Summer at the Cornish Cafe

by Phillipa Ashley

  ‘He can’t ask you to ruin your happiness for his sake. He can’t.’

  Tears run down Robyn’s face. ‘I know and I don’t care about him but I do care about my father. He and Luke are partners in the firm.’

  I swore not to say anything, but with my fingers crossed behind my back. I don’t know what to do. Should I tell Cal about Robyn’s suspicions? If I did, what could he do? And how can I add to his worries?

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  This morning we heard that the planning appeal had failed.

  Cal hasn’t come out of his study since we found out and neither Polly nor I have dared to knock on the door. The bacon sandwich and coffee we left outside are still on the floor. More out of comfort than any hope, I baked some fly pastry and took it to the house. Shortly after we’d replaced the bacon butty with a fly pastry and fresh coffee, we heard the study door open and shut. I risked a quick look and saw the cake and drink were gone, which must be a good sign.

  It’s afternoon now and as far as I know, Cal’s still in his room. Curled up on the sofa in the cottage now, I hug Mitch and dream up scenarios in my head for saving Kilhallon, each more desperate and bonkers than the rest. I was just thinking that I could do The Great British Bake Off, secretly putting Cal up for Who Dares Wins, persuading Polly to do Deal or No Deal and entering Mitch into Crufts when a knock on the door makes me jump up. It could be Cal. Bracing myself, I open the door.

  ‘Isla?’

  In her skinnies, navy Hunters and tweed jacket, she looks like she stepped straight from a Vogue fashion shoot, yet also perfectly at home on a country estate. It’s as if she was born to run Kilhallon, not that there’s any Kilhallon to run now. ‘Can I come in?’ she asks in her soft voice.

  ‘Sure but I haven’t had time to tidy up. Been baking, you see.’

  ‘I can smell it. Look, this is cheeky because I don’t have an invite.’

  ‘Cal’s up at the house,’ I say, puzzled.

  ‘Not now. He’s gone out. Polly just told me.’

  ‘I didn’t know.’

  ‘I came to see how Cal is. Robyn told me about the planning appeal.’

  ‘He’s … we don’t know how he is because he won’t come out of the study. Do you want to sit down?’ I usher Mitch off the sofa, hoping the dog hairs won’t be too hard to get off her jacket.

  ‘Thanks.’

  I perch on the chair opposite her.

  She brushes her hands down her jeans, seemingly nervous. ‘It was you I wanted to see and don’t worry, I’m not trying to hire you as a waitress again.’ She smiles.

  ‘Even if you were, it would be fine with me.’

  ‘Yes, but Cal would probably kill me.’

  ‘I’ll probably need a new job soon anyway.’

  ‘Hmm …’ Her brief smile at my ‘joke’ evaporates and she glances around the cottage. It can’t be my interior design that fascinates her. ‘Things look very bad for Kilhallon, don’t they?’

  ‘With the failed appeal and the financial situation, this is probably the end. Someone else has already applied to develop the site.’

  She catches her lip in her teeth. ‘I heard. I really shouldn’t be here and I definitely shouldn’t be doing this but I had to. It’s disloyal, it’s wrong but I’ve been torn.’

  ‘Torn?’

  ‘Between two people I love. I don’t know if I’m doing the right thing but because I love them both, I have to tell you. You must know by now that Robyn and Andi have been seeing each other?’

  ‘I knew that they’d split up. Robyn’s devastated,’ I say, feeling angry again.

  ‘I know and that’s one reason I’m here. One of many. I’m ashamed to say I suspect their break-up does have something to do with us, with Luke anyway. His finances haven’t been that rosy and he’s been borrowing from Rory’s firm. In fact, it’s only because I – and someone else – have been supporting him that the business is afloat. He’s lost a fortune on a risky investment and we can’t afford to lose the support of our backers.’

  ‘You mean the Cades?’

  She nods, as if she daren’t say their names out loud. ‘Luke told me that he’d go bankrupt and we’d lose everything if Robyn takes Andi away from Mawgan and her father. He’s already re-mortgaged Rory’s remaining office building and the business is only clinging on with loans from the Cades.’

  ‘Does Robyn know this?’

  ‘She suspects but you have to swear you won’t tell Cal about this.’

