by Fay Keenan
‘Thanks for coming tonight,’ Matthew said, once he’d got through the many locals who wanted a chat and a gossip and reached Anna’s side.
‘I enjoyed it,’ Anna replied. ‘There’s something very… elemental… about it.’
Matthew smiled. ‘Well, I’m more of a believer in science and reason as techniques for growing good apples, but who am I to argue with the Morris Men? And it does make for a good party.’
‘It does,’ Anna agreed. ‘Thanks again for hosting it.’
Matthew smiled. ‘Well, it’s lovely to see you here.’ He paused. ‘I should probably…’
‘Yes – well, see you then.’ Anna smiled back, and for a moment they both stood, thinking, assessing. Anna found she was holding her breath. She laughed nervously.
Matthew seemed reluctant to break the moment. Eventually, clearing his throat, he spoke once more. ‘Um… look, Anna…I’m not sure if you’d fancy it, but… do you think you might have a think about…’
Just then, Meredith bounded back up to her father. ‘Have you asked her yet, Dad?’
Matthew glared at his daughter, and for a moment their roles seemed reversed.
Anna couldn’t help laughing. ‘Asked me what?’
Meredith rolled her eyes. ‘Dad wanted to ask you if you fancied going out to dinner next Friday, but it looks like, as usual, he’s taking forever to get his act together.’
‘Well, I – um – I don’t know what to say!’ Anna stalled for time. Meredith marching up and dropping a bombshell like that was one thing, but, judging from the look on Matthew’s face, she couldn’t be sure if he was outraged with his daughter or horrified to be put on the spot like that.
Was she imagining things, Anna thought, or was Matthew Carter actually blushing? He certainly looked like he wanted the orchard to open up and swallow him along with the tree roots.
‘Say yes, obviously!’ Meredith replied. ‘God, you two are so pathetic.’
‘Thank you, Meredith!’ Matthew growled. ‘I’m more than capable of arranging my own social life, if you don’t mind.’
‘That’s not what Granddad said,’ Meredith quipped. ‘He said you couldn’t find your own backside if you were sitting on it!’ She turned back to Anna, smiling down at Ellie first, who had started to giggle at the mention of the word ‘backside’. ‘So, anyway, what my dad is trying to say, is would you like to go out for dinner next Friday? In Bath? At The Priory?’
‘Well, I – er—’
‘That’s quite enough, Meredith,’ said Matthew, taking back control of his senses, and his daughter. ‘Go and make yourself useful handing round some of the hog roast.’
‘Yes sir!’ Meredith beat a hasty retreat, giving her father a mock salute and grinning at Ellie.
There was a brief, uncomfortable silence, before Matthew laughed nervously. ‘I’m going to kill that girl… or at least dock her pocket money for life.’
Anna joined in the tentative laughter. ‘No harm done.’
‘But she does have a point,’ Matthew conceded. ‘I had intended to ask you if you wanted to come out for dinner with me.’
Anna’s heart turned over. It had been a long time since anyone had asked her out, and despite Meredith’s crashing approach, she felt terrified. It still felt so soon after James. She opened her mouth, then closed it again.
‘It’s all right, it was just a thought,’ Matthew said hurriedly, misreading her hesitation. ‘I didn’t mean to put you under any pressure. Meredith’s too direct for her own good sometimes. Don’t worry about it.’ He went to turn away.
‘No, wait, please!’ Anna stammered. ‘That is… thank you. I would like to come out with you.’
The relief on Matthew’s face took years off him, and Anna was suddenly reminded of that night, all those years ago, when they’d met so briefly.
His eyes sparkled, and he gave a broad smile. ‘Great. Shall I pick you up at seven?’
‘That would be lovely. Thank you.’ Anna smiled. ‘Meredith’s not afraid to say what she thinks, is she?’
‘Never let it be said she’s backwards in coming forward. I think she gets it from having to deal with me for all these years!’
‘Well, I’d better get this one home and into a warm bed,’ Anna said, gathering a very tired Ellie up into her arms. ‘And hadn’t you better go and do the Lord of the Manor thing?’ She grinned at Matthew, feeling a sudden relief that the potentially embarrassing moment seemed to have passed.
