Page 52 of The Garden of Forgotten Wishes
I hadn’t realized people still played bridge, or had bridge parties … in fact, I had only the vaguest idea of what bridge was – some kind of card game.
‘I’m going to order some huge pots for the less hardy trees and shrubs I want to put into the garden. I’d like an oleander, for a start,’ Ned said. ‘A friend of mine in Great Mumming makes the giant traditional pots, Marnie. His firm’s called Terrapotter.’
Recollection stirred. ‘Oh, yes, I noticed it when I was driving past. Treena told me about it, too. What else are you going to put in the pots?’
‘Citrus trees in some, and I’ve got a few more ideas.’
‘Gert says you need a heated greenhouse, one you can put your coconuts in,’ I told him.
‘I’m not thinking of having coconuts; that was just a very Gertie joke.’
‘But you could squeeze one into the courtyard, couldn’t you? There’s room along the archway wall.’
He considered this. ‘It wouldn’t be huge, but I suppose it could be quite tall … I don’t know, I’ll think about it. And it will have to wait until we’ve got the rest of the Grace Garden under control.’
By now, it was just me, Ned and Cress sitting at the table, for the others had either gone home, or to talk to friends. In fact, now I looked around, there were very few people left and it was a lot later than I’d thought.
But it was nice to be sitting in an English country pub, in good company, which Ned was – when he wasn’t remembering to be wary of me, though that seemed to have almost worn off – and Cress, too, whoseemed to be interested in everything, like an eager puppy. It reminded me of happy evenings spent at the pub near Honeywood Horticultural College when we were students, unwinding at the end of a strenuous day. Looking up, I thought Ned had the same thought, because he gave me a friendly, uncomplicated smile, as though he was really seeing me clearly for the first time since those long-ago days.
16
Heartfelt
Our gazes met … and held, as I remembered a time when life seemed like an open garden, in which you could sow anything you wanted to, and nothing was complicated …
But then the moment was broken by Cress’s phone ringing loudly, or rather,neighingloudly. I didn’t even know you could get that as a ringtone! Maybe I could have Caspar snoring as mine. Not, of course, that anyone much was likely to ring me, since I’d shared my new number with only my employers, Treena, the family and my solicitor.
Cress listened to her caller gloomily and then clicked off the phone and got up, shrugging into her waxed jacket, which had seen better days, most of them while being worn by someone much larger.
‘Have to go. Apparently Mummy’s in a flap,’ she said in her posh but gloomy deepish voice. ‘A family had booked to stay tonight and didn’t turn up, so we thought they weren’t coming. But now they’ve arrived – they got lost and then stopped somewhere for dinner. The beds are made up anyway, but I need to go and book them in.’
When she’d loped off, I said, ‘She’s very nice – I like her.’
‘Yes, so do I – and she leads a dog’s life with that mother of hers. Cress adores Risings, even though it has no architectural merit whatsoever that I can see, but there’s no money, hence the bed and breakfast. Audrey shuts herself away in a separate wing and pretends it isn’t happening.’
‘That’s not very helpful,’ I said. ‘I told you my sister, Treena, is a vet,didn’t I? And she’s often called out to Risings to look at the two Pekes, though it’s always something like indigestion.’
Two Pekes – Twin Peaks, said the random weird voice in my head, but I kept that one firmly to myself.
‘I can imagine Audrey would call her out at great expense, rather than take the dogs to the surgery,’ Ned said. ‘Cress’s father died when she was a baby, but her grandfather adored her and he scraped up enough money to send her to some posh boarding school or other, where you could take your own pony with you. But then the money ran out and she came home. She did take her British Horse Society teaching qualifications, though, and gives advanced riding lessons – once she’s cooked breakfast for any visitors.’
‘I must ask Treena if her horse is at livery at the same stables and she knows her.’
‘Cress likes to keep hers handy, at the farm behind Risings, so she can slip out for a ride as often as possible. They don’t do lunches or evening meals at Risings, but people can eat here, or at one of the guesthouses up the road. The village starts to come alive from Easter, when the schools break up, in fact, any minute now—’ He broke off and suddenly looked anguished, then ran his long fingers through his mane of hair. ‘Oh God, we open the garden a week today!’
‘Yes, I know, you said so earlier.’
A middle-aged couple, who had just wandered in, spotted him and did a double take. I suppose he’s used to people knowing him from the telly … and all that publicity. They didn’t come over, though, just sat in a distant corner and pretended they weren’t looking at him. Luckily, he didn’t seem to notice.
Quite suddenly voices were raised in argument from the darts room and Mr Posset came out from behind the bar in a purposeful way and stood in the entrance, looking at the players.
We heard him say: ‘What’s all this? I’ll have no arguing and tempers in my pub – and no, I don’t want to know if anyone was cheating at darts. Wayne, if you use that sort of language again, out you go!’
Wayne came pushing rudely past him, shrugging into a leatherjacket. ‘I’m off to Thorstane, anyway. The beer’s better at the Pike and so’s the company.’
He slouched out and, as he passed, cast us a dark look, as if his behaviour wasourfault.
‘The local bad boy,’ said Ned. ‘None of the Vanes from Cross Ways are exactly a bundle of joy, but at least they’re mostly hard-working and honest. It’s odd to think that the Graces – and the Lordly-Graces – are even remotely related to them.’
