E For England

By Elisabeth Rose

From the author of The Ripple Effect comes a poignant novel about a mother who has given up everything for her kids, and her opportunity to take a risk on something for herself.

Annie never thought to use underwear to meet a man, but the trick works on her downstairs neighbour, Hugh. Though he's a handsome English doctor, Annie wants nothing more than friendship. Luckily, neither does Hugh.

But their friendship is shaken and their resolve tested when Annie's flatmate, sexy and voracious Leonie, meets Hugh. Annie has no claim on Hugh's nights, but can she bear to lose him to Leonie? And when Annie's husband suddenly reappears, will Hugh fight for the family he didn't know he needed?

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Australia
• Release date: Aug 1, 2013
• ISBN: 9780857990662

Elisabeth Rose

Multi-published in romance, author Elisabeth Rose lives in Australia's capital, Canberra. She completed a performance degree in clarinet, travelled Europe with her musician husband and returned to Canberra to raise two children. In 1987, she began practising tai chi and now teaches tai chi classes. She also plays and teaches clarinet. Reading has been a lifelong love, writing romance a more recent delight.

Book preview

Chapter One

‘I’ve just realised,’ announced Leonie to the group at large, ‘that I’ve never slept with two men of the same nationality.’

A roar of laughter greeted this pronouncement and she grinned slyly, smugly, Annie thought, at the guys. The good-looking waiter leaning against the bar chatting to the barman glanced across at the burst of noise, assessing Leonie and her svelte blonde attributes the way men often did, before he caught Annie watching him and looked away. As men often did. Not that Annie cared. She wasn’t in that complicated market anymore.

Chubby, soft Bernie, already balding at thirty, got up to order another round but Annie shook her head at his silent query. One drink after work on Friday was enough to maintain the semblance of a social life. She had responsibilities, children waiting to be collected from the minder, dinner to prepare, baths to be run, stories to be read.

‘Had an Indian guy, Leonie? What about Ishan in Accounts?’ Mike leaned forward, brow wrinkled slightly as he tried to remember other international work colleagues who might feature in Leonie’s love-life.

‘He’s married,’ interjected Annie. ‘If that matters to anyone.’

‘And he must be at least fifty.’ Leonie screwed up her face in exaggerated thought. The age seemed more of an issue than the marital status. ‘No Indians but I had a one-night stand in Vegas and there was another guy, a German, in Thailand and a Kiwi…’

‘One-nighter?’ interrupted Mike.

‘No, two. He was a pilot.’

‘Must have been love.’

‘So are you heading out tonight for another international notch for your belt?’ asked Jane. ‘Plenty of tourists in Darling Harbour.’

Bernie carefully distributed the new round of drinks, eyeing Leonie with renewed interest, deciding her severely cut charcoal grey work attire hid a wealth of secrets he had no idea existed.

Annie stifled a yawn. This was unfettered singletons territory. Time to leave.

‘Are you working your way through the alphabet?’ she asked as she collected her bag and jacket from the back of her chair. ‘I do that with library books. I’m reading my way alphabetically through the library because it takes the time and effort out of choosing one. I just take the next book on the shelf each time regardless of the cover or the title. I’ve come across some fantastic books — plus some duds.’

Leonie stared up at her, blue eyes wide with delighted surprise. ‘What a brilliant idea! Why not screw my way through the alphabet? The ratio of duds to fantastic is probably about the same. And if I don’t go by the cover…’

Annie smiled. ‘See you later, folks.’

Leonie raised a hand in farewell. ‘See you in the morning, Annie. I might not make it home tonight. I have blanks to fill. I’ve done A for America and C for Canada, but not B yet. Or D or E.’

‘B comes first. Belgium? Brazil?’ suggested Mike. ‘Botswana, Burma.’

Annie left them to it. All the effort involved in the mating dance made her tired. Why bother? Everyone ultimately ended up in more or less the same boat. Old, with or without a spouse, with or without kids, debts and not enough money. Never enough money.

Annie sat on the edge of the tub making sure Floss didn’t drown, but her thoughts wandered from the little girl batting bubbles in the bath to Leonie and her sex life, the fun of being single, dating a variety of men, no responsibilities beyond work and paying the rent on time. How easy was that when you were the only one involved?

Warm, rose scented water splashed onto her thigh accompanied by childish giggles. Floss started another wave which threatened to overflow onto the floor. Annie sprang to her feet and grabbed a towel.

‘Time to get out, sugarplum. Pull the plug, please.’

