‘Oh, I see.’ She was stunned. She hadn’t realised he was a father. She didn’t really know anything about him, other than he was often photographed coming out of a restaurant or a nightclub with some beauty on his arm. ‘That will be nice for you.’
‘Yes,’ he said. ‘It’s just a pity I only get to see him every other weekend.’
‘I can see that must be difficult,’ Anna said softly.
‘It is.’ He turned away and continued putting the equipment back in the right containers. They worked in silence until everything was in the Range Rover and they were on the road towards Kensington. After encroaching on his personal life, Anna was hesitant to start up another conversation, so sat in rather uncomfortable silence beside him. She decided that, over the weekend, she’d have a look to see what was on the internet about his personal life. It might help prevent her from putting her foot in it in future. It was a relief when they arrived and she could start unpacking everything, glad of something to do.
When they were finished he said, ‘I tend to go to Cheshire every other weekend. I don’t normally plan shoots for a Friday if I’m going away but this one was delayed. It’s likely that every other Friday will be a short day, but there will be other days when you will need to work longer. Is that okay with you?’
‘Yes, that’s fine,’ she said. ‘Whatever suits you.’
‘Well, I’ll let you go, then. Have a good weekend.’
‘And you,’ she said quietly before leaving.
Anna walked towards the Tube station, wondering what to do with her unexpected time off. If she went home, she would only get bogged down in the numerous jobs that needed to bedone around the house. It was a sunny afternoon, too good to be wasted on chores, so she wandered around Kensington instead, taking snaps of whatever took her fancy, before settling at a table outside a café, contemplating the weekend ahead. She was actually looking forward to next week, wondering what she would learn from Daniel. On Monday they would be editing the photos they’d taken today and she couldn’t wait to see the results. Suddenly life seemed to be getting a whole lot better.
Chapter Eight
The next week was incredibly busy, either working with groups of models for magazines or with individuals at Daniel’s studio. Anna was completely in awe of some of the beautiful women she’d met, knowing that she could never look that good, even with loads of styling and make-up. Instead, she kept herself in the background, making sure she did as good a job for Daniel as she possibly could. He was a hard taskmaster and she was often the brunt of his terse commands, but she hoped in time, as she got better at her job, that he would soften towards her. Because she was learning so much working with him and was loving every minute of it.
‘You’re home late.’ Her father frowned at her as she arrived home on Wednesday evening. It was nearly seven o’clock and they’d been working on a difficult shoot. One of the models hadn’t turned up and another had been in a mood because she’d had an argument with her boyfriend. All the photos taken of her had turned out to be sulky rather than sultry and had had to be redone. Of course, that had meant Daniel had spent the whole day snapping at Anna, and the grumpier he’d become, the more nervous she’d felt, making mistakes that had worsened his mood. When they returned from the shoot, he’d insisted on them looking at what he had taken together, and he hadn’t been happy with the results. The last thing she needed now was a lecture by her father.
She had to admit the hours she worked for Daniel were rather erratic. What time they finished often depended on how well a shoot was going and how much editing the photographs needed. Daniel was certainly in demand, which often made for long days, something her family weren’t pleased about.
‘I should have a word with that boss of yours,’ her dad said. ‘He’s working you far too hard.’ It was a constant gripe of hiswhen she wasn’t around to do what he felt was her role in their lives, a role that she was increasingly beginning to resent. When she wasn’t working she wanted to be out following her own photographic instincts, not looking after her dad and brothers.
‘It’s the nature of the job, Dad,’ she replied tiredly. ‘I’m learning so much and I’m finally doing a job I’m interested in.’
‘Yes, but we need you here. I never know what time you’ll be getting home these days.’
Finally, Anna had had enough. ‘What? Does it put you out because I don’t have tea on the table waiting for you when you get back from the pub?’ Both her father and Jack often went to the pub for a couple of pints after they finished work, and when they came home they were hungry for their tea. ‘It wouldn’t hurt you to get your own meal for a change.’
‘How can we when we don’t know what you’ve got planned?’
‘Well, from now on you can assume that I haven’t got anything planned and you can do your own.’
‘Don’t be like that, Anna — you know we rely on you.’
She relaxed slightly at his softer tone, but wasn’t fooled by it. This was the tactic he used when she snapped, to sweet-talk her round. But not this time.
‘Well, then, maybe we should sit down at the weekend and plan the meals together. And each night take it in turns to cook.’
‘What would we want to do that for?’ He sounded genuinely puzzled.
‘Because I’m sick of being the only one who does anything around the house, so maybe we should have a rota for the cleaning too.’
‘And when would we have time for that? You know how hard me and Jack work, often seven days a week. Why should we have to come home and start doing the housework?’
‘Don’t you think I work hard too?’ She was incensed by his words.
‘Taking pictures is hard work now, is it?’
‘What would you know, Dad? You’ve never taken any interest in my career.’ Suddenly the frustrations that had built up over the years came tumbling out, and, although she knew her words would hurt him, she couldn’t stop herself. ‘You know I wanted to go to art college, that I wanted to be creative. But I never got a chance, did I? And you don’t care about that because you think all I’m good enough for is to be a skivvy for you lot.’
She could see the way his jaw was clenched, tightened in anger, and as she ran out of words she realised she’d said more than she should have. She also saw that Jack and Harry had come into the room at the sound of an altercation. Harry looked stricken at her words — Jack just plain angry.
‘You didn’t get to go to college because you didn’t get the grades. That’s not my fault,’ Andrew replied.
