Page 17 of New Beginnings At Pencarrow Bay

Peggy opened the front door, to be greeted by Bolt’s excited bouncing and barking at her return.

Ted was standing with his back to her, very still by the windows to the terrace, his arms crossed.

He must have hurried home today , Peggy thought.

He was sometimes back by five, but usually later.

Now Ted didn’t move, even though he must have been aware she was there.

‘Hi,’ Peggy called, her heart beating faster at seeing him spin round, his face a mask of anxiety.

He came towards her and wrapped her in his arms. ‘Oh, God, Peggy, I feel so awful. I should never have promised Lindy.’ He fell silent as he held her close.

After a moment, she pulled away. ‘Let’s get a cup of tea and sit down.

You can explain properly.’ Her heart hadn’t stopped fluttering at his embrace.

She found she almost didn’t want to hear what he was about to say now.

For Ted, who usually radiated ease and enthusiasm in equal measure, his demeanour was intense.

She moved to the counter and began to make the tea: filling the kettle, turning it on, retrieving teabags– the builders’ variety they both liked– and placing them in the elegant white china mugs with the blue rim she’d bought from a café in the village when it was closing down.

She got milk from the fridge and plopped it into the brew, stirring till the colour was to her liking.

And all the while Ted, behind her at the table, sat chewing his thumbnail in absolute silence.

‘Right,’ she said, almost severely, when they were opposite each other, the early evening light slanting through the bi-fold doors to lay a soft warmth on the oak surface and the side of Ted’s face.

He took a preparatory breath. ‘Okay. So, Lindy’s been coming to the van since the beginning. Not often, but regularly enough. I’ve sort of got to know her a little over the months, to pass the time of day. But nothing more.’

Peggy nodded.

‘Then a few weeks back she came up to the hatch and asked if I’d be able to take a break because she’d really like to tell me something.’ He shrugged. ‘She looked quite upset. So I was concerned and went to sit with her at one of the tables.’

Ted paused. Peggy still didn’t speak.

‘She seemed embarrassed, reluctant to tell me at first. She kept apologizing, saying, Maybe it’s nothing and I’m making a silly fuss .

Finally she came out with something to the effect that it was Felix.

Apparently he’s treating her weirdly. Seems to be trying to manipulate her, mess with her head. ’

Peggy was puzzled. Of all the scenarios she’d spent the day inventing, once the affair was out of the running, this was not one of them. ‘What does she mean by “manipulate”? What sort of things?’

‘Well, for instance, she says Felix stole her phone and hid it in the bathroom bin, then accused her of putting it there. He said she’d forgotten to pick up Ada from tennis, when she’d never been asked to do it– Kim usually does.

She bought a loaf of bread from Jake, then it disappeared and Felix insisted she’d only imagined buying it…

I can’t remember everything, but that sort of thing. ’

Peggy shook her head in disbelief. ‘Seriously? Could Lindy be mistaken? I mean, why on earth would Felix do that?’

‘I don’t know. She seems to think he wants her to believe she’s losing her mind.’

‘Lindy said that?’

‘Not in so many words. But last time we met she said, He’s making me feel weak and confused, so I’ll be more amenable. When I asked her what exactly she meant by that, she wouldn’t say. I can only assume she meant “amenable” to what Felix wants… Money, perhaps?’

‘This sounds crazy,’ Peggy said, after a moment.

‘How could you make someone like Lindy seem demented? She’s sharp as a tack.

’ She shook her head, her irritation with the woman forgotten.

‘I’m really shocked, though. Felix? Would he manipulate his own mother-in-law like that? I can’t imagine it. He seems so nice.’

‘I agree. But she’s genuinely upset about it, Pegs. Vulnerable in a way I’ve never seen Lindy before. She’s normally so upbeat and confident.’ He sighed. ‘Whatever’s going on down there, it’s obviously really troubling her.’

Peggy frowned when he’d finished. ‘How horrible for her.’ She thought for a minute. ‘Where’s Kim in all this?’

Ted let out a slow stream of breath. ‘You’ve said yourself on a number of occasions that she seems very unwell, so no help there. She’s on antidepressants, Lindy says, as we suspected. But they don’t appear to be working.’