Her daughter stood up, pink cheeked and smiling, damp ginger gold curls wisping about her cheeks and neck and water glugging down the plughole at her little feet. A sweet smelling bundle enveloped in the towel and her mother’s arms, whisked out of the tub to be dried. Would she give this up for being single again despite all the recent chaos and emotional meltdowns? Fiercely, never.

Mattie was already in bed in the top bunk. Annie tucked Floss up with Teddy and provided the numerous kisses and cuddles required for sleep.

‘Mum?’ From Mattie. ‘Can we have a dog?’

‘Oh yes, a dog, pleeeease?’ From the bottom bunk.

‘You know we can’t while we’re living here. As soon as we find a house I promise we’ll get a dog.’

‘When will we find a house?’ asked Floss. ‘I don’t like this place. I want my own room.’

‘When I find something I can afford, that we like, in the right area, we’ll move.’

‘Why can’t we move back to our old house? Where Daddy lived with us?’

‘Because Daddy doesn’t live there anymore,’ said Mattie.

‘Lights out now. Goodnight, sleep tight.’

Annie clicked off the light but left the door ajar so the hall light was visible. Floss needed that reassurance in their new circumstances. So did Mattie, although he liked to play the big, brave brother to his nearly five year old sister. Sharing the room by necessity was a good thing for the time being. Six and a half isn’t really a big boy.

‘Daddy doesn’t live there anymore.’ None of them did because she couldn’t afford the rent on one income. Where the hell was Daddy, that’s what she’d like to know. Finding himself somewhere apparently, in Laos according to the most recent postcard to the kids. If he ever did he’d better not drag his sorry carcass back to her! All she wanted from Kevin was maintenance money and that had dried up six months ago, hence the enforced move.

The offer to share with Leonie had been a godsend at the worst time of her life. She’d never forget her kindness in taking in a desperate woman with two small children. But kind as Leonie was they couldn’t stay permanently. The apartment wasn’t geared for a family; it was all chrome, grey and white, with hard floors and clean lines, and the offer hadn’t been meant to be forever, just a stopgap till Annie found somewhere else. Two months was stretching the friendship. Not that Leonie had said a word but they must be cramping her style based on tonight’s conversation in the bar. Single and loving it, that summed up Leonie.

Annie slid the living room door open and walked onto the balcony. Up-market and designed for young professionals, all the apartments in the block had the most stupendous views. Sydney Harbour looking north, with lights twinkling in the gathering darkness and the last rays of the setting sun glowing to the west over the Harbour Bridge. Perfect for single, legal whizz Leonie and similar upwardly mobile neighbours. If Annie hadn’t met Kevin and almost immediately begun producing Mattie who knew where she might be today?

Useless speculation. She was a mother and at this stage of their lives that role defined her.

She began collecting the array of underwear she’d left drying on the airing rack that morning. Up on the seventh floor the wind dried things very quickly but a couple of items had blown off the rungs. She scooped them up and took stock. One, two, three bras and one two, three, four, five… Dammit. One pair of knickers was missing. Her best ones from Victoria’s Secret. The ones which matched her pink and black lacy push-up bra, bought to tempt a husband rapidly losing interest. Now she knew why she and her underwear failed to keep him; he was planning his escape. Now she wore the ensemble to give herself a private ego boost when the world looked bleak, which was frequently.

‘Double dammit!’ Annie peered over the balcony railing into the gloom below. Too dark to see properly, she’d have to go down. The kids would be all right for a few minutes. She took the remaining articles inside and locked the sliding door, in case some nut case climbed up the façade like Spiderman and stole her children while she was gone. Ten minutes she’d be, ten minutes was all it could take. Less. She peeped in on the children. Both asleep. Little angels. She smiled.

Keys securely in her pocket, she rode the elevator down to the ground floor. This had happened before and she’d found Floss’s missing sock directly beneath the balcony. Not this time. The only light came from the tiny bulbs illuminating the walkway and from apartment windows, but her knickers weren’t on the ground. She walked around the corner to the side where oleanders grew as a thick screen along the fence line on an embankment enclosed by a four foot high retaining wall, their leaves rustling and murmuring secrets in the night breeze.

Annie peered up into the branches. Aha! Something pink dangled, just visible in the light from someone’s kitchen window. She studied the situation. Way too high to reach. She’d have to climb onto the embankment and shake the branch. Those knickers were expensive; she wasn’t giving them up without a fight.