  ‘I promise I won’t tell him but why does Mawgan hate the idea of Robyn and Andi being together so much?’

  Isla shrugs. ‘I don’t know exactly. Maybe it’s a control thing for her, and Clive Cade goes along with everything she wants. He relies on her since Mrs Cade left them, and poor Andi lives in Mawgan’s shadow.’ She picks at a cushion nervously.

  ‘Thanks for coming to see me, but I don’t quite get why you’ve told me this?’ I say, gently.

  ‘Because I thought it might help you put things right, for Robyn and Andi. There are a lot of things that the Cades would rather people didn’t know. I’ve no evidence, of course, but I’ve heard conversations between Luke and Mawgan that I can’t ignore.’

  ‘I don’t see how this can help us, though?’

  She stands up sharply. ‘You’ll work it out. You’re smart, Demi, and I’ve said too much. I have to go.’

  ‘Wait! I am grateful and I’ll see what I can do.’

  She looks about to cry. ‘I don’t mind what you do but I know that things can’t stay the way they are. What Luke has done is wrong, and goes against everything I believe in. People who love each other shouldn’t be kept apart to suit someone else’s twisted reasons and I’m ashamed he’s been a part of hurting Robyn but he’s behaving out of character. I love him and I know that he’d never do this if he wasn’t under such terrible pressure.’

  ‘Thanks for telling me. It was brave of you.’

  ‘It was the right thing to do, for Luke as well as everyone else, though he may not appreciate that. And I care about this place, the history and heritage and everyone here. Goodbye.’

  After the door closes behind her, I stand in the middle of the room for ages, wondering what I can possibly do with Isla’s revelations. Any ideas that spring to mind seem even madder than my daydream to put everyone on reality shows.

  An hour later, I’m just about to take down Mitch’s lead and head off for a walk along the cliffs when Cal knocks on the cottage door.

  His eyes are red rimmed and he looks terrible. I don’t think he has any idea of Isla’s visit and even though I promised I wouldn’t tell him, it’s hard not to share her revelations.

  ‘How are you?’ he grunts.

  ‘Been better. You?’

  ‘Awful, actually.’

  ‘What can we do next?’

  ‘Not a lot. Could get an official enquiry, possibly. Could win the lottery? Set the place on fire and claim on the insurance?’

  ‘You wouldn’t do that?’ I’m only half joking, because he looks so desperate. It was one of the wilder ideas that crossed my mind.

  ‘No. I wouldn’t. I’ve no idea what to do next but the Cades will get their hands on Kilhallon over my dead body.’

  The next day, I made the first of what I hope don’t prove to be disastrous decisions. I arranged to meet Robyn and Andi at the College Arts Centre, and pass on Isla’s news. I thought the girls should know the truth, even if it does cause massive trouble.

  ‘What? How could Luke do that? I knew the Cades were behind this!’ Robyn is almost in tears.

  Andi’s face is as pale as soya smoothie as she tries to take in the news.

  ‘So my sister and Luke have tried to break us up. I can’t believe they’d do something so selfish and vile. I thought they loved us.’

  I ache with shame and hurt for them both. ‘I’m so sorry this is happening to you, hun.’

  ‘I can’t believe Isla told you about it but I’m glad she did. She’s OK, unlike Luke. Ho
w can she stay with him after this?’

  ‘She says she loves him. Luke’s in a lot of trouble and he’s desperate, Robyn, or I don’t think he ever would have done this.’

  ‘But Mawgan and my dad have no excuse. What they’re doing is illegal, isn’t it? It’s blackmail and extortion!’ says Andi.

  Robyn hugs her. ‘And now we’re all suffering. Us, you and Cal.’

  ‘Isla seemed to think that telling me the truth would help in some way but I’m not sure how it can, not without getting your family into trouble.’

  ‘I don’t want them to end up in jail, even though they deserve it!’

  ‘No one will end up in jail,’ I say, though I can’t possibly think how that will not happen if the truth comes out and without the truth coming out, we can’t save Kilhallon.‘We don’t have any proof of what your family has done. We’d have to have concrete evidence and how could we get that? No one’s going to talk.’

  ‘I can get it.’

  We both stare at Andi.

  ‘What?’ I say.

