Page 20 of Sunset at Embthwaite Farm
But more than that, Anna reflected, her relationship with Peter—the vacuum at its very centre—had made her feel excluded from normal life in a way she wasn’t sure she could explain to anyone. She’d felt, for most of her marriage, as if she’d been the outside looking in on almost everything, including her relationship with her husband. That lack had affected every other relationship, in its own way, although she was doing her best to correct it now.
Still, it made for food for somewhat uncomfortable thought. She didn’t want to be like that anymore, she realised, a spectator to her own self.
“All right, first question!” Tobias called, and Anna was glad to be yanked out of her melancholy reflections. “Who wrote,” Tobias asked the now silent room, “the children’s novelChitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang: The Magical Car?”
Anna watched as groups at other tables brought their heads together, whispering furiously. She glanced around her table and saw everyone looking rather blank.
“Er…Enid Blyton?” Rachel ventured, and Diana shook her head.
“I don’t think so. I used to love Enid Blyton as a child myself, and I don’t recall that one.”
A beat of silence passed as they all tried to think of another children’s author. “Arthur Ransome?” Ben wondered aloud. “Didn’t I read one of his, Mum?”
“Only under duress,” Diana replied with a smile. “He could have written it, I suppose, although I think he was from an earlier time.”
All the other teams were madly scribbling away, Anna noticed. It seemed they really were mediocre at trivia.
“Mum, do you know anyone?” Harriet asked. “You used to read us loads of stories.”
While it was nice that Harriet remembered that, this particular title still didn’t ring a bell. “Yes, but I’m afraid I don’t remember that one,” Anna replied apologetically. “There was a film of it, though, wasn’t there, back in the sixties?”
“Yes, I remember that,” Diana exclaimed. “Kind of creepy, as I recall. Wasn’t there a child catcher or something?”
“All right,” Tobias called. “Second question!”
“I suppose I’ll write in Enid Blyton,” Rachel said dubiously as she began to write on their paper. “I don’t want to leave it blank.”
“Second question! In which part of your body,” Tobias declared in a booming voice, “would you find the cruciate ligament?”
More blank looks from around the table. Anna fought the sudden urge to giggle. Did they not knowanything?
“Sounds painful,” Quinn remarked, taking a sip of his cider. “Or like something out of Harry Potter…cruciate. The ankle, maybe?”
“Or the elbow?” Harriet suggested.
“Maybe the knee,” Ben supplied.
“Or the hip,” Diana chimed in.
“You’ve suggested basically everywhere there’s a ligament,” Rachel declared in exasperation. “Which is it?”
Just then, Anna’s meandering gaze was caught by the piercing blue eyes of a man seated a few tables away. He was tall and rangy, with a lean but muscular build and a shock of thick, wavy white hair, and he was sitting in a relaxed pose, one arm slung over the back of his chair. He was handsome, Anna acknowledged, in a rugged and assured sort of way, in his pressed jeans and a V-neck jumper with a checked button-down shirt underneath. He looked to be in his late fifties, maybe a few years older than her. And, she realised, he was laughing at her.
She bristled with instinctive affront, about to look away, before she realised he was actuallymouthingsomething at her. What on earth…? Instead of looking away, she leaned closer, squinting to try to make out what he was saying.
“It’s…it’s…theknee!” Her voice rang out excitedly as she turned back to her table. “It’s the ligament in the knee.” The man had given her the right answer to the question. They must have been looking particularly gormless, Anna reflected ruefully, for him to feel the need to help her out, all the way from across the room. She glanced back at him, and saw he was still looking at her. He flashed her a cheeky grin and, emboldened by her double gin, she gave him a mock salute in return. His grin widened, his eyes sparkling, even from all the way across the room, making Anna feel…sort of warm inside.
Or maybe it was just the gin.
“All right, question three,” Tobias boomed out, and Anna tore her gaze away from the man’s, conscious she’d been staring at him for far too long. As she returned her attention to the table, Rachel gave her a thoughtful and rather assessing look. How much had she seen, Anna wondered with something like panic, only to remind herself that there hadn’t been anythingtosee. She’d smiled at a man from across the room. Oh, and she’d given him a mock salute.
Why on earth did she feel like she wasblushing?
It was definitely the gin.
Anna completely missed question three, although she gathered it was something about Shakespeare, and Harriet thought she knew the answer. She caught Diana’s eye and saw her old friend was giving her the same sort of appraising look her daughter had been. Why was it suddenly seeming to take a lot of effort not to look at that man again?
He was probably married, Anna told herself, honest enough to acknowledge that the reason she felt as if she were fizzing inside was because of that brief yet immediate flare of attraction when she’d caught sight of that man with the bright blue eyes and wavy, white hair, something she hadn’t felt in a very long time. What was it about today, she wondered, that was making all these feelings bubble up inside her after so long? Or was it just after what felt like a very long sleep, she was finally waking up, at least a little?
