Page 37 of New Beginnings At Pencarrow Bay

‘I hope he finds something,’ Ted said, the following morning, when Peggy told him about Lindy’s email and Liam’s internet search attempts. He was wolfing down his usual porridge and blueberries, perched on the edge of the kitchen chair, obviously keen to get off to the van.

‘It’s such a creepy thought,’ she said softly. ‘It must be someone in the village, someone I actually know , doing this to me. My job tutoring Ada hasn’t been anywhere online.’

Ted didn’t comment as he shovelled more oats into his mouth.

‘This is such a beautiful place,’ she mused. ‘Yet it’s harbouring someone manipulative and spiteful. It makes me think I don’t want to be here any more.’

Ted’s gaze shot up, his spoon clanked against the side of the bowl. ‘You don’t mean that, Pegs.’

Your beloved Pencarrow Bay , she thought sadly, knowing that she, too, had come to love the village. ‘Well…’ she said.

‘Hey,’ he said, putting down his spoon. ‘It’s only one person . We’ll find out who it is, and things will go back to normal.’

Normal? she thought, gulping some coffee– she wasn’t hungry and hadn’t made porridge for herself. ‘The emails will leave a mark, won’t they? If people find out, they’re bound to wonder. We would. And no one wants to be friends with a bully. Especially a bully of sick kids .’

‘Come on, sweetheart. You’re exaggerating. This will all be resolved soon, I’m sure of it. If necessary, you can prove you didn’t bully anyone.’

She gazed at Ted, wanting him to be right, but not convinced.

‘I’m talking gossip here. Gossip has scant regard for the truth.

And I can hardly go around with a piece of paper pinned to my chest, saying the hospital really loved me, just in case there’s someone out there who doesn’t believe me.

’ She felt wound up enough to explode. ‘It’s all right for you,’ she cried.

‘You’ve got your gorgeous coffee van, your sport, your massive circle of friends… ’

Ted, looking concerned, got up and came over to where she was leaning against the kitchen island.

‘Hey, come here.’ He wrapped her in his arms and she clung to him.

‘You know it’s not like that. You love the bay.

And even if you didn’t teach, there are loads of other things you can do…

Look at Lindy. She’s been retired for years and she never stops. ’

Peggy wanted to scream. ‘That’s beside the point.

It’s not just about work or doing stuff, it’s about friendships and being accepted…

being part of the wonderful Pencarrow community.

That’s the whole point of living here.’ Tears filled her eyes.

Why does he always have to bring up Lindy as the perfect woman?

Especially now, when Peggy was beginning to question Lindy’s truth.

Ted looked bewildered as Peggy took a long breath. ‘Sorry. Listen, go, you’ll be late.’

He searched her face for a long moment. ‘Come down later for a coffee?’ he said, dropping a quick kiss on her cheek. She could see he was worried about her, but she didn’t have the energy to reassure him, so she just smiled briefly and waved him away.

‘Right,’ said Liam, when he emerged from his bedroom a couple of hours later, carrying his open laptop. ‘Progress of a sort.’

Peggy, who was trying to concentrate on the novel she was reading on the terrace, was dismayed to see her son’s gaunt face, the black circles under his eyes. ‘God, sweetheart, you look knackered. I’ll get you a coffee.’

He fell into a chair, laying his laptop on the table. ‘Been up since five. This person is a really slippery bastard.’

When she returned, impatient to know what he’d found out, Liam was concentrating on the screen, typing at high speed. But he stopped and turned towards her. ‘So I think I found him. He’s using all the usual sneaky tricks: VPNs and Tor, routing through multiple servers…’

‘Just tell me who it is,’ she pleaded.

‘Well, all I have is a name: Ori Tafa. If that is his real name and not an alias.’ He gave a dry laugh. ‘Or an anagram… Seems he’s located in Albania.’

‘Sienna mentioned Albania too. Never heard of him, obviously. So what does it mean?’

‘Well, no idea yet. All I have is some of the companies that pinged up linked in some way with that name… Maybe he’s done business with them.

Or just hacked them. It’s hard to say how the connections relate to him.

’ He swivelled the laptop so Peggy could see.

‘It looks like he might be tenuously connected to these three companies, from what I can make out. Do they mean anything to you?’

Sitting down next to him, she read, ‘Tang Solutions. Aztec Corp. Redmayne Capital Group.’ She shook her head.

Liam sighed. ‘Presumably this Mr Tafa is being paid by someone else.’

Peggy shuddered. The thought was not a pleasant one.

