Page 48 of Rough Around the Hedges

Micky nodded.

“We must give the soil gentle pats too, just around the stem. Look at how nice Abby is tucking up her strawberry plant.”

Abby beamed. “I tuck in, Miss Rose!”

“It looks ever so cosy.” Rose wrinkled her nose up as she smiled at the little girl with pigtails. “You’re so good at this!”

“O’course. I wanna be juss like Miss Rose when I an adult!”

I wouldn’t suggest becoming Rose as a career path. She was a bit too whacky for it.

“Me, too! Me, too!” Micky said, grabbing Rose’s vest top with his dirt-covered hand. I expected her to brush it off, but instead she leant in and chucked him under the chin with her finger.

“She’s surprisingly gentle, isn’t she?”

I flinched.

“Oh, I’m sorry, Your Grace.” Tasha, the nursery manager, hid a chuckle behind her hand. “I didn’t mean to surprise you like that.”

“No, I just…”

“I understand.” She held out a mug with ‘World’s Best Teacher’ on it to me, and I quickly thanked her. “A lot of people react this way when they see this side of her.” She peered over at where Rose had now shuffled down the line to one of the younger staff members and seemed to be explaining things. “Her reputation for being the village wild child does tend to precede her, after all.”

“I wouldn’t know if it precedes her, per se, but I’ve experienced her prickly personality first hand more than once,” I replied, sipping the tea. “I was somewhat strongarmed into coming today, so I wasn’t sure what to expect.”

Tasha laughed. “You aren’t the first one. Sometimes it’s Shaun, sometimes it’s Jake, and sometimes she bypasses them entirely and convinces her fellow allotmenteers to volunteer their teens for a few hours. Work experience, she called it last time.”

“Who are Shaun and Jake?”

“Oh, I thought you might know them, Your Grace. Jake is Rose’s younger brother.”

Why was I relieved to hear that?

“And Shaun is her childhood best friend. They’re quite inseparable.”

Never mind.

“He’s a police officer and the one who usually keeps her out of trouble,” Tasha said with a grin. “So, of course, the kids doubly love it when he comes. He often brings his car—oh, with permission, of course.”

“I see,” I said coolly. “Well, Rose and I aren’t close enough for me to know about her acquaintances outside of our business together.”

She eyed me for a second before looking away once more.

I didn’t like that look. “What was that look for?”

“Nothing at all, Your Grace.”

I still wasn’t used to being called that. Would that ever happen?

“Mm,” I replied. “Does Rose often come and do this?”

“Garden with the children? Yes, about once a month, even during the winter. She refuses to accept payment for it, too. She says seeing the kids learn about the outdoors and get their hands dirty is payment enough.”

That… sounded a lot like the Rose I knew, actually.

I cast my gaze across the outdoor garden space. It was a relatively sizable, fenced area with raised beds, a small greenhouse, and various other coloured pots and planters. “It’s a lovely garden. It must have taken you a while to get it like this.”

“Oh, not really.” Tasha touched her hand to her cheek. “It was sponsored by the late duke and Rose, after all.”

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