‘And I think your dog’s looking for you,’ Tom interrupted, pointing to the brindle and white greyhound which was splashing in the water further up the beach.
‘Looking for crabs, more like,’ Audrey replied. ‘He loves them.’
‘Indeed,’ Tom declared, ‘and now if you’ll excuse us…’
But Audrey wasn’t about to let him leave so easily.
‘I hear your father left you his house in Trelissa Road?’ she called after him, and Tom turned slowly to face her, his expression tight.
‘What a very knowledgeable little community Penhally is,’ he said, the sarcasm in his voice so plain that even Audrey couldn’t miss it, and Eve grabbed his hand quickly, not caring that Audrey’s eyes followed her action.
‘Tom, we really do have to be going,’ she insisted, and determinedly she urged him back up the beach, but it wasn’t over as far as he was concerned.
‘Nothing changes, does it?’ he spat out when they reached the steps leading off the beach, and he glanced over his shoulder to see Audrey was watching them. ‘Twenty damn years, and nothing changes. I could be the Prime Minister of Britain, and in Penhally I’d still be Tom Cornish, that drunkard, Frank Cornish’s, son who no decent family ever wanted their daughter dating.’
‘Tom—’
‘If you’re going to say Audrey meant no harm, you can save your breath,’ he interrupted, sitting down on the step and beginning to drag on his socks, heedless of the fact that his feet were still covered in sand. ‘And if you were going to ask me why I didn’t come back for my father’s funeral, you can save your breath on that one, too.’
‘I know why you didn’t come back, Tom,’ she said gently, ‘and Audrey…There’s no question she can be an interfering busybody, but your father’s dead and gone. Don’t let him keep hurting you.’
‘He left me his house, Eve,’ he said furiously. ‘After years of battering me from pillar to post until I was big enough to hit him back and make it count, he had the gall to leave me his house.’
‘Maybe…’ She shrugged helplessly. ‘Maybe he was trying to make amends, at the end?’
‘If I believed that for one second,’ he retorted, ‘I’d go round and torch the bloody place myself. No guilt gift can ever make up for the fact he hated me from the day I was born. Time and time again, he’d tell me of all the things he could have done—would have done—if my mother hadn’t become pregnant, and her family hadn’t forced him into marrying her, and when she died he hated me even more.’
‘I know,’ she said, sitting down beside him, aching at the pain she saw in his face, feeling a different kind of pain in herself, but he rounded on her furiously.
‘No, you don’t. You have no idea of what it’s like to live with a man whose dreams you’ve shattered. No idea to feel, even as a seven-year-old child, that it would have been better if you’d never been born.’
She opened her mouth, then closed it again.
‘I’m sorry,’ she murmured. ‘You’re right. I don’t know.’
Silently she brushed the sand from her feet, then pushed her feet into her shoes, but when she made to stand up he put out his hand to stop her.
‘You’ve forgotten your stockings.’
‘Doesn’t matter,’ she replied, and, for a second he said nothing, then he thrust his fingers through his hair, and she saw his hands were shaking.
‘I’m sorry,’ he said, his voice so strained it almost broke. ‘So sorry for yelling at you.’
‘It’s all right,’ she said.
‘It’s not,’ he declared. ‘I shouldn’t have taken it out on you, and I’m sorry, too, that Audrey saw you in my arms. I know what this place is like—the gossip, the innuendo…’
‘It’s all right, Tom,’ she insisted, and saw a small smile creep onto his lips.
‘I’ve always created trouble for you, haven’t I?’ he said.
‘Of course you haven’t,’ she lied. ‘And now, come on,’ she added, ‘or we’ll be completing this tour of Penhally by moonlight.’
‘Which would really set the local tongues wagging, wouldn’t it?’ he declared as he fell into step beside her. ‘Audrey—’
‘Forget her,’ Eve ordered as they began walking back down Harbour Road, and he shook his head.
‘This is a professional observation, not a personal one,’ he replied. ‘Her colour’s very high.’
‘She has angina, and she’s hopeless about remembering to use her glyceryl trinitrate spray. “I keep forgetting, Nurse Dwyer”,’ Eve continued in a perfect imitation of Audrey’s voice. ‘I don’t think she realises, or will accept, how serious her condition is.’
