The Knapthorne Conspiracy by Malcolm Ballard (best english novels for beginners txt) 📕

after me. The Irishman’s bastard son is who keeps me in provisions and pays ma bills. What do you make o' that? If it wasn’t for Kyle calling in every couple o' weeks I’d probably have been dead years ago!” Bella’s heart skipped a beat and she had to make sure she’d heard correctly.

“Did you say Kyle, Mr. Allsop?”

“Aye, I did. A very apt name, dinna ye think? It’s Scottish, you see. Means a stretch o' water between two islands.” Right at that moment Bella couldn’t have cared if it meant rear end of a sheep as she was experiencing the most strange sensations and felt extremely giddy. Closing her eyes in order to concentrate she heard herself speaking but it sounded like someone else’s voice, strained and nervous.

“Your daughter, Mary, what’s her married name?” A sign of his age, he couldn’t bring it to mind at first then gave a weak smile as he remembered.

“She married a man called Lucas, Dick Lucas. Why what’s it to you?”

Chapter Thirty-Six

The ignominious manner in which his stay at Willow Cottage had ended had been festering away inside of Kyle Lucas like an annoying ulcer and the more worked up he got about it, the more he wanted Bella Foxton. Staff at the studios were tending to steer clear of him unless it was absolutely unavoidable and snide remarks had been made when he’d been seen talking to himself, on occasion, in his office. It was exactly two weeks to the day since he’d made the trip to Knapthorne and he was planning to make a trip this weekend to Thornden. Old grandad Allsop was not going to be around for much longer and Kyle wouldn’t miss him when he’d gone. It was the perfect excuse to call on Bella and make amends whether she wanted to or not. He hated the visits to Thornden now, having to go into that stinking, run down old house and deal with the old man who was in much the same condition.

When Mary had taken Kyle in, her husband's parents immediately treated him as their grandson and as he grew older Kyle had viewed Frank Allsop as something of an enigma. Having three grandparents who showered him with affection it was inexplicable to a young boy that there was another who wanted nothing to do with him. He had grown up in the knowledge that there had been a rift in the family but had never been able to find out why. Not until many, many years later when he was in his mid-twenties, had he felt an inexplicable urge to seek out the old man and pay him a visit and it was fortunate that he had. Frank had fallen from a stool and broken his wrist, while trying to change a light bulb. Luckily for him Kyle had found the back door open, only to discover his grandfather on the kitchen floor where he had been lying since nine-o-clock the previous evening. At first Kyle hadn’t introduced himself wary of the old man’s reputation for being short-tempered and moody. Content only with getting his grandfather some medical attention he told him that he was from the local council and left it at that. The old boy was in quite a bit of pain and didn’t inquire any further, happy that someone had found him. He’d had a neighbour close by, then, who kept an eye on him and ran his errands but she was away on a week’s holiday. These days she’d long since gone the way of everyone else. As his grandfather didn’t have a phone Kyle took him to Dorchester and had him attended to at the hospital. Later, on the way back to Thornden, Kyle broke the news to him that it was his grandson helping him out. There was a deathly silence in the car, with the old man’s face looking like thunder but he never said a word and the atmosphere remained the same for the whole journey. When they arrived back his grandfather made it clear, in no uncertain terms that he didn’t want Kyle in the house then proceeded to struggle out of the car. Feeling a little annoyed by his treatment, with absolutely no idea why his grandfather should show such animosity towards him, Kyle let many months pass before returning but felt that he had to look the old boy up again as the rest of the family had disowned him. He got the impression this time that deep down Frank was not exactly pleased but relieved to see him. It didn’t have any effect whatsoever on his rudeness though and very often he would only grunt or mumble in response to Kyle’s questions. However, he did manage to find out that Frank’s neighbour was leaving the village soon and his grandfather would be on his own. It was Kyle who had contacted the social services and done what he could for him. Since then he had called in as often as possible but in all that time their relationship had never changed. In recent years Kyle had experienced great difficulty in squeezing in the time for his visits to Thornden but, thankfully, he knew the old man would soon be gone and along with him Kyle’s inexplicable sense of responsibility.

His idea was to arrive at Bella’s on the Saturday morning, around 9am. By that time, hoping she was home, she would have been up and unlocked the doors. If for any reason they were still locked, he was quite happy to force an entry. Willow Cottage was still without an alarm system as the company hadn’t responded to Bella’s messages and they’d still not been out to see her. There was no way he was going to risk another spectacular failure, like last time. It was that damned place he was sure of it so he’d taken steps to improvise an alternative and was using the company van. The thought