RIDE THE TIDE

 

Chapter 22-Take Down:

 

The Sunday meal was finished and the men walked down to the stables. The children were playing in the field below Anna’s rose garden. Janey and Anna, clearing the table, shooed

Penny and Lynne out to the stone patio. They sat in the wrought iron chairs overlooking the garden.

 

“This is the most beautiful place here...so peaceful,” said Lynne. "Living here must be heaven.”

 

“Yes, it is a wonderful life here.  I'm very grateful to be a part of it. It must be very different from Putney.”

 

“Oh, there's no comparison! I can’t wait to get out.”

 

“Is that what you were doing in Pateley Bridge Friday lunchtime, looking for property?”

 

“Pateley Bridge? Oh no, I was just driving around looking at the countryside.” How did Penny know?

 

“Anna and I were in the tea room and I saw you." She paused. "I noticed you were reading one of Tom’s books.”

 

“Yes, I picked it up in Knaresborough. He’s very good, your Tom. Very complex I would say, but, of course, I don’t know him.”

 

“No, you don’t. I wonder, Lynne, how well you know Davey?”

 

“I feel I have known Davey forever. He is such a beautiful man, so sweet. Actually we just met

on Thursday. I’d seen him at the wake. Nancy, a cousin of his, invited me. I just couldn’t get him out of my mind so I made a plan to meet him and here I am.” Lynne smiled sweetly.

 

Penny smiled sweetly, too. “I heard something about a five step plan at lunchtime from Davey. He thought it was funny. I wonder, Lynne, what step are you on now?”

 

“Sorry?” Lynne thought Penny was a sweet little thing and loved her accent, but where was she going with this?

 

“You know the five-step plan that you sat down in Putney and hatched out, the plan to seduce our Davey to make him crazy for you. What step would you be on now, home to meet the folks? What's next, Lynne?” Penny had not changed the tone of her voice or the little smile on her

face.

 

Lynne dropped her head. "You misunderstand, Penny." She had not reckoned with a red headed southern girl.

 

Anna had stopped in the hallway when she heard Penny talking. Janey came up beside her and Anna put her finger to her lips.

 

“No, honey, I don’t think I have missed a beat. He’s already fallen into the abyss, all you have to do is tighten that web you're spinning and you’ve got him. You’ve got him by the balls, don’t

you, Lynne, and you know it."

 

“No, Penny, I love him. Don’t you understand, I can make him happy.”

 

“I understand this, sweetie. You are a cold, conniving bitch. You had no thought for Davey’s feelings. It was all your plan, and you want the life here, don’t you? Your dreary drab little world down in Putney was getting boring, wasn’t it? You were in Pateley checking out your prospects, weren’t you? Let me tell you something, I’ve seen your kind before. You’re a phony.

I don’t know what’s underneath all the polished-up exterior, maybe it's empty inside, or maybe there is a real person in there that somebody could relate to. I'm not fooled. Davey is a dear, sweet man and I will not see him bamboozled by the likes of you.”

 

Janey broke loose from her mother's grip, walked out on the patio with her hands on her hips and stood looking down at her children in the field below.  She turned to Lynne and gave her a deadly look. “If you hurt my brother I will kill you.”

 

Penny knew that look. Janey was a Cox after all.

 

Anna had heard enough.  She was amazed at Penny's astuteness. She got right down to the bone. Anna walked over to Lynne and put her hand on her shoulder. “We should go into the living room and talk, dear.”

 

Akkers had her pinny in her mouth in the passageway. She stepped back in the kitchen. Penny was a ball of fire.  Who would ever have thought that sweet girl could talk like that?  She didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Our Penny had given the smoke what for, that was for sure. She went up a notch in Akkers' book. She saw the men walking back toward the kitchen and stepped out the door to warn them off.

 

“Ye Mum’s having a word with Lynne. Yer not to go in there and bother so off with ya. Find

yer something ta do.”

 

Penny looked at Janey and gave her a crooked little grin. "Did I go overboard? Sometimes when I get on a roll I can’t stop.”

 

“No, I think you got it right. I knew she was a phony, too.  All her high street ways and fancy speech, she slips sometimes, Cockney comes out.  I’m surprised at you, though, Penny. I didn’t know you had it in you.”

 

“Well, I was raised by southern women. You just had to be there. Let’s go for a walk with the children.” Penny hoped she hadn’t put her foot in it with Anna.

