Was everything Ellie had heard about Peter true?
BY JOANNE DUNCAN
ELLIE had just finished breakfast when she spotted Peter Dunning approaching her veranda.
The retirement community of Malsingham Chase had, she knew, been Peter’s final project.
Built practically on his own doorstep, it consisted of a dozen specially adapted bungalows and a purpose-built hall for meetings and events, set amongst lawns and gardens.
The village of Malsingham, with its church, pub and regular bus service to the nearest town, was within easy walking distance.
A tendency to communicate through his right-hand man, Bill Spalding, had resulted in Peter being considered stand-offish by some of the residents, but Ellie found him easy to talk to.
A slight, almost boyish figure, he would often stop for a chat during his early morning strolls.
Now he hesitated for a moment before drawing nearer.
“Morning, Ellie. I was wondering if you were thinking of coming to the fair tomorrow?” he asked.
“Of course,” she replied. “My costume’s all ready.”
The holding of a medieval-themed midsummer fair in the grounds of Malsingham Manor had attracted a lot of interest, not to mention curiosity.
There was a rumour that, for once, “his lordship” – as some of her neighbours called Peter – had taken matters out of Bill’s hands and organised everything himself.
“I’m keeping mine simple,” he replied. “Just a cloak over my everyday clothes.
You wouldn’t do me a favour, would you? Come up to the house later and cast an eye over the preparations?
“I’d love to,” Ellie said, flattered that he valued her opinion, “but I work at the bookshop on Saturdays.”
“How about this evening, then?” he proposed. “Stay to dinner?”
“You’re on.” She smiled.
It was just gone six o’clock, and Ellie was on her way out, when she heard a voice through the open window of the bungalow next door.
“What on earth am I going to do, Bill?” Clarice Jennings wailed, and someone murmured soothingly in reply.
Ellie smiled to herself.
Bill Spalding was exactly the kind of man she’d expect her nice but scatty neighbour to turn to in a domestic crisis – tall, broad-shouldered, handsome and dependable.
She herself preferred a man with a sense of humour.
She recalled Bill presiding over a special showing of Laurence Olivier’s “Henry V” in the community hall last October, shortly after she��
