Page 46 of New Beginnings At Pencarrow Bay
Liam was the first to speak. ‘Listen, Mum, I’m sorry about this morning. I’m still not feeling so great and I felt Ted was getting at me.’ He sighed. ‘Yeah, my behaviour yesterday was a bit rubbish, but I did apologize.’
‘I understand. But I can see Ted’s point of view, too.’
Liam took a second. ‘Yeah,’ was all he said.
Frustrated, Peggy exclaimed, ‘Ted’s not the bad guy here, Liam. Sometimes I think you and Dan treat him as if he single-handedly destroyed our family and broke your father’s heart. And you know perfectly well that’s not the case.’
‘Okay, okay.’ Liam held up his hand in protest. ‘I’ll be good.’
‘Whatever the rights and wrongs,’ she replied, not entirely convinced by his declaration, ‘the fact is, sweetheart, as I said before, if you and Ted can’t get on, then it’s not going to work, your being here.’
Liam nodded. ‘I know what he said was not unreasonable. I suppose I just overreacted.’ He gave her a sheepish grin, looking contrite. ‘Sorry, Mum.’ He paused. ‘I don’t want you being upset. I really will try with Ted… if he’ll let me.’
‘Right,’ she said brightly, feeling she’d done as much as she could to smooth things over. ‘Let’s change the subject. Did you get a chance to talk to Felix at the party?’
Liam looked a little puzzled by her question. ‘Felix? Umm, yeah, sort of.’
‘And?’
‘Not sure what you want to know, Mum. You’ve probably talked to him more than I have. I haven’t seen him for at least a year. He just disappeared from all our lives.’
What do I want to know? A full confession that he’s abusing his mother-in-law?‘He just seems a bit lost, that’s all. I worry for him,’ she said, almost truthfully.
‘Rightly so, I reckon,’ Liam replied. ‘He says Kim’smum has started being a bit weird. He used to get on with her, but now, apparently, she barely speaks to him, seems almost to loathe him, he says. He’s not sure what he’s done wrong. Or what he can do about it.’
Peggy sat up. Felix had said he was getting on fine with Lindy when she and Ted had dropped in that day. Had things deteriorated so fast? Or was he not telling them the truth? She realized, of course, that Felix might be more comfortable confiding in an old friend– especially one who didn’t live in the village.
‘I suggested she might be going a bit… you know?’ her son added, twiddling his finger to his forehead. ‘But Felix just went quiet when I said that.’
She considered her reply. ‘I tutor Ada every week, so I see Lindy quite often. I’ve never noticed her being anything but totally on the ball, to be honest.’ She took a breath. ‘But she has been saying things to Ted recently.’ Peggy hesitated, not sure she should be sharing anything to do with Lindy– it was such a big thing. But she also wanted to get Liam’s reaction to her accusations. ‘Look, you have to promise not to breathe a word to anyone about this. Butshethinks Felix is gaslightingher, trying to make itlook likeshe’s losing her mind.’
Liam’s eyes widened and he laughed. ‘Felix gaslighting his mother-in-law? Are you kidding, Mum?’ He paused, clearly thinking about what she’d said. ‘What’s he supposed to have done?’
When she didn’t immediately reply– there were so many things– Liam went on, ‘You don’t believe her, do you?’
Peggy sighed.Believingwas the whole problem.
‘Obviously a lot of drink was involved,’ Liam was saying,‘so I can’t remember the conversation word for word. But I got the impression Felix was quite unnerved by what was happening to Lindy.’
‘So you don’t reckon he’s capable of maybe manipulating her, threatening her… for financial gain?’
Liam looked shocked. ‘Felix? Oh, please! No way. He’s a proper softy. I don’t believe the man has a mean bone in his body.’ He raised an eyebrow. ‘Manipulating her how?’
Peggy sighed. She didn’t want to go into details– they would probably sound ludicrous to Liam, anyway, judging by his assessment of his friend. ‘Look, I shouldn’t have mentioned this to you, sweetheart. I’m just finding it very tricky, knowing what’s actually going on.’
Liam was clearly intrigued. ‘You can trust me to keep a secret, Mum.’
She nodded, knowing she could. ‘It’s not really my secret to tell, that’s all.’ She got up from the garden chair. It’s always going to be Lindy’s word against Felix’s, she thought, stretching her arms upwards, feeling stiff and tired. Either way, she was not looking forward to her visit to Lilac House later that day, for her tutoring session with Ada.
21
On the way down the hill, Peggy got a call from Sienna. ‘No luck with the email so far,’ Sienna said, with her usual directness. ‘Daz is doing his best. Gave me a whole lot of science about IP addresses and VPN servers, which passed swiftly over my head. He keeps getting bounced around between Albania, Kazakhstan and Turkey, apparently.’
Peggy felt a surge of disappointment. ‘Okay. Well, please thank him. I so appreciate your asking him to try. It’s not really your problem to solve.’
‘Hmm, well, not technically. But I’d seriously like to track down this loser.’
Peggy gave a harsh laugh. ‘You and me both.’ She waited, wondering if Sienna would mention the job, whether she might change her mind again– decide not to employ her. But Sienna just said a brief goodbye and clicked off.
