The Village Newcomers Read Online Free PDF

that she wouldn’t miss the chance of a day at the races because Willie was acting like a fool, so she swiftly changed the expression on her face to one of complete compliance. After all, maybe life in Turnham Malpas had suddenly taken a turn for the better, and why shouldn’t she and Willie have a slice of it? The only drawback was just how much this day at the races would cost. After all, there’d be rounds of drinks to get in and they mustn’t appear skinflints, her and Willie.
     
     
    As Dottie told Peter on the Monday morning, they had no worries about money because Ford had taken care of absolutely everything. ‘So generous he was, Reverend, you’ve no idea. Wonderful restaurant there, and we’d a big round table where we could see the races while we were eating, through the big glass windows, you know. The food - well, I can’t describe it. I hardly ate a thing yesterday I’d eaten so much on the day. It was so smart, all of it. I was glad I’d got my best suit on, otherwise I’d have felt right out of it. Mind you, neither Sylvia nor Vera nor me could compete with Mercedes. She was utterly splendid, in a bright coral-red outfit with a big white hat, gloves and handbag, and four-inch high-heeled strappy sandals.’
     
    ‘I’m sure you compared very favourably, Dottie.’
     
    ‘You weren’t there, sir. I know who looked stunning - it was Merc, as he calls her. Ford knows so many people, all looking good and well off. He’s very popular. They don’t half bet, the pair of them, though. Runs through their fingers like water, but they mostly win so that makes all the difference. I took Ford’s advice and won forty-two pounds but Don won a hundred and seventy-five pounds on another race. That chuffed he was! Willie lost ten pounds but Mercedes kissed him and gave him a hug to compensate, and I must say he didn’t seem to mind he’d lost, though Sylvia looked annoyed. Must get on. Finished your lunch? I’ll be off when I’ve cleared up. Embroidery class, you see. See yer tomorrow!’
     
    Peter sat for a moment, contemplating Dottie’s story about the races. It all made him feel very wary of what was going on at Glebe House with the Barclays. It appeared too good to be true. They seemed to him to be trying far too hard to ingratiate themselves, and he wondered why. It would have been so much better in the long run to move in and take things more slowly. A state-of-the-art mower and a shed, which was twice the size of the original, with a workman coming to lay the base before it arrived and more workmen to put it up, within a week of moving in? He chided himself for being so wary.
     
    But he was, and he was also very wary of Suzy Meadows-that-was sending letters to his children. His all-consuming aim every day of his life was to protect not only them but Caroline, too, knowing as he did that her inability to give him children herself had been the major factor in her decision to adopt his and Suzy’s children. The agonizing pain the whole episode had caused him was still as vivid as the day he’d learned that Suzy was pregnant by him, and it the one and only act of unfaithfulness in the whole of his marriage.
     
    Peter picked up the photograph on his desk and studied it. It was a picture of Caroline with the very newborn twins, one in each arm, smiling with such triumphant happiness at the camera that tears came to his eyes each time he looked at it. Today, he wept.
     
    Dottie called out, ‘Bye, Reverend, I’m off. See you tomorrow.’
     
    Peter couldn’t reply, but Dottie thought he was probably on the phone, so off she went.
     
    The tears made him come to the conclusion that for everyone’s sake he would ask the twins about the letters at the first opportunity.
     
     
    His moment came on Saturday. Caroline was doing an extra surgery and Peter had promised to go to the council tip in Culworth with a load of stuff they’d been clearing out and the recycling things, too. So he encouraged