She clambered onto the wall and struggled through the oleanders. Thick stems grew close together, she discovered, and the branches came straight out from the ground rather than a central trunk. From deep inside the thicket, with her body wedged between unyielding wood, twigs sticking in uncomfortable places, hair catching and pulling, praying spiders and crawly things weren’t lurking, she grabbed a branch and began shaking. But there was no way of telling which branch was the right one, or even if the thing she could dimly see flapping about was really her pair of knickers. They could have blown off someone else’s balcony, belong to someone else. They might land on her head. Some stranger’s underpants on her head!

She stopped shaking branches and strained to see what was up there. Definitely pink. Hers. She grabbed another random branch and shook as hard as she could. Those knickers were coming down!

Inside Apartment 1 Hugh paused at the kitchen bench, bottle of wine in one hand, two glasses in the other. Something was rummaging around in the bushes outside the window.

‘What’s going on out there?’ He gestured to the darkened garden. Branches rustled and shook violently but there wasn’t enough wind to cause such a stir.

James came to stand beside him, leaning forward to stare through their reflections. He opened the window. Cool night air swirled in, the rustling suddenly louder.

‘Is it a possum?’

‘Could be a cat,’ Hugh said.

‘Maybe it’s a burglar.’

‘Not a very good one if he’s trying to climb the oleanders.’ Hugh put down the wine and glasses. ‘It’s stopped. I wonder if it knows oleanders are poisonous.’

‘We might have frightened it away.’

‘You haven’t,’ yelled a female voice. ‘It’s me.’

‘Who’s me?’ James looked at Hugh with eyebrows raised and a smile beginning.

‘Annie.’

‘Hello, Annie.’ Hugh leaned over the bench and peered into the darkness. ‘What on earth are you doing?’

‘Trying to get my undies out of the bushes.’

‘Right.’ James let fly a cackle of laughter.

‘They blew off my balcony upstairs.’ Something cracked and the oleanders shuddered. ‘Bugger! Ouch.’

‘Hang on, I’ll get a broom and a torch.’ Hugh headed for the laundry. Females in the shrubbery retrieving their undies? What on earth went on upstairs? Sounded as though whatever it was might be fun. Well worth a rescue effort.

Annie pulled a twig and a few leathery leaves from her hair while she waited. Good idea, a torch. She hadn’t thought of that. Oleanders were poisonous? Was that true? Which bits? Minutes later the dark figures of two men swung around the corner with a broom, the torch and broad grins.

‘Where are they?’

Annie pointed. The other one, with the stronger English accent, squinted up into the darkness and pinpointed her wayward knickers in a strong beam. ‘Mmm. Very nice.’

His mate poked with the broom and down came Victoria’s pink and black Secret. Annie pounced and stuffed them into her jeans pocket.

‘Thanks very much.’

‘Our pleasure,’ said the Englishman. He held out his hand. ‘Hugh Clelland.’

‘Annie Fisher.’ His grip was firm; from what she could see in the gloom he was relatively young with a tousle of dark hair and looked at her with more than a hint of interest. No prizes for guessing what he was thinking based on a glimpse of sexy lingerie.

The friend said, ‘James Clelland.’

‘Are you brothers?’ Different accents, similar builds and dark hair.

‘Cousins,’ said James. ‘Would you like to come in for a drink? Hugh was just opening a bottle of wine.’ Wow! Victoria’s Secret worked a treat on these two.

‘Sorry. No.’ She flapped her hands. ‘I mean I would but I can’t. My children are upstairs in bed. I can’t leave them alone any longer.’

She started towards the entrance, her turned back hiding the smile at the change her mention of children would make to these would be philanderers. Pity. Sharing a glass of wine would have been neighbourly and fun. She’d done it many times when she was still part of a couple. A couple rotting at the core but still…it hadn’t all been bad. Until the rot spread to the surface.

‘Children? How many?’ Definite alteration in the tone of Hugh’s voice. Married woman, change gear to neutral. He’d caught up and walked beside her. She glanced sideways. My goodness, his profile was knee-tremblingly handsome in the light, but the smile had gone. Didn’t approve of children, thought they shouldn’t be contaminating the singleton scene? What a pity such an attitude should reside in such perfect packaging.

‘Two. We’re staying here with a friend for a while.’

‘Holidaying?’

‘No, I…no. We’re between houses at the moment. I’m househunting.’

James said, ‘I think I’ve seen you about. Down at the park on the bay.’ He waved his key in front of the door’s security beam. ‘Balconies are a bit dangerous for kids, I’d imagine. What floor are you on?’

‘Seven. I agree. Mattie likes to kick a football.’ She gave a soft, despairing laugh. ‘My two aren’t allowed on the balcony without Leonie or me. I’m looking for a house with a yard but everything’s so expensive.’ Annie shrugged with a weak smile. ‘Sorry. You don’t want to hear my problems. Thanks for helping.’ She headed for the elevator.

