A Katherine Reay Collection Read online

  9781401689681 Dear Mr. Knightley © 2013 by Katherine Reay

  9781401689735 Lizzy & Jane © 2014 by Katherine Reay

  9781401689759 The Brontë Plot © 2015 by Katherine Reay

  All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, scanning, or other—except for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

  Published in Nashville, Tennessee, by Thomas Nelson. Thomas Nelson is a registered trademark of HarperCollins Christian Publishing, Inc.

  Author is represented by the literary agency of Alive Communications, Inc., 7680 Goddard Street, Suite 200, Colorado Springs, Colorado, 80920, www.alivecommunications.com.

  Thomas Nelson titles may be purchased in bulk for educational, business, fund-raising, or sales promotional use. For information, please e-mail [email protected].

  Quotation from THE VOYAGE OF THE DAWN TREADER by C. S. Lewis © copyright C. S. Lewis Pte Ltd 1952. Used by permission.

  Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com. The “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™

  Publisher’s Note: This novel is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. All characters are fictional, and any similarity to people living or dead is purely coincidental.

  ISBN 978-0-7180-7722-8 (eBook)

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  CIP data is available.

  Table of Contents

  Dear Mr. Knightley

  Dedication

  April 2

  April 7

  April 12

  April 21

  April 25

  May 10

  May 17

  June 5

  June 8

  June 15

  June 20

  August 29

  September 3

  September 7

  September 11

  September 14

  October 20

  October 26

  November 4

  November 6

  November 9

  November 10

  November 13

  November 16

  November 20

  November 21

  November 22

  December 2

  December 11

  December 16

  December 20

  December 24

  January 5

  January 9

  January 13

  January 15

  January 18

  February 1

  February 11

  February 15

  March 5

  March 24

  April 1

  April 15

  May 12

  June 15

  June 18

  June 23

  June 27

  July 6

  July 14

  July 18

  July 26

  August 2

  August 3

  August 12

  August 22

  September 10

  September 16

  October 5

  October 13

  November 15

  December 10

  December 21

  January 8

  January 15

  New York

  Lizzy & Jane

  Dedication

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  The Brontë Plot

  Dedication

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Discussion Questions from Dear Mr. Knightley

  Discussion Questions from Lizzy & Jane

  Discussion Questions from the Brontë Plot

  Q & A With Katherine Reay from Dear Mr. Knightley

  Sam’s Reading List from Dear Mr. Knightley

  Acknowledgments from Dear Mr. Knightley

  Acknowledgments from Lizzy & Jane

  Acknowledgments from the Brontë Plot

  About the Author

  Dedication

  To Matthew, Elizabeth, and Mary Margaret—for your unfailing love and support.

  And to Mason—who gave me the idea in the first place.

  (Much like Sam, the author couldn’t help herself—she “borrowed” this from the movie Anne of Avonlea. Books by L. M. Montgomery)

  APRIL 2

  Dear Sir,

  It has been a year since I turned down your generous offer. Father John warned me at the time that I was making a terrible mistake, but I wouldn’t listen. He felt that by dismissing that opportunity I was injuring not only myself, but all the foster children helped by your foundation.

  I hope any perceived ingratitude on my part didn’t harm anyone else’s dreams. I wasn’t ungrateful; I just wanted to leave Grace House. A group home is a difficult place to live, and I’d been there for eight years. And even though I knew graduate school meant more education and better job prospects, it also meant living at Grace House another two years. At the time I couldn’t face that prospect.

  My heart has always been in my books and writing, but I couldn’t risk losing a paying job to pursue a dream. Now I’m ready to try. Not because I failed, but because this degree gives me the chance to link my passion with my livelihood.

  Please let me know if the grant is still available. I will understand if you have selected another candidate.

  Sincerely,

  Sa
mantha Moore

  APRIL 7

  Dear Ms. Moore,

  The grant for full tuition to the master’s program at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism remains available. At the strong recommendation of Father John, and due to the confidence he has in you, the director of the Dover Foundation has agreed to give you this second chance. There is, however, one stipulation. The director wants to receive personal progress letters from you as reassurance that this decision was the right one. You may write to him as you would to a journal, letting him know how your studies are going. He has opened a post office box for this purpose so you won’t feel the added pressure of an immediate connection to him or to the foundation. Additionally, he will not write back, but asks that you write to him regularly about “things that matter.”

