Page 38 of New Beginnings At Pencarrow Bay

‘Yup. Meeting Jake at Ted’s and we’re off along the coast,’ Gen said.

‘He’s up there now. I just saw him when I got these,’ Peggy said, waving the cardboard tray with the two coffees she was taking to the beach. ‘Have fun. It’s such a beautiful day.’

Gen nodded. ‘Don’t forget yoga tomorrow, if you’re still up for it. Dust off your Lycra,’ she joked, having previously assured Peggy there wasn’t a shred to be seen at Joyce’s classes.

The class had gone completely out of Peggy’s head.

She had contacted Joyce and agreed to try it out, but now she wasn’t sure she felt up to it.

‘Umm, I… Tomorrow’s not so good,’ she stammered.

‘My son’s here–’ She stopped, not wanting to acknowledge that she knew about Friday night, not wanting to embarrass Gen.

It was none of Peggy’s business what her new friend got up to.

‘I’m not sure how long he’s staying, so I want to make the most of it,’ she added.

‘Oh, goodness, of course. How lovely,’ Gen said with a bright smile, obviously having no idea that Peggy’s son was the man with whom she’d spent the night.

They must have been really drunk for even that standard piece of information not to have filtered through , Peggy thought, amused and also mightily relieved.

They could cross that bridge when they came to it, if they came to it.

But her friendship with Gen was more important than raking over a moment that would be awkward for both of them.

‘I’ll definitely come next week,’ she assured Gen.

Peggy and Quentin sat with their takeaway coffees on a rug on the sand at the top of the beach.

The tide was only recently on the turn and the waves were still splashing close.

Quentin had brought a thick foam cushion on which he perched, his legs stretched out awkwardly in front of him.

It was a warm day, and there was no shade, but both wore sunhats and Peggy had slathered cream over her bare arms and legs.

‘Hmm, goodness, I can’t imagine anyone round here doing something so mean,’ Quentin said, sounding shocked, when Peggy– sick of keeping the secret she was sure was already flowing up and down Shore Road like a high spring tide– told him what had been happening.

Then he quickly started imagining. ‘That Tommy Hicks is always trying to get rid of us emmets, though, despite us regularly eating his pasties and sliced white… Or maybe mad Ken, or Morton, is making non-believers in piskies and mermaids pay the price.’ He saw she wasn’t laughing and patted her shoulder.

‘Sorry, Peggy, shouldn’t joke. Not a laughing matter.

But this is really puzzling… Has anyone in the village ever been specifically unpleasant to you? ’

Peggy shrugged. ‘No, totally not. I mean, the only person who’s offhand– rude, even– is Emerald at the crab shack. But she doesn’t really know me– we don’t talk about anything but crab sandwiches– so I can’t see how it’s personal.’

Quentin seemed to consider this. ‘Hmm. You know it was Emerald’s brother who inherited your house?’

Peggy frowned. ‘No. No, I didn’t. But what does that signify?’

‘Don’t know the details. But there was definitely some falling-out between the siblings, according to Rory, who heard it– rather indiscreetly it must be said– from a solicitor friend he helps sometimes with tax advice for wills…

It’s possible that Emerald assumed she would get the house, for instance…

Then her father cuts her out…’ He paused. ‘All conjecture, of course.’

‘Goodness… Is that a genuine motive for the email?’ Peggy asked, amazed she hadn’t known this about Emerald before.

‘Could be. Think about it. She sees you all cosy in a place she thought would be hers. Feels like wreaking revenge on someone , even if it’s not the people responsible.’

They sat in silence for a moment. Peggy didn’t know quite what to make of this new information.

‘Liam’s been doing some investigating. He’s come up with the name of a hacker in Albania.

But it doesn’t really help.’ She pulled a slip of paper out of her shorts pocket and handed it to Quentin– he seemed to know everything about everyone in the area, even her house’s history.

‘Have you ever heard of any of these companies in relation to someone local? The Albanian has some unspecified association with them all, according to Liam.’

Quentin squinted at the names. ‘Redmayne Capital… rings a faint bell.’ But he shook his head. ‘Not ringing loud enough, I’m afraid. But it might pop back at a later stage.’

‘Never mind. Long shot anyway.’ Peggy groaned.

‘God, let’s change the subject. I’m sick to death of thinking about it.

’ She flopped back on the rug with a sigh and closed her eyes.

