Page 9 of New Beginnings At Pencarrow Bay

Maud was vague and wispy in her gentility, nothing said too loudly or forcefully, nothing done too abruptly, her outfits all suitably subfusc and unchallenging, so as not to attract the wrong sort of attention.

But she was very kind, clearly loved her two grandchildren, and had done her best to look after them.

It was Maud’s death that had reduced Peggy to frequent bouts of tears, not the subsequent passing of Eric and Celia.

That bond had weakened so much over the years as to be almost non-existent.

No foundation in truth , Peggy repeated Annie’s mantra now, as she poured the contents of the bowl into a pan and pressed on the ceramic surface of the halogen hob.

Ted is fine , she told herself firmly. He’s just busy and absorbed in making the business work .

She stirred the soup, determined to settle herself on the subject once and for all.

Then, pouring it into a deep bowl, she dug out some cheesy oatcakes from the cupboard, retrieved a spoon from the drawer in the kitchen island and took her lunch outside to the patio.

A breeze had got up since the morning– being so high on the headland and exposed, there was often wind whistling around the villa.

But it was still warm and pleasantly fresh out there.

Peggy, though, as she sipped her soup, found she was not settled about Ted at all.

Pulling out her mobile from the back pocket of her jeans, Peggy clicked on Annie’s number. She needed diversion and a chat with someone who knew her better than anyone else.

The two had survived teacher training together in London in their twenties.

Peggy had started work in an inner-city primary, while Annie had gone on to qualify in TEFL, travelling the world teaching English in Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, where she’d met her husband, Satja, a quiet and very erudite research molecular biologist. They’d come back to the UK and settled near Peggy in north London with their two daughters.

Peggy and the twins had loved hanging out with them all when the children were young– they were like a second family.

Her own, as always, sparse and unsatisfactory.

‘Pegs, darling! How goes it in paradise?’ Annie, ever ebullient, greeted her fondly.

‘Oh, you know.’ Hearing her friend’s voice, Peggy felt suddenly a little tearful. She shook herself, took a breath. ‘The sun’s shining, the sea’s blue, the coffee’s hot…’ She ran out of positives.

‘Oh, my God, what’s wrong?’ Annie demanded.

‘Nothing. Nothing’s wrong. I promise.’

Peggy heard a trying-to-be-patient sigh.

She inhaled slowly. ‘Well, it’s Ted. He’s not been himself, recently.

He seems… I don’t know… sort of distracted, distant at times, as if something’s preying on his mind.

And I genuinely have no idea what.’ She stopped, annoyed that she’d fallen at the first fence when she’d been so determined not to mention the problem.

‘And you’ve tried asking him, of course?’

‘Well, no, not specifically,’ Peggy admitted, sheepishly. Not at all, in fact.

Her friend chuckled. ‘And why not?’ Then she harrumphed. ‘Hate you being so far away. I can’t trust you on your own not to panic about nothing.’

Peggy sighed. ‘Maybe it is nothing.’ She didn’t sound certain, despite her best efforts, and her friend heard.

‘Talk to him, darling. Just talk to him. When Sat and I went through problems it was because we weren’t communicating.

’ She gave a theatrical sigh. ‘Not that communication is Sat’s forte…

unless you’re a molecule, of course. The most I get out of him, on the rare occasions he lifts his head from his microscope, is a grateful pat on the head when I’ve washed his lab coat. ’

It was Peggy’s turn to laugh. ‘You know he adores you.’

‘Yeah, yeah,’ Annie replied briskly. ‘Let’s get back to Ted…

Same applies to him obviously. He absolutely adores you.

He’s told me often enough– ad nauseam , if I’m honest. If you’re worried he’s straying, it won’t be that.

’ She paused. ‘Hmm, what are the other options? Money worries? Vodka in his water bottle? Thinks he’s got prostate cancer?

’ After a moment she went on triumphantly, ‘Yes, that’ll be it.

Prostate. Men always hide it for as long as they can.

It’s so tied up with their manhood. Idiots. ’

This did have the merit of making Peggy laugh properly. ‘You’re not helping.’

‘Sorry, darling. But I know you so well. I’m trying to tease out how serious this problem is. Or if there even is a problem. You are Oscar-winningly famous for inventing stuff that only exists in your head.’

Annie’s right , Peggy thought, and let go of a breath she seemed to have been holding since that morning. Only exists in my head.

‘Pegs? Are you there?’

‘Yeah. Listen, I’m glad I’ve told you, because just speaking it out loud makes me realize how stupid I’m being.

But I’m not very good at change.’ As she said it Peggy felt the pain of her fourteen-year-old self after the much more dramatic upheaval of her childhood…

the strangeness of her grandmother’s house and town, the agonizing, earth-swallow-me shyness she felt when the kids at the new school had stared at her as if she had two heads.

‘And I still haven’t really found my feet here…

Although this morning…’ And she began to relate the story of Quentin and the shark, reducing her friend to uncontrollable laughter.

It did them both good, and the call ended on a more upbeat note.

Although Peggy couldn’t help saying, ‘I miss you,’ to her friend.

‘Miss you too, Pegs. Your fault for moving to the ends of the earth, though.’