Thank you all!
Chapter 4
The letter was like a thorn in her side. Every moment of the last few days, it seemed to be the only thing that Anna could think about. As she sat on her bed, she pulled the letter from its hiding space in one of her books. John had already gone downstairs to begin preparing for today's opening, but he had insisted that Anna only work part-time. Though she was feeling much better, John still didn't want her overdoing it.
Her eyes scanned the letter, yet she had it memorized by now. She took in a shaky inhale and wondered why she wasn't balling this letter up and throwing it into the trash. Why was she allowing her mother to ruin what should be an exciting time in their life? She was supposed to be searching for a new home, not focusing on this. But she couldn't help it. There was something about this letter that wouldn't let her move forward.
The door opened and Anna quickly shoved it back into her book. She still hadn't told John about it and she wasn't sure if she ever was going to. It wasn't that she wanted to keep a secret from him. However, she needed to figure out her thoughts without his input.
"My darling," John beamed, carrying a tray of delicious foods. Anna smiled, but she felt guilty for keeping such a secret from him.
"What's all this?"
"To keep your strength up," John answered. He sat down the tray and then sat beside Anna. He pulled a clipping from his pocket and placed it on the tray. His lips were curled into a pleased grin, making Anna's smile grow.
"And what is this?"
"I think I found us a home."
Anna lifted up the small paper. There was a black and white grainy photograph with a few details on the side: two stories, four bedrooms, two and a half bathrooms, and a large backyard. Her eyes grew when she saw the price.
"That is too expensive," Anna said, shaking her head.
"No it's not, we can afford it," John disagreed. "I thought we could drive by and look at it tomorrow, see it in person."
"I thought we were going to get a fixer upper home," Anna sighed. "We can't buy a house like this John. We have three children to raise now. We need to be smart about money."
"Anna," John began. "We have a sizable savings and could put down a hefty down payment. This is smart for our future."
"But don't you want to fix up a house with me?"
"My darling, of course I do, but we haven't the time like we did before we had children. Plus, we can't shut down the restaurant for a month."
"I guess so," Anna sighed.
"I was also thinking we could offer this place to Ivy and Alfred. Let them live here. It would give them a proper place to start their married life. Then when they decide they've outgrown it, we could rent it out."
Anna nodded. That was a good idea. She then lifted back up the small paper and looked at the house.
"Let's just check it out," John suggested. "I'm sure there will be little projects we can work on over time."
This made Anna brighten slightly. She nodded then and laughed.
"You do know me well, Mr. Bates," she saucily said. She leaned forward and kissed him quickly. Her hands came up to play with the hair at his nape. "Where's Jack?" She whispered into John's ear.
"Downstairs, helping Ivy and Alfred."
"Then we have time," Anna winked. John sat back slightly. "What?"
"Should we? I don't want to…"
"John, I am fine," Anna assured him. "The doctor hasn't given me any restrictions. Plus, we ought to do it now before we have three small children. It will be much harder then."
John smirked. "I guess I can't argue with that."
"No, no you can't," Anna winked.
-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-
"It's just ghastly!"
"Poor, Mr. Pamuk."
"I know. He was such a kind gentleman."
"Gentleman? Well, I'm not sure about that. He had a book of conquests," Edith giggled, as the table around them discussed the surprising death of Kemal Pamuk.
Mary tensed, having not expected the dinner conversation to be full of talks about Kemal. Not that she should have been surprised. Her entire family had met him and had him over at their family estate.
Matthew caught on to Mary's discomfort, he placed his hand on her knee, and gave it a supportive squeeze. She wanted him to make them stop. The last several days had been shadowed by this news and her fear of that book ending up in the hands of the wrong person. While she wanted to believe in the good of people and that the names inside of that little black book wouldn't be released, Mary knew that people were not that good. No, they liked opportunity and they liked to strike in order to get their way.
"What do you suppose one puts inside of a book of conquests anyway?" Granny asked, her brows rising in disapproval. "Dreadful business, indeed."
"My guess is that he wrote down whomever he slept with and how he scored them," Sybil uncomfortably answered. A chill ran down Mary's spine. She hadn't even thought about that. Had she been scored? She felt like she might vomit.
"How vile," Edith said, but she was laughing at the idea of it all.
Mary's hands came heavily against the table, making the china shake. Everyone grew quiet and alarmed, eyes on Mary.
"Can we stop talking about Kemal Pamuk? It's all we've spoken about this evening. I thought we were here for Sybil's good news."
As Mary glanced up, she saw that her mama's eyes were staring at her worriedly and also slightly annoyed by her behavior. She straightened her shoulders and quickly looked away from her mother's piercing gaze. Then she looked to Sybil and smiled.
"Shouldn't we all be congratulating Sybil on her promotion?" She brightened her demeanor and thankfully everyone followed suit. Everyone's attentions went back to Sybil and her promotion at the hospital and talks of Kemal disappeared, at least for now. Mary was not naïve to believe that she could escape it forever, but eventually it would have to die out.
