Anna, although still managing the tea shop during the day, had also started researching the Carter family’s history in the evenings. As a former academic librarian specialising in historical documents she’d had extensive experience in handling and cataloguing papers of special interest, and knowing that Matthew’s family had a collection relating to the history of the family and the business that included both personal and commercial documents, she had been itching to go through them. Most of them had been somewhat haphazardly stored in tea chests and suitcases in the attic for at least as long as Matthew had been alive. She was gradually going through them in the evenings when Ellie was in bed, trying to get the information into some kind of sensible chronological order. So far, she’d got four box files on the go, one for each generation, and despite being side tracked by some old photographs that showed the current Carter brothers bore a striking resemblance to their cider making forebears, she was starting to get a clearer picture of who was related to whom.
This was how Matthew found her as he walked into the kitchen on a September evening. She’d been poring over the documents for a little while, since Ellie had gone to bed, and she smiled as he came through the back door.
‘There’s some pretty interesting stuff here,’ Anna said. She’d spread the most recent papers that Matthew had unearthed across the kitchen table and was gradually sorting them into more logical piles. ‘How much do you know about how your great grandfather, Samuel, got started in cider making?’
‘A bit,’ Matthew replied. ‘Although, to be honest, he wasn’t the greatest record keeper. My great grandmother kept a few journals which it looks as though you’ve managed to locate already, and there were a few letters, as well as invoices to and from suppliers.’
‘There’s a bit more than that,’ Anna replied. She passed him a sheet of paper, yellowed with age and written in a close hand. ‘This was tucked inside your great grandmother Elsie’s last diary. It’s a letter from your great aunt Jane.’
‘My grandfather’s younger sister?’ Matthew squinted at the paper, reluctant to reach for his newly prescribed reading glasses. He held it slightly further away, strategically ignoring Anna’s brief smirk at the action. As he read, his mouth dropped open in astonishment.
‘Does this suggest what I think it does?’ He said eventually, handing the paper back to her.
‘Well, Jane did spend some time away from home when she turned eighteen – that much I can trace from the other letters to and from her and Elsie.’
‘This suggests that Jane had a child before she married my great uncle Hugh. But there’s never been any mention of it – Dad’s never mentioned anything about having any cousins other than Jane and Hugh’s children.’
‘Perhaps Jane never told Hugh when she married him,’ Anna mused. ‘After all, in those days unmarried mothers would have very limited options. Unfortunately, I haven’t come across any other papers that might shed light on what happened to the child, but adoption records weren’t great back then, either.’
‘Is there any clue as to who the father might have been?’ Matthew asked.
‘Not exactly, but I have found some newspaper clippings about a man in his twenties being found face down in one of the vats at around about the same time as the letter from Jane. It would be easy to just tie the two sources together, but I can’t really do that without more evidence.’
‘But if there was a link, that means that the man’s death might not have been an accident.’ Matthew grimaced. ‘I’m beginning to think that getting you to archive the family history wasn’t such a good idea after all.’
‘Every family has their secrets,’ Anna replied. ‘And four generations are bound to throw up some interesting facts. I wouldn’t get too worked up about it until I’ve spent a bit more time looking into it all.’
‘And to think all this scandal has been sitting in the loft for decades! I wonder if we should have left it there. It all feels a bit Pandora’s Box, now. Although…’ a naughty, schoolboyish grin spread over his features, ‘that gives me an idea.’
Anna, who was beginning to realise that Matthew’s grin usually meant the best kind of trouble, smiled. ‘What have you got in mind?’
‘How do you think Caroline would feel about hosting our annual suppliers’ dinner at The Cider Kitchen? She’s got such an amazing track record in events management, I think she’d be the perfect choice.’
‘I think she’d probably jump at it,’ Anna said. ‘She’s always looking for ways to prove the restaurant’s worth to the wider business and this would be a good way to do it.’
‘And how would you feel about putting all of this research to dramatic use?’
Anna looked baffled. ‘How?’
‘Well,’ Matthew slid an arm around his wife, ‘it seems a shame just to file it all away again. What if we did some kind of theme for the suppliers’ dinner?’ He looked thoughtful. ‘We could even make it a murder mystery evening.’
‘Are you serious?’ Anna laughed. ‘A second ago you were trying to sweep all of this potential scandal under the carpet and now you want to make a play out of it?’