She couldn’t help going over in her mind, though, the various times she’d been in contact with Tina’s partner, trying to remember anything sinister about her.

But despite Emerald’s manner being brusque, it didn’t quite follow she’d go to the extraordinary lengths of employing a geek to torment Peggy and Ted. We’re not to blame, after all.

‘So how’s it going with the prodigal son?’ Quentin interrupted her thoughts.

‘Wonderful,’ Peggy said quickly, then added, ‘Well, it’s lovely to see him, of course. But he and Ted don’t really see eye to eye. Things have been a little tense, to say the least.’

Quentin muttered sympathetically and they lapsed into silence again, Peggy’s mind elsewhere.

After a while, she sat up, pulling her knees to her chest. ‘To be honest, I’m panicking about how I’m going to survive in Pencarrow, if people hear about the emails. It’s so embarrassing. Suppose they… I don’t know… believe I’m a bully and begin to avoid me.’

‘You’re being a bit overdramatic, aren’t you, my lovely?’ Quentin said gently.

‘But you’ve told me about Teresa, how she hardly goes out now and had people calling her names in the street.’ Peggy blinked away the tears. ‘I don’t want to live like that.’

Quentin looked a bit baffled as she let out a frustrated growl.

‘God, this is all so unfair.’ She knew she sounded childish and didn’t care.

She’d been grown-up and responsible all her life, and look where that had got her: libellous emails trashing her character and her professional standing.

‘So, how did you cope with retirement, Quentin?’ she asked, trying once more to move away from her own miserable thoughts.

He raised an eyebrow. When he spoke, it was slowly and distinctly. ‘The truth? Not well.’

He sounded so grim, so genuine, Peggy found a potential laugh stuck in her throat.

‘So you hated it.’

‘At first, yes. I was depressed, lost, bored, loathing all of mobile humanity with a passion.’ He sighed. ‘I was at the top of my game, a Queen’s Counsel. I loved my work. It was devastating to have to quit. I wasn’t even sixty. It was who I was .’

Peggy recognized his emphasis immediately. ‘So what changed? You seem all right now.’

He fell silent, seemed lost in thought. ‘I suppose I gradually began to make friends with the other facets of my character. I discovered I’m also a reasonably okay husband, a friend to many, an idle fellow who just loves to read all day, to potter about… Having a community helped.’

‘I’m pleased for you.’ Peggy spoke with feeling and respect. That can’t have been easy , she thought. Were there other facets of her own character she hadn’t developed over the years of head-down teaching? She’d have to give it some thought.

Quentin eyed her sympathetically. ‘Look, not wishing to be competitive in the trauma stakes, my dear, but at least your situation is not written in stone, as mine was. I could hardly continue to be a barrister as an old crock with a buggered spine, but surely when this nasty business is sorted out, you’ll be free to work where you like, have as many friends as you wish. ’

She sighed. ‘You don’t know what it’s like, Quentin, feeling that people might be gossiping behind your back. Wondering if what they’d heard is true. Assessing your character, your integrity.’

He looked concerned. ‘I really think you’re making too much of this, Peggy. Lindy’s your friend, she’ll keep schtum, and Sienna… well, Sienna only speaks when spoken to.’ He grinned. ‘My nanny always instructed me to do the same, which turned out to be rather a pointless exercise in my case.’

‘Ted says I’m exaggerating the problem, too.’

‘So could we both be right?’ Quentin asked, with an affectionate smile.

She shook her head. She was too tired to argue, but in her mind they were wrong.

‘You’d never think of leaving the bay, would you?’

Peggy could hear the anxiety in Quentin’s voice and wanted to reassure him.

But the notion had begun to take root in her mind over the last few days.

What’s here for me? she’d found herself wondering, bleakly, a number of times.

But the answer was immediate and always the same: Ted .

‘Ted would never leave,’ she replied dully.

‘And you’d never leave Ted,’ he stated firmly.

She didn’t reply immediately.

‘You and Ted are in good shape, aren’t you?’ Quentin asked, maybe intuiting something from her silence. His eyes were wide with worry.

‘Oh, God, yes. Of course we are.’ She spoke firmly, and mostly believed in what she was saying. Would Ted come with me, though, if I needed to leave Pencarrow? It upset her that she couldn’t be sure of the answer.

‘Don’t leave, my lovely,’ Quentin said softly. ‘I couldn’t bear that.’