The Seven Secrets of Happiness

by Sharon Owens

  However when they were trying to find their way out again the two friends got hopelessly lost. They tried to establish their bearings and aim for the general direction of the main house, but it was no use. Back and forth they went until they ended up at the willow bench for a fourth time. It began to rain gently and then the clouds rolled in and the raindrops got fatter and heavier. The maze seemed to have been miraculously emptied of people for they met no other living soul as they went rushing this way and that. Desperately trying to remember if they’d passed a particular statue or stone bench. Then the heavens opened and Ruby’s light umbrella was useless against the torrential deluge. Soon they were both drenched and Ruby’s lovely suede shoes were ruined. After a full hour of frantic walking and two ominous cracks of thunder overhead, Jasmine decided it was time to summon help.

  ‘I reckon these statues are designed to confuse us,’ Jasmine said wearily. ‘I bet there’s two or three of each one. Okay, here goes.’

  ‘I feel really silly now,’ Ruby complained as Jasmine took a deep breath and blew into her whistle with all her might.

  ‘It’s exhilarating making this much noise,’ Jasmine laughed giddily, having another go. ‘If we don’t get out of here soon, we’ll catch our deaths. Come on, blow.’

  ‘I’ll give it a miss,’ Ruby said firmly. ‘You’re making enough commotion for the two of us.’

  Five minutes later they heard a man’s footsteps just round the corner and suddenly Tom Lavery was standing before them. His hair was very wet and he was looking very annoyed. There was an angry red flush creeping up from under his shirt collar.

  ‘Oh, it’s you,’ Tom said, recognizing Ruby and Jasmine despite the fact that their hair was hanging in soaking wet tendrils around their faces.

  ‘Yes, we’re so sorry about this,’ Ruby replied apologetically, almost dying of embarrassment. She was sure her underwear must be visible beneath her drenched clothing.

  ‘Never mind… You’d better come with me. I’ve a shed nearby,’ Tom said, beckoning to them to follow him. ‘It isn’t much to look at but it’s warm and dry. The house and shops are closed now and everyone’s gone home. The car park’s empty. I had no idea there was anyone still around.’

  ‘We came by taxi,’ Jasmine explained. ‘Ruby’s car is having a service.’

  ‘Oh, right. Well, I’m sorry you got stuck in here. Someone was supposed to have checked the maze was empty before they closed the gate. But lucky for you I often stay late to finish up any odd jobs that need doing.’

  ‘Lucky for us indeed,’ Jasmine said, her teeth chattering loudly.

  ‘Come on. Like I said, it’s warm and dry in the shed and you can have a cup of tea. I, um, I’ll drive you back to the city. To make up for the soaking you’ve had.’

  He turned on his heel to lead the way.

  ‘Wow, Ruby, who said wishes don’t come true?’ Jasmine murmured under her breath as Ruby blushed all the way down to her squelching suede pumps.

  ‘Don’t you dare start matchmaking, that’s all,’ Ruby whispered as they set off with Tom a couple of strides ahead of them in his olive-green wellington boots. ‘I’m not in the mood for any of your Cupid stuff right now. Plus, I’m soaked to the skin. We’ll probably get pneumonia out of this.’

  ‘Let’s hope your man there has a bit of fire in his grate then,’ Jasmine giggled, delighted at the thought of a lift home with Ruby’s sexy admirer. The thunder crackled again and the rain stopped coming down in fat drops and started coming down in great grey sheets instead. In no time the three of them were sprinting through the kitchen garden to Tom’s dark green hideaway. Great rivulets of water were coursing along the brick-edged pathways and slapping over the women’s ankles. But when Tom flung the shed door open, Ruby and Jasmine were both relieved to find it all very nice and cosy with a gas heater glowing in one corner. A table and an armchair took up one side and gardening tools were everywhere, hanging from nails in the walls or stacked neatly in willow hampers. A sleepy black dog was curled up in a basket.

  ‘That’s Noah. He won’t touch you, don’t worry,’ Tom said quietly as the animal opened its eyes. ‘Steady, Noah.’

  ‘Fantastic little spot you’ve got here.’ Jasmine shivered, tiptoeing gently across to the heater and warming her hands before the gas fire’s flickering blue and orange flames. ‘What a lovely dog… Thanks very much… Jesus, I thought I was going to die of exposure out there.’

