Chapter 28
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Once inside the cottage, Pippa fell in love straightaway. The place was full of charm, warm and inviting.
‘Take a seat,’ offered Pete. ‘I’ll make some tea.’
Pippa and Theo sat on the settee, while Horace lowered himself into the armchair opposite them. His expression was unreadable.
Pete disappeared through a door and the clatter of china could be heard, followed by the whistle of a kettle.
Pippa’s eyes were drawn to an old dresser in the corner of the room that was rammed with books and framed snapshots of life.
Pippa recognised a much younger Pete in several of them, pictured with guitars, amplifiers, pub stages, long hair, loud shirts.
A portrait of a strikingly beautiful young woman stood at the front of the collection.
Horace hadn’t said a word since Pete left the room, which caused an awkward tension, so Pippa was relieved when Pete reappeared. Wanting to keep the conversation light and start things gently, she said to Pete, ‘Great photographs! I heard you played in a famous band back in the day?’
Pete smiled, placing the tray down on the coffee table. ‘Yes, back before I got myself a proper job as the island’s vet.’
‘I didn’t think much of your band name,’ cut in Horace, smiling up at Pete as he poured the tea.
Pete laughed. ‘Why not? “The Men from Puffin Island”. It did what it said on the tin.’
‘She’s such a beautiful woman.’ Pippa nodded towards the central photograph.
Pete picked up the frame and looked fondly at the image. ‘Hetty. She’s sadly no longer with us. The only woman I ever wrote a song for.’
Pippa noticed his eyes glistened with unshed tears as he replaced the photograph.
‘I’ll leave you all to talk,’ Pete said as he put a plate of biscuits in the middle of the table.
‘Stay,’ Horace insisted. Pete stopped. ‘You’re one of my oldest friends. I’ve got nothing to hide from you.’
Pete nodded and lowered himself into the armchair opposite Horace.
Pippa could feel her heart racing. She didn’t know how Theo was going to begin the conversation, or in what direction this was about to go.
Horace leaned back slightly in his chair. His hands were clasped loosely in his lap, but Pippa didn’t miss the faint tap of his thumb against his fingers, the only sign he was more uneasy than he let on.
‘It seems,’ Horace said, looking between them, ‘that you’ve got questions because of your friend Sebastian.’
‘Sebastian is no friend of ours,’ they chorused in unison, then looked at each other.
‘However…’ Theo carried on.
‘Before you jump to conclusions, let me be clear…’ Horace paused. ‘Andrew Wetherby is no longer with us. Whatever you think you know has most probably been blown out of proportion. Everyone loves the idea that there was some sordid scandal, but it’s simply not true.’
Before anyone could reply, there was a knock at the front door.
Horace turned to Pete. ‘Are you expecting anyone?’
Pete shook his head. ‘No.’ He stood, crossed the small living room, and opened the front door. Through the crack, Pippa could see a man standing there.
They listened as a voice came from the other side of the doorway.
‘Is Horace still here? I’ve got the press hounding me. Someone has dug too far and leaked a memo about the commission. They know what it is. It’s about to appear all over the press.’
Theo’s head snapped up. His expression had shifted from tense to utterly confused.
‘Grandfather?’ Theo stood up. ‘What are you doing here?’
Pete stepped aside and opened the door wider.
Pippa’s heart was beating fast as Arthur Blake walked into the living room.
Arthur looked stunned to see his grandson standing in the cottage. ‘What are you doing here?’
‘We needed to talk to Horace.’
‘About?’
Pete gestured towards the armchair, encouraging Arthur to take a seat. ‘Let me get you a mug.’
Pippa wondered who was going to go first. It felt like a game of cat and mouse. Someone knew something about something, or something about nothing, but someone had to go first.
‘Grandfather, can I introduce you to Pippa? We went to university together. She’s a clock restorer. One of ours.’
Arthur nodded kindly and leaned across to shake her hand.
Pippa took it, immediately aware that her palm was both too warm and possibly a bit sweaty.
‘I … I’ve been a huge fan of the Vale Brothers’ work for years,’ she blurted, far too quickly, as she looked from Arthur to Horace. ‘You’re both part of the reason I wanted to spend my whole life surrounded by clocks. Honestly, your designs, your craftsmanship … it’s all genius, absolute genius.’
Her voice had jumped an octave, the same way it did whenever she was nervous or overexcited, and she could practically hear herself spiralling. Great. Very professional. Exactly what one does when meeting a legend of their field.
Pippa felt her cheeks burn. ‘I’m fangirling. I’m sorry.’
But Arthur was smiling, a soft, amused lift of the mouth that instantly eased her embarrassment.