‘No problem. Goodnight.’ James turned away with the broom over his shoulder like a rifle.

She jammed her finger on the Up button. What an exceptionally good-looking pair now she could see them properly. Particularly Hugh, despite the clouding over at the mention of children. Blue eyes, thick dark hair, a slow smile, a thinner, more mature face than James. The type of man she would have been very attracted to in the old days. Was very attracted to. She sneaked another peek at his face and snatched her glance away, swallowed, felt stirrings in body parts that had lain dormant for months.

Hugh didn’t swing away like his cousin, he lingered. He watched her with a slight wrinkle in his forehead as though he couldn’t make up his mind about something. Was he waiting to see her into the lift? A true English gentleman. Not interested in a dumpy, talkative woman with two children, but friendly, helpful and polite. A good neighbour.

The lift was, typically, taking ages. Annie pressed the button again. Why was he still standing there? She glanced down at her clothes, unwilling to meet that direct, assessing gaze from a pair of eyes that made her revert to tongue-tied, jangly adolescence. Dirty knees. A twig and dead leaves clung to the bottom of her jeans. She slid her hand over her bottom and surreptitiously removed a leaf-laden twig, let it fall to the floor. The best looking man she’d come across in years and she must be making such a good impression. For heaven’s sake! Her children were alone upstairs, she was a mother. Flirting wasn’t on the agenda.

‘Are oleanders really poisonous?’

He reached out suddenly and removed a piece of debris from her hair. She almost groaned aloud but his mind was on another tack. ‘Extremely toxic. Some people are sensitive to the leaves and sap. Any rashes or itching?’ He studied her face, brow wrinkled even more.

Annie grimaced. ‘Jeepers, if I’d known that I wouldn’t have dived in there.’ She extended her arms and studied them, turning her hands over and back. ‘Looks all right. Maybe my kids won’t be orphans just yet.’

‘Oh, I’m so sorry.’ Hugh’s expression morphed into dismay.

‘What for?’

‘Aren’t you a widow?’

‘No! Sorry. That’s just me being bitter and twisted. Their father may as well be dead for all the notice he takes of them.’

‘Aah.’ Hugh nodded but the earlier slightly disapproving frown returned.

‘We’re separated,’ she went on. ‘He’s off bumbling around in Asia somewhere. He took off about nine months ago to find himself. Hah! That’s a joke. I could have told him where he was. In fact I frequently did.’ She looked up at Hugh, met those intense blue eyes and clamped her mouth shut, then opened it. ‘Sorry, sorry, sorry. I’m doing it again. Raving on about stuff you have no interest in whatsoever.’ She jammed her finger on the lift button. ‘Don’t say it’s stuck again.’

‘The light’s moving.’

Annie glanced up. She flung him a quick smile. ‘You don’t have to wait, if you’d rather go and do whatever it was…have your glass of wine.’ He had the most beautiful eyes. Quite stunningly clear. Like Paul Newman’s. And that very direct way of looking at her, as if she was an interesting species of something under a microscope. Was she coming out in an oleander induced rash? Her right hand was itchy. ‘Are you a scientist?’

He laughed. A spontaneous, surprised laugh which lit his face and made those lovely eyes sparkle and her heart do a little hippety hop. ‘No. What made you ask that?’

‘Nothing. I just wondered.’

‘I’m a doctor.’

‘Really? What sort of doctor?’ Perhaps he wouldn’t mind having a quick look at Mattie’s throat. She mustn’t ask him, doctors would be sick of being taken advantage of like that and anyway, he didn’t appear to like children.

‘A respiratory specialist.’

‘Gosh!’

‘Is that so surprising?’

‘No. Sorry.’ She surreptitiously rubbed her hand on her jeans. Itchy, no doubt about it. He must be extremely intelligent and here she was blabbing all that bilious stuff about Kevin like a complete idiot.

‘That’s all right.’ His lips crinkled and the lovely eyes twinkled reassuringly.

Annie wiped her uncontaminated hand across her brow and sighed. ‘You must think I’m nuts.’

His smile disappeared, replaced by the intensely interested expression. ‘Hard to say without further analysis.’ Annie froze, shocked, for a moment. Was climbing around in poisonous oleander bushes searching for knickers crossing over the crazy line? Would this gorgeous man think she was nuts? Then he laughed. ‘Probably no more than the rest of us.’

The lift arrived with a groan and a hiss. The doors opened to spew forth a group of people dressed to party. Hugh moved to one side and Annie the other. She darted in. As the doors closed she caught a glimpse of his smiling face and hand raised in farewell.

