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Anne paid the price for her cool behaviour when all the group changing rooms were full and she could not find a free cubicle instantly. One freed up after a few minutes, but she had forgotten to reckon with her Fastskin, because she was again swimming in the first event of the day. There would be no time to change after warming up, not with the time she still needed to get into the thing.
She was struggling with her suit when someone addressed her from above. Frederick was peeking over the top. "I heard funny sounds."
"Aren't you about fifteen years too old for peeks?" she inquired to hide her shock at suddenly hearing and seeing someone above her.
He did not think so. "I heard funny sounds, as I said."
"That was me shoving my fat into my suit." And she was not quite done yet, which he would be able to see all too well. It was nothing he had never seen before except that she was fatter now, so that could be a cause for embarrassment. She was surprisingly unembarrassed, however.
"Okay," he said, but he did not disappear.
It looked as if he was determined to keep an eye on her, so Anne shook her head and stoically continued her wriggling. She was not aware of having made funny noises, so perhaps that had just been his excuse to peek, though it was unclear why he would want to.
Her phone went off and with one foot she pushed her bag into the next cubicle. She could answer it herself, she supposed, but this was a more effective way of getting rid of Frederick at the same time. "Answer it, please. It's Sophia."
Frederick had disappeared. She heard him rummage through her bag in search of her phone. "How do you know?" he asked.
"Who else would call me this early on a Saturday?" And she suspected the call was not even for her, but Frederick. She could not imagine what Sophia would want to tell her.
"Hello?" There was a brief silence during which he also resumed his place on the bench next door, again peering down on her. "You were wrong. It's James."
"Same difference," Anne muttered. She wrestled her arms into her suit and then she was done. She tried not to pay attention to Frederick's conversation, but to gather her belongings.
"Why do you ring other women when you're on a romantic weekend away with my sister?" Frederick inquired of James. "And can't you concentrate on each other instead of sending strange text messages?"
Anne did not hear what else was said, because she pulled her bag back and threw everything in it. Then she left, leaving Frederick to gaze into an empty cubicle.
After her warming up Anne found Frederick sitting companionably with the others. Louisa was being her usual self and loudly talking about the party that evening. There was no doubt that she was going and that she expected everyone else to be equally enthusiastic.
She was lucky that Henrietta and the boys were also eager to go. As they had discovered the night before, another night at the hotel would not bring anything new and Charles had realised that Henrietta would not leave her sister alone in their hotel room. He had a similar problem in that he was also sharing his room and a party seemed a great opportunity for some private moments.
They spoke rather openly about not going there right at the beginning and to have a few drinks elsewhere beforehand. Frederick remembered that he had lectured them on the forbidden activities and that these had included drinking. There was a difference between going to a party until midnight and drinking too much. He had told Louisa she was old enough to make her own decisions and he still believed they all were. He might not respect the nature of those decisions, he now began to think, but in principle he wanted to stick to approving of the fact they could make their own decisions. What could happen? A few drinks would not make them drunk. He said nothing.
Anne said nothing either. Not to them, at any rate. She had caught enough of the conversation to know what they would be doing. She felt for Tom's key and held it out to Frederick. "I don't have the money to pay for everyone's drinks."
He looked uncomprehending. "Why would they let you pay?"
"The system favours the ones who drink a lot," she said gravely. "And I don't."
"The system favours!" Charles Musgrove cut in. "Anne and her fancy words!" He slapped Anne on the knee in a friendly gesture. "You should drink more. Have some fun. Maybe after a few drinks we can see you dance?"
Mary interrupted him, feeling jealous of any attentions not directed towards herself. "Well, I say that if she doesn't want to go, she shouldn't go, because she'd probably only keep telling us we should stop drinking and go to bed just when we were having great fun."
Anne knew when it was wisest not to speak. She looked into the programme to see who was swimming next. She could accept other people's notions of fun, contrary to them.
Frederick had been mulling over her words. He suspected that the others might have the wrong opinion about his finances. He had not received any payments for swimming well; it had in fact cost him a lot of money instead. The system, he guessed, involved Anne paying for Mary's expensive cocktails, whereas Mary only needed to pay for Anne's orange juice or whatever she drank.
He glanced at the key still in his hand. If he went with them, he would be forced to spend rather more money than he wanted. He did not drink either -- at least, not today. He could not even drink, he remembered. He would need to drive back to Tom's house, because a taxi was a luxury he could not afford.
He dropped the key in Anne's lap. She looked up, surprised. "Not going?" she asked.
"Too old." Yes, he was too old for a children's disco where some of the older children were planning to be slightly tipsy. Ten years ago it would have been the height of excitement, but now it would only be boring.
He was not yet strong enough to correct the others' assumption that he was going. He found he could not even tell Louisa outright that he was not staying at the hotel. "106," he answered when she asked which room he was in.
Anne had stared. In fact, she was still staring when Louisa had long turned away in satisfaction. He knew why she stared and he quite agreed. "Someone is going to be very annoyed, I know," he said. "But at least it's not me."
She gave him an odd grimace and walked away. He did not know what to make of that. She clearly disapproved -- or maybe she had a race coming up. Nevertheless, he wished she would tell him what was on her mind rather than give him funny stares and grimaces.
Anne was not sure she disapproved at all, because he had implied he would be annoyed if Louisa knocked on his door. Or had he not? Had he simply meant to say he did not care?
She was imagining an excited Louisa -- perhaps already slightly inebriated -- knocking on the door of room 106. The only thing Anne knew about its occupant was that it was not Frederick. It might not be a good thing to knock on the door of a stranger after a few drinks. This worried her, until she told herself that 106 was very likely occupied by an elderly couple or someone equally harmless.
At any rate Frederick was not going out for drinks. He was too old, he had said, but that was not the true reason. It could be, but in that case he would have suggested that they avoid the party altogether to spend the entire evening in some pub. He had not done that, so he must want to avoid either the people or the drinks.
It was puzzling and she should not dwell on this before her race. She hoped Frederick would come by to motivate her again today, but it took only a few seconds before she felt completely sober again. She was swimming seven times this weekend. She could not see him do the same thing seven times, nor that it would actually work seven times. He would have to top it every time and there was no telling where that might end.
"Penny for your thoughts!" someone nearby spoke.
Anne was startled to see William had approached her unnoticed. She felt she might have been blushing a little and she blushed even deeper. "They're not worth revealing."
"I didn't see you at breakfast."
She raised her eyebrows. "At the hotel?"
"Yes. I never saw you."
"I -- well…" She had told him she would be staying there and it would now look as if she had lied if she said she had not stayed there at all, unless she revealed the entire truth. But that involved Frederick. "I didn't know you were staying there. You didn't say."
"I hadn't booked yet. I went there after you told me."
"Er. Oh." She hoped he had simply wanted the name of any hotel, although what with its being next door to the pool that should not really have been necessary. "Well, it turned out that I got invited to stay with people who…er…know my dad and sister. So that's where I stayed."
William gave a confused frown. Evidently he did not trust her story very much. "Right."
"Yes, but I didn't know that until I got to the hotel." Inwardly Anne cringed, because it sounded terribly lame. The story simply did not make sense if she left Frederick out, yet he could not be included.
"Will you go to the swimmers party?"
"No, my hosts have two small children," she said before she caught herself giving a fake excuse. "I mean, I don't like parties."
"Aww!" William exclaimed. "A little dancing? A little fun?"
She shook her head with resolution. "No, I'm not going. It's not my kind of fun."
"Aww!" he said again. "What's wrong with it?"
"Nothing much. It's just not my kind of fun. I hope you have fun, though, and that you'll swim well on Sunday."
"Ah, is that it?" he asked with a significant look. "You want to go to bed early to swim well!"
It was one of the reasons, although Anne did not think she would have gone had there not been a swim meet tomorrow. "Maybe. If you'll excuse me now, I have to get ready for my swim."
