Page 21 of New Beginnings At Pencarrow Bay

Peggy thought of poor Teresa and understood why she might be scared.

‘I didn’t say who it was. I just asked, hypothetically, what he would do in a situation where someone he knew was experiencing that sort of worrying issue with a relative.

He was around victims and criminals his whole working life. ’

She watched Ted take a steadying breath. ‘So what did he say?’

‘Not much, other than that there are domestic abuse helplines she could call.’

‘How did he know it was a “she”?’ he asked suspiciously.

‘He didn’t. But it more often is, I suppose.’

‘Okay. I should have thought of that. But if she won’t, can I call it for her?’

‘Not sure. I imagine it’s better coming from her…

although it’d be a hell of a difficult call to make, wouldn’t it?

’ Peggy couldn’t even imagine how difficult.

You’d have to be really desperate to share your personal feelings with a helpline stranger, inform on someone so close to you , she thought, feeling for Lindy.

Ted shrugged. ‘I saw her this morning– we had a coffee. Felix apparently stopped her driving Ada to Truro the other day. Actually took her key fob, said she wasn’t safe driving his daughter any more. Said– listen to this– that he was thinking of contacting the DVLA to get her licence revoked.’

Peggy shook her head in disbelief. ‘Was he just taunting her? He can’t actually do that, can he?’

‘Not sure. I’d imagine the DVLA would need a doctor’s appraisal or something first.’

‘Did she get the fob back?’

Ted nodded. ‘Apparently she’d been searching for the bloody thing everywhere– she always leaves it in a bowl by the front door– but she was worried to ask Felix if he’d seen it in case he made another point about her losing her mind…

Then he dangled it teasingly in front of her.

’ He shook his head. ‘Honestly, I exploded. I said I was going straight to the house to have it out with him. But Lindy got hysterical when I suggested it. Won’t hear of intervention of any kind. ’

The atmosphere of the lunch had changed.

‘You’ve gone quiet,’ Ted said, searching her face. ‘You’re not annoyed that I’m making time for her, are you?’

‘No, absolutely not,’ she said. Which was true. She squeezed his hand across the small table, let it go. ‘It’s just…’ She didn’t know quite how to explain the unease she felt.

‘Just what?’

She shook her head.

Ted was looking thoughtful. ‘Okay, so what would you say to her, Pegs, if she’d come to you and not me?’

Peggy wondered, not for the first time, why Lindy had chosen Ted. Then she considered his question. ‘You can’t force someone to get help. So I suppose I’d just keep reiterating her options, hope one day she finally hears and does something,’ she said.

He pulled a resigned face. ‘Yeah…’ He seemed about to say more, then didn’t.

They walked home together, silently stepping up the pace a bit, heads down as they passed Lilac House.

The road was quite busy with day-trippers off the ferry visiting the castle or milling about taking photos of the bay.

But as they drew level with the house, they heard Felix’s voice ring out to greet them.

‘Hi, Peggy, Ted,’ he called.

Turning, Peggy saw him getting up off his knees, where he’d obviously been digging in the flowerbed. He waved the trowel at them, dark earth flying off in all directions, his face flushed, hair sticking up in unruly curls. ‘You two busy? If not, come in for a cuppa. I’m bored and gasping.’

They glanced at each other, slightly surprised. They had never been invited into the house before, except Peggy for her tutoring visits. Then Ted called back, ‘Great idea.’

Peggy quailed, suddenly worried Ted might say something that would lead to a confrontation in front of Ada. But she needn’t have worried: the big house seemed empty and quiet as they made their way along to the kitchen.

‘Where’s everyone?’ Ted asked, perhaps with the same thought.

Felix turned from filling the kettle and placing it on the hotplate of the Aga. ‘They went over to Falmouth. There’s a kids’ dance show on at the Princess. Lindy wanted Ada to see it. So kind. My mother-in-law loves dance.’

Peggy could not help noting the apparent affection in his voice for Lindy.

I love dance, too , she thought, a little wistfully.

Over the years she’d gone to as many ballets and dance shows as she could.

When she and Ted had first met, she’d taken him to a production at Sadler’s Wells.

She’d been so excited to introduce him to modern dance– with which he wasn’t familiar– and they’d had a lovely evening, discussing the show afterwards over shakshuka in a Lebanese café nearby.

He’d clearly been intrigued and enjoyed the performance, but she could tell it hadn’t touched him deep down like it had her.

So dance is something else I have in common with Lindy – although, so far, Lindy hadn’t mentioned it to her.

