CHAPTER XVIII
JOHN'S CONFUSION
John was looking forward to the trip to the Island, he'd often been there with Peggy but such trips was just to check that no damage had occurred through nature or those who visited, this was the first time for many years most of them had all gone together. He wondered how Dot would get on, like the rest of them he had been, or he thought they had, taken aback by what she had told them all the night before.
Timothy's death had been something of a shock even though they knew he was ill, but then to find out that all those years he was having an affair with Dot, Dot! It's so hard to believe that quiet, dependable, sensible Dot would behave in such a way. But she had!
I'd always loved Peggy, I know they all thought it was Nancy, she was too wayward for me, I was right about that when she nearly messed up the mapping of the Backwaters, Peggy was sensible, like Susan used to be. No, Peggy was always the one for me. But she still does not think before she speaks, how could she say what she did about Timothy? Then it was odd, every time he visited us all he ever did was ask about Dot, none of the others, not even Captain Flint. I should have noticed.
The money, I can't say 'yes', I wish I could, we do need it to keep Beckfoot going, not just going, really just to keep Beckfoot, I don't think Nancy fully realises. But we can't, it wouldn't be right. It's Dot's money and it's up to her what happens to it, so we can't have it. She must need it, her books don't make much, I'm sure, I've read about them in the serious papers but who buys them? I've never seen anyone, nobody I've told that I know her has even heard of her.
What can I say tonight? Perhaps Dick will say something, he's good at working these sorts of things out. I still don't know about what he did in the war. I think Dot has an idea, but she wont say, sisterly devotion I suppose. Susan knows, I'm sure she does, but then I don't know what she did either, odd the navy kept her on past retiring age, why?