The Winter Garden

by Heidi Swain

  ‘That she would,’ Samantha agreed.

  ‘But the flowers,’ I swallowed, pointing out the horrid mess in the vase.

  ‘Are dead,’ Samantha shrugged, ‘and they make the grave look uncared for.’

  ‘You’re right,’ I said. ‘I should get rid of them and the vase.’

  ‘It would be a great help to the mower man if you did.’ Samantha told me, making my decision sound a little less harsh. ‘It’s far easier for him to keep the grass looking smart and in check if he hasn’t got to weave around vases of dead flowers.’

  I knew that wherever Eloise had gone, she was most likely surrounded by flowers and she certainly wouldn’t want me feeling obliged to keep the vase at her grave freshly filled as well, especially now I was living that much further away.

  ‘Jackson isn’t going to come at all, is he?’ I swallowed.

  ‘Of course, he isn’t,’ Samantha laughed, ‘and don’t tell me you were foolish enough to think that he would?’

  ‘No,’ I said, ‘no, I wasn’t.’

  ‘And never mind him,’ she said dismissively, bending to stroke Nell, ‘you will always carry Eloise in your heart and that’s all that matters. You already know you don’t have to keep coming back here to find her, don’t you?’

  ‘Yes,’ I nodded, looking at the bouquet, I had stopped on the way to buy.

  ‘I’ll even take those off your hands and put them in the church so you aren’t tempted to leave them,’ she helpfully added, whisking them away.

  I thought about our conversation on the journey back to Nightingale Square and glanced down at Nell. She looked thoroughly depressed again, curled up in the footwell and emitting the occasional heavy sigh. I had looked forward to visiting Eloise, but my decision not to return was the right one. As Samantha had pointed out, I carried my friend in my heart and I always would and thankfully that was enough for both of us.

  Chapter 16

  It didn’t take Nell long to get her Nightingale Square mojo back again. A couple of laps around the green at full pelt with Gus after work on Monday and she was like a dog with two tails, and she wasn’t the only one with a spring in her step.

  Graham had applied himself with gusto to the garden tasks assigned to him and I was feeling much more settled in my mind that we would be ready to open on time. If only my mind felt as content every time it flitted to Finn, which it often did, but I was beyond busy and sorting things with him would just have to wait.

  ‘Morning, boss,’ beamed Chloe when she waltzed in, earlier than usual on Tuesday morning, and pulled a cardboard tray bearing two takeaway coffees and a bag from Blossom’s bakery out of her basket. Clearly, she was as enamoured with life as Nell and Graham. ‘As the weather’s so miserable I thought we’d start the day off with a little sustenance and some self-care.’

  The weather was rather dismal; foggy, damp and very dull, and I had to admit I was rather intrigued by the idea of practising self-care because I’d never been very good at putting myself first when it came to the work-life balance conundrum.

  I was either at work or at home, and doing little else in between, and living on-site quite often meant the lines between the two were blurred. I supposed now I wasn’t actually situated quite so close to my workplace, I should make more of an effort to distract my mind from planting schemes and weather forecasts and the tempting bag from Blossom’s looked as good a place to start as any. I was making more of a success at keeping busy at the weekends now, so there was no harm in the occasional mid-week treat to back it up and keep the momentum going, was there?

  ‘Someone’s in a good mood this morning,’ I smiled, reaching for the bag and peering inside.

  Nestled snugly together were four breakfast pastries, still warm and emitting the most delicious buttery smells.

  ‘I’m not going to go into details,’ giggled Chloe, ‘because you said you didn’t want to know everything and besides, we haven’t got all day, but,’ she dreamily added, ‘what I will say, is that you will definitely find you receive a much warmer welcome the next time you go to the pub.’

  Suddenly shy, she ducked her head and reached inside the bag, pulling out a pain au chocolat which was generously studded with dark chocolate chunks and topped with toasted almond flakes.

  ‘Oh Chloe,’ I sniffed, delighted at the sight of her obvious happiness, ‘I’m so pleased for you.’