She discovered far too late that there was no using the lavatories in this swimsuit. It could not be put back on again after having been lowered, especially not if it was wet. She had to settle for standing under the shower, which made her feel rather self-conscious. She wondered how the others with these types of suits handled that matter.
Frederick passed her when she stood there and she looked away. He did not. "Have you swum already?" he asked. He seemed to regret that he might have missed it.
"No, I was -- never mind. Go away," Anne said with a blush. She had turned on the showers to either side of her as well, but she had not checked if that worked.
Her words only served to bring him closer. "What did that guy say?"
"Which guy? Oh, that guy. He wanted to know if I was going to the party and I said no. Why?" She wondered why he was interested at all. She had exchanged only a few words with William.
"Because you spoke to him and now you're acting very funny." He looked suspicious.
Anne was a little vexed. "I'm not acting funny. I have a new swimsuit and it never occurred to me that I cannot take it off easily during the meet to…to do stuff."
"To do something with this guy?"
"Oh!" she cried incredulously. "You are impossible! Is that -- is that why you peeked when I was changing?"
Frederick looked embarrassed. "No, I --"
"It was!" she deduced even more disbelievingly. "You are really impossible! And for your information, although you don't deserve a letter of it, I just peed in the shower and it had nothing to do with that guy."
Anne was quite vexed and agitated, but her anger translated itself into speed and she delivered another wonderful swim as a result.
Thinking she was displeased with him, Frederick kept himself out of Anne's way for the rest of the day. It was not that difficult to do for two people who were basically swimming the same programme. When one was preparing, the other was swimming. When one was cooling down, the other was still swimming and when that one got to cooling down, the other was already changing her wet swimwear.
For once they adhered strictly to the basic rules they had been taught by coaches. Anne rarely bothered to change after every race, mostly because she did not have enough dry swimsuits, but also because she did not think she really grew cold if she kept wearing her wet one. Now, her wet suit was simply impractical to keep on.
Frederick needed the solitude of the changing rooms to clear his head, although he was not particularly cold either. The talk of the party was bothering him. He was not going because Anne was not, he realised after his first race. If Anne had expressed any interest, he would have gone. He could not really understand why he felt that way. After all, they were not going to do anything together there.
Her opinion mattered, but he did not understand that either. She did not often express it and he might have been assuming she did not have one. She seemed content to live by the rules and decisions of others, even to let others take care of her personal effects -- he still had her cell phone and the key to her mother's car. Was Anne in charge of her own life if she was not even in charge of her own possessions?
That she had not asked the key back was not surprising, but he did not know why she displayed so little interest in her cell phone. What if her mother rang her on it? Did he have to answer it then? Would she expect him to?
She had asked him to answer the phone that morning, but there had been reasons for that. He could see why she had not wanted to pause her dressing -- especially not if he was looking on -- to answer a phone call from Sophia or James. She had been right to think it was one of them and the call had even been for him, although she could not have known that.
James had suddenly remembered that his company was still looking for someone in Frederick's field of expertise for an overseas position. That gave him even more to think about, although he had postponed that particular subject until Monday when he would be able to do more specific research into the position and the company. The weekend must not be very romantic if at nine in the morning James' first thought was of a potential job for his brother-in-law, but Frederick had not received a useful response to his question.
He thought about Anne again when he took her split times. She had not asked him. She had not even thanked him for taking them the day before. He wondered if she had found them at all. It made him scribble a short note on the slip of paper. Let me know you found this. She should have found the ones from her previous race -- he had scribbled those into the programme.
Maybe she was simply too independent to care. He explored that theory. Apart from her mother and now him, there was no one on whom she depended for anything. James should have a job for her. Then she would be able to get away from that mother. He had asked James, jokingly, but he would not tell Anne about that.
He folded his note and stuck it into her pocket again. There were two heats between Anne's heat and his, so he would have to stand here for six minutes pretending to be busy, but he did not know what to do. She was climbing out and she would come to pick up her jacket in a second and then what?
He should not even be here yet, but he had persuaded the girl in the marshalling area to give him his start card early. She had complied because he was Frederick Wentworth, of course, but now the well-known and charming Frederick Wentworth had no idea what to do. He stood here like a little boy swimming his first race, although he could only just stop himself from waving his arms like mad.
Anne walked nearer and he studiously bent over to touch his toes. He did not look until a pair of feet came into vision.
"Thank you," said someone touching his back very lightly.
He stood straight, his face red from having bent over. "For?" he asked stupidly.
"Taking my times. You wanted me to let you know."
Her sincere gratitude unsettled him. "Oh. Yes. Because yesterday…"
"I didn't," she nodded. "I was at first not sure who had taken them. Today's note still doesn't say who did, but I guessed. The others…"
"Not likely," he agreed.
She cast a look over her shoulder and obviously decided he needed to prepare himself. "I'll go get dressed and help Fiona. I'm not gone."
He wanted to know how she knew Fiona needed help, but he did not ask.
All competitors who wished to eat dinner at the pool had been able to buy coupons. Fiona was setting up tables in a large room off the hall. Anne did not know exactly what needed to get done, but she could tell that the two children were in the way. "Should I take them or should I help you?"
"Either would be much appreciated. I wonder where my help went, but isn't it always like that?" Fiona smiled and continued working.
"Always." Anne settled for helping with the heavy tables, because even if she kept the children busy, Fiona would still have some trouble. They had moved two without knocking the children over when Frederick appeared.
"Anne and I can do that," he said. "Leave the menial work to us, Fiona."
They had got half the tables in place when the first swimmers sat down. Anne stopped at thinking they were annoying, but Frederick did not mind telling them so. "Either you help us or you go back to where you came from until we're done in here," he barked.
"Wow," Anne commented when the poor teenagers fled the room. "They listened to you."
He had not expected otherwise. "There's no point in telling them something if you don't expect them to listen."
"If I'd said the same, they wouldn't have listened. I don't have an authoritative voice."
"No, you have --" But he cut himself short. "Anyway, girls with those kinds of voices are --"
"Are what?" Anne was curious.
"Never mind."
She was still curious, but she did not press on.
Dinner was nice. Even Mary was in good spirits because it was good food and Anne was almost reconsidering the party. She did not often go to such events and perhaps they were not as boring as she thought. But then she remembered their plan to have a few drinks in order to have more fun and she knew she should not go.
Given how the conversation was on film kisses now, it could only descend into more awful depths after a few drinks. Anne was barely paying attention. She had either not seen the films or she did not remember the kisses. Why would anyone do so? She was surprised that Frederick did, although if she listened more closely he was simply agreeing to what the others said and asking questions to keep the conversation going.
"So this guy, right?" Henrietta was saying. "He had not seen this girl for like a few years and then they get to the point where they are going to kiss and he looks down on her like --"
Anne saw that Frederick gave her a very quick glance. It was so quick that she might have imagined it.
"-- like damn, what part of her face am I supposed to kiss?" Louisa continued when Henrietta was unable to come up with a good description.
"What part?" Frederick inquired.
"I'm sure he knew what part," Henrietta told Louisa. "Everyone knows that. It didn't look like that. It looked like -- I don't know how I'm supposed to describe it. Like he'd missed kissing?"
"I'm sure he hadn't kissed her all those years ago. She was gaping like a fish because she didn't know what was coming."
"Oh, don't get into a fight over it," Frederick said amiably. "How about we act it out and you can try to describe it again?"
"What?" the sisters asked in unison.
"Oh, not with either of you," he clarified.
Anne had been listening in horror, but she could never have fathomed he would pull her from her seat. She could barely stand. She had been thinking he was going to kiss one of the girls.
He placed his arms around Anne but looked at Henrietta and Louisa. "We need an older, more experienced woman for that who knows what she's doing. Now direct us as if we were actors."
The two girls were gaping. "You're going to kiss Anne?"
