Page 82 of Rough Around the Hedges

Rose motioned for George to come closer, and she leant towards him to whisper in his ear. He nodded along with whatever it was she was saying to him, and a minute later, he stood upright, cleared his throat, and shuffled off into his shed. He quickly returned with a pair of boots and held them up in my direction.

“Does a size ten work for you?”

I blinked between them before nodding and going over to take them from him. “They do. Thank you.”

“There’re socks stuffed inside them. Clean ones.” He looked down at my feet and sniffed. “Stupid shoes for an allotment.”

“George,” Rose deadpanned. “You’re wearing sandals, too.”

“I never said I wasn’t stupid.” With that, he turned his back to us and shuffled back into his shed.

Rose sighed and shook her head. “Put those on and follow me.”

“Yes, ma’am,” I replied.

“And you,” she said, pointing to Isadora. “Go and find something else to do.”

Isadora whipped a white cardboard envelope out from the bag next to her. “I should have known better than to think you’d help me worm the cat.”

“You’re a vet. You’ll manage just fine.” Rose waved her off. “Just don’t forget his Dreamies.”

“Oh, yes,” Isadora drawled. “The cat who decapitates rabbits and eats their innards simply cannot have his quarterly medicine without his Dreamies. God forbid.”

Rose shot her a look, but she responded with a simple grin, then glanced at me.

“Good luck,” she said to me. “She’s in a fiery mood today.”

“As opposed to her usual, calm disposition?” I replied, putting my shoes in Rose’s shed.

“Good point.”

Rose opened the gate with a pointed cough. “If you’re done shit-talking me, can we get on with it?”

There was something strangely captivating about watching Rose in her element. It was obvious that this place meant a great deal to her—it was more than her just being the chairman, but a real, true love that came from somewhere I couldn’t quite understand.

It wasn’t as though I’d never understood where she was coming from in her opposition against my decision, but now the vehemence of it all make a little more sense.

It was as if this place were a part of her, and by closing it down and selling it off, I was tearing away a piece of what made her,her.

But that didn’t change my position, no matter how a flicker of guilt kept on creeping into my consciousness.

The Hanbury estate had been haemorrhaging money during the last five years of my grandfather’s life, and he’d left me nothing short of a complete disaster to fix. The separation of company and estate meant I couldn’t justfixit, even if I had the funds available to me. There was also only so much of my own money I could funnel into the estate for the necessary maintenance, but this place…

The money from the developers was too good to be true. It would not only plug a hole in the estate’s finances, but fix several other leaks, too.

I sighed as I gazed around at the plots. It was quieter now that evening was falling. Those with young children had come and gone after school hours, and with temperatures still dropping as the sun set, many older people had also left. There were but a few stragglers left tending to a few things, and none of them were paying us any mind.

Rose opened the roof of the coop and counted the chickens inside, then bent over on her tiptoes until she was almost toppling over into it. “Tortilla, stop stealing the bread rolls. Give them back to Pancake.”

That was a sentence I never thought I’d hear.

“Thank you.” With a huff, she closed the roof down, made sure the box attached to the side was securely locked, and bent down to do something to the weird stake behind her.

“What’s that?”

An ear-piercing screech came out of it, and I jumped.

Rose grinned. “It’s a motion-activated fox deterrent. I don’t know how well it works, but I haven’t seen one of the little buggers on the camera since I bought it, so…” She trailed off and shrugged. “Is it that bad?”

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