‘I suppose I should,’ Matthew grinned back. ‘Although my dad can’t quite get used to being out of that role – he’s far better at it than me, anyway.’
‘He certainly seems to be enjoying himself,’ Anna observed.
Jack Carter was, indeed, holding court a little further away, chatting up some of the maiden ladies of the parish and keeping them in gales of girlish laughter. For a man of nearly eighty, he had a twinkly-eyed look that women of all ages found appealing. Leaning on his shooting stick, dressed in his Harris Tweed, his charisma and enthusiasm were infectious.
‘Well, he always was a ladies’ man,’ Matthew replied lightly. Then a shadow seemed to cross his face. ‘I’d better go and retrieve him before he says something unforgivable to old Miss Pinkham.’
As Matthew moved away from Anna, she wondered at his sudden change of expression. She still felt like a relative outsider, and there were undertones and subtleties in the village relationships she still couldn’t fathom. Sooner or later she hoped she’d be able to read the emotional crosscurrents a little better. At the moment she spent half of her time feeling emotionally illiterate.
As she watched Matthew approach his father, Anna was sure she didn’t imagine a slight stiffening of Matthew’s back. She wondered why. But that would have to wait for another time. She was in dire need of her best friend’s counsel, wise or otherwise, on what exactly you did when you were asked out as a thirty-six-year-old widow by a man you barely knew, but found decidedly attractive. Of all the situations she thought she would encounter when she moved back to Little Somerby, this was one she never would have anticipated.
8
‘So you’re not interested in him at all then?’ Charlotte rolled her eyes over her mug of coffee the next morning. ‘You’ve got a funny way of showing it!’
Anna grimaced. ‘Look, can we get the piss-taking out of the way quickly, please? I haven’t been on a date in well over twelve years; I need advice, not wisecracks.’
‘Point taken. But you do realise I’ve been married nearly as long as you were, don’t you?’
‘I know.’ Anna groaned and put her head down on Charlotte’s kitchen table, narrowly missing the slice of Victoria sponge she’d brought along for the coffee date. After a few weeks of only cooking on top of her Rayburn, she’d finally taken the plunge and started using the ovens. There had been a few less than pleasant results, before she’d remembered what Lizzie had said about the cold shelf, but she was, at last, getting the hang of baking cakes. Charlotte had been only too happy to help test the ever-better results. But cake was the last thing on Anna’s mind at the moment. ‘What the hell am I supposed to do?’ she muttered into the tabletop.
‘Well… let’s look at this logically. Do you fancy him?’
Anna raised her head. ‘What am I? Fifteen?’
‘It’s a perfectly valid question,’ Charlotte said primly. ‘After all, at your age, you shouldn’t hang about.’
‘Gee, thanks.’
‘What I mean is, there’s not much point in going out with him if you don’t at least think you can tolerate spending an evening alone with the guy. You’re hardly footloose and fancy-free any more, but you don’t exactly need a man, either – so you’ve got to be brutal about these things.’ Charlotte gently disentangled Evan from the ball of wool he’d stolen from her knitting bag, the contents of which had been entertaining the little boy and Ellie for the past twenty minutes.
‘Well… he is pretty OK-looking,’ Anna conceded. ‘And it was kind of sweet
the way Merry had to intervene to make him get the words out. Although that does worry me a bit – he seems so alpha male in all other areas, especially from what you’ve told me.’
‘Where’s he taking you?’
‘Well, Merry mentioned The Priory in Bath when she shotgunned us, but that could be her having a laugh.’
Charlotte gave a low whistle. ‘That place is hotter than David Beckham’s boxers!’
‘Really?’
‘I’m so not joking – mere mortals like me would have to sell the family silver, if we hadn’t already, to get a table there. It’s worth going out with him just for the grub!’
‘I’ll keep that in mind,’ Anna replied, simultaneously unnerved and tickled by the reference to English football’s erstwhile best-looking midfielder and his nether regions.
‘So what does one wear to a place like The Priory?’ She continued. ‘I’m assuming it’s pretty posh?’
‘Oh, casual chic – you know,’ Charlotte tossed her head. ‘Own any Boden or Jigsaw?’