"Well, you haven't actually said whether this guy ever got around to kissing the girl," Frederick said charmingly. "If he did, I suppose the answer is a yes."
"You don't need to go as far as the actual kissing part," said Louisa, who thought she was being kind to Frederick. "The part before it was what we were talking about."
"So direct us. I look as if I don't know which part to kiss and she looks as if…" he began in a helpful tone. "Only I do know which part to kiss, so I think Henrietta's suggestion was better. What was it again?"
Henrietta looked smug and all too eager to help. "Like he was a bit overcome and Anne should look as if she's really in need of a kiss."
"That shouldn't be too hard," was Louisa's opinion.
It sounded a bit mean and Frederick was determined to go as far as the kissing part, whatever they might say. "So…" he said and gazed into Anne's eyes. He did not know what to make of their expression and he was slow to lean in.
"Cut!" Louisa's voice sounded sharply. "We never got to see how long it lasted, but I doubt it was very long. Cut!"
"Was it all right or do we have to try again?" Frederick asked. He looked very innocent.
"No, it was like…enough. I'm sure Anne has had enough."
Anne had in fact not had enough, but she kept that to herself. She had no idea what Frederick was doing. He was having some fun at the expense of the girls, but she did not yet see how she fit in. There had been a moment when she thought he was sincere, but she had quickly replaced that with something more rational.
Dumbly Anne had sat down again to finish her meal. Where Frederick was concerned she really was this stupid and, as she had told Sophia, easy. She had let him kiss her. She would have preferred another setting and different circumstances for a kiss, but this would have to do. There was no telling whether it would be repeated in the future, but at least it had served a purpose in letting her know she had not been wrong about herself.
"It was not very nice of Frederick to shock you," Louisa told Anne reproachfully in a very low voice. "Couldn't you have told him no?"
She had just decided that she could not, but Louisa could not have read her mind. "Frederick seems determined to do as he pleases," Anne whispered back.
"But you didn't want your first kiss to be like that, did you? I wouldn't want it."
"My first kiss was not like that," Anne replied after a careful moment of thought. There was no reason to suspect Louisa of too much insincerity or cleverness. It might be genuine concern for her virginal lips. She would try to distract the girl a little, so they could abandon the subject of the kiss she could still feel.
Louisa gasped. "You kissed before? When was that?"
"When I was nineteen."
This was clearly considered absolutely unexpected and shocking. Louisa was appalled. "But if even you kissed at nineteen, I have to hurry!"
"Louisa." Anne was amused in spite of herself. It was certainly very embarrassing to do these things later than Anne. "Look where it got me. Don't hurry. It's not worth it."
"It wasn't good?"
"My memory is a bit fuzzy on the first one, but my point still stands. It got me nowhere." She smiled. Louisa must be able to see that. She had no boyfriend. Still, if not having one was not exactly what lost a girl points, it was definitely not having had a whole string of them.
"Fuzzy? How could it be fuzzy? I'm determined to have a wildly romantic first kiss," Louisa said dreamily. "One that I'll always remember."
"Your memory can even go fuzzy on those, because so many years after the fact, what does it matter how good or bad it was?" Anne did not think she would care for kissing skills. Other qualities were more important.
"Are you saying you don't care for kisses? That you underwent a kiss from Frederick Wentworth with a cold heart?" Louisa whispered in incredulity. "His hotness did not melt your coldness?"
She had to lie and smiled to cover it up. "No. Why do you think he chose me for the demo? He probably knows I'm not the type to melt to the floor, which would be rather inconvenient given that he was trying to settle that argument between you and Henrietta."
"Anne, you are an awful ice cube," Louisa decided. "You need to take a class on romantic dating."
Anne was unfazed. "Sure. Let me know if you find one."
"Why don't you and I clean up here while the girls go home with the children?" Tom suggested after dinner.
Frederick grasped this opportunity with both hands. He would not have to drive home with Anne and explain himself. This was much better, although it made them sound like two couples and that was faintly disturbing. "Great."
The other Kellynch swimmers, who listened only to what made sense to them, thought they would see him at the party when they got back from the pub and Louisa even wrapped herself around him to tell him he should not dance with anybody. He was not lying when he said he would not, but he was not truthful either. He was not going to be at the party at all.
Frederick and Tom cleared the room of plastic plates and food rests, so the disco could be held in a relatively clean environment. By the time they had carried all the bin bags to the container, he thought Anne might safely be ensconced in her attic. A glance at his watch told him he was stupid, because it was barely seven o'clock. She would not be in bed yet.
It was clever of Tom that he had not antagonised his helper before all the work was done, but the moment they got into the car, he could no longer battle his curiosity. "Do explain the love triangle to me."
"Which love triangle?" Frederick sounded genuinely confused by the question.
"You, the blonde and the ex."
"There's no triangle." He did not want to think about it. Who was the blonde? Louisa?
"It's called a love triangle when you kiss the ex when the blonde thinks it should have been her," Tom explained patiently.
Frederick looked ahead haughtily. "I did not kiss her. I was demonstrating something."
Tom had always thought Frederick was intelligent, but perhaps his judgement had failed him in this case. "Is the blonde your girlfriend?"
"No!"
"Maybe it's time to tell her she's not?" Tom suggested.
"I'm sure she knows, because there has never been anything between us to make her think she was." Frederick wrinkled his brow as he tried to interpret Louisa's behaviour in retrospect. Did she behave as if they were close? He thought it was simply her nature.
"Such as? A kiss?"
"For example." They had never kissed and he had never even wanted to.
"Then you're back with the ex," Tom stated with an evil grin.
"No!" He had not seen that one coming and he berated himself. He should have realised Tom would start arguing along these lines. He would have done the same himself if he was the other person.
"You've lost me there. If you'd kissed the blonde, she would have been your girlfriend. However, if you kiss the ex, she's not?"
"Right."
Anne behaved as if nothing had happened. Fiona had thankfully been too busy to mention the incident, although she had probably seen it. While she was sorting through her wet swimming bag in the attic, she heard Tom and Frederick come home. She heard a conversation on the floor below, but no particulars, and she heard cheering from the children.
It made her curious, but she found the bathroom door locked when she wanted to hang up her swimsuits. Presumably they were taking a bath. She asked Fiona about it when she got downstairs and she saw both parents there. The boys were too small to bathe on their own.
"Yes, Frederick wanted to bathe them," Fiona answered. She had joked he only wanted to play with their pirate ship and he had not denied it.
"Really?" Anne was surprised for a moment until she realised he would not have to sit with them if he was in the bathroom. He might consider it an advantage not to be around her, although he would not have offered to play with the boys if he did not like it.
"Tom, shouldn't you check if Frederick isn't murdering our boys?" Fiona asked in concern when there had been a dreadful racket upstairs for a few minutes.
He was busy putting today's results online and did not feel like checking. "Knowing our boys, we should probably check if they're not murdering Frederick. It's just the sound of boys playing."
"Hmph." Fiona was not convinced. "Should I look?"
"He can shout down if he's in danger," Anne said with a shrug.
"True. Hmph. Why didn't the two of you want to go to the party? Too many children?"
Anne considered the question. "I might have gone if there had been more people to talk to, but the ones I know were planning on drinking a little too much and I never like that. I don't know why Frederick didn't go." She supposed it was not because of the presence of children if he volunteered to play with them himself, although their age would matter.
"Because it's more fun to stay here," said Tom.
"Could I take a shower when the boys are finished?" Anne asked. "It was too busy at the pool."
This precluded the opportunity of talking to Frederick when he came out of the bathroom with the boys, because she would probably go upstairs directly when he came down.
"Did anybody get hurt?" Fiona had not forgotten her concerns.
"Yes!" her eldest boy cried very smugly. "All the navies are dead!"
"Navies?"
"I was the navy," Frederick explained. "And the pirates killed us all."
"So the bath is full of corpses?" wondered Anne, who had risen. "I was going to take a shower."
