“I’m sorry,” Pippa repeated, although she was a little bewildered. Why was Ted taking it all out on her? “Though Alex was the one who left. It must be some comfort that he made sure you were taken care of. He didn’t just walk out on you.”
“I know that!” Ted snapped. “I’m not happy about the way he did what he did, however, I suppose he consulted me to a degree. But you? You left Hurst Bridge without a word.”
“Oh.” Pippa felt very small. She’d been so consumed by her own heartbreak that she hadn’t even thought about how the split would affect Ted; whether the old man would miss her. But then, she supposed, she’d been his de facto daughter-in-law for over a decade, as well as his main caregiver.
“Yeah,oh.” Ted bristled. “And this one means well.” He gestured at Julie, whose lips thinned to the point of invisibility. “Thing is, she has the baby. It’s hard for me to get the care sometimes.”
Julie looked like she might cry. “Now Ted, I think that’s very unfair.”
“Sorry,” Ted grouched. “I don’t mean…” His shoulders sagged and his rheumy eyes watered. “It’s hard, that’s all.” His attention trailed off and he looked deliberately away from the two women as if to gather his composure. Pippa understood. Ted had never coped well with change, and she did regret how she’d handled her departure from his life. But looking at the way he spoke to Julie and the new lines of tiredness around the woman’s eyes, Pippa experienced an unexpected wave of relief. Relief that she didn’t need to run around after an often-cantankerous old man and his myriad medical needs – needs his son had had no interest in meeting.
“I understand,” she said softly. Alex ending their relationship had effectively also ended Pippa’s obligation to Ted, but she had a strong suspicion that pointing that out would lead nowhere.
Ted merely grunted and craned his neck even further away. Pippa fought the urge to sigh. As much as she felt sorry for him, why didn’t he care about Pippa’s heartbreak? Where was her sympathy and support?
“Pippa?” Mrs Allen appeared at her elbow, reeking as she aways did of her famous cider. Frankie used to joke that Mrs Allen was actually one thousand years old but was pickled and preserved just like her various alcoholic concoctions. “It is you!” Her wrinkled face beamed. “How are you? Not seen you around for months now. I hear you’ve moved into Squires!”
Pippa’s smile was forced. Yet another sign that the jungle drums still beat wildly in Hurst Bridge. “Yes, I’m looking after the place for a bit.”
“Of course.” Mrs Allen’s chin wobbled. “I understand Grantham has had to step away. Poor Joan. I took her some of my plum cake the other day.”
“How did she seem?” Julie asked.
“Fair to middling,” Mrs Allen said with a hopeful smile. “She’s not the best of patients, though. Still got a twinkle in her eye. We have a rota for visits. Do you want to be put on it?”
“Of course!” Julie beamed. “I’ll take the baby; she might like that.”
“Wonderful.” Mrs Allen’s eyes alighted on Ted, and she beamed almost gleefully. The woman may have been a pillar of the community, but she never missed an opportunity for gossip. “Why, Ted Goodman!” she went on. “How are you getting on?”
“I’m alive.” Ted narrowed his eyes at the woman.
“And Alexander…?” Mrs Allen sounded so innocent, but her eyes darted eagerly between the three of them.
“He’s doing grand,” Ted told her gruffly.
“We were all so shocked when we heard you’d split up,” Mrs Allen said to Pippa. “I said to my John, I said, I cannot believe Alex Goodman let that one go.”
Pippa’s cheeks heated. “Yeah. Well.”
“I mean!” Mrs Allen threw her hands up. “I thought you’d be getting married. I was looking out blanket patterns to knit for your babies!”
Pippa was horrified to feel tears forming again. “That would have been nice,” she choked. Julie regarded Pippa with some pity, which made Pippa feel even worse.
Ted snorted. “Alex? Marry! He’s too obsessed with making money for that.”
Mrs Allen’s eyebrows almost disappeared into her hairline, so shocked was she. “Nay, he’s the marrying kind. Isn’t he?”
“Meh,” Ted replied gruffly. “A dad knows these things about his boy. Alex wanted financial domination more than anything else. Not to be tied down with domestics, a wife and screaming kids.” Julie’s jaw dropped, and she glanced guiltily at Pippa.
“He gave me quite the opposite impression,” Pippa’s voice splintered.
“Oh my.” Mrs Allen laid a sympathetic hand on Pippa’s arm.
“Pip, come on,” Julie said tenderly. “Ted doesn’t mean that… You had Alex’s heart; you really did. We all could see that. He just, I dunno, got his head turned by his ambition.”
“An ambition I fuelled,” Pippa said sharply.
“No, now come on,” Ted growled. “He worked hard, always has.”
