved and when she reached her side she knew that she appeared flushed.

Ashton stood up and kissed Jane’s hand and said, ‘We’re honoured to be in Bath, dear Jane, and much looking forward to our drenching tomorrow.’

‘Oh, my poor Ashton,’ said Jane, ‘you make it sound as though I was inviting you to stand out in the cold and rain!’