He looked a little sheepish. "Um, yes. It was difficult enough to dress two of them at once, let alone clear up. I was going to do that in a second when I go back to dress myself."
"Oh. You're not dressed?" Anne studied the towel around his waist. "Oh. I guess not."
Tom nearly fell off his chair laughing. "Maybe you spend too much time in swimming pools, Anne! What counts as being dressed there, doesn't count as such elsewhere."
That made Anne flee upstairs in embarrassment, though when she arrived there she remembered that Frederick would still have to tidy up. It was such a mess that even she would not volunteer to do it for him. Not only were there pirates and ships everywhere, but the sea on the floor was almost deep enough for the ships to float there was well.
She rolled up her towel and sat on the floor outside the bathroom. "I hope you brought a mop," she told him when he finally arrived upstairs.
There was another sheepish look. "Oh. I forgot to say it's a bit wet."
"A bit."
"It's going to take me an hour to clean up," he observed. "Would you like to wait with your shower till I'm done or would you like me to wait till you are done? If you were a boy I'd tell you I'd just remove all the playmobil stuff and you could close the shower curtain while you shower and I clean. But given how you looked this morning I doubt you'd think that a good plan."
Anne stared at him. She did not know how to react to being blamed for not liking his bad plans. "Well! You are full of good plans." It did not come out as sarcastically as she had intended it.
He misunderstood her and looked relieved. "All right. I'll clear the bath then and then it's yours."
It was madness, Anne felt, but she enjoyed her shower. Perhaps it was worse to have a row of little playmobil men and women peeking at her than Frederick. She did not know why he had left them on the edge of the bath, but to get away from their unblinking scrutiny she turned them all to face the wall.
When she peered past the curtain he was gone and she quickly dressed. He did not come back, though. Seemingly she had showered long enough for him to mop up the floor. She was shocked to notice the whole episode had taken her over half an hour.
The little boys were indeed in bed already when she got downstairs and she had just missed the start of a film. It was a better way to spend the evening than at a disco and she was glad she had decided not to go.
After the film Tom, Fiona and she went upstairs and they left Frederick to make up his bed. He had only said good night and because of the film he had not been able to say much else either, so Anne was still left to speculate on his intentions. Perhaps what he called good plans were in fact no more than that. They might have very little to do with intentions.
He could, if he had wanted, have coaxed her into much more than a demonstrative kiss. He could have done something about the showering, but he had not. He had not even flirted or otherwise let her know he might think it exciting. It was very strange and she wondered how they could end up in such dubious situations all the time in spite of that.
She would be lying if she said she minded. It was only the uncertainty that she minded, not the situations herself. If she thought of how Frederick had played with the boys, how he had let them make an awful mess that he did not mind cleaning up, she was almost sorry he had not showered with her.
In the middle of the night Frederick was reminded that he still had Anne's phone. He first wanted to ignore it, but it rang a second time two minutes later. He got it out of his bag and saw on the display that it was Mary. Knowing Mary, he felt no qualms about switching the phone off entirely. Then he went back to sleep.
He did not think of it again until Anne and he arrived at the pool and he did not see the other Kellynch swimmers. He had gone towards the bench they had sat on during the previous two days, but nobody joined him until Anne came out of the changing rooms.
"Where are they?" she asked.
He did not much care. "I don't know. Hung over?"
She would not like that, he noticed, but he could not help it if it was really true. "Oh, I forgot -- Mary phoned you sometime during the night. I switched off the phone."
"You didn't speak to her?"
"No." If she reproached him for that, he would tell her she should keep her phone with her and not leave it with him. He gave her the cell phone and watched her.
"Goodness. That's a lot of voicemails," Anne said in surprise when she checked. "I haven't got time to listen to them right now, though."
She took out her cell phone after her first race. The first voicemail was from Mary and from her sister's hysterical voice she deduced the others were from her as well. She could not make much sense of the message and summarised it for Frederick. "She asks me where my room is. Didn't any of them notice until then that I wasn't staying at the hotel?"
Frederick glared at her, but his glare was meant for Mary. "You cannot wonder why I didn't answer the phone."
"It must have been an emergency," she said in concern. Mary had sounded a little more hysterical than usual.
"Yes, they'd only remember you in an emergency," he said sarcastically.
Anne listened to her second voicemail. "Oh. Now she's discovered you're not in room 106."
"Who was in it instead?"
"Frederick…" she chided him in a soft voice. She listened to rest of the hysterical message. "They thought Louisa was in your room and now they think the two of you went somewhere together."
"You know I never went anywhere."
"I hope they found Louisa eventually, because things don't sound too good for the two of you." Mary was hysterical and Charles was apparently livid about his sister's disappearance.
Frederick thought Anne was not listening. "I never did anything with her!"
"I know that, but they didn't know it yet when they phoned. I'm trying to explain their state of mind to you. They want you to marry Louisa."
"Why? Because she went missing? They're crazy!"
"I know." Anne began to listen to the third voicemail. Her face turned serious. She listened through to the end without speaking and then listened to it again.
"What is it?" Frederick asked, more anxious than he liked.
"She had a bad fall. She's in the hospital. Louisa."
His eyes went wide. "What sort of bad fall?"
"Please. You have no idea how incoherent and hysterical these messages are. It's a wonder I'm understanding anything at all. I'll try the next voicemail." She was silent for a while as she listened. "All right. After they had raided the mini bar she had told Henrietta she was going to see you in room 106 and apparently she was wearing high heels. She rolled down the stairs."
"Good grief!" Frederick exclaimed. He began to feel guilty for having said he was in that room. "Who'd bring high heels to a swim meet? But how was she hurt?"
"Unconscious and a broken leg," Anne said gravely. She knew it could have been much worse. Louisa could have broken her neck.
"Shouldn't we go to the hospital?"
She shook her head. "Mary doesn't want us to." That was because they had not been there when it happened and they had left it to Mary and Charles to sort things out. It had aggravated her sister very much. Anne was not surprised by that reasoning, although she did not quite understand why visiting someone in hospital should be considered a privilege.
"Why not? Do they think I'm responsible?"
"The others are with her already, I expect. And she's unconscious. Look." She handed him her phone. She did not want to consider whether he was responsible. Not right now. "Listen to the messages if you like. I need to tell Tom that none of them are swimming today."
"But what about us?" he asked as she walked away.
She turned. She was shocked, but not personally affected. She could swim. If there had not been anybody with Louisa, she would have gone to visit her, but in this case that was unnecessary. "I have no reason not to swim. She's unconscious. Her brother will be with her. I'd only be in the way." If Frederick considered himself close to Louisa he would want to visit, but she would not ask him if he was.
Frederick did not speak to Anne at all on the drive back. He had given her the key and she had had to drive. Although she did not drive well enough to look at him often, she had seen he looked withdrawn and upset. If he did not want to share what was bothering him -- although she could guess at some of it -- she would not ask any questions. She left him alone.
He had not asked to be taken to the hospital and Mary had rung again to say Louisa had a concussion but that they were not welcome because they would be in the way, yet she was displeased to hear they had stayed until the end of the swim meet. Perhaps she would have preferred them to be outside the hospital begging to be let in.
"Wouldn't you be of more use there than Mary?" was all Frederick had asked before they had left, but to that she could reply that she was not wanted there, even if she did agree. She felt sorry for Louisa, whose condition was not going to be improved by having someone like Mary around.
Anne dropped him off at his house, where he left the car with a curt thank you. She did not know how much his mood had been affecting her own until she let out a sigh and her hands relaxed.
Louisa's accident made him feel guilty and responsible. Nobody had said it was his fault, but he thought so nevertheless. Anne was not yet decided on the matter herself. He was not directly responsible, but things he had said had influenced Louisa's behaviour. Then again, nobody could ever have known that this would happen.