‘Why not?’ Matthew said. ‘It’s better than having it mouldering away in the attic for another few decades. Do you reckon you could come up with the bare bones of a story that we could put together? Doesn’t have to be much, just a broad sketch of the history and then the gruesome mystery of the body in the vat.’
‘I’ll have a think,’ Anna said. She’d be up against it with the baby due in early December and working more or less full time at the tea shop, but she was never one to refuse a challenge. And there was no doubt that her academic mind was itching to continue with the archiving project. How hard could it be to come up with a murder mystery play for a dinner? After all, most of the guests would be half cut on cider by the end anyway.
‘Let me know what you can come up with,’ Matthew said. ‘And I’ll ask Jonathan to discuss it with Caroline. It would be good to have the drinks reception on site and then head over to The Cider Kitchen for the meal after the play, don’t you think?’
‘I’m sure she’ll be happy to sort that end of things out,’ Anna replied. And then, something else struck her. She suddenly remembered the small pencil sketch that Caroline had done of Ellie when she was just days old. Perhaps she wouldn’t mind getting her sketch book out again for a special addition to the evening? It would be lovely to have some sketches of the Carter ancestors, or even the current generation, to perhaps auction off at the end of the evening. She’d see if she could catch her soon and ask.
‘Just try to make sure that you gloss over anything you find that’s too scandalous or unsavoury,’ Matthew said. ‘We don’t really want anyone ripping up their contracts because of a bit of over ripe history!’
Anna smiled again. ‘Let’s not jump to conclusions. There’s a way to go yet before I can confirm anything on the story anyway. It just throws some interesting light on the family ghost story at this stage. After all, didn’t you once threaten to chuck Flynn in the cider vats if he upset Merry?’
‘I suppose,’ Matthew conceded. He pulled out his phone from his jacket pocket and frowned. ‘Has she phoned you tonight, by the way? My battery’s flat.’
‘Yes, I spoke to her earlier. She said yours kept going to voice mail. She’s going to be late back from Flynn’s – he’s off to university at the weekend so they’re spending as much time together as they can before he goes.’ Meredith had just started her A Level courses after a spectacular set of GCSE results and both Anna and Matthew had high hopes that she’d be making her own application to Oxbridge next year.
‘Again?’ Matthew frowned. ‘I wish she’d start to realise that schoolwork still comes first. And I’m sure he’s got plenty of organising to do, too. Alone.’
‘She’ll be OK,’ Anna said. ‘She was super organised during her GCSEs, and she’s got into good habits, workwise, already.’ Anna was relieved that Meredith was such a good student; she’d had visions of having to nag and cajole her to work, when in actual fact the girl was almost likely to overdo it. Meredith had been a little withdrawn over the summer holiday, but Anna had put this down to wanting to spend as much time with Flynn as possible before he left for university. She resolved to make some time to spend with her stepdaughter before school really got into full swing. Ellie had started primary school this month, too, so Anna was pleased she could focus her energies on helping her young daughter adapt to the new routine. She put the papers back down on the table and crossed the kitchen floor to Matthew’s side. ‘Merry’s got her father’s work ethic.’
‘I hope not!’ Matthew laughed darkly. ‘I’ve not been the best role model for how to handle stress.’
‘You’re learning,’ Anna said. ‘And remember, Jonathan’s here now to take the pressure off.’
‘I know,’ Matthew sighed. ‘But old habits die hard. And he’s been a bit distracted lately. I think his interest in The Cider Kitchen might be more than professional.’
‘Really? That’s taken you long enough to work out.’
‘He swears blind he’s keeping things above board but he can’t seem to stay away.’
‘So Caroline keeps telling me,’ Anna said. ‘And she’s pretending to be irritated by it, but really, I think she quite likes it.’
‘Well, they’d better keep things professional,’ Matthew said. ‘I don’t think the customers will appreciate having crockery thrown over their heads.’
‘I honestly don’t think he wants to step on her toes. And something tells me that the fact Caroline’s getting on really well with Gino might be rattling him a bit, too, although he’d never admit as much.’
‘I imagine it might be.’ He pulled Anna round to face him, away from the piles of papers on the kitchen table. ‘But I don’t want to talk about Jonno. Come here.’ Taking her in his arms, he dropped a long, lingering kiss on her lips.
Anna slid her hands up inside Matthew’s untucked shirt and felt him lean in in response to her. ‘Fine by me,’ she murmured, all thoughts of family history forgotten for the moment.