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‘What are you talking about, Granny?’ Hope asked.
‘Patty and Archie. They made a lovely couple. He adored her. Worshipped the ground she walked on. Followed her around like a love-sick puppy. Even after she dumped him for Simon. Begged her to take him back. Begged her to marry him. Wrote to her every day. Even after he married that … what was her name?’
‘Francesca?’ Grace croaked.
‘That’s it! Francesca. Silly man. He shouldn’t have married her when he still loved my Patty. But men don’t think with their heads, do they? And then Francesca fell pregnant and that was that. No way Patty would take him back if it meant he would leave his wife and child. No way.’
‘Mum!’ Pat shrieked, returning to the sitting room and losing every ounce of colour from her cheeks.
‘I think you have some explaining to do,’ said Hope, glaring at Pat.
‘Is it true, Mum?’ Grace couldn’t quite believe it.
‘Oh, Mum,’ Pat sighed at Granny Joy. ‘I suppose we should’ve known that one day it would all come out.’ She shook her head and sighed again. ‘Yes. It’s true. At least, if Mum has said that Archie Betancourt was in love with me, that is.’
‘Does Dad know?’ asked Hope.
‘Of course he does. He lived through it with me. The phone calls. The letters. But Archie did grow to love Francesca, and eventually he realised I adored your dad and would never leave him. Archie and I only dated for about six months before I met and fell in love with Simon. Archie always felt more for me than I did for him. That’s the way of things sometimes. But as I told you, Grace, I knew the moment I met your dad. That was it for me. No other man stood a chance.’
‘So Archie stalked you?’ Hope said. ‘That rings a bell. How weird that the roles reversed.’
‘If you’re saying I stalked Russell,’ said Grace, ‘then … Okay. Maybe I did. But I didn’t send letters. Or make phone calls. Or anything in fact.’
‘You didn’t stalk anyone,’ said Pat. ‘But I must admit, your dad and I were worried for a time. It was like history repeating itself, only reversed, as Hope said. It gave us the creeps. But we thought it best to leave it be.’
‘So that’s why there was always that tension in the air when you and Dad and Archie and Francesca met?’ said Grace. ‘I knew I hadn’t imagined it.’
‘And is that the “difference of opinion” you told us about?’ said Hope. ‘And the reason the Betancourts wouldn’t give us any business after you set up the events company?’
‘That was the difference of opinion, yes.’ Pat nodded, as Granny Joy let out a snore. ‘And I assume also the reason they didn’t give us business. Although Francesca passed away before then, so either Archie decided Bianca couldn’t use us, or Bianca found out somehow and decided she didn’t like me around her husband.’
‘Griff knows about you!’ shrieked Grace.
‘What?’ said Hope. ‘How?’
‘He told me he overheard a conversation between his dad and Francesca. But he didn’t tell me the other woman was you, Mum.’
‘I wasn’t ‘the other woman’! That sounds as if we had an affair and we didn’t. It was over between me and Archie the moment I met your dad. Archie married before we did and they had Griff and Russell. I fell pregnant with you and Hope after they were born. You know that.’
‘Why did you decide to buy a house directly opposite Archie’s home?’
‘Looking back, that might not have been our best idea. But I loved Betancourt Bay and so did Simon. There weren’t many homes in our price range back then, and Folkestone was too expensive. When this one came on the market, well within our price bracket, we came to look at it more out of curiosity than anything else. The moment I saw it I knew though, and so did your dad. We decided to purchase and be damned, as the saying goes. And the thing is, we couldn’t have been happier here. We might not have been so happy somewhere else.’
‘Poor Francesca,’ said Hope. ‘How sad to know your husband loves another woman.
‘Loved. Past tense. Because he did grow to love Francesca. And she was good for him. Strangely enough, they were happy too. I think Francesca simply accepted the fact and she knew how much I loved, and still do love, Simon. She knew I’d never have an affair with Archie. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer, perhaps?’
‘That’s that done and dusted. Time for ice cream.’ Simon came in and glanced around the room. ‘What’s happened?’
‘Granny Joy let the cat out of the bag about Mum and Archie,’ Hope said.
‘I thought she would one day. And?’
‘And it’s all good,’ said Pat. ‘Isn’t it?’
‘It is,’ said Grace.
‘Weird, but yes,’ said Hope. ‘Erm. Does Granny have any other little bombshells to share with us?’
