Pemberley Audiotour
Chapter 1
"Location 8 on our Audiotour of the Pemberley estate is the Library. The two story library has been the work of many generations and contains over 12,000 volumes ranging from original folios of the works of Shakespeare to treatises on farming methods from the 1700s to today, to the works of all of the famous English and Scottish authors." She decided that the word "today" should be replaced with "the modern era" and "all of the famous" should be replaced with "many well known". Minor changes to some, but to her experienced ear, it just had a better tone.
She scribbled a change to the script she was reading as she sat on a visitor's bench in the actual Pemberley library. She had heard that paragraph in her mind as she imagined Colin Firth would have read it. Wouldn't that be a coup de gras? Dream on Elizabeth, she thought. You don't have that kind of a budget.
She continued on to the next paragraph. "You see on the west wall the oldest tomes in the library, some dating to the early 1400s, hand scribed before Guttenberg ever set up his first printing press. On the stand in front of you, under glass, you will see an original Gutenberg bible. The Darcy family recorded births and deaths in this book from 1560 until 1919. The collection also contains bibles by Coverdale and Tyndale." She could find no fault with these words and heard them narrated by Dan Stevens in her mind. She doubted her budget would stretch to him either.
There were plenty of pleasantly toned voice actors who would do the narration for just slightly more than a pittance. But she liked to dream big.
She continued reading her script as she followed the description around the room. "Near the windows on the north wall you will find a globe produced in Austria in 1698, once owned by the Hapsburg royal family. It was a gift to Milton Darcy from Maria Theresa, Holy Roman Empress in recognition of favors provided." She paused. "Favors provided" might be the wrong way to say it. She would have to talk to her researchers about that, they were usually more careful about optics. All their Audiotours needed to be acceptable to all ages. Youngsters would have no idea what they meant, teenagers would probably get the wrong idea and adults would probably have a good laugh over it. She circled the words for her to contemplate later. Read by Benedict Cumberbatch perhaps?
She really needed to get a move on. She wanted to get through her first reading of the Audiotour library narrative on her very first visit to the vast Pemberley estate. She had intentionally not read it until she arrived at the property, as was her usual modus operandi. She wanted to put herself in the shoes of visitors who had never seen this place before. She thought that once you had seen a property like this, and she had seen dozens of them in her line of work, you could never have the same awe and amazement that you would have on your very first glimpse of the stately rooms. She wanted to make sure the narrative captured the salient points of the room, but also left you in awe and wonder of the people who built this.
She certainly was in awe. It was one of the most impressive libraries she had ever seen. This was her fifteenth historic library Audiotour that she was to edit and produce and this was by far the grandest, most beautiful one yet. She loved her job. It was the perfect melding of her degrees in History, Library science and Audiovisual production.
She was shaken out of her reverie by the docent's voice. "Excuse me miss, the estate will close to tours in one half hour. If you wish to see the remainder of the rooms, you might wish to continue your tour."
She turned to look at the young man. Holy Moses! When did the English Heritage Trust start hiring good looking men for docents? And his voice! Forget Colin Firth or Benedict Cumberbatch.
She was expecting a 64 year old white haired lady in sensible shoes, or a pierced, blue haired high school student earning brownie points for her college admissions, or an old paunchy man with a mustache who did historical reenactments on weekends.
"Um, yes, thank you sir for the information, but I have only come to see the library today. I will have to return another day to see the remainder of the estate. I am afraid my trip was delayed and I did not arrive as early as I had hoped." She realized that she was rambling. "I will be sure to depart by the proper time. Thank you." She smiled at him. He nodded and went back to his station at the entrance to the library.
How did she not notice him when she arrived at the library an hour ago? Mister tall, dark and handsome looked like he just walked out of central casting. The shock of dark curly hair that hung over his forehead made her want to run her fingers through it. His broad shoulders had her wondering, rugby or rowing? And who knew five o'clock shadow was so sexy?
She knew she should not engage him further. She preferred to keep a low profile when she arrived at a location to research a library Audiotour, informational brochure or proprietary web content. She wanted to experience the property as any fledgling tourist might. She did not want staff fawning over her or treating her like a functionary. She did not want to meet the owners or staff until she was done with her editing. She wanted an authentic experience.