Anna laughed out loud. ‘Have you forgotten that, as the parent of a toddler, anything that isn’t instantly washable is out of the wardrobe? I haven’t dressed in anything but Matalan for the past three years. And a jigsaw is—’
‘I know, I know, something more suited to a small child.’
‘Now I wish he’d just asked me out to the local pub!’
‘Wouldn’t that all be a bit close to home?’ Charlotte replied, giving Evan back the now detangled and reballed wool. ‘After all, the local gossips are going to have a field day anyway without subjecting yourself to their intimate scrutiny all the way through the actual date!’
‘I suppose. I mean, I’m not even sure I want to go on a date yet. Whether I should, even.’ Anna swallowed hard, awash, suddenly, with memories.
‘No one expects you to just jump from loving James to walking down the aisle with someone else,’ Charlotte said gently. ‘Matthew’s just asked you out for dinner. Take it slowly.’
‘You’re right, of course,’ Anna said. ‘It all just seems so complicated. Back in the day, there weren’t any kids to consider, I was fairly confident my boobs didn’t sag and small talk was something that happened over a glass of wine. Now, I need candlelight to look halfway decent and I can’t talk about anything much other than CBeebies!’
‘And you’ll have to warn him about that C-section scar or he’ll really freak out!’
Anna nearly dropped her mug. ‘Wh-what? You think he’ll want to… on the first date?’
Charlotte laughed. ‘Relax! I’m joking. He’s been married before, remember, and goodness knows that didn’t end well. I don’t think he’s going to want to rip your clothes off before he’s completely sure you’re not a psycho.’
‘Was his ex-wife really that bad?’ Anna was intrigued.
‘Believe me, hon, you don’t want to know. Rumour has it a lot more went down than even I managed to pick up.’
‘Such as?’
‘Well, the village gossips think they know what happened between Tara and Matthew, but not many people actually know the full story. The rest of us are just left guessing.’ She sighed. ‘Such a waste, that he’s been on his own so long… but you never know…’
‘Hang on a minute. It’s one date. And we might hate each other.’
Charlotte laughed. ‘Methinks the lady doth protest too much!’
‘Stop getting vicarious thrills, Charlotte, and start being helpful, please.’ Anna drained her coffee cup. ‘I’m already on the verge of ringing him and backing out.’
‘OK, OK – let’s stick the kids in front of the telly and get online. You haven’t got the time, or the patience, to drag Ellie shopping with you, so we might as well see what options there are frock-wise on the internet.’
‘Charlotte, I am not going to buy a whole new outfit for the sake of one night out.’
Scrolling through the website of a more expensive high street chain, though, Anna did concede she had very little sitting in her wardrobe she could actually wear. In the end, she bought a simple shift dress in a subtle yet colourful print – ‘no black allowed, darling, you don’t want to remind him of your Merry Widow status’ – and paired it with a darker cardigan and a pair of medium-heeled strappy shoes. With next day delivery, she should, at least, be able to send it all back if it didn’t fit or, worse, she bottled out.
‘Now that wasn’t so hard, was it?’ Charlotte said. ‘And it beats slobbing around in your jeans.’
‘I don’t want to look like I’ve made too much effort,’ grumbled Anna.
‘Yes, but you also don’t want to look like you haven’t made any! He is taking you somewhere nice, remember?’
‘I’ll be lucky if I don’t drop off over the main course; it’s been so long since I’ve been up past ten o’clock.’
‘Well, for god’s sake don’t drink too much or you’ll be dribbling into the lemon parfait!’ Charlotte said, which didn’t do much to quell Anna’s nerves.
‘Why am I doing this?’ Anna groaned. ‘I don’t even know if I like him. I mean, he’s been perfectly fine the past couple of times I’ve seen him, but I still can’t get those first encounters out of my head. What if he goes all mean and moody on me again? I’m not sure I can cope with a split personality for my first date since James.’ She swallowed hard, fighting against the sadness.
‘Chill,’ Charlotte said. ‘It’s dinner. You wouldn’t have said yes if you didn’t at least think you’d get some decent grub out of it, and you have said yes, so suck it up and get on with shaving your legs and all that.’ She grinned. ‘I was only half joking about the C-section scar, you know.’