He yawned. ‘Might get some kip and do more later.’ He gave her a tired smile. ‘It’s a start, Mum. We have a name, at least.’

‘You’ve been brilliant, sweetheart. Thanks so much. It’s definitely a start.’ She cocked her head at him. ‘Where did you learn to do this, by the way?’

Liam grinned and sucked his teeth. ‘Misspent youth. For most people that means sex or snooker. For me it was the dark web. Fascinating.’

‘I had no idea.’

‘I never really told you what I was up to at uni, though, did I? We saw so little of each other.’ He gave a wistful sigh. ‘Liverpool held too many delights.’

She thought back. Neither of her sons had spent much time at home after they started university. ‘I often wondered what you were getting up to,’ she said now, ‘but it was a difficult time, with me and your father splitting up. And you both so angry with me.’

Her son frowned. ‘I wasn’t really angry, Mum…

Well, I suppose I was, a little. More shocked I think.

’ He reached over and gave her shoulder a squeeze.

‘I’m sorry if me and Dan were bratty back then.

I see now that Dad wasn’t the easiest person to live with.

Am I right?’ He was eyeing her intently as he waited for her to answer.

She let out a slow breath. Her immediate instinct was to continue with the lie that she and Max had just ‘run out of steam’, which she’d peddled to the twins at the time.

But she was too raw and vulnerable right now, her defences not as robust as usual.

‘It wasn’t easy,’ she heard herself admitting.

‘In what way?’ Liam asked.

‘Oh, listen, sweetheart, I don’t want to drag all this up again.’

‘No, but tell me, Mum,’ he insisted.

And, after a long moment, Peggy finally offered her son the truth– although edited by time to a more palatable version for a child to hear about his father.

She told him Max had occasionally ‘strayed’, wincing at the euphemism– it wasn’t ‘occasional’ either.

She told him about the carousing, but left out the endless times Max had passed out on the sofa at four in the morning, the nights he didn’t come home at all, Peggy left wondering when she should call the police and find out if her husband had fallen under a bus.

She explained the lack of help she’d had with the boys until Max decided it would be amusing to lead them astray.

She carefully left out the extent of her pain and resentment– Liam didn’t need to know that.

‘Wow,’ he said, when she’d ground to a halt.

He blew out his cheeks. ‘Sounds grim, Mum. I’m sorry you had to deal with all that.

’ He was silent for a minute. ‘Although what you say doesn’t surprise me that much.

Dad’s a pleasure-monger– whether it’s good food, drink, beautiful women.

I love him, but I can’t spend too much time with him.

It’s his way or the highway– as Dan is finding out to his cost now. ’

Peggy felt tears threatening and swallowed hard. It was so good finally to share some of what had gone on, to have it acknowledged and accepted by one of the only two people who really mattered. ‘It was a long time ago now,’ she said.

‘I’m glad you told me,’ Liam said sincerely.

‘Come here,’ he added, pulling her to her feet and into a strong, loving embrace.

‘Love you to bits, Mum. You were a brilliant mother, you know. Dan and I have always, always recognized that and loved you for it… even if we sometimes gave you a hard time.’ She laughed, Liam grinned, and they stepped apart, slightly self-conscious now about what had been said.

Neither spoke again, as Liam finished his coffee and wandered off to his room– Peggy reckoned he’d sleep till at least lunchtime.

She sat there, shaken by the emotions that had risen from her recounting of the past to her son, although, like Liam, she was happy she had done so.

He will tell his brother , she thought. It felt like a significant moment, not one they could ever have had in a noisy restaurant surrounded by people.

But gradually, in the hot morning sunshine, the present– painful in a different way– reasserted itself.

The name her son had come up with, ‘Ori Tafa’, began to chafe at her brain, like a persistent itch she couldn’t scratch.

It wasn’t even a name that was hovering in the memory files refusing to come out– like so much else these days.

She had, unequivocally, never heard of him. The man didn’t sound real at all.

A buzz from her mobile on the table dragged her from her thoughts.

Beach? Bring coffee pls, if poss xxx

She smiled. Quentin. Just who I need to distract me. She sent a thumbs-up emoji, with On my way xxx and received three smiley faces plus a heart in response.

On the way down the hill with the coffees, she bumped into Gen, dressed in colourful shorts and a bright vest, with serious walking boots and a knapsack, a navy cap pulled low over her sunglasses.

‘Going for a hike?’ Peggy asked, after they’d greeted each other– unable, on seeing her friend, to blot out thoughts of what might have gone on last Friday night.