Anna read the email from Trumpsey Blazey Primary, her mind on Richard. He was the most handsome man she had set eyes on for a long time and he wanted to kiss her. Only now he didn’t, even though she had tried to explain she was a single mum and it wasn’t easy.
Diane walked into the kitchen. ‘Are you still moping? I mean, come on, he’s just being selfish.’
Anna dropped her head in her arms, her words muffled. ‘Yeah, but I just felt it could have gone somewhere. It was a second date!’ She frowned, then brought her head up. ‘But it didn’t even start well, because it turns out it only takes the sodding promise of a takeaway and alcohol for you to let my mother know where I’ve gone… and then, and then, she turns up, looking like a member of The Waltons, preaching to me about what’s good for me and whatnot.’
Her mother shuffled into the kitchen on cue. ‘Oh darling, you’re still going on about yesterday. We’ve all heard it. I ruined your life and you’re never going to forgive me or talk to me again.’ She patted Anna on the head. ‘I’m very happy to hear it.’
‘You two are…’ She clenched her jaw.
‘Beautiful,’ Diane offered.
‘The best,’ chimed in her mother.
Anna turned her attention back to the email. It was from Lucinda.
‘Dear Mothers (and Horatio – he he)
Can you please let me know what your children will be doing for this year’s talent competition? Plus, Mrs Beecham has decided to open it up to the adults too – what fun! So, if you think you have a talent – do enter. For those of you with more than one talent, like myself, unfortunately you can only choose one.
Remember, it has to be genuine. We don’t want a repeat of the bake sale. He he.
Yours faithfully,
Lucinda Deville
Trumpsey Blazey Primary’s Baker 2017’
‘The nerve,’ Anna said.
Diane and her mother were reading the email over her shoulder.
‘What are you going to do?’ her mother said.
‘I thought we established that I have nothing going for me.’ Anna shook her head. ‘There is no way, after the bake sale, the race and the yoga, that I am making a fool of myself again.’
‘Oh, come on,’ Diane said, pinching her cheek. ‘Where’s that fighting spirit of yours?’
‘In London,’ Anna said.
Diane looked at the screen. ‘You remember we went to that choir session in London with the kids? Do you remember how much we all laughed?’
Anna nodded, happy memories bobbing through her mind. ‘Yes, yes, I do.’
‘Maybe we all need a giggle?’
Anna smiled, a thought occurring to her. ‘OK, you two want to make it up to me and make the twins happy?’
They nodded, uncertainly.
She tapped out a quick email in reply to Lucinda’s.
Less than a couple of minutes later, a reply pinged into her inbox and Anna turned the computer screen to face Diane. ‘There you go,’ she said triumphantly.
‘Anna, never knew! We look forward to your rendition of “Dancing Queen”. I’ll book it in. P.S. Sorry again about kicking you in the head. LOL.’
Her mother and Diane burst into uncontrollable laughter, tears coursing down their cheeks.
‘I can’t breathe,’ her mother said through her hysteria. ‘Need to leave room.’ She walked from the kitchen.
‘Anna! “Dancing Queen”!’ Diane laughed heartily. ‘Now, that will make a good column.’
‘Pity I can’t sing.’ Anna pulled a face, wondering if her newfound sense of courage was threatening to trip her up.
‘Yeah, you can.’ Diane leant back in her chair, arms crossed behind her head. ‘What about when we’ve been to karaoke?’
Anna rubbed her temples, trying to calm down. ‘Just because I like belting out Belinda Carlisle in the privacy of a karaoke booth does not mean I can sing. And it especially doesn’t mean I want to sing in front of the whole school.’
‘Look,’ Diane said, totally unfazed by the whole idea, bringing her arms down and splaying her hands on the table, ‘Linda and I can be your other Abba members. It’ll be a joyous thing.’
‘Abba has two women and two men.’
‘Oh, come on, Anna, details, schmetails.’ Diane pointed at her. ‘I’ll let you be a woman.’
‘Very generous,’ Anna muttered.
‘You can be Anni,’ Diane went on. ‘Linda can be Agnetha and I will be Bjorn.’
Linda returned, her face flushed and eyes glistening. ‘OK, I made it.’ She giggled again. ‘It’ll be such fun. Well done, Anna. Just what the doctor ordered.’
‘Why?’ Anna said. ‘What’s wrong with you?’
‘Tony and I had an argument.’
‘How?’ Anna said smiling.
‘What do you mean “how”, darling? I knew you weren’t very bright, but it’s basically when two people don’t agree.’
‘No, my point is Tony doesn’t speak, so how can he argue?’