Anna only just restrained herself from throwing her half-eaten piece of cake at her best friend.
9
Anna didn’t have much time to fret in the days leading up to her date. Although it wasn’t exactly peak time, the tea shop still did steady business in the off-season. Word had got around that it was under new management, and a stream of customers came through the doors, as much to check its new manager out as to sample the cakes. In one of her quieter periods, Anna had also managed to set up Wi-Fi, so alongside the post-school-run parents, who often popped in for a latte and a chat, the odd laptop surfer showed up to eat cake and drink coffee.
Anna, who was a keen observer of people, couldn’t help but be intrigued by the snatches of conversation she heard as she brought drinks and cakes to each table. The village school’s Parent Teacher Association seemed to be a hotbed of scandal and intrigue. This, Anna surmised from what she’d overheard so far, was down to the fact that the Chair of the PTA had a charming smile and a roving eye, as well as an infinity pool in his back garden.
‘Jenna was over at Duncan and Maria’s house for four hours the other Friday night,’ stage-whispered a woman across the table to her friend as they sipped their lattes. Between them, a toddler munched on a vanilla cupcake, scattering crumbs happily over the tabletop.
‘Maria had taken the kids to stay with her mother while Duncan oversaw the renovations to their kitchen that weekend. Home alone, and he invites Jenna round to, er, do the PTFA last quarter accounts. What are we all supposed to think?’
Anna was torn between helpless laughter and irritation. She’d forgotten how easily gossip spread in a small village. ‘Can I get you anything else?’ she asked the two women, as they came to a natural pause in their conversation.
‘Oh, go on then,’ the woman who was sitting with her back to the window said. ‘I’ll have another coffee. And another small slice of that amazing honey flapjack, too, please.’ She glanced at her companion. ‘What about you, Sarah?’
‘Just the coffee, thanks.’ Sarah turned and smiled at Anna. ‘You’re brave, taking on this place. I’ve never seen it so busy.’
Anna smiled back. ‘It’s been pretty hectic, but good fun so far.’
‘I’ve seen you at nursery,’ Sarah said. ‘I think Flora does a couple of the same mornings. Are you here ever
y day?’
‘Four days a week,’ Anna said, ‘although the baking takes up a bit of that.’
‘Bloody hell, you’re cooking too? You must be mad.’ Sarah grinned. ‘If you do have any free time, make sure you join the Facebook group for the nursery parents. It’s a bit of a giggle and we have the odd night out occasionally.’
‘Thanks, I will,’ Anna said. ‘I’m not sure I’ll make the nights out, but it would be good to meet some new people.’
‘A lot of them are just a few drinks down the pub, so you and your other half are more than welcome to come and join us,’ Sarah said.
Anna’s stomach lurched; there were obviously some people who hadn’t heard all about her circumstances. ‘Thanks,’ she said quickly. ‘I’ll be sure to look it up.’
As she picked up the now empty mugs and turned away, she heard Sarah’s friend muttering, ‘Well done. Hadn’t you heard her husband died?’
Anna was surprised that she didn’t feel the prickle of tears, the lump in her throat that such conversations could still invoke. However, the tea shop was her territory, and these women were her customers; that seemed to override everything else at the moment. And it wasn’t as if they’d actually set out to insult or upset her, anyway. Loading the dirty mugs into the dishwasher, she pondered. Goodness knew how long it would be until word of her first date with Matthew Carter got out; she had the feeling it was impossible to keep anything quiet around the village.
*
Matthew cursed as the heavy metal bonnet of the Land Rover fell for the umpteenth time. Chucking the spanner down on the ground, he reached for the errant prop and opened it again.
‘Anything I can do to help?’ Jack Carter’s voice broke into another of Matthew’s expletive-filled rant as he straightened his ominously creaking back.
‘Not unless you know how to replace a carburettor,’ Matthew growled, rubbing the back of his head.
‘I don’t know why you don’t just scrap that unreliable heap of junk and invest in something more sensible,’ Jack said, passing Matthew the cloth that had also fallen to the ground.