‘Dad, you didn’t . . .’ Anna gasped.
‘Of course I didn’t!’ Walter returned. ‘I may not approve of you two going out but I’m not a total idiot. Would I honestly jeopardise my career, which isn’t exactly thriving right now, by uttering such obscenities?’
Anna realised things must be bad. Her father would never normally admit that he was anything but a number one star.
‘But am I right in thinking there was something else?’ Marina ventured. ‘Some ridiculous suggestion that you actually said that if you were Cassandra’s husband you’d choose to go mad rather than have to live with her?’
Walter fiddled nervously with his bow tie. ‘I – well, I mean obviously that was a joke – and clearly not meant for anyone’s ears except Valerie’s. Not my fault Jack flaming Flanders was earwigging in on the conversation.’
He glanced round at their frozen expressions.
‘Oh come on, people say things like that all the time at dinner parties,’ he reasoned. ‘I didn’t mean anything by it.’
‘What you did or did not mean is hardly the point right now,’Araminta sighed. ‘We can probably paper over that one – but the remark about Felix . . .’ She looked at Walter, a stern expression on her face. ‘You swear you didn’t say anything racist about him?’
‘No, truly – I mean, the only thing . . .’
‘Go on.’
‘The only thing someone might have heard,’ he continued, glancing nervously at Anna, ‘was when I said to Val that I hoped there was some truth in the saying “out of sight, out of mind” because the sooner . . .’
‘Yes?’
‘The sooner Anna started mixing with her own kind the better.’
‘Dad, I just don’t believe you!’ Anna exploded, half out of anger at his prejudice and half out of fear that Felix would somehow blame her. ‘You know what? You are unbelievable!’
‘I’m sorry, darling.’
‘It’s too late for sorry, I fear,’ Marina cut in. ‘We’ll just have to hope and pray that some big news breaks overnight. Otherwise the press could run with this big time.’
For days after that disastrous show, Walter was a man in shock. His time was spent on the phone, in meetings with Araminta and the TV company and glued to his laptop, monitoring the public’s response to the outcry that followed the programme and the Green Room report. From time to time, he would shout ‘Precisely!’ when someone said that, since the remarks, if they had been made at all, had been made off air, the producers were making a mountain out of a molehill; but more often, he would sit, head in hands, muttering expletives at those who wrote that such comments should never be thought, never mind uttered, and that Eliot was clearly a mindless buffoon who should be sacked immediately.
‘How many more times do I have to tell them? I didn’t say all that,’ he would say to no one in particular.
Anna felt as if she was living in the middle of a war zone. Her father sought solace in the whisky bottle, which made him alternately overconfident and then deeply morose; her mates at school, with the exception of Shannon, kept asking questions and clearly relished all the gossip and comments in the tabloid press; Mallory rang from Swancote Hall every evening saying she was suffering from stress and Gabriella stormed home at the weekend, accusing Anna of being the cause of all the trouble for associating with Felix in the first place.
‘I tried to tell her, Dad,’ she said in the honeyed tones she always used when maximising her position as Walter’s favourite. ‘I said that family were trouble but she wouldn’t listen.’
‘I feel like Hamlet, more sinned against than sinning,’ Walter said, pulling open a drawer and taking out his binoculars.
‘King Lear,’ Anna muttered.
‘What?’
‘Lear, not Hamlet,’ she told him. ‘Where are you going?’
‘Kempton Park,’ he replied. ‘Surely you remember? Hampton Heroine’s running in the four-thirty. Gaby’s coming. Do you want to join us?’
Anna shook her head. ‘No, the band’s playing at that party I told you about,’ she said. ‘And I’ve loads to do first.’ The most important of which was emailing Felix.
She had sent him a message straight after the show.
To : [email protected]
From: [email protected]
Hi! I’m sorry – I didn’t know things would turn out like that. The programme, I mean? You did see it, didn’t you? Parents – what a liability! It won’t make any difference to us, though, will it? Love you loads, Anna xxx
His reply had reassured her.