 

Having been barred from the house, Tom, Peter and Davey sat down on the bench outside the bungalow. Tom asked Davey about Friday night, wanting to know what happened. Davey told him about Lynn's plan.

 

Peter asked, “And your reaction to this was?”

 

“Well, I shagged her,” Davey said, shrugging his shoulders. “It’s her eyes, you know. I just fall into them. I don’t know.”

 

“Sometimes the heart can’t deliver what the eyes promise, Davey,” Peter said, leaning back and tossing some stones.

 

Tom thought that was a profound statement coming from Peter. “Take it easy, Davey. I think Lynne is a beautiful woman but there’s something that’s not quite right here and you need to find out a little more about her. She came after you with a plan and that’s not a woman in love. Love just happens, Davey.”

 

“I thought it might have happened to me, Tom. I never felt like this before. You know I love the ladies but that’s all a bit of fun, you know.”

 

“You mean this isn’t fun, Davey?  Then quit shagging her,” Peter suggested.

 

“Well, it's like I don’t want her to go away. I want to keep her with me. I want to touch her, the way she smiles, the little perfect teeth, the way her nose tilts upward...she makes me feel good.”

 

“It sounds to me like you're bitten, Davey. I know where you are but we just don’t know where she is. I don’t think you do either, do you?”

 

“Tom, I don’t know where she is. I think I know and then I'm left wondering. She says all the right things, you know, but then I wonder if we are to the next step in her plan or is it real?”

 

Janey and Penny came around the end of the bungalow with the children. "We should be leaving," Janey announced. Turning to Penny, she added, "And you, don't you worry about

it." Giving Penny a hug, she turned to go.

 

"What was that about?" Tom asked.

 

"Oh, nothing," she sighed.  "Can we go inside the bungalow out of the wind? The walk's chilled me a bit." 

 

Tom and Penny sat down on the sofa while Davey stretched out in Tom’s recliner. "What I

want," Davey said, "is what you have, Tom. A good woman." Penny had to bite her tongue.

 

Anna led a sobbing Lynne to the sofa by the fireplace, handing her a hanky she pulled from the sleeve of her new lavender cardigan. She wasn’t sure how she felt about this girl so she began carefully. "Lynne, Davey holds a special place in my heart and anything that affects him affects me.  I don’t know how much of what Penny said was true but I think you owe me the truth. Now then, what have you got to tell me?”

 

Lynne told her of the poverty of her childhood and about working her way through college. When her mother died she was alone and could not live in the squalid house any longer.  She

got a better job and found a boyfriend with a nice flat. That seemed to be the pattern of her life. When one relationship went bad she found another and a new place to live. The last boyfriend was physically abusive, too, and after one particularly nasty fight he threw his car keys at her and told her to take the car and just leave. So she did and lived in the car until she'd saved enough money for the furnished flat in Putney. She vowed she would never be in that position again and began to remake herself, bought a few nice clothes, found a better job as a loan officer at the bank in London. She worked on her accent and had given up on men.  But when she got the invitation from Nancy and saw Davey, a plan began to form in her mind. She thought if she wanted something bad enough she could make it happen. She hated her life and wanted a change.

 

Anna thought Penny had pegged her. She felt for the girl, whose life had not been a happy one. Anna’s concern, though, was for Davey. So far this girl hadn’t mentioned her feelings for Davey so she asked her.

 

“Mrs. Cox, I will be honest with you.  I am attracted to Davey, very much so. The more I get to know about him the more I am with him, the feeling grows stronger. I don’t think I have ever loved anybody but I think the feelings I have for Davey are the beginnings of love.  There is a strong physical attraction and a connection between us. I can’t describe it.”

 

"Perhaps," Anna said, "if you give it some time you might see what develops. But you must be honest with Davey. He’s not a fool and he deserves better. Who knows? The two of you might find out you have more in common than you think."

 

After Davey and Lynne left Anna headed for the kitchen, needing a cup of tea. Akkers was happy to provide it along with one for herself.  They sat down together at the old farm table.

“Well, wot yer think of Miss?” says Akkers.

 

“I don’t know yet, Akkers.  She’s a strange one. I think she’s had a hard life and would like to have somebody to take care of her and to love her but she has a problem with truth.”

 

“Aye, like our Penny said.”

“Now don’t you go telling anybody about this, Akkers.”

 

“Wot?  Me lips are sealed, me.”

 

Anna eyed her over her tea cup and wondered how long it would be before the whole of Nidderdale knew Penny had taken down the Londoner.

 

 

ON TO PART 23

 

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