Page 83 of The Way We Are Now

I had the briefest of conversations with Theo, ringing him and suggesting we meet for a drink the following evening.

‘Would you come to the house?’ he asked.

For a split second I thought he meant Mandeville Hall. Now that would be cosy, sitting down to a G&T with Honor Double-Barrel and Kitchen Maureen – I bet she was still there: these old retainers hung on until they died, didn’t they? Or was that just on Upstairs, Downstairs?

‘The house?’ I asked.

‘You spent a weekend with me there, Anna,’ Theo said calmly.

‘Of course. Give me the address again.’ Give me the address? It was imprinted on my brain and many had been the time, in a fit of sentimentality, I’d gone for a walk in Holland Park just to catch sight of the Mandeville London pile. To remember.

Michael was away in Brussels for the week as he so often was. After a busy day in the office and in court, I went home, showered and changed into a pair of jeans and navy sweater, deliberately dressing down. This was no date, I reminded myself, remembering the time I’d spent in the past, hair washing, making up and dressing just for Theo Mandeville.

It might have been March, and the clocks about to go forward, but it was jolly cold out, sleety and miserable, the sky leaden with the promise of more bad weather to come. I found my warmest jacket, pulled on my coveted pair of Uggs, picked up my car keys and set off.

I knew exactly where I was going – I could have taken you there blindfold – and pulled up behind a black Range Rover on the drive of Theo’s house. Was it actually Theo’s? I wondered. Was Sir Hugh still alive, or had it all been passed on to Theo?

Oh, heavens, Theo looked absolutely divine. He came to the door, barefoot, and like me, dressed in jeans and a navy sweater and my heart stood still. This isn’t happening, I censured my traitorous heart that was now beating wildly somewhere at the top of my chest: get back down where you belong and behave yourself. I was saved from stuttering hello because, before I could speak, a bundle of black had me up against the wall, a black tail lashing excitedly at my knees.

‘Florence,’ Theo shouted. ‘Get down. So sorry, she’s still fairly young and not had the best training.’

‘I thought you lot trained your gun dogs to the nth degree,’ I said, recovering my balance and bending down to greet the quivering excited creature.

‘My lot?’ Theo raised an eyebrow, but I didn’t feel he was in any position to manoeuvre at this early stage in the evening and just gave him a look. ‘I rescued Flo here from someone down in the village – she hadn’t been well looked after. She needs a firm hand.’

‘I’m amazed you brought her down with you,’ I said, following him into a sitting room, standing somewhat awkwardly to one side as he bent to calm the dog. ‘Away from the countryside and into the big city?’

‘I enjoy her company. My wife’s off skiing and the boys are away at school.’

Of course they were.

‘Did you marry Susannah?’ I knew perfectly well he was married to Honor Double-Barrel but didn’t want Theo to have the satisfaction of knowing that I knew.

‘Who?’ Theo frowned.

‘That old girlfriend of yours in Leeds,’ I said, holding his eye. ‘The last time we saw her was in Len’s Bar when I came on one of the many weekends to your student house. She told me to watch out, that you’d break my heart.’

Theo stared and then burst out laughing. ‘Did she? Goodness, I can’t imagine why. Susannah? Oh, of course.’

‘Actually, Len’s Bar wasn’t the last time I saw her. While I waited all night, and most of the next day to see you at the hospital, she waltzed in with your brother-in-law.’

‘Susannah Donaldson. Goodness, you’re going back almost twenty years, Anna. She’s some sort of cousin twice removed from James, my sister’s husband. Lives in Canada now, I believe. Married to some high-up policeman over there, I heard.’

‘Susannah of the Mounties,’ I said, remembering the much-loved book Miss Ramsden had read at the end of each day to the class when I was in Year Five.

‘Sorry?’

‘Nothing.’

‘Are you staying, Anna?’

‘Am I staying?’ Was he asking if I was staying the night, for heaven’s sake?

‘May I take your coat?’ he asked politely. ‘It is quite warm in here.’

‘Oh, sorry, yes, of course.’

‘And what can I get you to drink? Wine? Gin and tonic?’