‘As if,’ Anna replied. ‘I guess they’ll find out soon enough once he’s back home – he’ll hook up with Charlie and he’s bound to say something to Mallory and once she knows, the entire universe will be informed. Until then, I’m just going to do what the hell I like for once.’
‘Too right,’ Shannon replied. ‘There is, however, a teeny flaw in your plan.’
‘Which is?’
‘Use your brain, Anna! Let’s say you and Felix do manage to get back together. You hang out with one another, text, phone, go clubbing . . .’
‘Marina would find out, go mental, tell Dad . . .’
‘Exactly. Now, I think you were totally wrong to give in to your family over the whole business last time round, but don’t go making it harder for yourself – at least not till you and Felix are together again.’
‘But what other choice do I have? I’ve got to live somewhere.’
‘When things really get going, you could always come and stay at my place.’
Anna’s mouth dropped open and she stared at Shannon.
‘With you? But . . .’
‘OK, so I know it’s not a patch on your place – we could fit our whole house into your dining room – but we’ve got a spare room and Mum would be over the moon. I told you she’s seeing this guy, Clive?’
Anna nodded.
‘He’s always asking her to go off for weekends and stuff, and she won’t leave me, even though I tell her I can cope. But if you were there . . . you’d be doing us both a favour.’
‘It would be brilliant but my dad . . .’
‘Hear me out,’ Shannon interrupted. ‘OK, so you ask Marina if you can move in with her, because that’ll keep your dad off your back and keep your godmother oblivious – but as soon as Felix is back and dying to see you . . .’
‘Yeah, right.’
‘Be quiet. As soon as that happens, you say that my mum wants you to spend some time with me because she’s going away. Marina falls for that, you two are totally free to snog yourself senseless and everyone’s happy. So go on, ring her.’
‘What? Your mum? I can’t.’
‘Not her, silly; I’ll sort her out when the time comes. Ring Marina.’
‘Now?’
‘Yes – that way I know you’re not going to back out and change your mind.’
Anna dialled Marina’s phone. ‘Hi Marina, it’s me. Um . . . there’s something I wanted to ask you . . . I was wondering, I mean only if it’s OK, but . . .’
‘Sound decisive!’ Shannon hissed. ‘You either want this or you don’t. Just do it!’
Three minutes later, Anna snapped the phone shut and grinned at Shannon. ‘Sorted!’
‘Great!’ Shannon spun her chair round to face the door and grinned over her shoulder at Anna.
‘And I promise to make myself scarce when you bring Felix back to our place!’ she giggled.
The smile faded from Anna’s face.
‘Like that’s ever going to happen,’ she sighed. ‘I know we don’t have a future after what happened, but I just want . . .’
‘Stop right there!’ Shannon ordered. ‘Think positive, imagine yourself in his arms, hear him saying he can’t live without you.’
Anna burst out laughing. ‘You don’t change, do you? You really believe you can make things happen just by wanting them enough?’
‘Sure do,’ Shannon said. ‘I managed ten steps yesterday. On my own. Just one stick. Compared with that, seducing Felix Wentworth should be easy.’ She eyed Anna with amusement. ‘Hey – you’ve got that faraway look in your eyes,’ she laughed. ‘Working out your strategy, I hope?’
Anna shook her head. ‘No,’ she said. ‘I was just thinking about the day we met. Have I told you how he . . . ?’
‘Loads of times,’ Shannon interrupted. ‘I reckon I know more about that evening than if I’d been there myself. But, somehow, I get the feeling you’re going to tell me anyway.’
CHAPTER 3
‘A remarkably fine young man with a great deal of intelligence, spirit and brilliancy.’
( Jane Austen, Persuasion)
THEY HAD MET AT CHARLIE MUSGROVE'S EIGHTEENTH birthday party sixteen months ago.