‘Oh, darling…’ Her mother spooned giant spoonfuls of coffee into the mugs. ‘You are silly. It’s all in his facial expressions. It might be worth your taking more note of that in the future and then your relationships might not fail.’
‘What did you argue about?’ Diane said, giving Anna a sympathetic smile.
‘We don’t see eye to eye on something quite alarming.’
‘What?’ Anna pushed.
‘Tony clearly doesn’t believe in sex before marriage.’
‘And you do?’ Diane said.
‘Darling, Dee…’ She turned, kettle poised midair. ‘I was bonking Anna’s father years before he dragged me down the aisle. It’s only natural. Can you imagine if you got to your wedding night and you were massively disappointed? It doesn’t bear thinking about.’
‘So,’ Anna said, relieved, ‘you and Tony haven’t…?’
‘No, we haven’t. I tried it on with my new thong and there’s clearly something wrong with him because he resisted. I mean, that is not normal.’
‘Have you kissed?’
‘Of course, you silly sausage,’ she said. ‘We kissed on day one. I took him his first cup of tea and Hobnob and I kissed him.’
‘So, you’d known Tony for all of five minutes and you kissed him. On the cheek?’ Anna said hopefully.
‘No, darling, tongues. Cheeks are for friends.’ She grinned. ‘Well, the kind on your face, if you catch my drift.’ Pausing, she slurped from her coffee. ‘Anyway, I think a bit of am dram is exactly what I need, so count me in. I think I look a bit like Agnetha. I mean, obviously, she’s let herself go now, but once upon a time we could have been sisters. Shame, really. No need to give in to ageing.’
‘I saw a photo of her the other day,’ Anna said, ‘and I thought she looked amazing.’
The phone rang, thankfully interrupting the conversation.
Anna rose from the table and answered. ‘Hello?’
‘Miss Compton,’ came a well-spoken, female voice.
‘Yes, speaking.’
‘My name is Lady Margaret Spencerville. I know this is quite out of the blue,’ she cleared her throat, ‘but I wondered if I might meet with you?’
Anna’s mind flashed to the diary, her journalistic instinct kicking in. Rule number one: never let an opportunity pass you by. ‘Um, yes, of course.’ She cleared her throat. ‘When were you thinking?’
‘Well, today, if you’re not busy.’
Anna looked through the kitchen door at Diane and her mother doing jazz hands and spoke into the phone, ‘Perfect. Not busy at all.’
They agreed Anna would come up to Ridley Manor in an hour.
‘Right, we’ve got to get practising,’ Diane said excitedly, once Anna had hung up. ‘When is the competition?’
‘In a week.’ Anna glanced back at the email.
‘Diane has had a super idea.’ Her mother smiled.
‘Not another?’
‘Yes, another. She says we could ask Rosie to be Benny.’
‘She’ll be thrilled.’
An hour later, Anna had managed to escape the mayhem that was Primrose Cottage. Diane had pushed back the sofas in the front room, downloaded Abba off YouTube and, for some reason Anna still couldn’t fathom, Rosie had not only agreed to be Benny, but actually sounded excited. Anna knew that at this rate she might as well bury her chances of dating Richard six feet underground. If he ever managed to get over the loo-roll-on-shoe incident, followed by the disastrous date at the farm, he would, at worst, actually see her performing Abba and, at best, hear about it from someone in the village.
She sat in her car at the bottom of Ridley Manor’s drive and retrieved the diary from her bag. Anna had read it from cover to cover twice now, but it was the message scrawled on the last page that had stuck.
‘Sometimes love is safer at a distance. I have learnt this the hard way. You can love someone but, for many reasons, you can’t touch them. If you do, you do so selfishly. I never meant to hurt her and I now realise that what they had was special too. In a different way. Frank taught me to open my eyes. I did, and now I wish I hadn’t, because I’ve hurt too many people and hurt myself at the same time.’
Anna wondered what her aunt’s words meant and, as they weren’t attached to a specific entry, she had no idea when she’d written them. With those words running around her head, she drove up to the house and got out, taking in the magnificence of Ridley Manor by day. She had barely made it to the top step when the door opened and Alfred stood there, smiling.
‘Miss Compton.’
‘Hello, Alfred.’ She walked in and he took her coat. ‘I’m sorry about not quite fitting the other night, at the party. I hope we didn’t make your life too difficult.’
He smiled. ‘Not at all, miss. It was all my pleasure.’ Alfred gestured for Anna to follow him. ‘Lady Spencerville is in the drawing room upstairs, if you would like to follow me.’
Alfred led Anna up the wide, winding staircase and knocked gently at the first door they came to. ‘Lady Spencerville, Miss Compton is here to see you.’
Anna looked down at her jeans and shirt. She hadn’t thought about changing, desperate instead to escape Diane’s voice exercises.
‘My dear, come in,’ said a very attractive, petite woman sitting on a wing-back chair by the window. She wore a blue tweed suit and a white, frilly shirt with pearls. Anna thought, in that moment, that Diane was probably right after all: this was certainly the type of woman the Queen would befriend.
‘Thank you.’ She resisted curtseying and walked over, suddenly overcome with shyness.
‘Do sit.’ Lady Spencerville indicated the chair opposite. She picked up a small jug of milk. ‘Tea?’
Anna nodded. ‘Yes, please.’
‘I’m afraid you’ll have to bear with me. I’m not used to making my own tea, but I couldn’t stand all the fuss today. Do you know what I mean?’
Anna nodded and then shook her head. ‘Actually, no,’ she laughed, ‘I’m a single mother to twins and I currently have my crazy mother and even more crazy best friend living with me. I would love someone to make me a cup of tea more often.’
Lady Spencerville smiled. ‘You are just as Florence described.’
‘My aunt?’
‘The very same.’ Lady Spencerville paused, placing a cup of weak-looking tea in front of Anna. Her face grew serious. ‘Anna, do you mind me calling you by your first name?’
‘Not at all.’
‘A source, someone close to me, tells me you mentioned something I believe is rightfully mine.’ She paused. ‘A diary?’
Anna shook her head, her eyes widening. ‘The diary is very much rightfully mine.’
‘I don’t think you understand,’ she continued. ‘I’m aware that you hold the diary in which your aunt declares her love, and possibly more, for my late husband. What you need to understand, Anna, is that I can’t risk these sorts of rumours getting out. I…’ She started, but her voice cracked. ‘I am a proud woman and, quite honestly, your aunt has done enough damage to this family, even without this evidence.’
‘You can’t have it,’ said Anna, her eyes fleetingly resting on her handbag. ‘It’s my aunt’s property and I would never just hand it over. Your family has no right to this diary or my house.’
‘Anna…’ Lady Spencerville pressed her lips together. ‘Your aunt has almost destroyed our family before, and now you possess something I need to destroy. Until I do, I won’t sleep at night.’
Anna sat forward on the chair. ‘I’m not about to make photocopies and send them around the village, if that’s what you’re scared of.’
Lady Spencerville’s hand trembled as she placed her cup on the table. ‘I don’t know you and, from what I hear, I’m not sure I can trust you.’
‘Trust me? Me?’ Anna stood, her voice strained. ‘As you say, you don’t know me! Your son, I met on day one and he immediately told me of your plans to take back my cottage. Now, I hope you understand it’s not yours for the taking.’ She breathed heavily. ‘Nor is the diary. The diary is a personal matter.’
‘Well, you can’t be surprised. Can you really?’ Lady Spencerville looked at her.
‘I just don’t understand your family. Why would you have taken my arrival so personally? To me, you were all strangers. I had no idea who you were until I arrived. Then, I find your son everywhere, just laughing at me, gloating. And now you…’ She stood, picking up her handbag. ‘You sit there talking about me like I’m something you’ve trodden on and demand I hand over my aunt’s diary. I wouldn’t even let you near my aunt’s beloved diary, let alone keep it. Look, I’m sorry to hear my aunt loved your husband so much and that she couldn’t do anything about it because he was already married to you. Maybe,’ she said, turning on her heels and making for the door, ‘maybe she could have made your husband happier.’
‘Anna…’ Lady Spencerville rose. ‘Didn’t do anything? You think your aunt didn’t do anything? So my son hasn’t told you, then?’
‘Told me what?’ Anna said, her hand on the doorknob. ‘Why don’t you just spit out whatever it is you have to tell me?’
‘Your aunt did have an affair with my husband and my son is their child.’ She put a hand up to her mouth and choked back a sob. ‘So, if your aunt makes out nothing happened in that diary, then she lied to herself as well as everyone else.’
Anna stood, staring at the door. ‘I don’t believe you. She wouldn’t do that.’
‘She did exactly that.’
Anna looked back at Lady Spencerville who suddenly looked frail and broken. ‘She wouldn’t…’
‘She did and I know how tongues wag around here so, when I found out, I sent him away. That was years ago, obviously, and when he came back recently, demanding his share of this house, I paid him off.’
‘You paid for your husband’s son to just disappear?’
‘Yes,’ she nodded. ‘Only he wouldn’t stay away. So he’s here, in the village, as you know. But, for the time being, I have bought his silence.’
Anna pulled the door open. ‘I will never let you have the diary, because you just proved to me that my aunt was the woman with a heart, and she followed it.’ Anna remembered her last words. ‘My aunt opened her eyes. Maybe you should too.’