  ‘How?’ Robyn asks.

  ‘I know where Mawgan keeps her dirty laundry. I know the office security code and her safe pincode and where she keeps her passwords. Unlike my sister, I actually know one end of a computer from another,’ Andi declares but Robyn has gone white.

  ‘You do know that Mawgan will never ever forgive you if she finds out. Or your dad.’

  ‘She won’t find out because I have a plan …’ I see a new determination in her face. ‘You see, they’ve always treated me like a piece of old furniture since my mum left us. No one took any notice of me until now but I’ve watched them. I know a lot more about Mawgan than she would ever believe and now’s the time to use it.’

  ‘No. You can’t do that. If Mawgan ever found out, we’d all be in the deepest, darkest trouble known to man. God knows what she’d do.’

  ‘I don’t care. I hate her at this moment.’

  Robyn hugs her. ‘I know you do, but Demi’s right. That’s such a risk. It would be theft and blackmail, and you’d get into serious trouble.’

  ‘But I can’t think of any other way!’ Andi almost knocks over her drink.

  ‘Leave it with me. I’ll try to think of something else. There has to be some way of sorting out this mess.’

  Bless Polly, she always comes along at the wrong moment. I stifle a groan of frustration as she spots me just as I’m about to climb into the Land Rover. Since I met with Andi and Robyn, I’ve been agonising day and night about what I should do about the dilemma we’re in – if anything at all. Understandably, everyone’s been down about the situation. Cal’s hardly spoken to us and Polly’s thumped around the place as if she has lead boots.

  ‘Demi? Can you spare a minute?’ she asks, bustling up to the car.

  ‘Um, not really. I’m late for an appointment.’ I jingle the keys.

  ‘An appointment? What appointments do you need now?’

  Squashing down the urge to tell her to mind her own business, I try to answer patiently.

  ‘I was going to the market garden in St Just to see them about supplying veg to the cafe and I’m already late.’

  ‘What’s the point of going all the way out there, when there isn’t going to be a cafe, nor an eco-bloody-whotsit or anything.’ Just as I’m about to say something I’ll regret, Polly starts crying. Not just a sniffle but big gulpy sobs.

  ‘Oh, Polly. What’s the matter?’

  ‘Bugger. I must be going soft but I can’t bear the thought of this place going down the pan. I’ve made no secret of the fact that I once thought Cal’s ideas were pie in the sky and that we’d never make it happen but I’d started to believe in the bloody dream too. I’ve stuck with the Penwiths through thick and thin and Cal’s like a son to me.’ She wipes her eyes with a hanky. ‘I don’t know what happened to him when he was abroad but it was something bad. I think he had a breakdown and is too ashamed to tell us about it. He deserves something good to happen. So do you. We’ve worked too hard to resurrect this place for it to disappear down the toilet now.’

  I hold out my arms to give Polly a hug and she lets out another huge sob. I pat her back.

  After a few seconds, she pulls away and sniffs, unable to meet my eye. ‘Bet you think I’m a silly old bat.’

  ‘No, I don’t. I know exactly how you feel and it might be a waste of time carrying on with my work but what else is there to do?’

  She pulls a hanky from her pocket and blows her nose. ‘I don’t know. We need a bloody miracle.’

  ‘You never know,’ I say. ‘Do you want to put your feet up and relax? Shall I make you a cup of tea?’ I can’t just abandon Polly in this state but I worry that if I don’t leave this minute, I never will.

  She shakes her head. ‘I can’t seem to sit still.’

  ‘Why don’t you do a bit of gardening, then? I’d help you but I really do have to go out.’

  She sniffs. ‘I s’pose the patch could do with a good weed. The rain’s made the dandelions and chickweed shoot up.’

  ‘Good idea. Don’t work too hard. I’ll help you when I get back.’

  While Polly sought solace in her garden, I managed to get away and a few minutes later I wait at the exit from Kilhallon Park to the main road. To the right is the road to the market garden at St Just and to the left is St Trenyan.

  Hoping Polly isn’t watching, I take the left turn.

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  ‘Demi. How lovely to see you. Why don’t you sit down?’ Mawgan Cade smiles at me as she shows me into her study.