  Admittedly, I was almost as relieved for myself as I was happy for her and Hannah. I’d felt awful when she told me I’d messed things up, not that she’d put it quite as bluntly as that, but now everything was sorted and my new friend was thrilled to have found the courage to make her fresh start. It was a great start to the day, in spite of the inclement weather, and the delicious pastries made it even better.

  Nell, very sensibly, decided to stay in the office, when Chloe and I pulled on our wet-weather gear and, full of carbs and good, strong coffee, reluctantly ventured out.

  ‘I’ll be glad when the glasshouse is restored,’ Chloe sighed after I had filled her in on Luke’s plan, ‘and we can work somewhere dry on days like this.’

  ‘I couldn’t agree more,’ I told her.

  ‘I’ll happily second that,’ said Graham, walking up to join us.

  I might have said to Lisa that I enjoyed working outdoors, but there were limits. There was so much moisture in the air that morning that, although it wasn’t raining, we would have been soaked through within minutes, had we forgotten our waterproofs. I knew we could have stayed in the office and cleaned and oiled the hand tools, but I was saving that task for when winter really bit.

  ‘Are you still happy to have a go at fixing the ride-on?’ I asked Graham.

  Having looked at the forecast together yesterday, I thought it wouldn’t be a bad use of his time. He’d already told me he’d got some mechanical experience and if we could get the mower working, then Luke wouldn’t have to keep calling in a contractor.

  ‘Gladly,’ he grinned, ducking into the shed.

  ‘And don’t worry,’ I said to Chloe, before loading tools and buckets into the wheelbarrow, ‘what I’ve got lined up for us should protect us from the worst of it.’

  We spent the morning in what had fast become one of my favourite spots in the garden. The fern garden was a secretive little place located next to the boundary wall, surrounded by established shrubs and trees and entered via a weather-worn brick arch. It was an original, but slightly scaled-down, garden feature, and in spite of its city location, had a very otherworldly feel.

  ‘This place is going to be even better with some of Finn’s dragon sculptures dotted around for people to find, isn’t it?’ commented Chloe as she followed my lead when I started to cut back the huge hosta plants which thrived in the shady, damp conditions.

  ‘Yes,’ I agreed, ‘this is an ideal spot for a treasure hunt.’

  I focused on the job in hand and refused to allow my mind to become too distracted by fantasies of exploring this secret place on heady, summer evenings with Finn. I was supposed to be cross with him after all.

  ‘Not the ferns,’ I said as I came to and spotted Chloe starting to make inroads into trimming those too. ‘We’ll leave those until the spring,’ I added, brushing thoughts of Finn more firmly away. ‘It’s the hostas we need to focus on because they’ll harbour slugs and snails over the winter and that’s the last thing we want.’

  Luke had given me a comprehensive planting plan for this part of the garden and as well as my particular favourites which included ferns, Japanese anemones, cyclamens, bluebells and hellebores, there were many other lovely species and even two tall tree ferns which he had planted himself.

  ‘And what are we supposed to do with these?’ Chloe asked, once we had worked our way along to where they stood. ‘It was quite mild here last winter,’ she told me, ‘so Luke just left them, but aren’t you supposed to protect them somehow? They look pretty fragile to me.’

  I’d never looked after tree ferns before, but had read up about th
em online.

  ‘They’re hardier than you might think,’ I said, ‘but they do need a bit of cosseting if there’s a really cold snap. According to what I’ve read, you pack the top with straw, to protect the crown and then fold last year’s leaves over the top and secure it all with twine. They’re pretty sheltered in here, but if the temperature drops too much, we’ll definitely need to do that.’

  The weather hadn’t cleared at all throughout the morning and it was still grim after lunch. Graham had signed off at our arranged time, but left a note in the office saying he thought he’d found the problem and was going to read up about how to fix it. That lifted my sagging spirits a little, but by three o’clock, what light there was, was fading and I’d had enough.

  ‘Let’s call it a day,’ I said to Chloe, who had started to shiver.

  ‘But it’s only three,’ she said, her teeth chattering.

  ‘I know,’ I said, gathering everything together, ‘but at this rate you’ll catch your death and there’s plenty of admin I can be working on at home.’