  ‘Thank you very much, Mr Lavery,’ Ruby added politely. ‘I’m so glad you were nearby. We just couldn’t remember the way out. No sense of direction…’

  ‘It’s okay. There’s a handy way of telling the way out, but it’s a closely guarded secret. Oh, and call me Tom, please.’

  ‘And this is Jasmine and I’m Ruby,’ she reminded him.

  ‘Yes,’ he said quietly. ‘I know.’

  Both Ruby and Tom felt their faces growing red with embarrassment. And maybe excitement. Ruby went across and stood beside Jasmine, concentrating on the dancing flames in the stove. Right then she’d have given any money to have a handy car parked close by so they wouldn’t have to sit in the Land Rover with Tom later on. She wondered if he would think her rude if she insisted on calling for another taxi. For a few moments there was no sound except for the hammering of the rain on the roof of the shed.

  ‘Now would anybody like a sip of tea?’ Tom said stiffly. ‘I have a packet of paper cups around here somewhere. And a fresh flask of tea.’

  ‘Oh, thanks, that’d be lovely,’ Jasmine said, shivering a little bit less. ‘Do you often invite strange women into your shed for light refreshments? Won’t your wife be suspicious?’

  ‘Jasmine, for God’s sake, would you stop it,’ Ruby whispered.

  ‘I’m a widower,’ Tom said at once. ‘My wife Kate died six years ago. And I never invite anybody back here for light refreshments, as it happens. But this is an emergency, isn’t it?’

  There was a slight look of hurt in his eyes. Ruby could see that. He wasn’t amused that Jasmine had more or less accused him of being a flirt. And really it would be hard to imagine any man being less of a flirt than Tom Lavery. Clearly he was a gentleman of the highest order and Ruby felt herself warming to him enormously. In fact, she began to wonder what he looked like out of those shabby clothes.

  ‘I’d love a sip of hot tea,’ she said graciously as two flashes of blue lightning lit up the shed and glinted off the bright metal shovels and spades in one corner.

  Wordlessly he found the paper cups and poured tea into three of them. Jasmine relaxed into the armchair, leaving Ruby and Tom to stand awkwardly together by the window, looking out at the rain battering down the winter plants and shrubs. Ruby didn’t dare catch Jasmine’s eye as the three of them waited for the worst of the storm to blow over. She knew that if she did Jasmine would give her a knowing great wink. And if she saw that now, on top of her relief at being rescued from the maze, and her escalating attraction towards Tom Lavery, she might just break down and laugh or cry uncontrollably.

  20. The Anniversary

  Tom sat down heavily on the beach at Murlough Strand and stared blankly out to sea. The air was bitingly cold and his ears were numb, but he barely noticed any minor physical discomfort these days. He was bone tired and quite hungry, and he hadn’t slept properly in three days. Tom sighed, inhaled deeply and then exhaled all the way down to his sandy boots.

  ‘Six years, Noah. Six years today! Do you even remember Kate, huh? You were only a puppy when she died.’

  Noah looked up eagerly at Tom’s face and then out to sea and then back at Tom. The dog wanted to go for a breathless run along the beach, but he’d been at Murlough enough times already to know that he had to wait a while first. Until his master had been quiet and sad and silent for a few minutes. And then they’d walk and run for miles along the beach and he’d fetch sticks from the water, and then they’d go home for something nice to eat.

  ‘You know, sometimes, I wonder what’s the point of anyth
ing,’ Tom said to Noah now, rubbing the top of the dog’s head affectionately. ‘I mean, the house and the grounds look far better nowadays than anyone living at Camberwell in the early days could have imagined. But, when you think about it, it’s still just a shrine to the dead, with lots of day trippers eating Irish stew and buying souvenir mugs. We must be mad, the few of us that are left, to keep on working so hard for the pittance they pay us. Who really cares about Camberwell, huh? About the old retainers? Who really cares about any of it? Not the current owners, that’s for sure.’

  And then he thought of Ruby and he wondered if he’d mistaken her expression that day in the storm for something approaching affection for him. Had she looked at him shyly over the rim of her paper cup because she fancied him a little bit? Or was he finally losing the plot with sheer loneliness? He twisted his gold wedding ring round and round on his finger. The cold had made his skin contract and the ring felt slightly loose on his wedding ring finger.