To : [email protected]
From: [email protected]
Didn’t see the show but one of the guys here said my mum came over as really cool! Got to dash but will call later, OK? Miss you loads. F x
The following day, after all the papers had seen fit to splash the news of Walter’s faux pas all over the front pages, he emailed again.
To : [email protected]
From: [email protected]
Mum has emailed me. Surprised words weren’t purple. She’s outraged about your dad’s remarks – I don’t know who he thinks he is thinking he can get away with using language like that. Parents! F x
Anna had emailed back at once, telling Felix that her dad swore he didn’t say those things and avoiding any mention of what he did say. She said how much she loved him and how nothing but that mattered.
To : [email protected]
From: [email protected]
Everything mad here. Will be in touch when I can. F
‘So what does that mean?’ Anna demanded of Shannon as they prepared for the party at Mr Longhurst’s house. ‘There’s no kiss at the end. And what does “when I can” mean? Do you think he’s going to dump me just because of my dad?’
‘You read too much into things,’ Shannon replied. ‘I mean, he probably had a load of mates peering over his shoulder – you know what boys are like, they can’t bear to be seen as soppy.’
‘You really think that was it?’
‘Sure to be,’ Shannon replied airily. ‘Have you seen the buffet? I’m so glad I said we needed refreshments if we were going to play. There’s a chocolate pudding to die for.’
Despite Araminta’s constant reassurances to Walter that the whole thing would blow over, it didn’t. Walter was suspended from any further shows and then, in mid July, he was told that his contract would not be renewed.
For a couple of weeks, Walter was moody, depressed and angry by turns. Then, after putting the whole matter into the hands of some very expensive and highly regarded lawyers, he set about entertaining all his friends and acquaintances in an even more lavish manner than before. Not only did he invite ten friends to a house he had rented on the Isle of Wight for Cowes Week, he booked boxes at several race meetings and gambled heavily on every horse that took his fancy. He also threw several dinner parties with food from London caterers and enormous quantities of vintage champagne. And at all these events, to Marina’s annoyance and Anna’s alarm, Araminta was more than happy to play the role of hostess.
‘Walter, don’t you think you should rein in a bit?’ Marina asked him on more than one occasion. ‘You don’t know what the future holds and, if you carry on at this rate, you’ll run out of cash.’
‘I’ve plenty of irons in the fire,’ he assured her. ‘You wait – I’ll have a dozen channels clamouring for me by September. Let me enjoy my free time while I can.’
He certainly seemed more relaxed and Anna was too excited at the thought of Felix’s return home to think of much else. She assumed that the lawyers were doing their stuff and that everything would be sorted.
That might have happened, had it not been for the fickle public and the result of the Muckleborough and Bythorn by-election. Cassandra Wentworth got in with a majority of 242, which, while not by any means a comfortable majority, was so unexpected that it hit the headlines in all the major national newspapers, many of which reminded its readers of what more and more were ca
lling ‘The Walter-gate affair’.
And then Felix came up with his great idea.
CHAPTER 10
‘What wild imaginations one forms where dear self is involved.’
( Jane Austen, Persuasion)
‘WHAT ARE YOU DOING THE SECOND WEEK IN AUGUST?’
The phone call from Felix came through on Anna’s mobile on the next to last day of the summer term, just minutes before the band were due to play in their slot at the Summer Spectacular, the concert in which the college showcased its achievements for the year.
‘Nothing special. Why?’
‘Anna!’ Lauren hissed, nudging her elbow. ‘Get off the phone – we’re due on in five minutes.’
Anna waved her away, straining to hear Felix above the chatter of her classmates.
‘Zac’s grandmother has got this house on the Isle of Wight, right? She’s going off to Australia to see her sister, and has said that Zac and Phoebe can use it,’ he told her. ‘Phoebe’s taking Jamie, Zac’s got this new girlfriend, Ursula, and well – he suggested you and I go too. What do you say?’
