Echoes of Love (7 page)

‘Got in there fast, didn’t you, Felix?’ Zac had teased, one eye on his friend and the other on Gaby, who was blatantly flirting with one of his friends on the opposite side of
the marquee. ‘See – there are things more interesting than ten-mile runs and hours on the treadmill!’

That’s when his forced grin wavered and he turned to Anna. ‘You two are coming out with us lot next Saturday, right?’ he asked.

Anna glanced at Felix and then nodded.

‘So – well, see, Gaby – she’s upset because – well, the thing is I’m going to try for the Marines, and now she says she doesn’t want to know.’

‘She’ll come,’ Anna cut in quickly. ‘She’s always moody when she’s been drinking vodka tonics. She never learns.’

Zac’s face brightened so much that Anna felt instantly guilty for giving him false hope.

‘Yeah, that’ll be it,’ he said confidently. ‘I’ll give it a day or so and call her. You two can drag her along, right? Cool.’

Anna smiled at him, but the smile had more to do with the thought of being with Felix than with any hope that her sister would change her mind.

He fumbled in his pocket and pulled out his mobile phone. ‘Go on, tell me.’

She watched as he punched the numbers into his phone.

‘Great!’ he said. ‘Look, I’ll call you, OK?’

‘Sure,’ Anna said enthusiastically. ‘It’s half-term this week so I’m free pretty much all the time.’

‘The trouble is,’ Felix began, and Anna’s heart sank, ‘Zac and I are doing the Mountain and Moor Challenge from Monday to Thursday. It’s going to be pretty full on,
running, fly camping, canoeing and all against the clock.’

‘Sounds like hard work,’ Anna shuddered.

‘Good training though, for the fitness test for the Marines next week,’ he pointed out. ‘But it does mean I won’t be around. But I’ll call you Thursday evening and
sort out something for Friday, yeah?’

‘That’d be cool,’ Anna said. ‘Can’t wait.’

‘Can’t wait for what?’ Gaby demanded, as Felix disappeared to find Zac.

‘Friday – he asked me out – well, as good as!’ Anna couldn’t suppress her excitement.

‘Oh wow, big deal!’ her sister scoffed. ‘You do know it’s totally desperate to look so enthusiastic with someone you’ve only just met? If you want my advice . .
.’

‘I don’t,’ Anna replied calmly. ‘In fact, I can’t think of anything I want less.’

CHAPTER 4

F
OR THE WHOLE WEEK FOLLOWING
C
HARLIE'S PARTY,
Anna hadn’t been able to get Felix out of her mind. Not that she had tried
very hard; she went over and over their conversations in her head, recalled his kiss in its minutest detail every night as she fell asleep and even went back to the childish habit of scrawling
A
F
all over her journal. She knew it was crazy; but never having had a real boyfriend before, she wanted to do
all the things her mates did and do them all at once. Just in case.

And at last Thursday evening came.

And he didn’t phone.

All evening Anna kept setting herself goals and making excuses for his silence.

‘He’ll be exhausted and having a shower and then he’ll ring.’

‘If I practise my saxophone for twenty minutes, he’ll ring – no, I might not hear the phone.’

‘I’ll count to one hundred in Spanish and then he’ll . . .’

‘Why do you keep looking at your watch?’ her father, who was indulging in a very vocal case of man flu, asked in exasperation at nine-fifteen.

‘It’s a guy!’ Gaby looked up from the Flats To Let section of the
Evening Standard
and raised an eyebrow. ‘He said he’d call her and like an idiot, she
believed him.’

‘What? You mean, Anna’s got a boyfriend?’ Walter looked as surprised as if Gaby had announced that Anna had installed a baby elephant in the back paddock.

‘He’s not a boyfriend,’ Anna said at once. ‘He’s just . . .’

‘
A really nice guy . . .
’ Gaby mimicked. ‘Except he’s not. He’s black and has a real Fleckford accent.’

‘Why on earth —?’ Walter began.

‘And he gatecrashed Charlie’s eighteenth,’ Gaby concluded with a sneer.

‘Now
that
,’ Walter declared, ‘is simply not done. As anyone would know.’ He looked at Anna. ‘I knew things would go from bad to worse when you insisted on
leaving Swancote Hall.’

‘What’s more,’ Gaby butted in, ‘he’s trying to break me and Zac up.’

That did it for Anna. ‘That’s so not true!’ she exploded. ‘You’re the one who’s dumping him if he joins the Marines.’

‘What? I thought Zac had abandoned that ridiculous idea,’ Walter exclaimed.

‘Me too,’ Gaby sighed.

‘Well, in that case, you’re being very wise, darling.’ Walter nodded approvingly at Gabriella. ‘You’re young, beautiful and talented – why tie yourself to
someone who’s about to disappear for months and probably end up dead.’

‘Dad! That’s an awful thing to say,’ Anna protested.

