Jasmine’s face flushed. “Shush. He’ll hear you. And it’s not like that anymore.”
“What is not like what anymore? You hate him, don’t you?” In fairness to Anna, she had been awake all night and was not as fast on the uptake as usual.
Jasmine’s colour deepened further. “We’ve reached an understanding. Things have changed.”
The penny had finally dropped in Anna’s head. “An understanding? Is that what the youth are calling it these days? And has this understanding been understood?”
Jasmine bit her lip and Anna had laughed.
As Lily stops to let a pedestrian cross the road, Anna recalls Jasmine’s happiness. The whole world is happy except for her. And James.
Lily resumes her story. “Mummy thinks Ben, the candidate, has the hots for Jasmine. I’m not so sure myself. I mean, Jasmine’s quite scary. She’s not the type men sigh over. But wouldn’t that be a lovely ending? And he was quite a hottie.”
“I think it’s more of a beginning. But I’m pretty sure Mummy’s right.” Not words Anna says often. “Maybe Jasmine scared him into bed, but I definitely interrupted something going on the last time I called.”
“Do you think so?” Lily briefly takes her eyes off the road, turning to Anna with the soppiest look on her face.
Anna points ahead. “The road,” she reminds her sister.
Lily turns her head back quickly, but Anna can see the biggest grin stretching. She half expects Lily to bop in her seat. “That would be perfect. And maybe she would come home more.” Lily’s voice is wistful. “We were so mean to her after she broke up with Petey. I would have stopped Phoebs if I’d known it was going to drive Jasmine away. It’s so quiet at home with all of you gone.”
Anna supposes it is. She and Jasmine have been in London for years. Phoebe is everywhere and nowhere. It is hard to keep track. And even though she is close by, Eleanor has been building her love-nest with Jacob. But Anna says none of that. “Rubbish! It was Phoebe who drove her away and Ma and Pa who should have stepped in. There was nothing you could have done.”
She falls quiet as she watches the stone walls of the estate appear, followed by the flint-faced houses of the village opposite. Lily slows, like a dutiful driver, as they enter the village and indicates before she turns into the park. Each wall, each tree, each building is so familiar from childhood. Anna could find her way home blindfolded. But as much as she recognises her attachment to the place, unlike Lily, she has no wish to live here. She needs the vibrancy of a big city.
When Lily pulls the big car to a halt outside the grand Italianate façade of the north wing of Larkford Hall, tyres crunching on the gravel, Anna feels the tug of home. She gazes up at the handsome façade, the big multi-paned windows stacked three storeys high and dominated in the centre by the verdigris copper-topped roof of the cupola.
Anna gets her bag from the rear and follows Lily up the steps to the heavy oak door. They push inside. It is such a dull day that the lights are on. Anna crosses the grand hall to the staircase that leads to the west wing, where all the girls each had a room. When the twins were small, they’d shared a room and a nanny had slept in the wing with them. But the last live-in nanny had departed two decades ago, and Lily has now taken over the room. Strictly speaking, Lily is the youngest, Phoebe having preceded her by half an hour – a fact which Phoebe used to her advantage almost every day of their lives growing up.
Anna dumps her bag and freshens up before going to rejoin Lily, who has promised to rustle up a cup of tea and maybe some biscuits, although it is almost time for lunch. Anna finds Lily in the drawing room, where a lit fire takes the chill off the day and gives a cheery focus for tired eyes. Within a minute, a housemaid arrives with a tray of tea and some homemade shortbread. “Welcome back, Miss Anna,” she says.
Anna plumbs her memory banks. “Thank you, Annabelle. But it’s just Anna. Anyway, if you wanted to stand on ceremony,you would have to call me Doctor.” A designation has not been required since Anna’s grandmother moved out and was old-fashioned even then. Anna blamesDownton Abbeyfor its use by the younger staff. This is one of her problems with Larkford. When she is here, she is relegated to being the Baron’s daughter. All her own achievements are secondary to that.
“Very well, Miss Anna,” the housemaid politely ignores her words and retreats, leaving Lily and Anna together. Lily has only just begun to quiz Anna about her trip when the door opens and their parents arrive, quickly followed by Eleanor and Jacob. It seems it will be a family lunch.
Anna keeps her replies about her trip to Los Angeles circumspect. She is not going to raise the subject of Tolly Hyde in front of her mother or Eleanor’s husband. She delivers her favourable report on the state of her cousin Serena, confirms her own status as still single, and bores them with a description of one of the talks she attended. It is quite enough to ensure no more questions on the subject of Los Angeles.
Instead, her mother takes over as they head into lunch with a summary of the local news since Anna’s last visit. It seems to consist mostly of entries from the parish births, deaths, and marriages register, with the occasional report of petty crime or a motorcycle accident thrown in. Anna’s father spends his time interrogating Jacob, who sits beside Eleanor, in a side conversation. From what Anna can gather, the scintillating subject under discussion is wheat yields. Eleanor seems quiet, almost disassociated from the rest of the party. One hand rests in her husband’s and her eyes stay on her food as she stirs her soup. It is so obvious to Anna, she cannot understand why none of her family seems to notice. Even her father appears oblivious, although Anna knows one of his key character traits is his perceptiveness, rapidly followed by his tendency to meddle.
The meal ends with Jacob announcing his intention of walking over to his father’s in order to help him with some do-it-yourself project. Anna knows her own father will retire to the library to “think” with his eyes closed. She hopes this is her opportunity to talk to her elder sister alone and is relieved when her mother requests Lily drive her on a set of errands. Lily looks unhappy, but obedience is strong in her and she does not demur.
“I’ll walk you home, Eleanor,” Anna offers and Eleanor looks up, as if startled to hear her name mentioned.
The family disperses. Anna and Eleanor head out of the solid oak front door for the short walk to Glebe Cottage.
Anna waits until they are clear of the forecourt before she begins. “Jasmine called me.”
“Oh.”
“I’m here if you want to talk to me.” Silence. Obviously, Eleanor is not feeling chatty.
Anna tries again. “If you need anything. Any help.”
Eleanor gives a vague smile. “I know,” she says.
“She was worried.” Anna offers it softly, as an excuse rather than an accusation, and Eleanor nods.
“I understand,” she says.