  He recognizes that this is an unusual requirement, but the foundation needs to know that its resources are being used in the best way possible. Given your sudden change of heart, he feels it is not too much to ask. To make this easier for you, he will also remain anonymous. You may write to him at this address under the name George Knightley.

  Sincerely,

  Laura Temper

  Personal Assistant to

  Mr. G. Knightley

  APRIL 12

  Dear Mr. Knightley,

  Thank you so much for giving me this opportunity. I submitted my application to Medill this morning. I had to use a couple papers on Dickens and Austen in place of the journalism samples requested. While that may count against me, I felt the rest of my application was strong.

  If you will allow, I want to honor Father John’s trust and yours by explaining my “sudden change of heart,” as Ms. Temper described it. When I graduated college last spring, I had two opportunities: your grant to fund graduate school or a job at Ernst & Young. In my eagerness to leave Grace House and conquer the world, I chose the job. Six weeks ago I was fired. At the exit meeting my boss claimed I was “unengaged,” especially with regard to peer and client interactions. I did good work there, Mr. Knightley. Good solid work. But “relating” in the workplace is important too, I gather. That’s where I failed.

  I’m guessing from your literary choice of pseudonym that you are very likely acquainted with another admirable character from fiction—Elizabeth Bennet, Jane Austen’s complex and enchanting heroine. At Ernst & Young I tried to project Lizzy’s boldness and spirit, but clearly she had a confidence and charm that was more than I could sustain on a daily basis. So now here I am, back at Grace House, taking advantage of the state’s willingness to provide a home for me till I’m twenty-five if I stay in school.

  Nevertheless, Father John still doubts me and couldn’t resist a lecture this morning. I tried to listen, but my eyes wandered around his office: photographs of all the children who have passed through Grace House cover every space that isn’t taken up with books. He loves murder mysteries: Agatha Christie, James Patterson, Alex Powell, P. D. James, Patricia Cornwell . . . I’ve read most of them. The first day we met, right before I turned fifteen, he challenged me to stretch beyond the classics.

  “Are you listening, Sam?” Father John finally noticed my wandering eyes. “The Medill program is straight up your alley. You’re a great reader and writer.”

  “ ‘I deserve neither such praise nor such censure. I am not a great reader, and I have pleasure in many things.’ ” Elizabeth Bennet has a useful reply for every situation.

  Father John gave a small smile, and I flinched. “What if I can’t do this?” I asked. “Maybe it’s a mistake.”

  He sat back in his chair and took a slow breath. Eyebrows down, mouth in a line.

  “Then turn this down—again—and find another job. Pound the pavement quickly, though. I can give you a couple weeks here to get on your feet, then my hands are tied.” He leaned forward. “Sam, I’ll always help you. But after this, if you’re not in school, Grace House is closed to you. This foundation helps a lot of kids here, and I won’t jeopardize that support because you can’t commit. So decide right now.”

  A tear rolled down my cheek. Father John never gets charged up, but I deserved it. I should only be grateful to you both, and here I was questioning your help. But help is hard, Mr. Knightley—even when I desperately need it. Every foster placement of my childhood was intended to help me; every new social worker tried to help my case; when I was sent back home at twelve, the judge meant to help my life too . . . I’m so tired of help.

  “I’m sorry, Father John, you’re right. I want this grant and I asked for it again. I must seem so ungrateful to you, to be questioning again.”

  “You don’t, Sam, and I can understand wanting to stand alone. Even in the best of times and circumstances, it’s hard to accept help—”

  In the end, Father John believed my commitment. I hope you do too. Here is our agreement: you will pay for graduate school, and I will write you letters that give an honest accounting of my life and school—and you will never write back. That simple, right?

  Thank you for that, Mr. Knightley—your anonymity. Honesty is easier when you have no face and no real name. And honesty, for me, is very easy on paper.

  I also want to assure you that while I may not relate well to people in the real world, I shine in school. It’s paper-based. I will do your grant justice, Mr. Knightley. I’ll shine at Medill.

  I know I’ve said more than was necessary in this letter, but I need you to know who I am. We need to have an honest beginning, even if it’s less impressive than Lizzy Bennet’s.