‘Face facts.’ Her father shrugged. ‘Gaby’s too good for a run-of-the-mill raw recruit anyway. Now, tell me Gaby darling, what ever happened to that lovely Fanshawe
boy?’

Anna was tempted to say that the lovely Fanshawe boy had dumped Gaby months before because he said he couldn’t afford her expensive tastes. But she was too busy waiting for the phone to
care about anything else.

At eleven o’clock, having checked her mobile and the landline at ten-minute intervals all evening, Anna went to bed. She had been, she thought miserably, just the kind of idiot Gaby
thought she was.

‘Hi, it’s Shannon.’

‘Oh. Hi.’ Anna’s heart plummeted.

‘I’m thrilled to hear you too,’ Shannon teased. ‘What’s up?’

‘Nothing – did you have a good half-term at your gran’s?’

‘Don’t change the subject,’ Shannon ordered.

‘It’s just that I met someone at a party last Saturday and he said he’d ring, but he hasn’t and I thought when you rang it might be him and . . .’

‘A boy? I need details. What party? Why wasn’t I invited? What’s he like?’

‘It was these mates of mine from the village and . . . oh my God! Shannon, sorry, I’ve got to go. My mobile’s ringing – it could be him!’

‘Go girl!’ Shannon laughed. ‘Call me back. Soon!’

‘OK, bye!’ Anna punched the
Answer
button.

‘Hello?’

‘Anna? Hi, it’s Felix. I am really sorry I didn’t get back to you last night, but . . .’

‘No problem,’ she said, trying to sound as if she had only just remembered he was meant to call her. ‘How was your week?’

‘Great – and then I was on my way back and got this phone call from . . .’

‘Hang on, you’re breaking up,’ Anna said in panic.

‘ . . . phone call from Ruth . . . love her to bits . . . couldn’t bear not to see her . . . so . . . and . . . with her now and . . .’

And then the connection died.

Anna slumped down on a chair. He was with a girl. And he hadn’t made any secret of it, which told her everything she needed to know and . . .

The phone rang again.

‘Anna, sorry! Lost the signal. Look, in case it goes again – can we meet in about an hour? Is that OK? Something I need to tell you. Anna? Are you there? Anna?’

‘What? Me? Meet up with you?’ She hesitated. ‘The two of us?’

Felix burst out laughing. ‘Yes, I think you have all the relevant points there. Well? Is that a yes, a no, or a maybe?’

‘Yes, sure – that’s great. Where?’ She knew her voice sounded flat, but she had a pretty good idea what it was he wanted to tell her. That it was over before it had even
started.

‘I’ll pick you up. I’m in Fleckford and Mum’s using her car, so I’ll have to get the bus. Remind me how to get to your place?’

‘It’s complicated,’ Anna replied swiftly, the thought of introducing Felix to her father being a bridge too far right now. ‘And I’ve got a car – so how about
we meet in Fleckford? How about The Boatman, down by the river?’

‘Cool,’ he agreed. ‘See you then!’

Fifteen minutes later, when the entire contents of her wardrobe was flung on her bed and on the floor and she was despairing of ever getting her hair to look halfway presentable, Gaby burst into
the room.

‘I need you to come shopping with me,’ she declared. ‘I can’t go to Sophie’s party in anything I’ve got already. I’m going in ten mins, OK?’

‘Sorry, I can’t,’ Anna replied calmly, stepping into her skirt and tugging at the zip. ‘I’m going out.’

‘Out? Where? Not with that Felix guy?’

The split second pause before Anna answered was enough for Gaby to suss that she had hit on the truth.

‘Have you told Dad?’

‘Not yet.’

‘Dad! DAD?’ Gaby had shot downstairs before Anna could open her mascara. In the event, it occurred to her that eye make-up was less important than a quick escape. She slipped
downstairs and out of the back door. It was going to be bad enough getting dumped by Felix, without facing an inquisition from her father.

‘I just had to see you before we go out with the others tomorrow,’ he said. ‘I mean, I don’t know anything about you really and yet I feel I’ve known you for ages.
So come on, tell me all about you.’

‘There’s not much to tell,’ Anna replied awkwardly, wondering whether he’d been doing the same chat-up line with this Ruth girl hours before. He didn’t sound like
someone who was about to finish with her; but then again, maybe he was going to tell her that Ruth would be coming along the following day as well.

‘Come off it, everybody’s got a story,’ Felix had urged. ‘I mean, I know you’ve got two sisters, one of whom has just broken my best mate’s heart – he
hardly talked about anything else all the way up Pen y Fan.’

‘She’ll probably come round,’ Anna assured him. ‘She’s like that – goes into total meltdown and then spends weeks regretting it.’

She paused for a moment and then sighed. ‘I do think she’s crazy to give up on someone as nice as him, so let’s hope she comes to her senses.’

‘And so you’d be OK hanging out with a guy who joined up? Went to war, even?’