Flappy Investigates by Santa Montefiore

Author:Santa Montefiore
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK
Published: 2022-10-27T00:00:00+00:00

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Darnley was thrust into the centre of things. At first, Flappy wasn’t quite sure how she felt about it. Being incredibly busy, it was a distraction to have so much going on. On top of Jasper, his family and friends coming and going, Flappy hosted meetings in her drawing room – the parish meetings, book club meetings, charity meetings, church maintenance meetings among many others, so that on some days the front of the house looked like a municipal car park. Car parks were very common and Flappy wasn’t happy to have her gravel churned up beneath so many wheels or, indeed, for the front of the house, which was such a showpiece, to be obscured by vehicles. However, by and by she began to rather enjoy the activity. When her children were young Darnley had teemed with people, then they had left and the place had gone quiet. Now it was noisy again and there was something rather nice about that. It made her feel wanted, in demand, popular, and if Flappy enjoyed one thing more than any other, it was being popular.

There was also another advantage to Darnley being at the centre of things. Flappy, with her eagle eye and sharp powers of observation, could watch from the sidelines as the various relationships developed. Persephone and George’s was blossoming like a cherry tree in spring. On weekends, Persephone sat on the bench beside the tennis court and watched George play Jasper, then, when the game was over and they came in for a drink, Flappy would observe the tender looks the two of them gave one another and the affectionate hand-holding and subtle caresses that went on when they thought no one was looking. And the more she looked, the more she wanted very badly for George to move to Badley Compton. She did not want to lose Persephone. However, of one thing she was certain, those two lovebirds were not going to lose each other.

Flappy also had the opportunity to watch Jasper and Molly interact with each other because Jasper invited the Prices to come to Darnley for games of croquet. It had been years since anyone had touched a mallet, but out came the green box, all dusty and weathered from the mower shed where it was kept with the tennis ball machine and barrels of balls, and set out on the lawn. Flappy was, indeed, rather moved when she saw it. She recalled those balmy summer evenings when the light was golden and the midges lit up like fireflies, as the children and their friends played croquet and tennis, lay chatting on the lawn, while Kenneth handed around glass tumblers of Pimm’s, garnished with strawberries and mint leaves, and everything was as perfect as a Ralph Lauren advert.

Flappy watched from her bedroom window, unseen, and was filled with a bittersweet nostalgia. How fast the years went by, she thought. How quickly one’s present became one’s past, never to be recaptured, lost but to memory, to bask in with fond regret.

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