  ‘Well, if you’re sure.’

  ‘I am,’ I told her. ‘This is horrid and it isn’t going to get any better now, is it?’

  Chloe decided to cycle back home in the gear she had been working in and, after I’d made a trip to the compost heap, I cleaned up the tools, grabbed my files of paperwork, whistled to Nell, who hadn’t budged from under her blanket and headed back to the square.

  I was thinking about what I was going to cook for dinner when I pushed my key in the lock. I’d got a half a bottle of red wine left from the weekend and a couple of sausages from the butchers. A comforting sausage and onion casserole beckoned, with plenty of buttery mash. My stomach growled in response, but as I opened the front door, my excitement to be home shifted to concern because I could tell there was something wrong.

  I slipped off my wellies and deposited my files on to the hall table before flicking on the light. Everything looked exactly as it should, but there was definitely something amiss, even if I couldn’t see it.

  ‘Oh shit,’ I swore as I stepped into the kitchen and found my socks soaked in cold water. ‘Shit,’ I said again, stepping back.

  I looked up at the ceiling and was relieved to find there was no damp patch or bulging plaster. The leak was at ground level I realised and most likely from under the sink. It was annoying, but it could have been a whole lot worse.

  ‘Hey, Luke,’ I said, having quickly called his mobile, after shutting Nell in the sitting room.

  ‘Hi, Freya, what’s up?’

  ‘I’m really sorry to bother you,’ I apologised, because I knew he and Kate were having a couple of days away ahead of Winterfest and without the children who were staying with Carole and Graham. ‘I was just wondering if you happened to know where the stopcock is in Harold’s place, my place, I mean.’

  ‘Why? What’s happened?’ He sounded rather panicked.

  ‘There’s a bit of a leak,’ I told him, ‘but nothing to stress about. It’s just on the kitchen floor, most likely from under the sink, but I want to get the water shut off, just in case.’

  ‘Oh crikey,’ he fretted. ‘Um, hang on.’

  I heard him say something away from the phone and then Kate took over.

  ‘Freya?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘It’s Kate.’

  ‘Is Luke all right?’ I asked her. ‘It’s really nothing major. I didn’t want to stress him out.’

  ‘He’s fine,’ she said, ‘he fusses that’s all. We had a ceiling down last year and he’s had a bee in his bonnet about water pipes ever since.’

  ‘This is absolutely nothing like that,’ I told her. ‘I just need to know where the stopcock is and thought asking you guys might save me some time.’

  Given the fuss, I would have been better off looking for it myself. It was most likely located under the kitchen sink, but I didn’t fancy paddling through the chilly water, until I absolutely had to. My feet had been cold enough at work all day as it was.

  ‘I can’t believe we don’t know this,’ she said, ‘but neither of us do. Have you got a number for Harold? I’m sure he’ll be able to tell you.’

  ‘Yes,’ I said, wishing I’d gone straight to him instead. ‘Yes, I have his new number. I’ll call him.’

  ‘Great.’

  ‘Okay,’ I nodded, ‘and please don’t worry.’

  ‘I’m not,’ she said over the noise in the background which sounded very much like Luke having a mini meltdown.

  ‘I’m really sorry,’ I apologised.

  ‘It’s fine,’ she told me. ‘Ring or message later to let me know how you’re getting on.’

  ‘Will do.’

  As predicted, Harold did know where the water cut-off point was and after assuring him that turning the water off was just a precaution and that the only harm done had been to the kitchen lino, I took a deep breath and prepared myself to seek the stopcock out.

  ‘This,’ I muttered, as I opened the understairs cupboard door and peered inside, ‘is just my luck.’

  The cupboard was dark and musty and it was well over half a metre from the door to the tap. It might not have sounded far, but for someone who hated dark enclosed spaces as much as I did, it looked more like a mile.

  ‘What on earth’s it doing there?’ I had accusingly asked, when Harold told me where to find it.

  ‘It’s an old house,’ he quite reasonably pointed out, ‘and I never had the need to move it. What’s the problem with it being there?’

