‘Aye, he can turn his hand to anything.’ Ed’s face turned serious. ‘So, getting back to the unexpected visit from my father,I hadn’t been back long from my appointment at the solicitors – I’ll tell you about that after this – when he turned up at the bookshop. I was so shocked to see him, it took a while for my brain to register it was actually him standing in the doorway. Anyroad, when it finally did click, my first thought was that I had to get him out. I was worried he was going to kick off with round two of all the screaming and yelling, which we didn’t need after last night.’
‘Oh, blimey, no.’
‘You should’ve seen the look Jean shot him, talk about a death stare.’ He chuckled.
‘That’s exactly how Leah described it.’ Florrie laughed, too. ‘She said it’s a wonder he didn’t turn to stone.’
‘She’s not wrong. I could almost sense the “mess at your peril” vibes radiating from her. I’ve never seen my father look so taken aback before.’
‘Go, Jean,’ said Florrie, unable to resist.
‘That’s what I thought.’ Ed grinned. ‘So, when I’d got him out on the street, he was at great pains to assure me he hadn’t come to argue or fight, but said he had something to tell me. Something that he thought would help explain my mother’s recent actions.’
‘This’ll be good.’ The snort that erupted from Florrie took her by surprise and she clamped her hand over her mouth. ‘Sorry. Didn’t mean to do that.’
‘No need to apologise, I reacted pretty much that way myself. And even after hearing what my father had to say, I still don’t think anything can explain or excuse what she’s done.’ He gave a resigned shrug.
‘Where did you go to have your chat?’
‘Don’t worry, I didn’t take him back to Samphire Cottage, if that’s what you’re wondering. After what my mother’s been up to there, I wouldn’t do that. We walked to the top prom while I worked out where we could have a talk, ended up sitting on one of the benches looking out to sea – well away from my grandparents’ bench. I didn’t want him and my mother to get wind of that; I dread to think what they might do to it if they knew it was there.’
‘Oh, goodness, I hadn’t thought of that.’ Florrie wouldn’t put anything past either of his parents but particularly Dawn with the mood she was in yesterday.
‘Neither had I till we got there. In fact, I hadn’t even made up my mind where to take him until then, and although he seemed calm, I hadn’t forgotten his temper can be unpredictable and I didn’t want to risk him kicking off in a coffee shop or anywhere like that if I said something he didn’t like, or didn’t respond in the way he hoped. I thought somewhere outdoors was the safest bet, and since it was pretty quiet along the prom and the sun was shining, I thought that’d be the best place.’
Florrie could see the logic in that. ‘Did he say where your mum and Luella were?’
‘My mum was at the B&B and I think Luella was at hers, and looking into getting a train back to London.’
Florrie nodded. Though she didn’t say it, she hoped Luella had been successful and was already being whisked very quickly out of town.
‘Anyroad, it won’t come as a surprise to you that my father didn’t offer an apology about what happened last night.’ He gave a hollow laugh. ‘But he jumped straight into telling me about the latest mess they’ve got themselves into. Interestingly, he did say he’d told her not to come here when she’d told him she was thinking about it. He said the first he knew of her visit was when she’d texted him from here. He reckons he followed her to put a stop to her plans.’
Florrie bristled that there was no forthcoming apology, especially after what had happened to her dad. And she wasn’t so sure she believed that Peter had nothing to do with the drama, but she kept her irritation to herself and, instead, listened quietly as Ed went on to share his conversation with her. Her eyes grew wide as he told her how, without his father’s consent, Dawn had invested all their savings – including some money she’d borrowed from a neighbour – into some Bitcoin ‘deal’ she’d found on the internet. It had turned out to be a scam and she’d ended uplosing every penny, with no trace of the company she’d transferred the money to.
Florrie knew it wasn’t the first time they’d lost money on unwise investments; it would seem they never learnt from their mistakes. The more she knew of Ed’s parents, the more she understood why his grandfather hadn’t bequeathed the bookshop to them.
Ed continued, telling her his father had gone on to say how he’d discovered quite by chance that Dawn had developed an online gambling addiction and had kept it secret for over a year. ‘But she never quite got on top of her mounting debt which my father thinks contributed to her addiction growing stronger. The worst of it is, since the Bitcoin disaster, she started borrowing money from loan sharks and they’ve been breathing down her neck – my father’s, too.’
‘Oh dear. I’m sorry to hear that, Ed.’ Florrie’s mind went to Jasmine, whose ex, Bart, had been gripped by a gambling addiction and had borrowed from undesirable individuals to feed his cravings. The situation had caused irreparable damage to their relationship and quashed her friend’s vibrant spirit for a long time afterwards.
‘When it all came to light, my father said she became defensive and diverted attention to the bookshop, ranting and shouting, throwing things about in her usual way, saying it was rightfully theirs, that they wouldn’t be in a financial mess if they’d inherited it. Apparently, she blamed him for not standing up to my grandfather, and raged that he’d let everyone walk all over him.’
Florrie’s eyes widened. She couldn’t imagine Peter Harte letting anyone so much as stand on his big toe without suffering a verbal savaging, never mind walk all over him!
‘I know what you’re thinking and I agree.’ Ed’s mouth quirked into a small smile. ‘Anyroad, he said once she’d calmed down, she’d told him that she was going to fix things once and for all. Whichleads into why Luella is involved.’
‘Oh, blimey.’
‘My father thinks it was around this time that she bumped into my ex, and on learning that Luella still had… um… still had feelings for me…’ Ed scratched his cheek, an awkward expression on his face. He was clearly feeling uncomfortable at sharing this. ‘It would seem the two got chatting and apparently hatched a plan to get us back together. I’m not sure of all the ins and outs of it, but what I do know is that when Luella and I became an item again, she was going to make me “see sense” and either hand over the bookshop to my parents or get me to sell it and give the proceeds to them. Oh, and she was going to have a small percentage of the profit as a reward for her trouble.’
‘Wow! That’s some bold plan.’ Florrie couldn’t help but laugh, wondering if it sounded as childish and unsophisticated to Ed as it did to her.
‘It was fundamentally flawed on so many levels, though. I mean, they seem to have forgotten the need to take my feelings into account. Did they really think I was going to have an overnight change of heart and suddenly switch my affections from you to Luella? That I’d cancel the wedding, and my ex and I would live happily ever after? Let’s not forget the fact that you’re also a joint owner of the bookshop, and Jean and Jack have shares now. How were they going to get around that? They had a lot of people to convince to go along with their plan.’
‘Desperate people take desperate measures,’ she said. ‘Panic must’ve skewed your mum’s logic, especially if she’s been getting hassled by loan sharks.’
‘Hmm. Maybe,’ said Ed. ‘My dad told me he wasn’t involved in any of it, and, like I said before, that the reason he came up here was to stop her from going ahead with her plan – he told me he knew nothing about it until Wednesday evening when she’d let slip during a phone call. She’d originally told him she was visiting a friend and when he questioned her, it apparently all came tumbling out. He got on a train the following morning and arrivedin Micklewick Bay that afternoon. He reckons the reason he was arguing with her in the square was because she’d told him she was going to crash Jack and Jenna’s reading and tell everyone how badly she and my father had been treated by my grandfather in bequeathing the bookshop to us. He’d been trying to talk her out of it which had made her angry and was the reason she’d started to scream at him in the street. It seems your father falling over and hitting his head forced her to abandon her plan.’
