Page 54 of New Beginnings At Pencarrow Bay
Peggy gasped. ‘Whoa, Lindy, that looks painful. What happened?’
Tears misting her blue eyes, Lindy took a moment to reply. ‘Last night. It was about the power-of-attorney. I told Felixagainthat I wasn’t going to give it to him. That there was nothing whatever wrong with my mental health. But he wasn’t listening.’ She swallowed hard, wiping the tears from her cheeks. ‘Anyway, he came up really close, trying to intimidate me– like he did that other time. But yesterday he actually grabbed me by the arm– I’ve always beenscared this might happen. And as he yanked me closer he twisted my arm hard up my back… like some ghastly thug. It was terrifying.’
Peggy glanced at Ted, but he was staring fixedly at the bruise. ‘God, that’s dreadful. I’m so sorry, Lindy. This is really serious. You have to do something. It’s assault.It’s criminal.’ Peggy’s voice was taut with confusion as a shard of doubt crept into her mind– despite Liam’s passionate advocacy of Felix.Have I got this all wrong?Because that was a very real injury to Lindy’s arm.
But Lindy drew herself up, her face taking on stiff determination. ‘You mean call the police?’
She sounded almost contemptuous, but Peggy could hear the wobble in her voice and reached out to lay her hand on Lindy’s. ‘If he’s starting to get physical…’
‘This is a private family matter,’ Lindy said, her tone curt, snatching her hand away from Peggy’s. ‘Felix carted off in front of the whole village? Kim’s husband, Ada’s father?’ She shook her head vehemently. ‘I will deal with it myself.’
Lindy’s stubbornness and her rejection of any meaningful help dismayed Peggy. And she found she was a little taken aback– hurt, even– that Lindy seemed not to want to accept comfort from her.
Ted said, ‘I’ve tried, Pegs. She won’t listen.’
No one spoke.
Her voice gentle, Peggy had one last go. ‘We can help you, if you’d only let us.’ Because, whatever the truth of it, the woman obviously needed help.
Lindy turned her eyes in Peggy’s direction. Her expression had become almost glassy. It seemed to take a momentfor her to refocus. ‘What?’ she asked, her tone vague. Peggy watched as Lindy switched her gaze to Ted.
Peggy frowned at him. He didn’t meet her eye. She had no idea what to do, what to say as they sat there, an awkward silence descending. Lindy’s stare remained resting fixedly on Ted, as if Peggy wasn’t even there– although there was a blankness to it now. Meanwhile Ted was still not communicating with Peggy.
Peggy felt as if she’d been holding her breath for the last few minutes and sucked in a large quantity of air, which seemed to break the spell. ‘I should go,’ she said, scraping back her chair and rising quickly to her feet.
Lindy looked up at her briefly but didn’t appear to see her, her gaze still clouded.
‘See you later,’ Peggy said to Ted. He nodded, his expression still lost in concern.
As Peggy walked away, she realized she was feeling distinctly uneasy. There was something not at all right, something unsettling in the exchange just now.Lindy seemed… She couldn’t put her finger on it. Odd, certainly.It was the first time Peggy had noticed Lindy being so unfocused… not quite there.
When Ted came home later, Peggy was waiting for him. Liam had been out when she got in earlier, an old-fashioned note on the kitchen island, pinned down by the salt-grinder, saying he hoped it was all right but he wouldn’t be home for supper– he didn’t say where he was going. But at least she didn’t have to worry about potential tension between the two men, after all the other tensions of the day.
Peggy made them both a cup of tea and they sat downat the table. She relayed what Quentin had said about Emerald and the house– because it seemed like a less contentious topic than Lindy, whose strange behaviour was still bothering her.
‘I can see that might make her extremely pissed off,’ Ted commented, without much interest. ‘But with her family, surely, not with you.’
Peggy nodded. She had to agree.
‘You saw Lindy. It’s desperate, isn’t it?’ he said, clearly keen to get back to the subject that haunted them these days.
‘Umm, it really is… She was very strange this afternoon, didn’t you think?’
‘Well, yeah, of course she was. Ifyou’d just been beaten up– by a member of your own family, no less– you’d hardly be yourself,’ he said, looking at her in surprise.
Peggy frowned. ‘True. But don’t you think… I mean, the way she relies on you over everyone else?’Almost worships you, she wanted to add, and didn’t. She wasn’t sure how to explain her feelings about what she’d witnessed earlier. Now she worried she might have imagined it, her mind so shaken up with things at the moment. Perhaps she wasn’t thinking straight.
He lifted tired eyes to her face. ‘I know, but I keep telling you, she won’t involve anyone but me.’ His gaze dropped to his hands, wrapped around his mug.
‘She really didn’t seem at all herself, though,’ Peggy insisted, evenly. ‘Sort of not quite there… I worry about what’s going on with her, that’s all.’
His head shot up. ‘What’s going on?’ He was all but shouting. ‘Bloody hell, Peggy! Lindy is beingphysically assaultedbyher fucking son-in-law, after weeks and weeks of bullying and manipulation. That’s what’s going on. It’s despicable.’
Peggy, reeling from the onslaught– Ted seldom swore, unlike her son, whose speech was peppered by profanities– took a moment to reply. ‘The bruise looked horrible, I agree.’
But Ted’s blood was up. ‘Are we going to stand by and watch, wait till Felix does something even worse? Is that the plan?’ he asked, as if Peggy had just suggested they should countenance such an extreme outcome. He got up, letting out an angry sigh, and stamped off, yanking open the door to the terrace and stepping outside as if he badly needed air.
Taking a deep breath, Peggy followed him. It was as if he’d been hypnotized by Lindy, his whole being taken over by her. She’d never seen him like this before. Standing close beside him, she linked her hand around his arm. ‘Listen, maybe we could have a word with Kim.’