Anna had noticed Felix the moment she arrived: for one thing, he was the only black guy in the crowded marquee that had been erected on one of the paddocks at the Musgroves’ farm; and for another, he was seriously hot. With skin the colour of mocha and short curly black hair, he reminded her of the lifeguard she had been totally besotted with on holiday in Barbados when she was fourteen. He was standing slightly apart from everyone else under one of the patio heaters borrowed from the village pub in anticipation of the wintry weather, wearing faded jeans, a T-shirt and that expression of studied boredom that guys adopt to cover up feelings of awkwardness. She hung back in the entrance as Gaby and Mallory dashed ahead of her, air-kissing everyone in sight and telling them how great they looked (although Anna knew that the following day, Gaby would be glued to her mobile, mouthing off about their apparent lack of style to anyone who would listen), and watched him out of the corner of her eye. He looked about as uncomfortable at the prospect of the evening ahead as she was.
She had never been good at the whole party scene; more than two drinks and she felt sick, and she was useless at the kind of frothy small talk that came as second nature to Gaby. There had been a moment when she almost decided not to come; her attempts earlier that day at colouring her hair Burnished Bronze with Kissed Copper highlights (which Fab! magazine had assured her was the look for that season) had been an unmitigated disaster; she looked like a cartoon cockerel and she felt self-conscious and awkward. She was only here because Charlie and his sisters were among her closest friends; the families had known one another since childhood and Uppercross, the Musgroves’ farm (which made more money from its self-catering cottages, tearoom and ‘Farm Experience’ rides than it did from the cattle and sheep that roamed the fields) adjoined the Eliot property and was like a second home to Anna. During her mother’s long illness, it had been Bea Musgrove who had made half-terms and holidays more bearable, having the girls to stay and boxing Anna’s pony to Pony Club camps and gymkhanas. Anna had even been out with Charlie for a short time in the days when that meant holding hands in the cinema and kissing with lips squeezed firmly together. Not that she’d ever done much kissing with lips apart; she was the only one of her set at her old boarding school who had never had boys texting and emailing twenty-four seven and there had always been those who took delight at the start of every new term in asking whether she had managed to pull over the holidays.
And here she was again, at a party without a boy in tow. Gaby was already wrapped around Zac Harville, with whom she had had a somewhat volatile relationship for the past six months. Mallory, arm in arm with her best friend Olivia, was heading across the marquee towards a group of Charlie’s old school mates, and would, Anna knew, within seconds have cornered a partner for the evening. Zac’s sister, Phoebe, one of Anna’s longstanding mates who lived in the neighbouring village of Drayton Magna, was wearing her usual slightly bored expression as Jamie Benwick gazed at her with his brown, puppy-like eyes. Charlie’s sixteen-year-old twin sisters, Louisa and Henrietta, home from boarding school for half-term, were hanging out with a group of boys who were trying to outdo one another in an attempt to show off.
Everyone, it seemed, was deep in conversation. Everyone except the black guy. Maybe if she went up to him . . .
‘Anna, hi! It’s so great you’re here!’ Louisa Musgrove came rushing up to her as she was still hesitating in the entrance and grabbed her arm. ‘It’s been ages since we saw you. Hey, what’s with the hair?’
‘Don’t ask,’ Anna groaned. ‘I’m thinking of suing the makers!’
‘So how are you coping? Is it awful?’
‘Is what awful?’
‘That state school you’re at now,’ Louisa said. ‘Is it full of chavs?’
The Musgrove twins were still at the same r
ather exclusive boarding school that Anna and Gabriella had once attended, and where Mallory was still a student.
‘Don’t talk rubbish,’ Anna retorted. ‘It’s brilliant. People are really friendly and the facilities are amazing and, more importantly, I can do music and politics and philosophy and . . .’
She wanted to add that she was overjoyed to be rid of the cliques and the bitchiness and the way everyone tried to outdo everyone else by having the best clothes and the wildest parties, but since the twins were right in the middle of the in-crowd at Swancote Hall, she thought better of it.
‘Rather you than me,’ Louisa replied. ‘I mean, those kind of schools – people go around brandishing knives and stuff. I read in the paper only the other day that . . .’
‘Lou, do shut up!’ Louisa’s twin sister, Henrietta, pushed her way through the clusters of partygoers, a glass of champagne in each hand, and grinned at Anna. ‘Honestly, she watches too much Waterloo Road!’
She handed Anna a glass and took a sip from her own.
‘So come on – are there lots of hot guys there?’ Henrietta, dark and petite like her twin, was boy mad, something that being at an all-girls’ school did little to appease.