That she would try to impress Frederick might have been predictable, even that she would have a few drinks, but wearing high heels did not automatically lead to bad falls. That she had fallen because she had wanted to see Frederick should not play any role, nor that if he had been truthful she would not have gone down the stairs. Anne shuddered as she imagined a tipsy Louisa driving to Tom's house.
Frederick had not asked her what she thought, so he might be fearing her opinion, even if she had not spoken any harsh words to him at all. It had been a long time since she had seen him so serious.
She went home and went through the tedious business of unpacking her bags, rinsing her swimsuits and throwing her towels into the laundry basket. Then she was alone again with nothing to do. She could not help but think of his behaviour towards her now. She had not thought of it in all the consternation and distress. She had put whatever she could feel aside.
Perhaps she should still do that. He did not deserve more censure.
He had been ignoring the doorbell, even the phone, but Anne knew he was there. It took some shouting through the letterbox to get him to open the door.
"Stupidity manifests itself one way or another. Your help is not required," she announced.
"Er…" Frederick looked puzzled.
"It's not your fault," Anne clarified. "I came to tell you that."
"I'm afraid people will tell me it is. If I'd been stronger…"
Her resolutions crumbled. She stepped inside and kissed him.
He was very happy to be kissed by Anne, but when he found they had somehow gravitated towards the foot of the stairs, he pulled back. "We can't go any further than this." There were previous partners and contraceptives to consider and he could not bring himself to ask her about either. He was wondering why he thought of them now, because they had certainly not crossed his mind eight years ago. It was, however, too acute a thought to continue.
She looked back at him, but she said nothing.
"Could you go home, Anne?" It took all of his strength to ask that, but he must. This was not the right time.
Although her resolutions had crumbled earlier, she formed some new ones. "No. I'm done with your using me."
"If you stayed I'd be using you." He wanted a distraction, but it was not fair to use Anne as one.
"Well, I have needs too." Anne indignantly climbed the stairs, but someone rang the doorbell.
What with Anne speaking of having needs, Frederick contemplated not answering the door, but the light was on inside and he could probably be seen. It was his brother. "What are you doing here?" Frederick asked brusquely. "I'm not in the mood for visitors."
Edward looked breathless and distressed. "It's Sophia. She's in the hospital."
He paled. All the bad things were coming at once. "What? When? Why didn't anyone tell me?"
"You didn't answer the phone."
Frederick felt even more guilty. Because he was busy he had let it ring a few times indeed, thinking it might be people he did not want to speak to, such as the Musgroves. He had kept himself busy to have an excuse not to answer it, but he could not remember what he had done. "No."
"I'm going to visit, but I don't want to go alone," said Edward. He seemed to want to go instantly. "Are you coming?"
"What's wrong with her?" Frederick's stomach knotted together in agony.
Edward uncharacteristically let out some strong language, but he swallowed it quickly enough. "He didn't tell me! He can't use his cell phone and he was out of coins. You have to come with me, Frederick."
Frederick inhaled deeply. "I hope she's all right."
"I hope so too. Are you coming?"
Frederick had sat down on the stairs and clung to the banisters.
Edward spoke on. "Frederick? Do you have a car? I came by bus. There's a car outside. Is that yours?"
Anne came down the stairs. She forgot about her needs. They were unimportant at the moment. "It's mine. My mother's."
Edward was startled. Apparently he had not looked up at all. "Who are you?"
"Anne. Which hospital?" she asked, but Frederick's brother came to the devastating realisation that he had no idea. She looked from one crumpled heap of a boy to the other. Someone needed to take charge here. "No matter. Visiting hours will be over anyway. What you should do is get some sleep and wait for a phone call so you can visit tomorrow morning."
"But she may be dying!" The brother was more capable of speech than Frederick.
"Did James say she was in the hospital or that she was dying?" James, she thought, was not the type to be unclear in a serious situation. If he had run out of coins before he had delivered his entire message and he had not rung again, he must have thought his truncated message was clear enough.
"That she was in the hospital."
She felt a little relief. "Then she won't be dying."
"How can you be sure?"
"Semantics. Maybe that was all he could say at the time because he didn't know any more himself? He took her to the hospital, but it was obviously not so serious as to start his message with what is ailing her. What's your name?" She hated to sound as if he was a little boy, but he behaved like one. He must be around her age, though, and probably older.
"Edward."
"Edward and Frederick, why don't we all stay here for the night and await a phone call?" Anne did not think she could leave them here alone. They might go out in the middle of the night and visit hospitals nearby. She thought Sophia might be in one closer to the hotel she had been staying in, but she would have to look up where that was.
After Anne had set Edward and Frederick to work on fixing something to eat, she inspected the bedrooms to see where they could sleep. Sobered up by Edward's arrival and the utter helplessness of the two men, Anne reflected on what Edward had interrupted. She should be thankful he had come. What had been her intention in luring Frederick upstairs? It was just as well that it had never succeeded, because she was not sure how she would have felt afterwards. So many things were not settled. They had kissed, but they had not talked. It would have been madness to take it further.
There were two bedrooms with beds: one with a double and one with a single bed. The latter belonged to Frederick and Anne could not help looking a little more closely. It was obvious that he did not plan to stay here forever, because the room was full of unpacked boxes. Clothes were strewn across the floor and draped over the boxes, but there was very little else.
One person could sleep there and two in the master bedroom. The division was clear -- Frederick and Edward in the double bed and she in the single. Before they had left James or Sophia had stripped all the beds and washed the bed linen. They had apparently had enough time to throw it back onto the beds, but not to make them, so Anne quickly made Frederick's bed. The boys would have to make their own. She always particularly disliked making a double bed, because it required an arm span she did not possess.
These household matters had taken her thoughts temporarily off Frederick, although making his bed brought him to mind again. They might have gone here, to his room, yet for all her bravura and talk of needs Anne did not think much would have happened. She derived some comfort from knowing she had common sense. Even if it went missing at times, it was never for long.
Frederick had asked her to go away. She had not yet analysed that. At the time she had only thought it was yet another example of being used -- being kissed and then dismissed -- but now she wondered what he could have meant. He had said he would be using her if she stayed.
He did not want to do anything if his heart was not in it and it was not. That was the painful conclusion and Anne took a moment to deal with it. She accepted it, saw his restraint as admirable, but then she doubted it. He had not kissed her as if he did not care about her, she thought, but she might not have enough kissing experience to know that for certain.
The best thing was not to think of Frederick in relation to love or kissing at all. It would be selfish, considering all the people who were in hospital. She wondered what was wrong with Sophia. Frederick and James could not both be suspecting incorrectly. Sophia might be, or might have been, pregnant. Anne hoped nothing had gone wrong with that, yet Sophia had never revealed any else regarding her health. Anne did not suppose she had fallen down the stairs in high heels either.
She went downstairs and was pleasantly surprised that Frederick and Edward had managed to prepare something. Perhaps they were all too eager to keep their minds off worrying, although there were three phones on the table: hers, Edward's and the home phone.
"Shall we eat and go to bed?" she suggested. She did not know if they could sleep, but they certainly would not be able to chat either. They might all be better off trying to get some sleep. Swimming all weekend had been tiring enough without all these worries. When there was no answer, she spoke on. "You two should sleep in their bed and I --"
"I'm not going to sleep in their bed," Frederick said instantly.
"I have put clean sheets on the bed. Would you want me to share their bed with Edward? There are only two beds and one is a double."
"No, you can't share with Edward. He's married."
"Married?" Anne gave him a glance. His helpless distress somehow made that surprising. And he had come here alone.
Edward nodded. "My wife is at home with the baby. And the dog."
"Baby," she repeated. "Frederick?"
"Don't call me baby," he said crabbily, feeling embarrassed in front of his brother, who would wonder about this appellation -- or at least he would do so in a relaxed state of mind.
Anne managed to remain patient. "I'm not calling you baby. I was wondering about what you said about Sophia on our way to Lyme."