  To be honest I’d expected her to refuse to see me when I turned up unannounced at the Cades’ Georgian-style mansion. I almost didn’t recognise her when she answered the front door herself. With no make-up on, and in her ‘loungewear’, she looks about sixteen, although the eyebrows are still a surprise.

  The study is bigger than the ground floor of my cottage and has a shiny wooden floor with thick Persian rugs that must have cost a fortune. There’s a framed portrait of Mawgan on one wall, dressed in dark-blue satin and diamante in a photography studio, another of her at the wheel of a Ferrari in a showroom and one of her dad in his golf gear, receiving a trophy from a local politician. I can’t see any of Andi or their mother.

  Mawgan motions to the chair opposite her huge mahogany desk. From the smug smile on her face, she knows what I’ve come for and perhaps that’s what she wanted all along. She takes the padded swivel chair, leaving the considerable width of the desk between us, which is probably just as well. ‘Thanks for seeing me on a Sunday morning,’ I say as the chair almost swallows me up.

  ‘How could I refuse the possibility of such an entertaining morning? Mind you, I’d have put my money on Cal coming begging, rather than you.’

  My stomach churns but surely no one can be afraid of anyone wearing a leopard-print onesie.

  ‘You know Cal would never beg you for anything.’

  She shrugs. ‘Not yet, no. So he’s no idea you’re here?’

  ‘No way.’

  ‘And you don’t think he’d approve?’

  ‘I don’t care what he thinks.’

  Mawgan sniggers. ‘That’s the first lie you’ve told me and you’ve been here two minutes.’

  ‘OK. He wouldn’t like it but what I have to say is between us.’

  Her eyebrows manage to almost meet. ‘I can’t possibly think what you’ve got to say to me, but as I said, I’m ready to be amused.’ She leans back against her seat. ‘So, how can I help?’

  ‘You can stop your opposition to the development plans at Kilhallon,’ I say, sounding way more confident than I feel. I’ve decided to leave Andi and Robyn out of things for now and, to be honest, even if by some miracle I persuade Mawgan to back down on the Kilhallon plans. I don’t know how I can fix the girls’ problems or even if I should try but I’m terrified Andi will do something silly unless I act.

  ‘My opposition? I don’t know what you’re talking about.’

  �
��Don’t try to deny that you’re behind the planning blocks and objections.’

  She laughs. ‘You make us sound like the St Trenyan mafia and you’re also confusing me with someone who gives a toss what you do. Look, I was willing to be polite and hear what you had to say but I can see you’ve only come to insult me so let’s cut to the chase.’

  I force my hands to lie in my lap, calmly. ‘Mawgan, did Cal or me wrong you in a previous life?’

  She affects a yawn. ‘Oh, here we go. The sympathy card.’

  I really feel I might have to stab her with her own fountain pen but there’s too much at stake. ‘OK, I can see you don’t like me and I’m sorry if you think I targeted you on purpose at Sheila’s cafe and the ball but they were genuine accidents.’

  She snorts. ‘I don’t care about that.’

  ‘Then why? I can see you think there’s something going on between me and Cal but I swear there isn’t. I’m his friend and I work for him. End of.’

  ‘I really couldn’t care less whether you’re shagging him or not but if you are, my advice to you at the party still stands: Cal acts the concerned hero but when it comes to women, he doesn’t really care who he uses. It’s a Penwith trait, as you’ll find out.’

  ‘A Penwith trait? I’ve heard the rumours about his dad but you surely can’t believe that Cal would inherit some cheating gene?’

  ‘It’s not just nature, it’s nurture.’

  I hesitate. ‘If he’s hurt you, then I’m sorry.’

  ‘Hurt me? Don’t be ridiculous.’ Her eyes narrow. ‘Has he told you that?’

  ‘No, and if I’ve heard any gossip, it wasn’t from Cal. He’d never discuss what happened or didn’t between you with me, and I’m sure he’d never do anything malicious or cruel to you. The opposite, in fact.’

  She laughs at me but clenches her hands together nervously. ‘So, you know him inside out now? You have no idea. This is a waste of time. Please leave.’

  ‘OK. You can deny it, but I think you are upset. You’re wrong about Cal. Don’t punish him for something that happened way back; he has never intended to hurt you.’