There was a long silence while Peggy tried to process what Ted had told her.

‘So, the day I met Quentin, she was talking to you about this on the bench behind the castle? I wish you’d told me,’ she said.

‘You know how my crazy brain works. I began to think there was something dodgy going on between you two, especially when I heard you’d been in the pub together…

then the early morning phone call. At least I know now why you’ve been so strange recently. ’

Ted looked contrite. ‘I’m so sorry, Pegs.

She made me vow and swear not to say anything to you.

I should never have agreed. But she pointed out it’s a very small community we live in, and that she was employing you.

Said it would be really awkward, you coming to the house and knowing this was going on.

She implied she couldn’t face that.’ He sighed. ‘So I promised… I know it was wrong.’

Peggy accepted his explanation. She was too intrigued– and puzzled– by what he was telling her to dwell on his transgression. ‘So what do you say, when she tells you all this? How does she think you can help her?’

‘I’m not sure. I never know quite what to say. She’s sort of jumpy and tearful, says she’s constantly on edge, not sleeping… feels Felix is constantly watching her. She worries about what he might do next.’

Frowning, Peggy asked, ‘What does she think he’ll do?’

Ted sighed. ‘Don’t know. But last time we met, she said she was feeling so ground down by it all, she was scared she actually might begin to lose it, Felix was making her feel so uncertain.’

Peggy considered what he was saying. She hadn’t noticed any sign of this in Lindy, from the times she’d seen her.

Although that day when she’d been arguing with Felix …

‘So this is from Felix hiding the phone and stuff? Or is there worse?’ She gave a short laugh.

‘Not that I’d appreciate someone hiding things to make me feel loopy, of course.

I just wondered if there was anything more sinister. ’

Ted nodded. ‘Sort of. Yesterday she told me that Felix had started talking casually about power-of-attorney the other night. Asked her what she knew about it– for his friend whose mother isn’t well, he said . But Lindy thought he was warning her somehow.’

‘Goodness, it’s hard to know what to suggest. I mean, could she talk to Dr Jenks? Lindy must know him well from when Gordon was ill. And everyone says he has a very sympathetic ear.’

Ted pursed his lips. ‘I suggested that, even though I’m not a big fan of the medical profession, as you know.

She flatly refused even to consider it. Said why should she go to the doctor when she knows nothing’s wrong with her.

Plus she’s convinced it would be round the village that she’s losing it within ten minutes…

She claims Carol, the surgery receptionist, gossips for Britain. ’

Peggy frowned. ‘But that’s not logical, is it? Wouldn’t Dr Jenks do tests or something, confirm there wasn’t anything wrong with her?’

Ted’s face took on a frustrated expression. ‘I know.’ He took a breath. ‘She desperately needs support, Peggy. I feel, now she’s opened up to me, I can’t let her down. Even if all I do is listen.’

Seeing the pain in his eyes– it almost felt like panic– Peggy sensed there was more weight to his anguish than seemed appropriate.

‘I’m still finding it hard to imagine Felix doing any of this to her.

I know they have their differences, but he doesn’t seem the sort of man who’d do such an awful thing to his mother-in-law. I like him. You like him, too.’

Ted shrugged. ‘I do. But maybe he’s not quite who he seems. Lindy’s told me stuff about the debacle that lost him his job and his money that casts a very different light.’

‘Go on.’ It had always been something she and Ted had speculated about in the past.

‘I don’t have all the details– she always seems to pitch up when the van’s busy– but this is the gist. Apparently he and another guy were heavily involved in stock manipulation.’

‘What does that actually mean?’ Peggy had heard the term, but her brain instantly fogged over when faced with anything to do with financial markets.

Ted, knowing this about her, gave a brief smile, the first of the evening.

Then he became serious again. ‘In Felix’s case it meant he and his boss managed artificially to deflate the stock price of a number of large-capital companies.

It’s quite hard to do, but they were very good at it, according to Lindy. ’

‘But isn’t that illegal? Why didn’t he go to jail?

’ She still didn’t know how anyone would go about deflating a stock price or what exactly would happen if they did, but she wasn’t going to ask.

