Page 98 of The Garden of Forgotten Wishes
He went back to the hole and started taking more photographs and Luke said, hopefully, that if we were at a loose end, we could borrow trowels and help remove the surface layer in the hole of our choice.
Ned said, ‘Since this is our only day off of the week, we’d like a break from digging things up.’
But Treena thought she might as well, so we left them to it, though we agreed we’d all see each other later in the pub after the Friends of Jericho’s End meeting.
We found Caspar sitting on the steps of the office, as if he’d known we were coming and was waiting for us. He followed us in, settling on one arm of the angular sofa.
As he made coffee, Ned said that he’d spoken on the phone a couple of times to Cress’s friend Roddy, and he was happy to come in in the afternoons and help with the garden tours and also in the office, or wherever he was needed.
‘I’m going to move an old desktop and monitor down here, solely for the Grace Garden business,’ he said. ‘The landline phone number’s just on the website; I’ve only ever used my mobile for Little Edens, so that’s already separate.’
‘Good thinking,’ I said. ‘You can leave any messages on the landline for Roddy to answer, as well as enquiries through the website.’
When we’d drunk our coffee, we had a fun session disagreeing over which roses were meant by the obscure Regency names on the metal tags. In earlier times, roses could be called by several different names and many of these changed during the Victorian era, so this was far from easy.
‘But there must have been some kind of planting list originally, because the metal tags are so much later than the Regency, yet have the old names on them,’ I said.
‘If there was, perhaps we’ll find it among those papers when we sort them,’ Ned suggested, and we continued pleasantly bickering about what should go into the empty spots where the original roses had died, but there had been no tag at all.
I returned to my flat feeling much more relaxed and certain there was nothing to worry about and everything would turn out fine.
By now, past experience should really have taught me to mistrust these moments of unfounded optimism …
The vicar was at the FOJE meeting that evening. She was a member, but hadn’t been able to make it the previous week. And tonight’s was short, because she had to dash back to Thorstane by eight to talk to a young couple about calling their marriage banns.
‘Late, I know, but they both work in Liverpool and it’s such a long commute,’ she explained.
The business of the evening mostly consisted of reporting how well the Easter egg hunt had gone, and how much had been raised for the St Gabriel’s church tower restoration fund, followed by the arrangements for the Great Mumming Morris Dancers to come and perform on the Green on Mayday.
‘Though since Mayday is a Monday this year, we’re having it on the Sunday before, instead,’ said Myfy.
‘Pagan, but fun,’ agreed the Reverend Jojo. ‘I can pop over after lunch and catch the second session. I doubt I’ll make the earlier one.’
‘They dance twice,’ Elf explained to me. ‘The Possets give them lunch at the pub in between. They’re quite lively.’
‘They’re even more lively after they’ve been to the pub,’ said Myfy.
‘I often take my violin down and join in with their fiddle player,’ Gerald put in.
‘There’s nothing much to arrange for that, except to make sure they have the right day and Steve opens the Village Hut for them to rest in, or put their bells on, or whatever,’ said Gertie.
‘And then there’s only the jumble sale before the Annual Fête in July,’ said the vicar, who hadn’t taken her coat off so she could make a quick getaway. ‘I do like that.’
‘Yes, well, all these events are good for business, I suppose,’ Myfy said, ‘but when there are crowds about, I’d rather just go up to Jacob’s place and hide out till it’s all over.’
She and Jacob exchanged one of their intimate smiles, but I knew what she meant: I much preferred quiet and peace to crowds, too, but at least in the garden I was long acclimatized to letting the visitors pass me by, like a film whose sound had been turned down to a murmur.
In the pub we found Treena and Luke, who said some of the dig volunteers had only just left.
‘Quite late, really, because most of them have quite a way to travel to get home and you can’t drink if you have to drive,’ he said. ‘That’s whyI’m staying at Risings – to be on the spot – and I’ve let a friend have my flat while I’m here, so it’s worked out well.’
Ned said he was going to order sausage and chips and I stared at him. ‘You can’t possibly want more food after all you ate at lunchtime!’
‘But that was hours ago, and all I’ve had since is a sandwich!’
‘It’s just as well you work so hard in the garden,’ I told him, ‘or you’d be a tub of lard.’
‘That’s it, Marnie, don’t pull your punches,’ he said, grinning, and when his food had arrived and I tried to steal a couple of his chips, he wouldn’t let me.
