Anne Severn and the Fieldings

Anne returns to the sprawling Fielding estate after her mother’s funeral, escorted by a father who soon departs for India. The house, with its nine gabled roofs, yew‑bordered lawns and a quiet pond of goldfish, feels both familiar and foreign, a place where memories of a mother linger in the scent of stonecrop and the soft murmur of water.

She is soon surrounded by the Fielding children—Jerrold, the lively thirteen‑year‑old, his younger brother Colin, and the thoughtful Eliot. Jerrold’s exuberant laughter pulls Anne toward the tennis court and the pond, offering a brief escape from her grief. Yet the goldfish glinting in the olive‑green water remind her of loss, and the quiet conversations of the adults hint at the uneasy role she must play among the family’s boys.

Caught between the desire to play and the weight of mourning, Anne navigates a world of whispered expectations, lingering sadness, and the tentative hope that a simple game might ease the heaviness in her chest.