‘Denial can be a form of self-protection when people are scared,’ Tom observed, kicking a pebble at his feet so that it ricocheted down the street in front of them. ‘If they don’t think about it, it hasn’t happened.’
It was true, Eve thought, but denial had never worked for her. All the denying, and pretending in the world, had never made it go away for her, and when they reached Harbour Bridge she came to a halt.
‘Tom, why did you come back?’ she asked. ‘You always said you wouldn’t, so why are you here?’
For a moment she didn’t think he was going to answer, then he shrugged.
‘My dad’s solicitor has been bending my ear about the house, wanting to know whether I want to sell it, or rent it out.’
‘You didn’t have to come back to Penhally for that,’ she pointed out. ‘You could just have told him over the phone.’
‘I suppose,’ he murmured as he stared down at the river Lanson flowing gently under the bridge beneath them, then he grinned. ‘OK, you’ve rumbled me. I thought it might be interesting to see Penhally again.’
He wasn’t telling her the truth. She didn’t know how she knew that, but she did.
‘Tom—’
‘What happened to the cinema?’ he interrupted. ‘It used to be up there, in Gull Close, didn’t it, on the right-hand side of the river?’
‘It was on the left-hand side of the river, in Bridge Street, but it closed down years ago,’ she replied, all too aware that he was changing the subject, but she had secrets so she supposed he was entitled to secrets, too. ‘People gradually stopped wanting to go so much once they had television in their own homes.’
‘I took you to see RoboCop.’
‘No, you didn’t.’
‘I did, too,’ he insisted as they began walking again. ‘I remember us kissing in the back row.’
‘Must have been someone else. Come to think of it,’ she added wryly, ‘it undoubtedly was someone else considering you were Penhally’s answer to Casanova.’
‘I was not,’ he replied, the grin reappearing on his face.
‘Yes, you were!’ she exclaimed. ‘Even when we were at school, every girl fancied you like mad despite you having the most dreadful reputation.’
‘You didn’t.’
Oh, but I did, I did, she thought, but you never noticed me. It was only when you came back from med school that summer that you realised I was alive.
‘That’s the Penhally Bay Surgery,’ she continued, deliberately changing the conversation, and Tom let out a low whistle as his gaze took in the large building to the left of the Serpentine Steps.
‘I remember when the doctor’s surgery was that pokey little place in Morwenna Road,’ he observed.
‘Nick’s made big changes since he took over the practice,’ Eve replied. ‘And he’s making even more, as you can see,’ she added, pointing to the scaffolding at the back of the surgery. ‘In less than a week Lauren will have a state-of-the-art physiotherapy suite, and we’ll have an X-ray room, and even more consulting rooms.’
‘Well, he may have grown into a grumpy old so-and-so,’ Tom said, ‘but at least he wants the best for his patients.’
‘He does,’ Eve said, ‘but you haven’t told me anything about yourself, your work with Deltaron.’
‘Not much to tell,’ he said.
‘T
here’s bound to be,’ she said, but he wasn’t listening to her. He was already crossing the road, heading for the children’s play park and playing field. ‘Tom, where are you going?’
‘I fancy a swing,’ he shouted back, and though she shook her head she followed him.
‘Big kid,’ she said when she’d caught up with him.
‘You’d better believe it,’ he replied, then frowned slightly as he looked up at the new houses on the hill, then down at the older buildings clustered round the harbour. ‘It’s odd, but it seems so much smaller than I remembered it.’
‘Hicksville. That’s what you used to call Penhally,’ she said. ‘“There’s a whole world out there, Eve, and I want to see it, be a part of it.”’
‘Did I say that?’ he said dryly. ‘Yeah, well, I guess I always was a stupid kid.’
She stared at him for a second, then sat down on the swing next to his.
‘Tom, what’s wr—?’
‘You wanted to know about my work with Deltaron,’ he interrupted. ‘There’s almost fifty of us in the organisation, but normally we’ll send in around fourteen people who are specialists in the sorts of conditions we’re likely to encounter.’
