Chapter Fifty
Evelyn kept returning to the handful of photos Bob had given her.
They showed a young woman smiling and holding her newborn son, Robert Gilbert Larkwood.
Of course, there wasn’t one of Cora-May holding her first-born baby, but they helped Evelyn imagine how such a photograph might have looked.
Her mother would be younger and her baby girl would be wearing the finished matinee jacket and bonnet Cora-May had been making when her baby was taken from her.
Thanks to everyone’s help, the art show was coming together with remarkable ease and on one of her morning walks, the perfect name for the exhibition came to her.
She decided they should call it Horizons – not only because it would include the abstract painting of the open sea, but because it felt like a new future was within sight.
Whether the council saw sense or not, the museum had left its past behind.
Already, Alison had done a brilliant job of drumming up local press stories and someone from the Tate St Ives was coming.
Evelyn was nervous of meeting them because they were a ‘real’ curator, but George said not to worry.
‘When it comes down to it, most jobs involve a bit of bluff and bluster. They know art, but you know Portheast,’ had been his advice.
It was a salutary lesson that George, a self-confessed faker, was turning out to be the most genuine man she knew. It proved that you couldn’t judge on appearances – and the interesting thing was, people had started to say as much to her.
‘Miss Silver, I used to be scared of you, you know,’ Kayla told her one afternoon, when she came to the museum to drop off some soft drinks for the Horizons show (the Warburn Spa being less keen to help since Sariah had handed in her notice).
‘When me and Jude were little, we’d see you down on the beach and we thought you looked like a big black bird, pecking at the sand.
We’d tell each other, “Miss Silver’s going to get you! ”’
‘Is that so?’ Evelyn wasn’t sure how to take this, because she still did her morning beachcombs, although she’d recently treated herself to a nearly new smart yellow mackintosh. Perhaps, she mused, she now looked more like a yellowhammer.
‘But now, it’s kind of nice, seeing you down there. You’re part of Portheast life,’ Kayla continued.
Evelyn smiled. She would take that.
All morning, she had been deliberately avoiding the newsagents because this was the day that the local newspaper came out, and Alison was hoping for a front-page story. Evelyn was less keen: as she pointed out to Alison, it wasn’t her photo that was going to be splashed across its pages.
As the hours ticked by, Evelyn was beginning to think she’d got away with it – perhaps the museum’s story had been eclipsed by news of a runaway sheep or a shoplifting spree. But then, at lunchtime, Jacob burst through the door waving a paper.
‘You’re famous!’ he said, pointing at a photograph on the front page. Thankfully, Evelyn had had the foresight to stand behind an easel displaying the Peter Lanyon painting and, when the photographer wasn’t looking, she’d also bent her knees to ensure she was largely hidden from view.
St Austell Bugle
11 May 2026
New Horizons for Portheast Museum
A previously unknown painting by Peter Lanyon, the famous Cornish 20th century abstract painter, goes on show at Portheast Museum this weekend. The painting has long been in the museum’s collections, but was not recognised until recently.
‘I have always collected art and objects related to the sea,’ said Ms Evelyn Silver, the museum’s curator, who admitted that her collection had got a little out of control in recent years. But now her fascination has paid off handsomely.
An expert from the Tate St Ives commented: ‘This is a significant and exciting discovery. Peter Lanyon was one of the most innovative artists of post-war Britain, and Cornwall was always central to his identity and inspiration.’
The untitled painting will be on show for a month, thanks to the generosity of its anonymous new owner. Other items in the Horizons exhibition include an installation about sea pollution made by the children of Portheast Primary School.
The opening will also see the unveiling of a plaque to commemorate the three Portheast fishermen lost at sea in 1987, when the vessel Cora-May went down in a storm.
‘This is a long overdue tribute and it’s good Evelyn has put things right,’ commented Bob Larkwood, whose father Gilbert Larkwood lost his life in the disaster.
‘As the museum’s lease remains up for review, this may be our swansong, so everyone is invited,’ added Ms Silver. Representatives from the council declined to comment.
The Horizons exhibition runs from 16 May to 20 June.
‘Alison did a good job,’ she said to Jacob, trying to ignore the blush creeping up her neck.
‘She did. And there’s more to come – a piece in The Guardian and two art journals. I keep telling Alison she’s got a talent for this stuff.’
‘Has she had any luck on the job front?’
‘Well, she’s invited her old boss from the PR company to the exhibition.’
‘A canny move. And what about you, Jacob? Are you staying at Potters Newsagents for the foreseeable?’
‘No, not forever.’ He took off the green bucket hat he was wearing. ‘I’ve told Mrs P that I’ll stay until she gets a replacement, but I’d like to do something else. Something more relevant to my degree – well, uncompleted degree.’
‘You could always redo your final year,’ she said.
‘That’s a possibility,’ Jacob replied. ‘But, to be honest, I’d prefer to be working. I’m not sure student life suited me very well.’
‘It’s not for everyone,’ Evelyn said.
‘I’m afraid my father wouldn’t agree with you. Erm, I managed to talk to him last night, actually.’
Evelyn’s heart gave a small leap. ‘And did you tell him? About me?’
‘I did.’ He looked shifty. ‘It was probably a bit of a shock, so he didn’t say much.’
‘No, of course. Understandable.’
A silence fell.
‘I’m sure once it’s sunk in he’ll be more receptive,’ Jacob said, his voice faltering. ‘It takes time for him to get used to an idea.’
‘Nice hat,’ she said, because this was getting uncomfortable.
‘Thanks.’ He grinned, smoothed out the Surf’s Up logo and put it back on his head. ‘Saw it in the window of a charity shop in Truro – it’s vintage, you know.’ A thought struck him. ‘Hey, once this event is out of the way, we should go charity shopping together. I can show you all the good ones.’
Evelyn suspected she had a head start on Jacob when it came to rummaging, but she wasn’t going to let on. ‘I’d like that very much,’ she said.