He looked anxious immediately. "That she could be pregnant? Do you think there was a problem? A miscarriage?"
"I know as little as you do, but it's the only health-related thing she's ever told me -- that she was trying to conceive." They might have prepared something to eat, but they showed no inclination to provide plates. She started opening kitchen cupboards. "But does one even go to the hospital if it goes wrong in the early stages? I don't know."
They did not know either and for a while they concentrated on eating. Then Frederick spoke. "But you can't sleep in my bed." He had been giving it some thought and concluded that if he was to share the double bed with his brother, Anne would take his bed. This did not make him feel comfortable.
"And I can't sleep with Edward either, so must I go home again and leave you two to do foolish things?" She ought to be able to trust them, but she could not.
"Why are you staying here anyway?" He looked suspicious.
"I have nothing better to do." And, of course, because she loved Frederick and liked Sophia.
"Is your mother not back yet?" He supposed that if her mother called, she would come running. The mother must still be away.
"Tomorrow, maybe. But I don't have to be home when she gets there."
"I think you should share the bed with us," Frederick said boldly. "You never know if we might run off."
"You do not know what you want." First he had told her to leave and now this. It was a bit inconsistent of him.
Anne imagined James phoning. They would all three want to hear what he had to say -- the boys for emotional reasons and she for practical ones. They would all want to be near the phones and not knowing which number he might ring, those could not be split up. The only way to accomplish that would be to sleep in the same room, but there was no space for an extra mattress. Frederick would get his way. "Fine. Go upstairs to make the bed while I clean up here."
They obeyed. They had done everything she had told them to do so far and she should seriously reconsider whether nobody ever listened to her.
The bed was made when she came upstairs and Edward was in the bathroom brushing his teeth. It reminded Anne that she would have to borrow a toothbrush and something to sleep in. "May I borrow a t-shirt?" she asked Frederick.
"One of mine?" He was astonished by the question. "Of course. They're in my room."
She gave him a patient look. "You're the only one whose permission I could ask. If you said no, I could borrow one of Sophia's, because I'm sure she wouldn't mind, but still. And use your toothbrush?"
"Sure. When Edward is done with it."
Frederick watched her leave the room. Since they were not going to do anything now, he would not need to ask the questions he had thought of earlier. He was still thinking of them, though. Eight years ago they had not occurred to him at all.
He wondered what would have happened if Anne had got pregnant then. She would not have dumped him then. He did not think she would have, but they would have been far too young and poor to raise a child properly. Had she thought of that? He had obviously never cared to find out and she might have been too shy to tell him.
However, he could not ask a question about the past without either of them thinking of the present. If he asked, she might think it was a roundabout way of asking her what she did nowadays and that was partly true, but he had no right to ask about the present. Or did he? She had begun to go upstairs, after all.
He struggled some more with this matter, even after Edward indicated he could use the bathroom. Eventually he decided it was not tactful to bring up the subject when it was not strictly relevant. It would save both of them some embarrassment and distress.
Anne was the last to get into bed. The boys had left little room for her and she did not know how she was to get any sleep. "It's been a long time since I did this, but there was more room then."
"Did what?" Frederick asked sharply. He liked Anne in his t-shirt, but she should not speak of having done this before.
"Share a bed with two others. My sisters."
"Oh." He breathed a sigh of relief -- until she got into the bed and she came very close. This had been one of his less brilliant ideas. He tried to move towards Edward, but his brother shoved him back. He was stuck.
"Where are the phones?" asked Anne. This was crucial information. The boys had taken them upstairs, but apparently none of them had rung.
"They are on your side of the bed, because Frederick didn't want them to be on my side," Edward replied.
Anne gave them a glance. "Hmm. Am I going to be squashed under your combined weight if one rings?"
"I'll be gentle," Frederick told her, but his voice was far from gentle. Anne should not say such things! He had never known she was such a tease.
"The idea was that neither of us could answer them," Edward cut in. "Frederick says you --" But he broke off when he felt a hard kick.
"What?" Anne asked.
"You are neutral," he said curtly.
"All right." She was a little mystified and switched off the bed light.
It was strange sleeping beside Frederick, trying not to touch him but failing because there was not enough space. She would have a difficult time sleeping.
Somehow she had managed to fall asleep anyway, because bleeping woke her. Leaving the phones on her side of the bed had been wise -- not only was she neutral, but she was the only one who heard them. It was Edward's that bleeped, but its very modest sound only woke Anne. She was briefly in doubt, but there was time enough to wake the boys if the message warranted it. It was an incoming text.
At the risk of reading something private, she checked. It was from James and seemed to have been delayed. It was a very informative message: the name of the hospital, town, room number and precise visiting hours. But not what the boys would like to hear most, other than the implication that their sister was not dead.
She contemplated texting back, but at this hour she was not likely to get a reply, certainly not if James slept as soundly as these two here.
Frederick woke. He had almost forgotten about his sister, but then he noticed Edward and Anne were beside him and it all came back to him with a start. He leant over Anne to look at the phones. It was very nice to lean on Anne, but she did not agree.
"Get off me," she said sleepily.
The absurdity of the situation suddenly struck Frederick and even more so that he had been the one responsible for it. It was highly embarrassing to be leaning on Anne in more senses than the literal. He had gone and lived abroad, had arranged this all by himself and had managed to get by without much help. If he had managed to live on after his parents' death, why should he start being weak now?
But he had not entirely been without help before. Sophia had been there for him, often from a distance but never gone. Now, something was the matter with her. He kept his voice even. "Were there any messages?"
Anne got out of bed. She did not want to be stuck under or beside Frederick, however gently he attempted to lean over her. What must Edward be thinking? It was amazing that he had not said anything about Frederick's wish to share a bed. He had been too worried last night and might be more clearheaded and critical this morning, something they all ought to be. "James texted Edward. The visiting hours of the hospital, but not the…why. Nothing about that."
"When? Why didn't you wake us?"
She shrugged, knowing she could not have spared him that brief moment of anxiety, but at least he had had a good night's sleep now. "Visiting hours. It's not as if we could have gone directly. Not until eleven o'clock." She bit her lip as she made a decision. "I'm going to shower. You discuss with Edward if you want to go, all right? And if you need the car."
Frederick was left to read the message and to share it with Edward, who had woken up because they were talking.
"Why doesn't it say what the problem is?" Edward fulminated.
"Anne would say it wasn't serious if he didn't care to mention it," Frederick said hesitantly. Sophia was of course not her sister, but Anne had not been overly worried.
"If it's not serious they don't keep you in a hospital. And who's Anne? Is she your girlfriend?"
"No."
"No? What did I interrupt when I got here?" Edward did not understand any of it.
"Nothing." Frederick got out of bed as well after seeing they had three hours until the visiting hours in Bath. Why was Sophia in Bath? He did not ask the question, because Edward would only reply that her condition was too serious for her to be moved home.
He listened to the sound of the shower running. That was a no-go area for the time being, so he would have to go to the kitchen if he wanted to do anything. What was Anne? He asked himself the question as he went downstairs. She was his former girlfriend, but he was not sure how Edward would react to that description. His brother might ask when and then say it was too long ago to count as anything. It should be too long ago, but it was not.
Anne had not slept terribly well; three to a bed made it a bit crowded, especially if two of the three had the broad-shouldered physique of a swimmer. Still, there had been a sort of pyjama party feel to it all and she had been glad to find that Frederick did not snore. He slept like a gentleman. She had had fleeting memories of the past, but none that troubled her. It was as if this Frederick was both the same and another.
His helplessness puzzled her. As she had known him and as she still did, he was confident and assertive. He could do everything she could not, or had she been mistaken about that? He was certainly not very confident now and he was far from taking charge. His sister must mean a lot to him.
She contrasted his behaviour to his reaction to Louisa's accident. There was a difference, she would say. He had been silent and withdrawn then, but not lost. Still, he had been affected enough for her to wonder how much he liked Louisa.