‘Not as hot as him,’ Anna murmured, glancing towards the tall guy. ‘Who is he?’
‘Don’t know his name,’ Henrietta replied, sipping her champagne. ‘It’s all a bit embarrassing, really. Zac just turned up with him – well, seeing as how Zac is one of Charlie’s best mates, we had no choice but to say it was OK for him to stay, did we? Total gatecrasher or what?’
‘Shh!’ Anna hissed, but she could see from the expression on the guy’s face that it was too late. ‘He heard you.’
‘Serve him right,’ Henrietta muttered.
‘You’d better go and chat him up and make peace then,’ Louisa teased. ‘It’s pretty obvious you’re into him.’
‘Don’t be so silly.’
‘Lulu’s right,’ Henrietta added. ‘You’ve been eyeing him up the whole time we’ve been talking.’
‘You go,’ Anna said. ‘You’re the one who was mouthing off.’
‘No way, he’s not my type,’ her friend replied. ‘Leo Hayter’s here – now that is one seriously hot guy!’
Leo was the seventeen-year-old son of the new Rector of Kellynch and already had every teenage girl in the area drooling over his film-star looks, inherited from his Italian mother, and the rumour that, while his father might be pure and holy, he certainly wasn’t.
‘I think he really fancies me,’ Henrietta whispered. And with that, she winked at Anna and drifted off towards the makeshift bar, followed closely by her sister.
Anna was still wondering what to do when she saw the black guy head towards the exit. On impulse she pushed her way through the crowd and stepped in front of him.
‘Hi,’ she said. ‘I’m Anna and . . .’
‘And I’m Felix, otherwise known as the gatecrasher,’ he replied. ‘But . . .’ He dumped his empty glass on a nearby table. ‘. . . since I’m leaving, that’s not a problem, is it?’
‘You can’t go!’ Anna exclaimed. ‘It’s not your fault Zac dragged you along. And knowing him, he probably made out it had all been arranged.’
‘He did make it sound like it was a free-for-all,’ Felix admitted. ‘If I’d known it was going to be a posh affair like this . . .’
‘It’s hardly posh,’ Anna laughed. ‘Hog roast, bucking bronco and a disco in the barn – it’s pretty low-key really.’
‘Depends what you’re used to, I guess.’ He shrugged. ‘Anyway, I’m off. It’s clear the family don’t want me here.’
‘Oh for goodness’ sake,’ Anna retorted following him. ‘Ignore Louisa – she’s lovely but she never knows when to stop. Anyway, think about Zac.’
He stopped dead in his tracks and stared at her. ‘Zac? Why?’
‘It’s obvious,’ Anna replied. ‘You go off, Zac will feel bad about it and come after you – and his evening will be ruined too.’
‘I doubt he’d notice,’ Felix commented dryly. ‘He’s far too busy moping over that girl.’ He jerked his head in the direction of Gaby. ‘The loud one with the boobs hanging out of her dress.’
‘My sister,’ Anna smiled.
‘Oh God, my turn to put foot firmly in mouth.’ He cringed and looked at her appealingly. ‘She doesn’t look like you – is she really your sister?’
‘Regrettably, yes. Why?’
‘Only that she must be the girl Zac’s been going on and on about all day,’ he sighed. ‘Gaby, isn’t it?’
‘Mmm.’
‘It’s been Gaby this and Gaby that and how he’s never felt like this about any other girl and he’s dreading having to tell her . . .’
He paused, clearly embarrassed.
‘Tell her what?’ Anna asked.
‘Nothing,’ Felix replied hastily. ‘Knowing him, he’ll chicken out anyway.’
He frowned, glancing across at them once again. ‘I just – well, somehow I didn’t picture her as the glam, fashion babe type. The girls he goes for are usually much less flashy – more like you.’
‘You weren’t thinking of going into the Diplomatic Service by any chance?’ Anna asked. ‘Because if you were, forget it.’
Felix pulled a face and laughed. ‘No honestly, I meant it as a compliment – look, can we start again? I’ll pretend I’m a regular guest, and you can pretend I’m not a total idiot.’
Anna burst out laughing. ‘Deal,’ she said. ‘On one condition.’
‘And that is?’
‘You get me a drink and we talk about something more interesting than my sister’s love life.’