‘What sort of specialists?’ she asked.
‘Let’s say we’re going into an earthquake situation,’ he declared. ‘In that case, we’d want people who are familiar with the construction of buildings, plus experts in flammable and explosive materials, electricians, pilots, plumbers and medics.’
‘And when you go into a disaster area, you’re in charge.’
‘Yup,’ he said. ‘I decide where we start looking for survivors, and I decide when we quit. When there’s no point in looking any more.’
A harshness had crept into his voice, and his eyes…They had become bleak, empty, and desolate.
‘It must be heart-breaking at times,’ she suggested tentatively, and saw his jaw tighten.
‘Bleeding hearts need not apply, that’s for sure.’
‘Tom…’ She put her hand on his arm. ‘Tom, are you OK?’
He stood up abruptly, letting the swing bang back against his calves, and faked a smile.
‘Couldn’t be better,’ he said, ‘and isn’t that your little friend?’
For a second Eve continued to stare at him, then she glanced in the direction of his gaze, and saw Tassie running along the road, her blonde hair flying.
‘She’ll be going home,’ she said. ‘Tom, are you quite sure you’re—?’
‘What’s the connection between you two?’
‘None,’ she said, getting to her feet, and leading the way out of the play park, ‘apart from the fact I’ve taken an interest in her since she was about four years old. Her mother, Amanda…She’s had to bring up five of a family virtually on her own so I help out by looking after Tassie one day a week.’
‘Isn’t there a Mr Lovelace?’
‘He’s in prison at the moment for petty theft. I’m afraid it always is petty theft with him, or selling on stolen goods.’ Eve sighed. ‘The whole family are completely out of control, including Tassie’s twin brother, Terry, but Gary Lovelace is the worst. Seventeen years old, and already a complete and utter waste of space.’
Tom’s eyebrows rose.
‘It’s not like you to write off someone when they’re so young.’
Eve struggled with herself for a moment, then blurted out, ‘Do you remember me telling you Reverend Kenner had a daughter? Well, she’s pregnant, Tom. Rachel is just seventeen years old, and pregnant by Gary Lovelace.’
‘Accidents happen, Eve,’ Tom declared. ‘You know that.’
‘This was no accident,’ she retorted. ‘Rachel told Chloe MacKinnon it wasn’t. Gary deliberately went after Rachel because he thought it would be fun to play around with the minister’s daughter. What kind of boy does that, Tom? He’s no job—no desire to get one—just hangs about with his friends…He—’
‘Sounds exactly like I was at his age,’ Tom interrupted, and Eve shook her head vehemently.
‘You were nothing like Gary.’
‘Hell, Eve, I was exactly like Gary,’ Tom protested. ‘God knows what would have become of me if it hadn’t been for Gertie Stanbury.’
‘Our old headmistress?’ Eve exclaimed. ‘What did she have to do with anything?’
‘Do you remember the day when the bicycle sheds burned down at school, and I swore blind I didn’t do it? Well, I did, and Gertie knew I did though she couldn’t prove it. She called me into her office and said, “Cornish, you can either spend the rest of your life destroying things, or you can make something of yourself. Your father—and most of Penhally—have written you off, but you’ve got brains and ability, so are you going to prove your father and Penhally right, or show them they’re wrong?”’
Eve shook her head in amazement. ‘You never told me any of this.’
‘Well, it was hardly my finest hour,’ Tom said wryly. ‘I was furious with Gertie—thought she was an interfering old bat, to be honest—but when I went home that night, and found my father lying dead drunk as usual on the sitting-room floor, I suddenly realised I was going to be him in a few years if I didn’t knuckle down at school, and get some qualifications.’
‘Which is what I want Tassie to do,’ she declared, ‘to get some qualifications. She’s such a bright child, Tom, and Gertrude has been helping her by lending her books—’
‘Gertie Stanbury is still alive?’
‘Very much so.’ Eve nodded. ‘She thinks Tassie is clever enough to win a scholarship to the Lady Joan Mercer’s Boarding School in Devon which would be wonderful because though Amanda wants what’s best for Tassie she’ll never be able to afford to let her stay on at school once she reaches leaving age.’