She ran into Edward she exited the bathroom. Suddenly she wondered how he could be here. "It's Monday morning. Have you informed your work and your wife?" She cringed inwardly at having to ask the question, but he had not shown much presence of mind the night before.
"Right. I should let my wife know I stayed over."
Anne said nothing. The wife had probably guessed that and if it were not for the baby and the dog, she would have come with Edward. It must be difficult to have three dependants of three such different species.
"Could you drive? I need to make a phone call," Anne said when they left the house. She held out the key. They had finished breakfast in a good time and she thought there was no need to rush. She could leave the driving to one of them and they could even take a wrong turn. There was time for that.
Frederick did not think he was being given much of a choice. He must take the key if he wanted to or not. "All right. Are you calling James?"
"No, I'm calling Charles."
"Charles?" Charles was another man. Well, James was another man too, but Frederick knew James had never fancied Anne, an absolving condition that did not apply to Charles. The man must therefore be suspected.
"I could call Mary, but I think Charles might be able to give me a better account of how Louisa is doing." She had not forgotten their team mate. Although they were not allowed to visit, she felt she should check through some other means what the girl's condition was.
Although Frederick pretended to be focusing on the drive, he kept the music turned off and his ears strained to catch what Anne was saying. She was in the backseat, so it was nearly impossible to hear her voice. It was probably the only moment that he wished her voice resembled a foghorn, he reflected wryly.
"Hi Charles, it's Anne. Yes. No, I wasn't home. Somewhere else. I wanted to know how Louisa was doing. Okay. Yes. Yes. Oh? No, I won't be able to. I'm not home. No. All right. Yes. Bye."
"Well?" Frederick knew he was quick, but he could not restrain himself.
"It's still the same as last night." Last night they had understood that her condition was not good, so Anne wondered how he would feel about that. He said nothing, however.
Anne contemplated leaving the boys at one hospital while she went to the other -- after visiting Sophia, naturally -- because such a thing might be expected of her. She had been vague to Charles, though, because she had not been able to promise anything. She had sensed some incomprehension and disapproval when she had said she was not home.
Someone needed to look after the Musgrove children, both Charles' siblings and his own offspring. She would never have suspected Charles of asking her, so she assumed either Mary or Mrs Musgrove was behind it. It would be simpler if one of them went home, but thankfully Anne had not needed to be so confrontational as to suggest this. She felt some mild discomfort at being considered an extension of Mary, but again she was thankful for having phoned Charles and not Mary -- now that she had something better to do it would surely have come to a confrontation between her and her sister.
Fortunately Edward could read maps and they never took a wrong turn. They arrived at the hospital in Bath in good time and were even a little too early for the visiting hours. Anne wondered whether she should call on her father and Elizabeth after their visit here, but she decided against it. They would not feel slighted if they found out she had been here, which they would very likely not. The coincidence of the location made it a point of consideration, however.
The boys were looking for the lifts, but Anne was studying the directions to the different wards and floors. She found the required number easily and she began to smile. The boys had not seen it, of course, agitated as they were. She ran after them and tried to calm them as they fiercely attacked all the lift buttons. "There's no hurry. Truly."
They did not understand her and looked at her stupidly and she dismissed the idea of explaining it to them. Things might still have gone wrong, even if she felt they had not. She took the opportunity of studying Frederick as the lift travelled upwards. He had improved today -- he had made breakfast and driven them here, without suggesting any ridiculous plans. She smiled at the idea of more idiotic plans; she loved him, stupid plans included.
Edward caught her smile and she blushed. Quickly she looked away. He was not in a mood to wonder, but she should not give him hints either. There was nothing more humiliating than unreasonably being in love with someone who was indifferent and who was only looking for affection when times were distressing.
The lift reached the right floor and they got off. Anne left it to the boys to figure out whether they needed to go left or right. She watched them closely to see if they realised where they were. It would be very bad if they did not, but they realised it at almost the same moment.
Edward looked at Frederick and Frederick looked at her. "Why didn't he say so?" he said in agitation. "I'm going to knock him --"
She seized his arms. "You are not going to knock anyone or anything. Where is her room?"
Edward had looked. "To the left."
They hesitantly entered Sophia's room, but they did not have to be so careful, She sat up instantly with a beaming smile, which was tempered only briefly by a grimace of discomfort. "So James finally got through to you!"
"Finally?" Her brothers approached her and kissed her. "What do you mean?"
"He sent Edward an SMS yesterday evening and he tried to ring you too, Frederick, but you weren't home. He couldn't use his cell phone because they're not allowed inside and of course he wanted to stay inside with me. Then he rang Edward again, but Edward had gone to see you and then visiting hours were over, so he had to go to his hotel and well, I haven't heard from him since." Sophia paused to catch her breath. "I was hoping someone would show up at eleven, but I wasn't counting on it."
Behind the boys Anne had moved to the other side of the bed. Men always missed the obvious, be it huge signs hanging from the ceiling or cots.
"You're not even expecting James?" Frederick was ready to knock him over the head again.
"He promised to come as soon as he could, but he had some shopping to do and I have no idea what time the shops open and if he had enough time to find everything on the list." Sophia had seen Anne, but she had had too much to say to her brothers first. "Hi Anne."
"Aww…but you didn't know!" It was incomprehensible to her how someone could not have noticed. Even she should have seen something when they had gone swimming.
"Looking back, I did not want to know," Sophia said dryly. "But the only disadvantage is that we have nothing, which is why James is shopping. What are you doing here?"
Anne knew that was mere curiosity, yet she did not want to satisfy that completely. "I have a car at my disposal."
"Ah."
"How did it go?" Anne asked when Sophia still looked curious. "How did it begin?"
"Well, we had some fun on our romantic weekend -- which wasn't as romantic as Frederick thought, but mostly relaxing -- texting you. I don't think you answered, though. It sounded more like Frederick. Anyway, we were having some fun and doing nothing and then suddenly on Sunday morning…"
"No details," Frederick begged. "You can tell Anne the details while we go and buy something for you in the gift shop, all right?"
"You have not even looked yet!"
They dutifully glanced into the cot. "But there is nothing to be seen. It's all covered up and what is it anyway?" Edward asked.
"A girl. All right, go and buy me something and she might have woken when you get back. I'll treat Anne to the details if she doesn't mind."
"I don't," Anne assured her with a smile. They looked at the boys leaving the room. "We didn't know what you were in the hospital for. They were very worried, so maybe they just need to unwind."
Sophia was not concerned. "Oh, definitely. They'll be more interested when they get back. I know them. Wow, for thinking I might not get any visitors at all, I certainly get many this morning," she said when a doctor walked in and came to her bed.
Anne had turned her head towards the movement, but she had not expected to recognise the man. It was William.
"Hello Mrs…" William checked the chart. "…Croft. Hi Anne! I didn't expect to see you here. Would you mind me checking Mrs Croft in private?"
"Er…of course not." Anne was still a little stunned as she got up. Because William closed the curtain around the bed, she wandered into the corridor. It was such a coincidence to meet him here, but she hoped he would be gone by the time Frederick returned. Somehow she did not think he would like seeing William, but seeing him talk to her even less. He did not seem to like any attention she received from other men. It was a sudden thought, but it seemed to fit with his behaviour. He had been suspicious of her phoning Charles as well. She wondered why. Did he not like the other men? Or was he jealous?
Anne wondered what a jealous Frederick meant. He might not like anybody to have what he could not, or he might want her back. She was not certain she could go so far as to believe the latter. If he wanted her back, he did not make enough of an effort to convince her he liked her.
She became interested in some posters, not knowing how long it would take for the doctor to check Sophia. She was still looking when Sophia walked towards her.
"Forgive the strange outfit," Sophia said, feeling a little self-conscious. "But I hadn't counted on being hospitalised. He's gone. You can come back. I asked the doctor where he knew you from and he said a swim meet."
