‘Well, first,’ she announced, with awkward formality, ‘I’d like to say how sorry I am for your loss.’
Equally formal, Malee bowed her head and said, ‘Thank you. It is not the tradition in my country to show outward signs of grief, but that does not mean the pain is not there.’
‘As you can imagine,’ Carole continued cautiously, ‘there has been a lot of talk in Fethering about your husband’s death.’
‘I can imagine that. I have not heard much of it, but I can also imagine the kind of things that have been said.’
‘What kind of things?’ asked Carole, keen to establish Malee’s position before she revealed anything of her own.
With a wry, pained smile, the widow said, ‘Oh, that I was always bad news for Bill. That I cut him off from everyone else. That I wouldn’t allow him to go fishing with Red.’
‘Red?’
‘An old friend of his from schooldays. They used to go sea fishing every Sunday in Red’s boat. That’s where he lives, in the boat. Down on the Fether, at the marina. I’ve no doubt everyone says I stopped Bill from going on those fishing trips.’
The very accusation Rhona Hampton had made to Jude. Though, of course, Carole hadn’t been there to hear it.
‘No, I am not surprised at anything that’s said about me. For Fethering, I am the Wicked Witch of the West.’ With a sardonic grin, she added, ‘Or perhaps it should be Wicked Witch of the East, in my case. Anyway, in the eyes of Fethering, there is no enormity of which I am incapable. I am sure the expression “gold-digger” has been used more than once.’
There seemed no point in denial. ‘Yes, I’m afraid it has,’ Carole admitted.
‘I knew that would happen from the moment I fell in love with Bill. And yes, it was love.’ There was a challenge in the look she cast on Carole. ‘Though I do not necessarily expect you to believe that.’
‘I have no reason not to,’ said Carole, though that was a slight sanitizing of her actual views.
‘There are lots of corny clichés on the subject,’ said Malee, again surprising Carole by her articulacy. ‘Saying that, when you are in love, age is not an issue. Well, with Bill and me, that was true.’
‘I have to say, Malee, that your English is extraordinarily good.’
‘Thank you.’
‘Did you study it back in Thailand?’
‘Only a little. But in the hotels and restaurants where I worked there were a lot of English people. I am good at listening. And since I have been in England, I have done evening classes in English.’
‘And in book-keeping, I hear,’ said Carole, remembering Frankie’s fears of being elbowed out of a job.
‘Yes.’
‘And car maintenance …’ Carole hazarded.
‘That too. There are wonderful educational opportunities here in England. Much better than what was available in Thailand. I wanted to take advantage of all of them.’
‘With a view to helping Bill in his business?’
‘With a view more to understanding Bill’s business.’
That sounded like an honest answer. Carole changed tack. ‘Was it a wrench for you to leave everyone behind in Thailand? I’ve heard that family is very important for people of your … erm, in your …’ Carole fought for the politically correct words, before coming up with the acceptable ‘in your culture.’
‘You are right. I am very close to my family. The fact that I was prepared to leave them behind and come to a foreign country is again a measure of how deep my love for Bill was.’
‘Yes.’ Carole wasn’t quite sure how to phrase the natural follow-on question.
But, fortunately, Malee saved her the trouble. ‘You are wondering whether I have been sending money to my family in Thailand.’
‘Well, I, er …’
‘Do not worry, Carole. You do not have to be hypersensitive with me. I know full well the kind of things that Fethering has been saying about me.’
‘Ah.’
‘And no, I have not been sending money back to my family in Thailand. I love them and hope to see them soon, but I have not been subsidizing them.’
‘“Hope to see them soon”?’
‘When everything is sorted out here, I will have to return to Thailand. I think I will be more welcome there than I am in Fethering.’
Again, Carole felt a kind of communal guilt. Without becoming overemotional, Malee’s words expressed the pain that her alien status had caused her. Fethering could be a chilly environment for people who did not fit one of its prescribed templates. And Carole could not completely exonerate herself from the kind of prejudice that the village consensus expressed. She couldn’t forget the remarks she’d made about ‘Mail Order Brides’.
‘My return home was meant to be in different circumstances,’ said Malee.
‘How do you mean?’
‘Bill really took to Thailand. When he was out there, he absolutely fell in love with the place. He talked of us living there after he retired.’
Carole remembered Tom Kendrick raising that possibility. ‘Did he have a plan as to when he intended to retire?’ she asked.
‘I would have said yes. He talked about September of this year. He said he couldn’t face another winter in England.’
‘You said you “would have said yes” …?’
For the first time in their conversation, Malee seemed uncertain, even a little confused. ‘Something happened to Bill in the last few months … the last few months of his life, I suppose I have to say.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘He changed. Up until then, he had been so positive. From the moment we met, everything was positive. He was full of plans for us, plans for our future.’
Carole thought back to the last conversation she’d had with Bill, on the morning of his death. ‘Positive’ was the last word that could be used to describe it.
‘But then, suddenly,’ Malee went on, ‘round about October, I suppose, his mood changed.’
‘In what way?’
‘He became very … I’m not sure of the right word … withdrawn? His eyes wouldn’t meet mine. He no longer talked about his plans for our future. It was … I don’t know … strange. I kept asking if it was something I had done, if he was ashamed of me … and he said no. I think perhaps it was something from his past.’
‘But he never told you what that might be?’
‘No. But when I think about it, of course he had lived a lot of his life before he met me. I do not know it all, only what he told me. Perhaps I did not know much of it. It’s possible there was someone in his past who was an enemy, who he had reason to be frightened of.’
‘Did he act as if he was frightened?’ Carole’s mind was already sketching out a scenario in which Bill Shefford was a victim of blackmail.
‘Yes, he did. There was something … I don’t know … troubling him.’
‘Do you think it could have been something to do with the family? Billy or Shannon or …?’
‘I don’t know. I don’t think so. They had nothing against Bill … well, except for the fact that he married me.’
‘Mm. I heard from a friend who’d heard from someone’ – Carole changed her mind about mentioning Malee’s mother-in-law – ‘that Shannon had wanted to come here to look for a will.’
‘Yes.’
‘And that you wouldn’t let her.’
‘Is that so unreasonable?’
‘No, you’re within your rights.’
Carole clearly hadn’t kept all the disapproval out of her voice, because Malee said, ‘I’m not trying to deceive her. I’ve looked all through the house myself. I am at least as keen to find the will as Shannon is.’
‘And you’ve had no luck? Have you been on to Bill’s solicitor?’
‘Of course I have. And yes, they had been in discussion about the will. The solicitor had sent Bill a draft a couple of weeks before he died. The last thing he heard was that Bill was going to sign it in front of two witnesses and post it back.’ Malee looked glum. ‘It never arrived.’