That same evening, across the village at Cowslip Barn, Anna was getting the shopping in from the car. She’d had a busy day as the Little Orchard Tea Shop was in full holiday season swing. Her godmother, Ursula, who owned the tea shop, had decided to extend her sabbatical and was enjoying her semi-retirement in Umbria, leaving Anna in charge, which she loved. She fully intended, once she’d taken a year off with the new baby, to return to running the tea shop, which had been a source of great stability and a lot of pleasure when she’d moved back to Little Somerby eighteen months previously.
A lot of people, her best friend Charlotte included, had assumed that Anna would give up the tea shop when she married Little Somerby’s most eligible millionaire cider farmer, but Anna had been adamant; she owed it to Ursula to remain as manager of The Little Orchard Tea Shop and it was a business she adored. The cosy little shop had been her haven, her stability, and although she’d rented out her own charming cottage and moved in with Matthew, she wasn’t prepared to give up the tea shop. Matthew had understood and encouraged her to keep the business on. With Ellie nearly of school age, it would soon be easier in terms of childcare and he didn’t want her to give up something that made her so happy.
Ellie had been over the moon when Anna and Matthew had broken the news to her about the new addition to the family. She’d been fascinated to see the greyish blob on the ultrasound photos after the twelve week scan, demanding instantly to know whether she was going to have a brother or a sister. Anna wasn’t sure she wanted to know. Better to keep things a surprise this time round, she thought. Meredith had been somewhat quieter in response to the news, but Anna had put it down to having a lot of other things to think about as she was in the middle of her GCSE exams. She was sure that Meredith would be just as excited about a new brother or sister once the time grew closer.
Grappling with a shopping bag before it collapsed entirely, Anna dropped her car keys onto the scrubbed oak kitchen table and made a futile snatch at the bag of oranges at the top of the hessian shopper, grimacing as they escaped their netting and careered wildly across the table top. As she wandered across the kitchen, picking up the fruit as it rolled away, including one that Sefton had caught in his jaws, she noticed a new entry on the calendar stuck to the side of the fridge. This was nothing unusual; Meredith’s social life was hectic and Matthew had trained her long ago that if she required a parental taxi she needed to put it on the calendar, but this entry wasn’t in Meredith’s looped handwriting; it was very definitely written in Matthew’s hand.
Blinking in mild disbelief, Anna digested the information. She felt a sudden flip in her stomach and while she tried to put it down to pregnancy jitters she knew it wasn’t quite that. She ran a finger across the entry dated next Friday, willing it, somehow, to change. Of course, it stayed put. There was no question about it; she was going to have to speak to him when he got home.
*
‘Did she go down all right?’ Matthew asked as Anna padded back down the stairs from putting Ellie to bed. Ellie had settled well into Cowslip Barn as her new family home but was still prone to getting up in the night and not knowing where she was. He crossed the kitchen and handed Anna a mug of tea. ‘I’m sorry I was a bit later than planned. I was waiting for Jonathan to come back to me with an update on The Cider Kitchen but it must have slipped his mind.’
‘She was a little restless,’ Anna replied. Her daughter wasn’t handling the heat wave well and would far rather bounce on her bed than sleep in it at the moment. She took the mug from Matthew and headed back to the living room. ‘Are you coming to sit down?’
‘Won’t be a tick,’ Matthew said. ‘I need to give Jonno a quick call and then I’m all yours.’
‘Can that wait a minute?’ Anna asked, turning back towards him.
Matthew clocked his wife’s expression. ‘Of course. What’s wrong?’
Anna drew a deep breath. ‘Why is there an entry on the calendar for the St Jude’s prep school open evening next week?’
Matthew looked surprised. ‘I thought you might like to take Ellie up there to have a look around.’
‘Why?’
Matthew raised a hand to Anna’s elbow. ‘I know you’re having a hard time adjusting to the fact that she’s going to school soon so I thought I’d take the initiative and find out when the open evening was so we could go along and check it out. I bet it’s changed a lot since Meredith started and I thought you might like to see what the facilities are like.’
Anna stepped away from Matthew, trying to gather her thoughts before she spoke again. ‘But… she’s not going to St Jude’s, Matthew. She’s going to the village primary school. I told you that at the start of the year. I did her application back in December.’
Matthew wrinkled his brow. ‘Since when?’
‘Since always!’ Anna’s temper started to rise. ‘I’d never even considered sending her to St Jude’s. She’s going to the village school.’
‘But what about when she gets to secondary age? Don’t you think the transition would be easier to manage if she’s already been there for her first few years? After all, her friends will already be there.’
‘I can’t quite believe what I’m hearing,’ Anna said carefully. ‘Are you actually telling me that you’ve planned my daughter’s entire educational future without even telling me first? What makes you think you have the right?’
‘What?’ The penny was starting to drop for Matthew. ‘No, of course not,’ he said hurriedly. ‘I just assumed that with Meredith already at St Jude’s, and having had such a positive experience, you’d want to send Ellie there as well. Was I wrong?’
Anna shook her head. ‘Yes. Yes, Matthew, you were. Whether or not I was prepared to send her to St Jude’s is one thing, but assuming that you could make decisions for my daughter without even consulting me first… I just don’t know where to start. How could you even think of making that kind of decision on your own?’ She could feel her temper rising further and a part of her dimly realised that this was turning out to be the milestone of their first actual disagreement of any consequence.
Matthew looked aghast. ‘Anna, it’s not that big a deal. Honestly. I just found out a date and wrote it on the calendar. Why are you making such a thing of it?’
‘Do you really not get it?’ Anna retorted. ‘You’re making decisions without talking things through again. You’re assuming that you know best when this was something that we really needed to have a conversation about. Can you not see that?’
‘I see,’ Matthew replied quietly. ‘So, you’re saying that because she’s not biologically my daughter that I have no right to think about her future? At least I know where I stand. Thank you for clarifying that so effectively.’ He held her gaze for a moment longer and then walked past her.
Within moments Anna heard his study door opening and then closing quietly behind him. Letting out a long breath, she sat down with a thump on one of the kitchen chairs. That had escalated more quickly than she could have anticipated and her hands shook. Was this an indication that Matthew wasn’t adapting as well to marriage as she’d thought? Taking the last orange from the split bag that was still on the table, Anna turned it over in her hands. What should she do?