"Yes."
"He seemed to like you." In fact, he had asked Sophia some innocent questions about Anne and it had only been his bleeper that had prevented him from waiting for her return, especially when Sophia had replied negatively to his question if she was the girlfriend of one of the brothers she mentioned. She had thought it a dubious question.
"Oh," Anne replied blankly. She was not exactly surprised, but she did not know how she ought to react. She was still indifferent to William. He was nice, but nothing more.
"But come back to my room. I need to ask you about Frederick and your room." Sophia pulled her back. She had seen her brother give Anne some awkward glances that had intrigued her. Anne, of course, had not noticed them, but there was definitely more than met the eye.
"You certainly don't walk as if anything happened," Anne observed.
"Well, it was a small girl," she said dismissively, not liking that she was distracted from her topic.
Anne did not know whether a small baby made matters very much easier. "But…"
"It happened yesterday. If you'd asked me yesterday I might have said something else." They had reached the room again and Sophia climbed back into her bed. "Frederick?"
Anne turned away to pull up a chair. She prepared her reply before she turned back. "He had arranged something else. We stayed with friends of his. He stayed in the living room and I slept in the attic."
"No!" Sophia was incredulous.
"Yes!"
"But when we sent you an SMS…"
"We hadn't gone to bed yet then. And yes, he replied to it. I didn't understand the question." Anne tried to look very indifferent and innocent. She did not want to say she could have misunderstood the question.
"I don't see why he wanted you to stay with his friends as well." Sophia was puzzled by that, especially because they would have been separated much better by staying under two different roofs.
"I don't see that either," Anne said with a shrug. "But he has nice friends. And Louisa rolled down the hotel stairs because of her high heels and ended up in the hospital, so…" She did not finish her sentence. Should she be glad she had not stayed in the hotel with them? Perhaps she was, but it would not sound kind to say so.
Sophia's eyes widened. "Louisa?"
"Yes, Saturday night. She has a concussion and a broken leg. None of them swam today, except Frederick and me. We haven't been to see her, though. Her family were there."
Sophia understood her correctly. "Nobody would think you had to. Did you say high heels?"
Anne grimaced. "I did."
"Yes. Well. I'll tell James to buy her a card." She shook her head as if to close the subject. "So you did not sleep with Frederick? Er, in the same room," she added glibly.
It made Anne blush fiercely nevertheless. "No. But how could you have a baby without knowing you were pregnant?"
"Being stupid helps. If I look back now, I realise I should not have told myself about every sign that it was probably something else. And if James had opened his mouth I may have know sooner as well, like last week." She laughed mockingly. "He suspected something, but he had no idea she was ready to come out. Yesterday morning, though, she really wanted to and I got terrible cramps. He took me to the hospital eventually and they told me I was in labour."
"Shock!"
"Yes, my first thought was 'but we need to go shopping first!' But James is doing that now. One of the nurses gave him a shopping list."
"He's back," Anne said after a glance out of the room. She had heard footsteps and they were coming towards this room.
"Hello, hello!" he said as he came in. "I hate shopping! I had to keep asking what everything was, but I think I have most of it." He kissed Sophia and then looked into the cot. Only after that could he look at Anne. "Hi Anne. How did you end up here?"
"I drove Frederick and Edward over."
"Good! It was very difficult to get hold of them. Only two family members to notify and I couldn't even reach them! I had to go outside to phone Edward since his number is in my cell phone and I didn't want to stay out there until he finally answered, and Frederick wouldn't pick up the phone." He pulled a second chair towards the bed and sat down to catch his breath. He felt as if he had been running all morning.
"You could have called me," said Anne. She was amused at how he spoke almost as quickly as Sophia had done when they had first come in. There was too much to tell at once.
"Your number is in my cell phone as well and I had no reason to think Frederick might be at your house on Sunday evening."
"No, he wasn't," she agreed.
The baby woke and all attention was on her for the next few minutes. Anne was glad for it. She might not be asked to explain how she had ended up driving the boys. "Are they always this small?" she asked nervously when James wanted to give the baby to her.
"Usually they are a little bigger, I think, but she's not exceptionally small or she wouldn't be allowed to sleep here."
"Aww…" Anne gazed down at the tiny face. "She's adorable."
Sophia smiled proudly as she sorted through James' purchases. "Darling, can you get some scissors so we can cut off the price tags? The nurse borrowed some baby clothes from a woman next door," she explained to Anne. "But of course she will want them back. Oh, James?"
He was almost out of the room. "Yes?"
"Could you also ask the nurse to help me undress the baby? She is so small!"
Anne looked at the little thing and thought she would probably want to be helped too, or at least taught how to do it.
Edward and Frederick came back when James had left. They carried a gift each and Sophia was delighted. She did not even care what they had bought, or even that they had told her beforehand that they were going to buy something. She would be happy with anything.
James returned with the nurse and a pair of scissors. For a while they were busy with the baby and Anne watched it all with a mixture of amusement and discomfort. Sophia certainly mocked her own lack of skills and experience in a very amusing manner, but Anne could not help but feel an intruder. She was not family and her vague connection to Frederick bothered her. She would like to leave them alone, but Edward and Frederick had come here with her and they would have to go back with her as well, she supposed.
The nurse shooed the visitors away when the baby needed to nurse. The four of them stepped into the corridor together and Anne felt even more uncomfortable. Any moment she expected one of them to turn towards her and ask her what she was doing here.
They did not.
"Let's grab a cup in the corner there," James suggested, gesturing at some coffee tables.
"How can you not know you're pregnant?" wondered Edward, who was the father of an infant himself.
"Good question. I thought she might be a few weeks along, not eight and a half months, or whatever they thought she was along." He handed out cups of coffee and they sat down in turn. "Do you have any stuff you no longer need, Edward?"
"I suppose. I'll have a look for you when I get home. We're still using the big stuff, though."
"Make me a list before I buy anything. I'm not leaving Bath until they can go home with me, so I have some time."
They discussed who should buy what and when, and Anne stared into her coffee cup. She would like to offer her assistance, but she was neither very knowledgeable about very small babies nor part of the family. Yet it was clear that James and Frederick, at least, knew less than she did. Edward knew more, but he had the disadvantage of living further away.
She was glad the boys had recovered from their helplessness. They were now thoughtful and quick, quite a contrast to the evening before. Perhaps that was another reason why she no longer felt needed. This got her to think that she really was not needed anywhere at all and she felt a little sad.
"Anne!" William's voice called out. "I never thought I'd see you again so soon. Have you recovered from all your hard events?"
The sound reached her, but she needed a few seconds to make sense of his words and to raise her head. He stood behind James and Edward and she saw them turn their heads in interest. "Oh. Er. Yes. Thanks."
"Where will you swim next?"
"Er. I don't know yet. I don't swim all that many competitions anymore."
"Did you know I train with your father and sister?"
She was shaken out of her apathy now and she stared at him in amazement. "You do?"
"Yes, I didn't realise it until I got home. Damn, I said, that must be Elizabeth's sister!" He grinned at her, as if it automatically turned him into a close friend.
"We're not at all alike and we don't even swim for the same club, so I'm not at all surprised you didn't realise it sooner," Anne said politely.
"But you look a little like her, don't you?"
"I don't know. I don't look into the mirror much."
William looked astonished. He wanted to say something, but his bleeper went off. He checked it and looked disappointed. "Sorry. I'm needed. See you around, I hope."
James waited until the doctor was far enough away. "That was a bit of a slime ball, wasn't it? I saw Frederick doesn't like him."
Frederick turned a modest shade of red. "I have no opinion."
"He's the doctor who just looked at Sophia," Anne said, although nobody had wanted to know.
"That proves my point. Which man would choose that as a job?" James asked. "I hope you don't like him, Anne, although he certainly likes you."
It was Anne's turn to blush. "I exchanged a few words with him in a pool, that's all. And he spoke to me first."