  ‘What’s the point?’ he said again. ‘I can’t get over Kate and I can’t ask Ruby out!’

  And then, without realizing he was going to do it, he slid the ring off his finger and threw it into the sea with as much force as he could muster. He almost dislocated his shoulder he put that much effort into it. The ring sparkled in the sunlight for a split second and then vanished beneath the waves with the tiniest of sad splashes.

  ‘There you are! Have that as well,’ he shouted at the crashing breakers. ‘That’s where Kate’s ashes are,’ he told his startled dog. ‘That’s where my heart is, where my life is, at the bottom of the ocean. The sea might as well have the ring too and be done with it.’

  Noah went racing towards the waves to retrieve whatever it was that Tom had thrown. But Tom caught up with the animal and guided him along the beach instead.

  ‘No, you don’t,’ he said gently. ‘It’s far too cold for you to go swimming today. Come on, boy.’

  Soon the two of them were running fast along the hard sand at the water’s edge, breathing hard.

  Running towards what? Tom wondered.

  He wanted to cry, but he had no tears left. He felt empty and lost inside. Empty and for the first time ever he also felt frightened that he wouldn’t be able to cope for much longer with so much emptiness in his heart.

  However, at that exact moment, just as Tom and Noah were beginning to warm up from their jog along the beach, the postman was delivering a thank-you card to Tom’s little cottage. The card was from Ruby and Jasmine to say thanks again for rescuing them from the box maze. Jasmine had sent it, of course. Ruby knew nothing about it. And Jasmine had also added a short note at the bottom asking Tom to drop by the shop sometime soon and advise them on what flowers they might plant in the window boxes for the summer. Ruby would have been furious if she’d known. But Jasmine had decided that Ruby O’Neill was simply too slow in seizing the initiative. So she’d taken it upon herself to make the first move. For, as Jasmine always said, where there’s life there’s hope.

  21. The Fifth Secret

  It was May and the cold fingers of winter were finally loosening their grip on the small city of Belfast. Pure white snowdrops and cheery yellow daffodils had brightened up the municipal green spaces and everyone seemed happy to be casting off their hats and gloves for the first time in six months. Business at Ruby’s shop had settled down into a manageable and satisfactory routine. Her closest neighbours would often wave in at her as they went by and Ruby would wave back, smile and be glad she had bought the shop before the notion went by her. She was almost feeling normal again, she thought to herself. Perhaps not content exactly, but at least she wasn’t on the floor with despair any more.

  But one day Ruby was incredibly startled when she heard the doorbell chime and looked up from the counter to see Tom Lavery standing there with his arms full of flowers. Three slate-grey window boxes, which were already planted up with pretty pink and white summer flowers and lots of pale green trailing ivy! She noticed that he’d combed his hair and put on a newish jacket though his old weather-beaten boots were still present and correct. She also noticed that Tom was doing his best to smile despite the fact that his face seemed to be twitching with the effort of it.

  ‘Jasmine, what the heck have you done now?’ Ruby hissed as she turned her head away so that Tom would not see her panicking.

  ‘Just a wee thank-you note for the lift home that Tom gave us that day,’ Jasmine said quickly. ‘You remember, when we got caught in the storm at Camberwell? I forgot to tell you I sent a thank-you note, sorry.’

  ‘Jasmine, I am going to kill you when he leaves,’ Ruby squeaked as she pressed the buzzer politely and let Tom in.

  ‘Um, hi,’ Tom began, unsure whether he should come into the shop or wait outside on the doorstep. ‘I was just in the area today so I thought I’d drop these flowers off to you…’

  ‘Do you mean these lovely flowers are for us? How very kind of you,’ Ruby said, helping Tom to set them down on the floor. ‘How much do I owe you, Tom?’

  ‘Oh, nothing at all,’ Tom said breezily, waving away any notion of payment with a wide sweep of his large, square hands.

  ‘But this is just too much – it’s far too generous of you. Really, I insist on paying you for your trouble,’ Ruby protested, feeling as if she were some rich old relic from the eighteenth century, dangling a silk purse full of gold sovereigns before the hired help. Why on earth was she cursed with such blessed politeness!

  ‘No, it’s okay. It’s just some plants and ivy I had sitting about in the greenhouse,’ Tom said, smiling. ‘They were only going to waste, honestly.’