Anna’s heart raced. A whole week away with Felix; there was only one answer. An image of Marina and her father scowling angrily flashed through her mind but she banished them and took a deep breath.
‘That would be amazing!’ she replied. ‘Look, it’s our school end of year bash – I’ve got to go but . . .’
‘We need time together,’ Felix said. ‘But there is just one more thing. We’d have to go a day later than the others, because the day after I get back Mum wants us both to join her. The thing is, it’s . . .’
‘Anna!’ Shannon poked her in the ribs. ‘Come on!’
‘Sssh – I’ll be there in a minute!’ Anna mouthed back.
‘ . . . so you see, it’s really important. Don’t you agree?’
Since Anna hadn’t a clue what he’d just said, she hesitated for a second. The thought of spending time with Cassandra wasn’t something that filled her with unmitigated joy, but if Felix said it was important . . .
‘Or is that going to be a bridge too far? I mean don’t bother if your dad . . .’ Felix began.
‘No, no – of course, it’ll be great. Can’t wait. Fill me in on the details later, OK? Got to dash. Love you loads.’
She blew a kiss down the phone and then pulled a face at Shannon and Mia, who were rolling their eyes and pretending to swoon.
‘I take it,’ Shannon smiled as Anna switched her phone to silent and stuffed it into her bag, ‘that the love life is progressing nicely?’
‘Dreamily!’ sighed Anna. ‘It doesn’t get any better than this. I feel like I’ve died and gone to heaven.’
As with most highs, the low came a few hours later. As her father blustered and bluffed his way around the college displays, chest puffed out when someone recognised him and cheeks suffused with colour when the odd person dared to question him about the headlines that were clearly still in people’s minds, the question loomed large in Anna’s mind. Just how was she going to approach the subject of staying away a week with Felix? She had avoided all mention of his name, just as her dad had done; it was as if there was an unwritten rule in the house that what Marina called ‘that nasty business’ was never to be spoken of again.
‘I don’t know how to tell him without him being furious,’ Anna explained to Shannon later that afternoon on the way to the traditional end of term raid on the cake shop.
‘By not mentioning Felix, silly,’ Shannon replied. ‘What he doesn’t know can’t hurt him.’
‘So – just say I’m going on holiday with Zac and Phoebe, you mean?’
‘Why not? It’s not like you’re lying – just being selective with the truth.’
‘I guess you’re right – and if he does find out that Felix is there too, well – Zac’s free to invite who he likes, right?’
‘Precisely!’ Shannon said. ‘At last you appear to be getting the hang of dealing with parents. About time too, if you don’t mind me saying so!’
Anna, adamant about not telling the full story about the forthcoming holiday, had also decided not to mention Felix’s homecoming to any of her family; they hadn’t realised that he would have leave from training in the summer and she was very happy to keep it that way. Luckily for Anna, her father was so preoccupied with his own affairs that, when she finally mentioned to him that she was going to the Isle of Wight with Phoebe and a crowd of her mates (mentioning Zac would have only brought Felix to mind), he merely grunted and said he couldn’t see the attraction of the place unless you could go in Cowes Week, which she wasn’t.
‘Anyway, you go and have a good time – I shall be rushed off my feet all week,’ he went on. ‘Araminta’s lined up a whole raft of meetings for me – she’s sure she can land me the sort of slot that my talents deserve, and then, of course, I’ve the magazine interviews to do.’ (Walter had been in demand with several celebrity glossies that ran features with headlines such as: My Fight to Clear My Name and Walter’s Wednesday’s Full of Woe. Far from avoiding drawing attention to the issue, he revelled in playing the role of misunderstood victim.)
‘The Isle of Wight? What do you want to go there for? It’s so nineteen-fifties,’ sneered Gabriella, who had arrived back from college high on the news that her new boyfriend’s parents had asked her to join them for two weeks at their timeshare in Tenerife. ‘Me, I know how to have a good time – after Tenerife, Sophie and I are going to Paris for Shelby’s hen weekend and then meeting up with a whole crowd at this house in Burgundy.’