The turn of the conversation allowed Mary to slip back in her chair and go unnoticed, well by everyone except for her mother. She caught her mother glancing back at her every so often making Mary grow irritated. Thankfully, a tug on the sleeve of her arm gave her a good excuse to leave the table.
"Mummy?" Mary stood, taking George's hand and leading him out of the large dining room at the Abbey.
"How did you sneak away from Nanny?" She asked, but she really didn't care. She was grateful for his escape. They continued to walk until they reached the library and Mary sat down on one of the large chairs, lifting up George, and placing him into her lap. Her lips pressed against his temple and she could feel the tears bubbling up behind her eyes. But she was able to gather herself. She sat George up and met his eyes.
"You can't leave Nanny like that, darling. You could get hurt," Mary lightly scolded. She brought her hand up to brush her fingers through his hair.
"I don't want to play with Sybbie and Marigold," George pouted. "My tummy hurts."
Mary frowned. She brought the back of her hand up against his forehead.
"You don't have a fever. Did Sybbie or Marigold do anything to upset you?"
George's head shook.
The door behind them opened and Mary turned, relieved when she saw it was Matthew. He came to sit down beside them.
"Is everything alright?"
"George says his stomach hurts. We should probably go on home," Mary told her husband. He eyed her carefully. "He really did." Mary added.
"I'm sorry," Matthew just whispered. He took Mary's hand within his own and ran his thumb over her knuckles. "We shouldn't have come."
"I'm alright," Mary lied through a gritted smile. Matthew sighed, but didn't push. He then lifted George from Mary's lap, standing.
"Let us tell the others goodbye and then we'll go home."
-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-
John was anxious, more anxious than he had expected, as he opened Anna's door into the new home. He had come by a few days before and had fallen in love. It had everything they needed: plenty of space for them and their children and a large back yard for them to play in. He only hoped that his wife would feel the same way.
He walked beside his wife as she stood right in the doorway. They had decided to leave Johnny at the restaurant with Alfred. That way they could discuss what they thought as they walked through the home.
Standing by Anna, he was struggling to tell her thoughts on the place. She was doing a good job concealing her feelings. She kept looking at each room, but made little to no comments. He was pretty sure that she was about to tell him that they needed to start the search again. But he knew they needed a home soon. It would be easier for them to get settled before the babies were born.
When they reached the backyard, Anna let out a sigh.
"You hate it," John said, frowning. But Anna turned and shook her head.
"I'm sighing because I love it."
John's lips curled up into an amused grin, "And that makes you disappointed?"
"I wanted a fixer upper house, but this house has everything I wanted for a home. I just….I'm not used to not working for something, John." Anna's brows furrowed.
"You work every day, Anna. You've worked so hard for our future."
"I guess."
"Anna, right now you are working on growing two babies. Working for something can look different in many ways."
Anna seemed to ponder this and nodded.
"Do you want to make an offer? Or should we keep looking?"
"Let's make an offer. It would be nice to be able to move on in," Anna replied. "I think Johnny would love the backyard and we could get him and the twins a playset."
"That could be our project." Anna smiled.
"Yes, I rather like that."
At Anna's words, John lifted her up, kissing her and then spinning the both of them, making Anna laugh. He kissed her once more, before setting her down and then he felt foolish, his cheeks reddening.
"Are you alright? Did I hurt you or the babies?" Anna just continued to laugh.
"No," Anna promised him, through her hearty chuckles. "We're just fine. I'm just as thrilled as you are."
"Good, because if you're happy, I'm happy, my darling."
-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-
The doorbell rang and Mary paused what she was doing on her laptop. She checked the time on her phone and saw that she had just a little while before she had to pick up George from his playdate at Johnny's. George always loved going over to Johnny's home, because that meant he got to work at The Servant's Hall. He enjoyed helping organize condiments and taking orders. Granny was quite dismayed with the boy's love of 'commoners work' as she called it. It always made Mary laugh and assure her granny that George was only preparing for all ways of life.
She walked to the door and opened it, surprised to see Richard Carlisle standing in her doorway with a smug look upon his face. Mary scowled.
"What do you want?" There was no room for pleasantries when it came to Richard. The two had briefly dated years ago and it had been full of manipulation of him always trying to be in charge. Needless to say, that was only one of the reasons the two of them had not stayed together.
Richard wasn't the least bit ruffled by her response. Instead, he smiled. It was an unnerving smile, one that said he knew he was going to get what he wanted.
"Ah, how lovely it is to see you, Mary."
"Well, it's not lovely to see you. I have to go, so can we make this quick?"
"Certainly. I happen to have gotten my hands on this much spoken about conquest book of Mr. Pamuk and you'll never believe whose name I stumbled upon inside of it."
Mary could feel the blood draining from her face, but she tried everything in her power to keep herself from showing it to Richard.
"Oh, and who is that?"
"Yours, Mary. It's right there, on page twenty-two. Quite a lot said about you as well."
"What do you want?" Mary jumped right to the chase.
"Oh, I want something, Mary, and if you don't ensure I get it, I will publish this for all the world to see."
To be continued...
Thank you for reading :)