  ‘But the window boxes? They’re so gorgeous,’ Ruby said, taking in the raised patterns on the pewter containers. ‘You can’t just give these away!’

  ‘Yes, it’s okay,’ Tom said, shrugging his shoulders. His very broad and manly shoulders, Ruby couldn’t help noticing.

  ‘Jasmine, have you been in touch with Tom recently?’ Ruby asked.

  ‘I might have mentioned something a few weeks ago,’ Jasmine admitted.

  ‘Anyway, um, that’s that done so I’ll be seeing you,’ Tom interrupted, sensing something was wrong between the two women.

  ‘Wait a minute! Don’t go, Tom. You can’t just rush off after bringing those lovely flowers to us. Stay and have a cup of tea, yeah?’ Jasmine said loudly. Then she vanished into the kitchenette leaving Ruby and Tom standing together in the middle of the shop.

  ‘Look, I won’t stop for the tea,’ he said, blushing right down to his worn leather boots.

  ‘Yes indeed, you will bother,’ Jasmine said, coming out of the kitchenette again and ushering Tom towards the fancy armchair. ‘The kettle’s boiling now. It’d be rude to refuse.’

  ‘I couldn’t sit there. I might get dust on that lovely chair,’ Tom began, looking worried. ‘These are my old digging trousers. Sure, you might have customers coming in the door any minute as well.’ He gazed longingly at the pavement outside. This meeting was a lot harder than he’d thought it would be.

  ‘I know! Why don’t you take Tom upstairs for a proper chat?’ Jasmine said, winking slyly at Ruby.

  ‘Oh, there’s no need for that,’ Tom began.

  ‘Jasmine, I’m sure Tom has better things to do than sip tea with me,’ Ruby added.

  ‘Not at all! Away with you now and let me mind the shop in peace,’ Jasmine said loudly, literally shoving Ruby out of the door and on to the pavement, and then Tom after her, before handing out Ruby’s handbag from behind the counter. ‘That’s it,’ she smiled, shutting the shop door firmly so Ruby couldn’t get back in without making a scene. Turning away from Ruby’s livid face, Jasmine scurried into the kitchenette and prayed that Ruby would be too embarrassed to start rattling the door handle. And so she was.

  Turning almost cerise with mortification, Ruby found her keys in her bag, unlocked the door to her flat and pointed her visitor towards the stairs. And Tom, also weak with embarrassment, went bounding swiftly up them and
into the small entrance hall.

  ‘What a lovely place,’ he said gently when confronted with Ruby’s tastefully decorated flat. All cream rugs and white furniture and textured cushions and pretty table lamps with ribbon-shades. ‘And what’s that cooking? Smells delicious,’ he added.

  ‘Oh, that’s just a plain old casserole I put in the slow cooker this morning,’ Ruby said, delighted at least that she had something to do now. She could offer Tom some lunch in return for the expensive-looking window boxes he’d brought. Anything would be better than standing here looking at one another shyly after the complete fool she had made of herself downstairs. ‘Would you like a small bite of lunch?’ she added hopefully.

  ‘Well, I would, yes, if it’s no trouble,’ Tom said, smiling again and the ice was broken at last.

  ‘No trouble whatsoever,’ Ruby said breathlessly, dropping her bag on to the hall table and going to wash her hands at the kitchen sink. ‘I often use the slow cooker nowadays as it’s such a bore cooking for one. Somehow it’s easier to prepare food in the morning than at supper time.’

  ‘Yes, I know what you mean. If it wasn’t for the hot meals I get at work, I’d probably be living on tea and sandwiches myself.’

  ‘I went through a little phase of that when I lost my husband,’ Ruby said carefully. She didn’t often talk about Jonathan any more in case she broke down and wept in front of anyone. ‘Maybe you read about it in the paper?’

  ‘Yes, I did. I’m very sorry.’

  ‘Thanks… I existed on takeaway food and toast for about six months afterwards. Which is silly, of course, because then you get run down, and you end up feeling more depressed than ever. But Jasmine bullied me into shopping for groceries again and looking after myself. She can be a little minx sometimes, but she’s also been a good friend. A terrific friend actually.’

  ‘Yes, she seems great,’ Tom said, wondering whether he should be thankful for Jasmine and her meddling, or not.