  I hadn’t told him about my claustrophobia of course. Had I gone through the explanation I had given Finn, then I never would have plucked up the courage to pin back the door using practically everything within reach and step inside.

  I squealed as a cobweb brushed the top of my head as I bobbed down. Thankfully the tap wasn’t too tight and it only took a couple of seconds to shut off. That said, I still kept one eye on the door, just in case it somehow mysteriously started to close.

  ‘Ow,’ I groaned as I rushed back out, banging my head on the frame. ‘What a perfect end to an already wet day.’

  Standing on the watery threshold, I contemplated putting my wellies back on, but then decided it wasn’t worth the muddy footprints, or the damp jeans. I quickly stripped them off so I could kneel down and get a proper look under the sink without soaking them.

  ‘Crikey,’ I shivered as I made a recce of the situation.

  There wasn’t actually all that much water, it had just spread a long way so it looked worse than it was, but that didn’t make it any warmer. From what I could make out the pipework had come loose, probably as a result of me knocking it when I filled the space with my cleaning products, and the seal around the plug looked as if it had seen better days too. Everything in the cupboard was well soaked so it must have been my morning washing-up water which had stealthily escaped into the room rather than down the plughole.

  ‘Damn,’ I muttered as I realised that I hadn’t needed to shut the water off or disturb my boss and his wife. In fact, neither of them had needed to know about it at all because this was something I could sort myself.

  ‘Freya?’

  I screeched in shock and banged the back of my head hard on the cupboard, which set Nell barking.

  ‘For God’s sake,’ I cursed again, mortified that someone had just wandered in and found me on all fours, in my pants, with my head under the sink. ‘Ow,’ I groaned, rubbing the back of my head which now ached as much as the front.

  ‘Are you all right?’

  ‘Of course, I’m not all-bloody-right,’ I snapped, reversing out, while at the same time attempting to pull my jumper far enough down to cover my practically bare bottom.

  I knew it was Finn standing in the doorway, no doubt smirking at the ridiculous sight, because why wouldn’t he be? It must have been an even more amusing spectacle than when I’d tripped on the lawn. I was dreading having to turn around, even though facing him would hide my arse.

  I supp
osed I should have been grateful that it wasn’t Zak. I was pretty sure he would have captured the moment on his phone and zoomed in for good measure. Or maybe not, given that he’d supposedly turned over a new leaf?

  ‘What are you doing here, Finn?’ I demanded, resting on my haunches to avoid a further soaking.

  ‘Luke called and asked me to come over,’ he told me. ‘He was in a bit of a flap, said there was a flood.’

  ‘Well, as you can see,’ I told him, ‘it’s a bit of a leak, not a flood, and nothing I can’t handle.’

  ‘Evidently,’ he said, and there was definite amusement in his tone which further infuriated me.

  I put one hand on the cupboard door to steady myself and rubbed the back of my head with the other. It hurt worse than the front and that was all his fault.

  ‘Here,’ he said, ‘let me help you up.’

  I was just about to tell him I didn’t need his help and ask him to leave so I could recover my dignity in peace, but he stepped into the room before I had the chance. The second his foot touched the floor, it shot out from under him, sending him high into the air and then crashing back down in a spread-eagled heap, on to the wet floor.

  ‘Ow,’ he groaned, gingerly pushing himself upright. ‘Ow.’

  At this rate there wouldn’t be anything left of the house by the end of the day because the place had literally shook on its foundations when he hit the deck.

  ‘As I said,’ I couldn’t resist commenting, ‘I can handle it myself.’

  He nodded but didn’t say anything. At least his jeans were doing a decent job of soaking up the water. I reached for the hand towel and covered my lower half with it as best I could before struggling to my feet.

  ‘I’ll let you get yourself up,’ I said, sliding towards the door, ‘I’m just going to grab some dry clothes.’

  I might have still been annoyed with him for gossiping behind my back and shrugging off our kiss, but there was no way I could let him walk back to the studio in soaked trousers. I’d most likely go out the next morning and find him halfway back and frozen to the spot. Having just cleared my conscience over Chloe, I couldn’t replace her with Finn’s frozen assets.