‘And if she does go to this school?’
Eve smiled.
‘At the moment Tassie wants to become a doctor. Of course, she’ll probably change her mind, but if I can get her into Lady Joan’s, and she studies hard, the world will be her oyster.’
A slight frown appeared on Tom’s forehead.
‘You do realise if you send Tassie off to this private boarding school, she’ll lose her own family?’
‘Of course she won’t.’
‘She will,’ Tom insisted. ‘She’ll have nothing in common with them, could even end up looking down on them, while they’ll simply think she’s got above herself.’
‘You’re saying I’m wrong—I shouldn’t encourage her,’ Eve exclaimed, anger rising in her.
‘I’m saying…’ Tom stopped and rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly with his fingers. ‘I’m saying Tassie’s not your daughter, Eve.’
‘I know that.’ Eve flared. ‘I know she isn’t mine, but what’s so wrong about me wanting her to have every opportunity?’
‘Nothing,’ Tom replied gently, ‘just so long as she, and her mother, and you, understand it will come at a price.’
He was wrong, Eve thought furiously as she gazed at him. Tassie wouldn’t lose her family, and when she thought of all the things the girl would gain…
‘I have to go,’ she said, her voice tight as she stepped back from him.
‘Already?’ he protested. ‘But I thought we could have dinner together.’
‘I can’t.’
‘Then what about tomorrow?’ he declared. ‘We could drive up to Newquay—’
‘You’re leaving tomorrow,’ she reminded him, ‘and I have to work.’
‘Couldn’t you ask for a few days off?’ he demanded. ‘Even just one day?’
It was clearly important to him that she said yes, but she had no intention of saying yes. She’d agreed to today but even during the few short hours they’d spent together he’d unsettled her so much, and she’d had enough unsettling.
‘Tom, I can’t,’ she said. ‘I’ve only just started work at the practice so it would hardly look professional if I took time off.’
‘Then this is goodbye,’ he said, making it a statement, not a question, and s
he stuck out her hand.
‘It’s been nice seeing you again, Tom.’
‘Eve…’
He’d taken her hand in his, his eyes intent, earnest, and he was clearly hoping she would change her mind, but he was too late. Twenty years too late, and she pulled her hand free.
‘Goodbye, Tom,’ she said.
And she walked away from him, and she didn’t look back.
CHAPTER THREE
‘SOPHIE, tell me this isn’t true?’ Eve declared, gazing in horror at the sullen teenager.
‘Look, I just miscalculated my insulin dose, OK?’ Sophie Banks retorted belligerently. ‘That’s why my blood-sugar levels are all haywire today. I just made a mistake.’
‘Mistake, my foot!’ Sophie’s mother exclaimed, her face tight, her eyes angry. ‘I thought it was strange the way she kept rushing off to the bathroom, even wondered if she’d perhaps caught a chill, and then I heard her—bold as brass—on the phone to her friend last night, talking about this internet site she’d found—’
‘You had no right to listen in to my private phone calls,’ Sophie declared, outrage plain in her voice. ‘I don’t listen to yours—’
‘Sophie, I know you weren’t happy when you started putting on weight after your diabetes was diagnosed,’ Eve interrupted quickly, seeing the mother and daughter round on one another, ‘but skipping, or lessening your dosage in order to excrete more urine and stay thin is a recipe for disaster.’
‘None of my clothes fit any more,’ the teenager protested. ‘I look gross.’
Or like a perfectly normal fifteen-year-old, Eve thought, but there was no point in saying that.
‘Sophie, your weight gain is purely temporary,’ she said instead. ‘Once we get your blood-sugar levels under control, your weight will return to what it was before.’
‘Yeah, right,’ Sophie muttered under her breath, and Eve sat forward in her seat.
‘This internet site you found,’ she declared. ‘Did it tell you that not only would you lose weight if you manipulated your insulin doses, you could also damage your eyes, and develop hypoglycaemia?’
‘One mistake,’ the girl said mutinously. ‘All I did was make one lousy miscalculation, and now you all think I have a problem. I don’t have a problem.’
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