‘Sounds good to me,’ he said, nodding.
As he pushed his way towards the trestle tables laid out with drinks, Anna was conscious of her sisters eyeing her in amazement. And it hit her that, for the first time in her life, she might just be on her way to pulling a guy. All she had to do now was make sure she didn’t blow it.
‘So how come you know Zac?’ Anna asked later, as, after dancing for ages, they queued at the hog roast.
‘He used to live next door to us in Fleckford – that was before his parents divorced and he moved to Kellynch with his mum,’ Felix replied. ‘Then he won a sports scholarship to that posh school where Charlie goes, but we stayed mates. He’s cool, not like . . .’
He broke off, clearly embarrassed at what he had been about to say.
‘And that guy over there? Jamie, isn’t it?’ he went on. ‘I’ve met him a couple of times when I’ve been staying with Zac. Isn’t he the one who got that part in Emmerdale?’
‘Yes,’ Anna laughed. ‘If you can call it a part – two episodes and a total of eighteen words! But I guess it’s a start. You know he’s at RADA?’
‘He got there? Nice one!’ Felix said. ‘Zac teased him like crazy about being a total wannabe!’
Anna smiled. ‘So what are you doing? Gap year? Uni? You’re not at agricultural college with Charlie, are you? Or are you working?’
She knew she was babbling, but looking into those dark eyes appeared to have an odd effect on both her tongue and her brain.
Felix grinned. ‘Would it be quicker if I just handed you my CV?’ he teased, passing her a plate and gesturing towards the table loaded with slices of pork, bowls of coleslaw and piles of baked potatoes. ‘Food first, life history and career plans later. OK? Besides, if I tell you too much too soon you might lose interest, and I don’t want that to happen.’
‘You don’t? Really?’ The second she had said it she realised how totally uncool she was being.
‘Course not,’ he replied. ‘I mean, who the hell else am I going to chat to if you do a runner? Even Zac’s ignoring me. You’re my last hope.’
‘You do know you’re making a total idiot of yourself, don’t you?’
Anna was in the middle of retouching her make-up in the Portakabin loos a couple of hours later when Gaby burst in, cheeks flushed and a none-too-happy expressi
on on her face.
‘What do you mean?’ Anna asked. ‘Falling off the bucking bronco three times in a row? I know but it was such a laugh and —’
‘Not that!’ Gaby replied. ‘The way you’re coming on to that guy all the time. You’ve hardly spoken to anyone else.’
‘That’s so not true,’ Anna protested, unscrewing her mascara wand. ‘We talked to Jamie and Phoebe for ages, and to Hen and Leo – she’s really got the hots for him! Felix and me, we’re going clubbing with them next Saturday because Leo’s got these freebie passes for Clouds.’
‘Oh? So it’s “Felix and me” now, is it?’ Gaby replied sarcastically. ‘Well in that case, you can tell him to keep his nose out of Zac’s life!’
‘Gaby, what are you on about?’ Anna asked. Gaby always got confrontational when she’d been drinking vodka.
‘You know I’d asked Zac to come on holiday at Easter, right?’ Gaby fumed, slamming her make-up bag on to the washstand. ‘I’d got it all planned and now he says he can’t come.’
‘Why?’ Anna frowned.
‘You won’t believe this,’ her sister replied. ‘I don’t suppose this Felix has got round to telling you he’s going into the Royal Marines?’
‘Yes, he sounded keen.’ It had been the one time when his face had lost the slightly anxious, haunted expression that she found both disturbing and endearing. ‘Mind you, he’s failed once but he sounds determined to make it this time.’
‘Yes, well he’s only gone and persuaded Zac to apply too.’
Anna frowned. ‘Persuaded him? But I thought the Forces was what Zac had in mind all along,’ she reasoned. ‘Surely he only put it off this long because of that hiking trip he went on – and then he broke his ankle and couldn’t do the fitness test. When we were at Phoebe’s party on New Year’s Eve, he said he couldn’t wait.’
‘I know he did say all that but then I reminded him that he’d never get to see me, and told him I was not going to hang around for some guy who was never home and might get himself blown up at any minute.’
‘Gaby, you didn’t? That’s emotional blackmail!’
Echoes of Love Page 4