‘It’s quite all right,’ he said warmly. ‘Always nice to meet someone who loves clocks as much as we do.’ He then turned to Theo. ‘Now, why are you here?’
‘We read Andrew Wetherby’s book and in the past few days have discovered that Sebastian Worthington-Frost… Do you remember me talking about him at university?’
‘The guy who made your life hell?’
‘The very one, and the one currently all over the news for speaking out during the interview with Horace.’
‘That’s the same man?’
‘It is, but also … he’s Andrew Wetherby’s grandson.’
Pippa did not miss the look between Arthur and Horace, but she couldn’t read it.
‘I’m not here to cause trouble or fight his corner, but I do now believe his jealousy of me was because you were my grandfather, and the other right-hand man to Horace and Walter.
He thinks his grandfather was set up, and blames you and the Vale Brothers for tearing his family apart, with his grandmother changing her name and relocating to escape the stigma of her husband being a thief.
He wants the truth, but we aren’t really sure what it is. ’
He looked at Horace, who hadn’t spoken since Arthur arrived. ‘The whole world believes there was a feud between you and Walter,’ Theo continued carefully, ‘and that it ended the partnership. Did it have anything to do with Andrew Wetherby?’
Before either man could answer, Pippa’s phone buzzed in her hand. She glanced at the screen to find a message from her dad.
The Vale Brothers are in the news again. Something about them working for the government. MI5 apparently.
She reread it, then looked around the room, her heart thudding. ‘Is it true, the secret commission was … for MI5?’
Theo looked at her like she’d gone mad.
Arthur was looking at Horace but neither of them was saying anything.
‘If it’s going to be splashed across the newspapers, we’re going to read all about it sooner rather than later,’ encouraged Theo. ‘Does it really matter what it was? We’re decades on now.’
Pippa knew that Theo was trying as gently as possible to coax them into talking, but she also knew that there was no way that Horace was ever going to admit to wrongdoing unless faced with irrefutable evidence.
So she announced boldly, ‘Horace, we know that you and Agatha hid the commission, and framed Andrew for theft.’
‘Don’t be ridiculous. There is no truth to that accusation. None whatsoever. I don’t need to listen to all this.’
Pippa took the letter out of her bag. She took a sideward glance towards Theo, who looked amazed. ‘I brought it just in case we needed it.’
‘Needed what?’ Horace pulled out a pair of glasses from his jacket pocket and put them on. Pippa noticed he looked tired, and more than a little defeated.
‘It’s a letter from Agatha to you,’ said Theo, ‘claiming that Andrew Wetherby was going to talk and steps needed to be taken to save the reputation of the Vale Brothers. She also says that Walter couldn’t find out. What couldn’t you risk Walter finding out?’
‘Don’t be ridiculous.’ Horace leaned over and took the letter. ‘All this is nonsense. I’ve never seen this letter before. Where did it come from?’
‘Agatha Vale’s desk drawer. Also in the desk was the ledger, and the commission is marked as stolen. It was worth a hell of a lot of money.’
Horace waved the letter. ‘Oh, it was! But I have not seen this before. I never got rid of that commission. In fact, it was me who was set up. That’s why Walter and I fell out.
Walter and Agatha stole that commission.
They double-crossed me. And as for Andrew Wetherby, he was blackmailing me. ’ Horace was shaking with anger.
‘I think we all need to calm down. This is no good for any of us, especially at our time of life,’ Pete intervened in a calm manner.
‘Why would Andrew be blackmailing you? If that was true, why didn’t you go to the police? Surely there would’ve been evidence?’ Pippa asked, her thoughts spilling out.
Horace shifted in his chair, but before he could reply, Arthur cut straight across him.
‘Because going to the police would have exposed Horace for what he really was,’ Arthur said sharply. ‘A fraud.’
Everyone froze.
Horace’s head snapped towards him.
Pete’s hand froze halfway to his teacup.
Theo shifted upright.
Pippa had to remind herself to breathe.
Arthur didn’t blink. He didn’t take it back. He let it sit there.
‘Don’t do this,’ Horace said quietly, his voice tight. ‘Arthur, don’t you dare.’
‘Oh, I’m doing it,’ Arthur replied, leaning forward. ‘You let Andrew Wetherby take the fall because you were fame-hungry. You liked being seen as the genius. Not only did you fool your own brother, you let Andrew rot while you took the praise for work he designed.’
Pippa’s eyes widened. Theo looked stunned, genuinely stunned.
Horace’s face flushed a deep red. ‘That is not how it happened.’
‘No?’ Arthur shot back. ‘Then tell them the truth. Tell them who really designed the commission sketches. Tell them whose ideas filled those notebooks.’
‘Andrew worked with us—’