She had a moment of regret that she couldn’t yet reach out and offer Lindy support.

If Ted revealed that she knew about Lindy’s problem, though, maybe that would change.

They chatted as Felix wandered about the kitchen in an unfocused way, making tea and searching for a tray, choosing mugs, extricating a torn packet of ginger nuts from an airtight jar, sniffing the milk in the carton as he looked around for a jug, then giving up and plonking the carton on the flowery tray he’d found tucked beside the fridge.

Watching him, Peggy checked for signs of anything that seemed off.

But he didn’t appear any different from what she might expect– just a guy pottering around the kitchen, making tea– though she continued to eye him nonetheless.

‘Let’s have it on the bench,’ Felix was saying. ‘It’s too nice to stay inside.’

Peggy felt almost paralysed as they drank their tea.

Everything she thought to say was tinged with what Lindy had told Ted.

She found she couldn’t behave normally. Not that Felix appeared to notice as he banged on blithely about the garden and his plans for it.

‘I’m hoping to bring a bit more colour into it,’ he explained.

‘Lindy loves the ordered look, subtle shrubs, nothing bright, no flowers… “Italianate”, she calls it. Fair enough, but it’s a bit dreary for my taste. ’

That might explain what they were arguing about over the planter the other week , Peggy thought, bristling a little on Lindy’s behalf– it was her garden, after all: she could have it any way she chose– although their argument had seemed too heated to be about petunias.

‘Is it wise to get between a mother-in-law and her garden?’ she asked, slightly more sternly than she intended.

Did this show high-handedness on Felix’s part, a desire to have his own way that might indicate he was capable of taking that desire to inappropriate levels?

Peggy, after a moment’s consideration, decided this was a spurious conclusion to come to, without further evidence.

‘Probably not. But Gordon was the real gardener, not Lindy. Unfortunately she’s lumbered with me now.

’ He chuckled. ‘No trowels at dawn so far.’ He sighed.

‘To be honest, I’d go mad if I didn’t have the garden, even though I’ve never been responsible for one before– I’m just channelling my mother’s green fingers. ’

She smiled, but Ted did not. He was gazing at Felix thoughtfully– almost embarrassingly so, to Peggy– and had hardly said a word since they arrived.

Now he spoke. ‘But you get on well with Lindy?’

Felix considered the question, wiping a bead of sweat from his forehead with a chubby finger and rocking his head slowly from side to side.

‘You know. She’s my mother-in-law. This is her house, her rules.

I don’t have a lot of money right now, either, and I hate being beholden– although I hope that’ll change soon: I have plans…

But I reckon we get on okay. Kim finds her more difficult than I do, being closer.

Their personalities are very different.’

Peggy thought this was probably true. Kim, she suspected, even without the medication, had a more placid demeanour, and was a lot less dynamic than her impressive mother.

‘So what are these plans?’ Ted was asking.

Felix sucked his teeth. ‘Ooh, don’t want to say just yet, Ted. But it’s looking good.’

‘You’ll stay in the village?’

‘Not sure. Probably more likely set up in Truro till Ada finishes school.’

It all sounded quite reasonable to Peggy. He sounded quite reasonable. She wasn’t getting even a whiff of anything suspicious or sinister going on when he spoke about his mother-in-law. If he was lying about his relationship with Lindy, he was doing a very good job.

‘Lindy’s an incredible woman,’ Ted said, in a musing sort of voice, as if the thought had just occurred to him. ‘I mean, she’s nearly seventy, and she’s still rushing around organizing events, playing tennis, ruling the parish council, raising loads of money.’

Felix nodded. ‘I know. Awesome. Wish I had her energy.’ He spoke easily, genuinely. There seemed no evasion in his voice. Nothing to see here.

‘And me,’ Peggy agreed, with a laugh, once again a little shamed at her current inactivity by comparison.

Ted’s gaze was still on Felix, as if he were trying to drill down into his soul. ‘You know, if you ever need advice about something… you can talk to me,’ he said unexpectedly, his tone earnest.

‘Advice?’ Felix queried, clearly puzzled.

‘Umm, with these plans of yours… or your mother-in-law, for example,’ Ted added awkwardly, making Peggy cringe. ‘We all know how tricky they can be.’ He gave a hearty laugh, which sounded slightly nuts.

Felix looked baffled, but he had obviously been well brought up. ‘Thank you, Ted. Good to know.’

‘Right, time to be off, I think.’ Ted downed the last mouthful of tea and shot to his feet as if he couldn’t wait to get out of there.