She knew she wouldn’t understand the answer for more than a passing second and didn’t want to put Ted to the trouble of explaining the workings of the markets over and over, in more and more simplistic terms, until they fell into an exhausted heap.

‘Not sure,’ Ted was saying. ‘Something about strings being pulled, Felix knowing the right people. He claimed that his boss had groomed him, bullied him into collaborating… Can’t remember if his boss went to jail.

I know it’s a hard crime to detect and prove.

The bank kept it all under wraps, Lindy said, to avoid a public scandal.

But they still took a dim view of Felix’s behaviour– quite rightly. ’

There was silence in the warm kitchen as the sunlight moved away and began to fade to a rosy dusk across the bay, leaving the room in shadow.

Peggy stared out of the window. Then she turned back to Ted.

‘I just wonder… What if Felix really has seen something in Lindy? We haven’t noticed anything odd, but maybe at home, when her guard’s down, she does– unconsciously– do sort of concerning things.

’ She paused. ‘His actions seem so strange, otherwise. It wouldn’t be easy to get his hands on her money and her house, anyway, if you’re right and that’s his aim.

Not without a proper medical diagnosis of dementia or Felix obtaining power-of-attorney…

which surely would be Kim, as her next-of-kin. And Lindy would have to agree to it.’

Ted stared at her, frowned. ‘Are you saying you think she might genuinely be having symptoms? That you believe Felix?’

‘Look, as I said before, Lindy seems one hundred per cent on the ball to me. I just think this is really odd, that’s all.’ Peggy was surprised to feel a sudden tension in the room.

‘It’s really not helpful you implying she’s losing it,’ Ted snapped. ‘You’re behaving like Felix.’

‘I didn’t say that,’ she said emphatically. ‘I’m only trying to find a sensible explanation, Ted.’

‘Hmm,’ Ted said, his tone cool as he reached over to pick up her empty mug and take it, with his own, to the sink.

Peggy was baffled by the defensive position he was taking. ‘You’re making me feel bad,’ she said. ‘Let’s not argue. We’re on the same side here.’

Ted came over to sit beside her. He sighed, squeezed her hand. ‘Sorry.’

Neither spoke.

Then Peggy asked, ‘Are you going to tell Lindy I know?’

Ted gave a small shrug. ‘I don’t want to lie to her. But what she told me was in confidence, Peggy. I don’t know how she’s going to feel if she knows I shared it. That’s her worst fear realized.’

Peggy bit her lip. Even with me? It made her feel a little hurt that Lindy was so desperate for her not to know, while Ted did.

After a minute he went on, ‘Look, I’m not enjoying the situation, listening to her problems, seeing her unhappiness. But I am going to be there for her, Pegs. I’m worried about her. Now you know the situation, you don’t object, do you?’

‘Of course I don’t. I want to help her as much as you do,’ Peggy insisted. ‘You know I like Lindy. She’s been so kind to me.’ She pulled a wry face. ‘But there’s no need to sneak around. If you’re meeting her, just say.’

Ted gave her a relieved smile. ‘Thanks, sweetheart. God, I’m so glad I’ve told you. It’s been eating me up, keeping Lindy’s secret and knowing you suspected something.’ He dropped a kiss on Peggy’s cheek and rubbed his hands together. ‘So, what’s for supper, then?’

She told him, and rose to begin the process.

As she pulled the cling-film off the dish of Vietnamese beef salad– from Nigel Slater’s brilliant cookbook Christine and the team had given her as a retirement present– she pondered on what Ted had told her.

He was right: Lindy was potentially vulnerable.

It was fine having family living with her– as long as those family members had her best interests at heart.

But if they didn’t… Her heart went out to her new friend and she felt mean for being funny about the dry robe and the drink.

Lindy was obviously just thanking Ted for his support with a lovely birthday present.

She poured the spicy dressing of lime, fish sauce and sweet chilli over the cooled beef– tender, Cornish-reared and grass-fed local meat, a million miles away from your average supermarket version– tomatoes from Jake’s greenhouse, thin sticks of cucumber and some of the watercress that grew in abundance in the stream that ran down from the hills and ended in the field next to the castle.

She was thoroughly ashamed of herself for doubting Ted– and worried about what might be happening to Lindy. It was hard to know how to help.