Page 33 of Forgive Not Forget

“You see, dreams can come true. We never know what is just around the corner.” Anna couldn’t help grinning back at her. She extended a hand to the girl. “Come on, let’s see if Katherine needs any help with the dinner.”

CHAPTER13

As Anna and Abigail crossed the hallway, someone knocked on the door. Anna opened it to find Laura on the doorstep.

“Mummy!” Abigail shouted, wrapping her arms around her.

“Hey, darling. Have you been good for Anna?”

“Of course.”

Laura flashed a questioning look to Anna, and she nodded to back up Abigail’s statement.

Abigail stepped back to allow her mum to enter.

“Hi, Tom! How was school?” Laura called to her son, receiving a half-hearted grunt from the sitting room for her efforts. She rolled her eyes, took off her coat, and looked around the hall with her mouth open. “Finally, I get to see what this place looks like inside.”

Anna laughed as she closed the front door. “It only took us about thirty years to get in.”

“I think it was worth the wait.”

“I’m assuming Madam would like a full tour?”

“Madam insists.”

“Abi, will you tell Katherine I’m going to show your mum around? Then why don’t you go and watch television for a little while?”

“Okay.” Abigail skipped off across the hall into the sitting room.

“I love your knocker. Very apt.”

Anna smirked. “She’s delightful, isn’t she? A friend of Katherine’s bought it for her. Shall we start upstairs? I’ll show you my dressing room.”

“Dressing room! Are you about to make me very jealous?”

“I can’t promise I won’t,” Anna replied as she led Laura up the ornate, wooden staircase and into her dressing room.

“Oh my God, Anna! Is this even real?” Laura gasped.

Anna burned with pride over the room she had designed.

Laura examined the walls. “Look at this wallpaper.”

“I took the slightly darker blue of the birds and had the wardrobes painted in it.”

“It all matches beautifully,” Laura said as she wandered around the room. “Love the chair.”

“That’s a replica.”

“Feels genuine enough to me,” Laura said with a groan as she relaxed into the Queen Anne chair.

Anna took a seat in the Chesterfield office chair and spun around.

“How did your appointment go?” she asked, bringing the chair to a stop.

“Brilliant. The consultant — female, I might add — completely agrees with me. She said I’ve been suffering long enough and that it’s my body, my choice.”

“Great. When can you book the surgery?”