‘Goodnight,’ he said.

Annie sagged against the wall, hot and steamy with delayed embarrassment. What would he be thinking of her? Mad as a hatter. Talking nonstop rubbish, some of it vitriolic. Children left alone while she clambered about in the bushes after her underwear. Underwear which erroneously indicated a sex life far wilder and in excess of her non-existent one. An unfit, neglectful mother? Was that what the frown was about?

Straightened. Who cared what he thought? She was a good mother, the best. She studied her right hand. A reddish patch spread across the palm. Was that poisoned blood beginning to move through her body? Or was it red from scratching just now? Hugh would know. The faster she washed it the better. My God he was handsome! Just because she wasn’t interested in a relationship didn’t mean she was oblivious to a man’s attractions.

She marched out of the lift to her door, shoved her hand in her jeans pocket for her keys. Not there! Fighting rising panic she slapped her hands onto the other pockets, dived inside, found knickers and a tissue. No keys. Not there? They had to be. She’d carefully, carefully, so carefully made sure she had them. They must have fallen out in the oleanders. Bugger! She’d have to go back down and on top of that she’d have to knock on Hugh and James’ door to borrow their torch and also ask one of them to come with her so she could get back into the building if she couldn’t find the keys. She slumped against the wall of the lift as it descended, eyes closed, head back.

Humiliation, tonight is thy night.

Hugh rejoined James in the kitchen and picked up the glass of red waiting for him on the bench.

‘That was funny.’ James picked up the remote and switched on the TV.

‘Knickers in the oleanders.’ Hugh sat down to watch the end of the news. It was funny, superficially, but was underwear more important than the safety of children? Never.

‘Do you reckon that was true? They blew off the balcony?’

‘Probably. Doubt whether she has much other action going on up there with two little kids underfoot.’

‘Not bad looking.’

‘No.’ Hugh sipped his wine. Not bad looking at all. Quite the opposite. Smooth long dark hair pulled away from an oval face with big grey eyes gazing out at a world that treated her pretty shabbily, from what he could tell. Full rounded breasts a man could fill his hands with. Neat waist. Voluptuous summed her up nicely. But. ‘She’s a single mother. Separated. Husband left her.’

‘You didn’t waste any time.’

‘She told me. I didn’t ask.’

‘It’s that professional medical manner you have.’ James chuckled. ‘People tell you anything.’

‘Hah. Right before they ask me to diagnose their latest symptoms.’

The news ended. James flicked channels. ‘There’s a Marx Brothers movie on now. A Night At the Opera.’

‘Fine.’ Hugh settled into his chair. A good old-fashioned laugh couldn’t hurt. He hadn’t watched television for ages. He’d forgotten how James loved those classic films.

Sexy and attractive though Annie may be, she shouldn’t have left her children alone. Not for any reason and certainly not for something as frivolous as underwear. Anything could happen. It only took an instant. He firmed his mouth and swallowed a mouthful of wine. She couldn’t be more than thirty. They must be young, totally helpless in the face of a fire, an accident or sudden illness.

The Marx Brothers started. Someone tapped on the door. A tentative knock as though whoever it was didn’t really want the door to be opened. James groaned.

‘I’ll go.’ Hugh left his wine on the coffee table and stood up. No-one had buzzed the intercom so it must be a neighbour. Borrowing a cup of sugar? He’d only been here two weeks but it didn’t strike him as a cake baking tenancy.

The door swung open to reveal Annie.

‘Hello. Lost more knickers?’ He instantly regretted the flippancy. Her eyes opened wide in a pale face, body tense. Tears hovered. Memory rippled through his body. A twenty four year old aftershock — panic, fear, the smell, the sound roaring in his ears. The screams.

‘My keys. I lost my keys outside and I can’t get into the apartment. My kids are there alone.’ Her fingers twisted and twined

Reviews for E For England

[jane.hunt.509511 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

E for England is a sweet contemporary romance with memorable characters.

Annie and Hugh create an instant bond with the reader which intensifies as the story progresses. If like me you enjoy character driven romance this is for you. The secondary characters particularly the children enhance the story and provide reality based humour that every parent will recognise and enjoy.

The plot is reality based and doesn't provide the escapism I usually seek in a romantic novel but the depth and authenticity of the characters made it a worthwhile read. The issues explored in the book are contemporary and sensitively handled by the author and it is impossible not to feel empathy for the mismatched pair as the story progresses.

I would recommend this easy read to all fans of sweet contemporary romance.

'I received this book from Harlequin Enterprises Australia via NetGalley in return for an honest review.