‘That’ll cost a bomb,’ Anna ventured. ‘I don’t think Dad can afford to keep subbing us.’
‘It’s peanuts on Eurostar,’ Gaby replied. ‘And I have a way of getting other people to pay for me.’ She made it sound like a gifted accomplishment, but Anna was too glad that she wasn’t going to be hanging around to bother arguing.
‘So Gaby’ll be away, you’ll be on the Isle of Wight, and I’ll be stuck here all on my own, with just Marina hanging about – it’s not fair,’ moaned Mallory.
‘Don’t be silly,’ Anna protested. ‘Henrietta and Lou will be around. You can hang out with them.’
‘They’re going all funny with me,’ Mallory grumbled. ‘The other day they were teasing me like anything – even Charlie told them to lay off me. He’s really nice to me – he’s invited me to the Young Farmers’ Ball.’
‘Charlie invited you?’ The summer ball was another must-do in the Eliot–Musgrove social calendar and this would be the first time that Mallory had gone with a partner.
‘Well, don’t sound so surprised,’ Mallory retorted. ‘Just because you’ll be there without a guy, that’s not my problem. Oh, and can I borrow your gold sandals?’
Anna lay awake for hours the night before Felix was due home, just dreaming about how it would be when she saw him. They had arranged to meet on the Friday evening at the same spot in Kellynch Woods where they had said goodbye back in April, and she pictured herself, wearing her new black and white mini dress and scarlet pumps, running lightly down the path and into his arms. There was then a slow motion sequence, during which their lips met and they sank to their knees in ecstatic embrace.
In the event, she saw him before he saw her, rushed down the path and fell over a tree root, sending her bag flying and gashing her knee on a broken branch. The dreamed-of moments of tender embrace and lingering kisses were spent dusting twigs out of her hair and mopping her bleeding knee with the sleeve of his shirt. The romance was further killed by the fact that he couldn’t stop laughing.
‘I’m sorry,’ he gasped. ‘But you looked so funny – and adorable!’
‘Just focus on the adorable, will you?’ she pleaded, clenching her teeth against the throbbing of her knee. For a moment, she felt almost shy with him – he seemed somehow to have changed. He stood taller, and had a new air of confidence about him.
‘Come here,’ he murmured. He wrapped his arms around her and she breathed in the distinctive smell
of him, her eyes filling with tears.
‘Does it hurt that badly?’ he asked.
‘It’s not that,’ she whispered. ‘It’s just that I’ve missed you so much and Dad’s lost his job and he’s drinking like crazy.’
‘But you’re here, and that’s what matters,’ Felix said. ‘Mum’s been really decent about it all, actually – considering what your dad said and everything.’
Anna opened her mouth to protest that her father’s only admission was the fact that maybe he had been a bit forceful on camera.
‘Shhh,’ Felix said. ‘Enough talking.’
And he kissed her. And it was so good that she decided it wasn’t really worth making an issue about parents after all.
Later, sitting outside the Anchor Inn, sipping lime sodas, Felix told her everything about the holiday home, the travel plans and all the things he thought she might like to do there.
‘But right now, we need to sort tomorrow out,’ he said. ‘You are still up for it?’
‘Up for what?’ Anna frowned.
‘I told you on the phone – the big lunch thing with Mum,’ he said. ‘You know, maybe I’ve been a bit hard on her. Despite everything, she’s really keen for you to be at this lunch.’
‘Lunch?’ Anna queried. ‘Oh, I thought . . .’
‘I told you,’ Felix replied, a touch impatiently. ‘It’s the Memory Munch Lunch – in aid of Alzheimer’s. They do them all over the country and Mum’s on the organising committee for this one – and she wants us there. Well, helping with the serving to start with but we get to eat as well!’
‘You’re sure she’s up for me going? I mean, we didn’t exactly get off to a good start.’
‘That’s the whole point,’ Felix said. ‘She said she didn’t want all this business between her and your dad to mess up our relationship.’
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