Page 45 of The Garden of Forgotten Wishes
‘Muscles of steel, after everything I’ve been doing the last few years,’ I said. ‘But what I did just now was more technique.’ I shoved the hand tools into the trug and prepared to put everything away in the shed.
‘I must fetch my flask of coffee from the flat, but I don’t seem to need to take packed lunches,’ I said, and told Elf about Gertie’s insisting on sharing her sandwiches and cake.
Elf laughed. ‘Gertie feeds everyone. I’d just go with it! She used to take in lunch for Ned’s great-uncle Theo, too – and he always came here for dinner with us every Sunday as well. We’re hoping you’ll join us this Sunday. It’s such fun, having a crowd round the table.’
‘It’s very kind of you …’ I began, but she seemed to assume it was a given, because she beamed at me.
‘Don’t forget it’s quiz night every Friday at the pub, dear,’ she reminded me. ‘You must walk across with us – scampi and chips in a basket, very retro, and then the quiz.’
‘I’m not sure I—’
‘Oh, youmustcome, Marnie! Everyone goes. You’ll meet lots of the locals all at once, so it’ll be very useful.’
I hesitated, long habit making me feel uneasy at the thought of mixing with a lot of people, but there was no need to live as a recluse any more – and probably hadn’t been for several years. The phone lines weren’t going to be hot between Jericho’s End and Merchester, telling Mike I’d been sighted!
‘That would be fun, thank you,’ I said resolutely. I was going to meet all the locals at some time in the near future, anyway. It was not the sort of place where you could avoid it, even if you wanted to. I might as well, as Elf said, meet most of them at once.
‘Half past six – come through to the kitchen when you’re ready and we’ll walk over together. Jacob usually comes, too; he’s great at quizzes. And my friend Gerald will be there.’
With that, she returned to the cottage, bearing the empty cup, and I finished clearing up, then popped upstairs to fetch my rucksack.
I was eager to get back to the path clearing, because yesterday I was sure I’d been close to that tantalizing glimpse of white and was longing to know if it was a statue, or some other garden feature.
And I was close, because in no time, I’d broken through into a small, circular space that would have been open to the air had the roses not almost roofed it over.
Trails of ivy covered the ground where a path must once have circled an elegant white marble urn on a pedestal.
It wasn’t this that stopped my breath, however, but the small building so incongruously set against the back wall of the garden. Enshrouded in the thorny stems of a climbing rose was a tiny, open-fronted and pillared Grecian temple, in the same white marble as the urn.
The steps up to it were mossy and the columns streaked with green slime. But it wasperfect.I felt as explorers must have done in the jungles of South America, when they suddenly realized that the green-shrouded shapes around them were ancient buildings.
Inside, I could see there was a bench along the back, but no Sleeping Beauty reclined there, unless of the spidery variety.
I was so excited by my discovery that when I’d cleared enough of the encroaching growth to see it properly, I went and fetched Ned, who was equally amazed.
‘I’d absolutely no idea that was there. I’ve never seen or heard any mention of it!’ he said, untangling a rose briar from his tawny hair, having not ducked low enough through the opening from the path I’d made.
‘Even with all the rose beds trimmed back, I don’t think you’ll be able to see it, or the urn, from the other end of the path: the central beds will be in the way,’ I said.
Ned began pulling away huge swathes of ivy that were creeping from the circle of the path round the urn and up the steps, and flung them aside in a heap.
‘The urn’s very Grecian,’ he said, dragging more ivy from the plinth. ‘It would look pretty, set with trailing flowering plants …’
But I was still riveted by the folly. ‘I think that rose was intentionally trained up one side of the temple. I’ve no idea what it is … It’s been squeezed by that huge bush behind it, but it’s alive and I’ll give it a good cut back and feed and see if it recovers.’
I longed to start on that then and there, but with a sigh I said, ‘I suppose I’d better clear the other side of the path back to the pond first, though.’
‘It would make access easier,’ Ned agreed. ‘When you’ve done that, I’ll be able to wash down all that marble. I’ve got one of those wheeled pressure water barrels I can bring in. If the green marks are stubborn, there’s probably some kind of special solution I can get, but hopefully, water will do it.’
‘I should think so, with maybe a bit of scrubbing,’ I agreed. ‘Perhapsyou should install a standpipe in the rose garden at some point. I can see you have them in the Grace Garden.’
‘Yes, not so many, but there’s a system of pipes and sprinklers I’ve put in that I can move about as needed.’
I turned to look back at the temple. ‘It’s going to look beautiful in summer and it’ll be a perfect spot to sit and admire the roses.’
‘You don’t think it has a touch of the mausoleum about it?’ he asked, tentatively.
‘No, it only looks gloomy because of all those branches closing in on either side and shutting out the light,’ I said firmly. ‘It’s a fairy-tale thing, perfect. This is going to enchant the visitors when they see it.’
