Page 29 of New Beginnings At Pencarrow Bay
Peggy had no idea who this might be, but Ted immediately jumped in. ‘That’ll be Mylie, Gina’s daughter. She was over the moon when she got in.’
Peggy remembered Gina winning the mermaid race, and had often said hi to her if she saw her in the Co-op. But Ted, as usual, was better informed about the details of village residents.
‘Apparently she’s being anonymously sponsored by some rich person in the village.’ Annie cocked an eyebrow at them both and grinned. ‘I thought it might be you two, knowing how kind you both are– and how much you like dance, Pegs.’
Ted shook his head. ‘Not us, I’m afraid. I did wonder how they were affording it. Gina’s a single mum who works in the supermarket, and even with a scholarship, Mylie would have living expenses and stuff.’
‘Who would it be, then?’ Annie asked.
‘Might be Bunny Pascoe. I don’t know her well,’ Ted was saying, ‘but she has money, they say. She’s always been perfectly nice to me at the stall– her dogs love Bolt– although her reputation is that of a bit of an old curmudgeon, along with her legendary affairs.’
‘But maybe with a heart of gold,’ Satja suggested. He never said a lot, but he was quietly charming and, whatever Annie said about his obsession with his molecules, had been a loving husband and father to their two girls.
‘Well,’ said Annie, ‘a mystery to be solved.’
Peggy thought she already knew the answer, though. ‘Bet it’s Lindy,’ she said.
Ted considered this, then nodded. ‘Yeah, could be. Wow, such an incredible thing to do,’ he said.
Peggy couldn’t help a small stab of annoyance at his admiration.Am I jealous?she asked herself, dismayed. Lindy deserved Ted’s respect, and her own.
14
On the train going home, Ted put down the tablet from which he’d been reading the Sunday papers and glanced at her across the laminate table. ‘I’m a bit nervous about Liam coming down, if I’m honest, Pegs. I know he should come, and I want him to– he’s your boy, after all. I just don’t know how it’s going to work…’ He tailed off, a little sheepish.
Peggy was similarly torn. She really wanted her son to come, to have the chance to spend proper time with him. But how would Liam and Ted rub along together? She didn’t want there to be tension between them– or to be stuck in the middle, walking on eggshells, especially with the Lindy situation still a disruptive factor in their lives– if her son was planning to stay for more than a weekend. They hadn’t discussed the detail of his visit at the party, Peggy not really believing Liam would come.
‘Listen, it might not happen,’ she said now. ‘He seemed at such sixes and sevens last night. I don’t think he knew what he was saying. Maybe it was just a drunken flash of enthusiasm.’ She fervently hoped it was not– she’d already sent her son a message assuring him that she was serious about him visiting– but she didn’t want to wind Ted up about something that might never come about.
Ted said nothing for a long moment. Then he straightened in the seat and seemed to reassert his positive outlookon life. ‘Okay.’ He grinned. ‘Look, if he does come, he’ll just have to follow a few house rules… Like speaking to me once in a while.’
She laughed. ‘Deal.’ She leaned back and closed her eyes, glad the party was over and they were heading home to the peace of their beautiful bay. It was the first time Peggy was aware of being relieved to be out of the hot, busy city. On previous visits, since the move, she’d always recognized the London streets as home, sunk into the familiarity of the place, felt a wrench when she’d left to go back to Cornwall. But maybe the strings were slackening on the past’s hold on her. Maybe she was finally beginning to see Pencarrow as the place she considered ‘home’. ‘By the way,’ she added, eyes still closed, ‘thank you for coming with me, Ted. It was so much better with you there.’
Peggy’s phone rang early on Monday morning. Ted had already left for the van, keen to catch up after a weekend away. But she’d pulled the duvet round her shoulders after he’d gone and dozed for a while, tired, she thought, from tension in the run-up to the family get-together, as well as overdoing the champagne and the late night.
Now, reaching for her phone, she hesitated to answer. It was not a number she recognized.Who will be ringing at this hour, anyway?But instinct made her click on the call.
‘Hello?’
A cool female voice with an ambiguous London accent greeted her: ‘Am I speaking to Peggy?’
Peggy acknowledged that she was.
‘Sienna Rybicki.’
Still half asleep, Peggy didn’t immediately register thename. Then she shot upright in bed. Paul’s wife: the forest-school founder. ‘Oh, yes. Hi.’
‘Can we meet? The George at nine?’
‘Umm, great.’
Sienna clicked off without another word. She was not, by all accounts, into pleasantries.
Peggy sat for a moment, bemused, then jumped out of bed. It was not yet eight, but she had to wash her hair, decide what to wear and walk to the Samson George. No time for breakfast.
As she hurried down the hill– she’d chosen white jeans and a fitted mint-green T-shirt with small buttons at the neck opening– Peggy began to rehearse how she would pitch for the job. She was probably over-qualified in some respects, having taught English to A-level, but she would turn her hand to anything. She just loved being with kids.That must count for something, she told herself, as she pushed open the heavy glass door of the hotel.
The quiet chink of expensive china and the low murmur of people aware of their exclusive surroundings greeted her as she entered the dining room, which fronted onto the terrace where she and Ted had lunched the previous week. Glancing around the full room, she couldn’t see her prospective employer at any of the tables.