  Sincerely,

  Samantha Moore

  APRIL 21

  Dear Mr. Knightley,

  Each and every moment things change. For the most part, I loathe it. Change never works in my favor—as evidenced by so many foster placements, a holdup at a Chicago White Hen, getting fired from Ernst & Young, and so many other changes in my life I’d like to forget. But I needed one more—a change of my own making—so I pursued your grant again.

  But it’s not of my own making, is it?

  Father John told me this morning that he was the one who proposed journalism for me—it was not an original requirement for your grant. I wouldn’t have chosen it myself. My professor at Roosevelt College said I produced some of the best work on Austen, Dickens, and the Brontes he’d ever read. I’m good at fiction, Mr. Knightley. And I don’t think it’s right that Father John took away my choice. I’m twenty-three years old; I should be the author of the changes in my life.

  I went to Father John and explained all this. I feel he has arbitrarily forced me into journalism—a field I don’t know and don’t write. “You need to undo that,” I pleaded. “They’ll listen to you.”

  Father John closed his eyes. One might think he’d fallen asleep, but I knew better. He was praying. He does that—a lot.

  Minutes passed. He opened his eyes and zeroed in on me. Sometimes I feel his eyes are tired, but not at that moment. They were piercing and direct. I knew his answer before he opened his mouth.

  “Sam, I won’t . . . but you can. Write the foundation’s director and ask.” Father John stared into my eyes, measuring his words. “Don’t lie. Don’t tell them I’ve changed my mind. I have not. I am wholly against a change in program.”

  “How can you say that?” My own shrill voice surprised me.

  “I’ve known you for eight years, Sam. I’ve watched you grow, I’ve watched you succeed, and I’ve watched you retreat. I want the best for you, and with every fiber of my being, I am convinced that ‘the best’ is not more fiction, but finding your way around in the real world and its people.”

  I opened my mouth to protest, but he held up his hand. “Consider carefully. If the foundation is unwilling to alter your grant, you may accept or you may walk away. You always have a choice.”

  “That’s not fair.”

  Father John’s eyes clouded. “My dear, what in your life has ever come close to fair? That’s not how this life works.” He leaned forward and stretched his hands out across the
desk. “I’m sorry, Sam. If I could protect you from any more pain, I would. But I can only pray and do the very best God calls me to do. If I’m wrong about this, I hope that someday you will forgive me.”

  “ ‘My temper would perhaps be called resentful.—My good opinion once lost is lost forever.’ ” When Elizabeth Bennet doesn’t come through, one can always count on Mr. Darcy to provide the right response. I shook my head and, quoting no one, said, “I won’t forgive you, Father John. I don’t forgive.” And I walked out.

  I don’t care if that was ungenerous, Mr. Knightley. He overstepped, and he’s wrong. So now I’m asking you: Will you let me decide?

  Sincerely,

  Samantha Moore

  APRIL 25

  Dear Ms. Moore,

  Please forgive me for violating our agreement already, but I felt your question warranted a personal reply.

  I understand your anger. It is hard when others hold power over you. Rest assured, your situation is not unique. There is very little any of us chooses in isolation.

  Through my foundation, Father John has helped five young adults from Grace House. One attended junior college; another, trade school; one graduated from cosmetology school; and two successfully completed residential treatment programs. Each individual has grown closer to whole.

  Father John not only fulfilled all the grant requirements for your application, but wrote me an additional five pages outlining your writing abilities, your gifts, and your determination. His decision to recommend journalism school was not made lightly, as you well know. Remember that, and remember what he has meant in your life. Don’t throw away friends and mentors carelessly. They are rare.

  I trust Father John’s prayerful counsel and judgment, and stand with his original recommendation. My foundation will only award the grant for Medill’s master’s program.

  The choice to accept it or not is yours, Ms. Moore.

  Sincerely,

  G. Knightley

  MAY 10

  Dear Mr. Knightley,

  I didn’t withdraw my application. I made my choice and now I sit, waiting for Medill to accept or reject me.

  In the meantime I’ve settled into my old ways and my old jobs: I resumed tutoring at Buckhorn Cottage (Grace House’s cottage for 8- to 13-year-old boys) and I picked up a few shifts at the public library. I’ve been working at that library for a decade now, even before I moved to Grace House for the first time.