Page 94 of The Garden of Forgotten Wishes
‘I know, but they’ll take ages to go through. There’s a big chest and then a box that’s not much smaller – not to mention what’s in that window seat – and Uncle Theo seems to have well and truly jumbled most of it up.’
‘I could help you sort it out in the evenings, if you like?’ I offered. ‘I’ve almost finished going through my and Mum’s things I brought to the flat, so I don’t mind, and it won’t take so long with two of us.’
Especially when at least one of us was longing to have a rummage through it all, in search of lost nuggets of garden history!
‘OK, we could just rough-sort them first, looking for anything we can use – like your rose garden plan, though I doubt that exists.’
‘Perhaps not, but there’s bound to besomethingabout the temple folly, if only in the accounts book for the materials and labour,’ I pointed out.
‘I suppose so, and maybe more planting lists, or plant orders, dating back to earlier times.’
The peacock must have said the wrong thing to his mate because she was chasing him around the courtyard, pecking viciously at him.
‘On the wings of love,’ I murmured, as Lancelot flapped in an ungainly way to the top of the wall to escape her, and Ned grinned.
‘Where did you say you were going today?’ he asked.
‘I didn’t, but I thought I’d have a look at St Gabriel’s church and Thorstane, then perhaps see how they’re getting on at the dig. Luke and his team start there today and Treena’s got a day off, so she’s going to come over at some point, too.’
To my surprise, Ned diffidently offered to drive me there. ‘We’ve all worked so hard to get the garden open and it’s been hectic all weekend, so I could do with a break.’
‘OK, that would be nice,’ I agreed, and he said he’d bring the car round to the front of the café in ten minutes.
I fetched my rucksack and applied a quick dab of lip gloss, then went down to find that the car was actually a big four-wheel-drive Jeep thing, which you probably needed in winter up there.
‘I thought we’d go up the hard way, and down the easy, seeing as the weather’s good,’ Ned said, driving over the humpback bridge and turning right up the hill.
‘But I thought the road from the top of the village to Thorstane was really steep and difficult,’ I said, feeling slightly alarmed.
‘It is, and there are some really hairy zigzags … but it all adds to the fun.’
He seemed to be looking forward to the challenge, which was morethan I was, but I supposed it was better to be going up it, than hurtling down …
Mr Toller, standing outside his shop, waved at us as we passed. Unlike the day of my arrival, the pavements were filled with visitors, looking into the shop and gallery windows. The signs were swinging outside the guesthouses, advertising morning coffee, lunch and afternoon teas.
Beyond the last of the houses the road surface, as I had noticed on my walk, suddenly deteriorated, and as we headed steeply upwards towards the first bend Ned changed down a gear and grinned sideways at me.
‘It’s much more exciting coming down, but here we go!’
The road – which wasn’t really worthy of the name – ascended in a series of sharp zigzags through thick woods. Where there were crash barriers, they showed ominous signs of vehicles having bashed into them, and a deep storm drain down one side of the road must have made things tricky if two vehicles met … assuming there was more than one mad driver living in the area.
Ned took a hand off the steering wheel to point out a half-ruined cottage, the Sixpenny Cottage of the treasure story.
‘You’d have had to have been a keen treasure hunter to hike up here,’ I said.
‘Lots of people seem to find the lure of treasure irresistible, even when it’s as unlikely to be as realistic as this one. I expect the cottage and garden were searched several times over before they finally found that box in the outbuildings, but I bet Wayne and his pals with their metal detectors turned it over later, just in case, too.’
‘Do you think so?’
‘I’m sure they have, though they’d have come up by Land Rover, not walked. His friends are like Wayne: after easy money with no effort. I’m off up to Risings in the morning to have a word with him about those holes in my lawn,’ he added grimly. ‘It’s his regular day working there.’
‘There’s no proof it was him, though, Ned.’
‘But Iknowhe did it and I’m going to make it abundantly clear that if he ever sets foot on my property again, he’ll be toast.’
For a moment, the usual easy-going, good-natured Ned Mars was overlaid with something older, grimmer and slightly intimidating. I thought Wayne would do well to keep his distance.
Eventually we emerged from the woodlands onto more level ground, on which stood a very small stone church with a square tower, surrounded by a walled graveyard. The surface of the road as we reached the gate suddenly returned to smooth tarmac and we stopped bouncing about, which was a relief.
