As he carried the coffee pot to the stove he caught himself throwing frequent glances outside. It was rather pointless, he thought, as there was little to be seen out there other than the thick morning mist. The delicious smell of the coffee was just starting to filter throughout the warm room when he caught sight of Liana through the bay window. She had appeared out of the mist, her bare feet leaving a trail across the dew-soaked grass as she drifted around the corner of the house, heading towards the laundry door. Relief was his foremost emotion ...and she looked completely unconcerned. ...So he decided to play it cool. He went to open the door for her, noticing as he grasped the door knob it that the lock had already been snibbed back in the open position. If he hadn’t been in such a rush to find her, he thought ruefully, he might have noticed that detail a trifle earlier and saved himself some trauma. He pulled the door open wide as she approached and stood back to let her in, ...her arms were full of a riotous display of fresh blooms,...he could see the rich lavender-blue and white of irises, tall stems of delphiniums and foxgloves, salmon pink Albertine roses and peonies, all nestled among the delicate ‘grannies’ bonnets of columbines and tangled ferny fronds of blue-flowering love-in-a-mist, Nigella damascena.
“Wow, they’re beautiful,” he marvelled at the flowers, all in full flower and all of them out-of-season. “But where, I’ve got to ask, do you get these from at this time of year?”
“You ask me that? I thought you had read the diaries.” She stood looking at him with an expression which suggested he was closely related to the village idiot.
“My apologies, Madame,” he said contritely. “What I meant was, do you conjure them out of thin air, or do they grow in some special part of garden that I don’t know of?”
“It’s very simple really,” she replied, half-smiling in a mischievous manner, “...I go up to the plants, and I ask them, extremely politely, of course, if they would be kind enough to provide me with some blooms ... They have never refused me yet.” He wasn’t sure, from the tone of her reply, if she was teasing him, or telling the truth. He let it go for now.
“And you are obviously accustomed to using the laundry entry, aren’t you?” he asked. “How did you get in here all those times to take the food?”
“You are full of questions this morning, aren’t you? Come with me and I’ll show you.” She placed the bouquet in the deep laundry washbowl and filled it with water before gesturing for him to follow her outside. Moving along the brick wall that ran from the laundry to the woods, she went behind a low bush and came back a moment later, brandishing a key which she handed to Hamish. “Mystery solved ...I can’t walk through solid walls, you know, but the key has been there, behind a loose brick in this wall for as long as the house has been here. I remembered, and it came in very handy that no one had discovered or moved it.”
They returned indoors. As they entered the kitchen Hamish looked down to see that she was leaving a trail of wet puddles on the floor. ‘Sit down,” he instructed. “I’ll dry your feet.” He directed her to a chair at the kitchen table and, pulling the hand towel from where it had been hanging in front of the stove, proceeded to rub her feet. The pyjama trousers were completely sodden from below her knees where she must have been wandering through the long grass. He couldn’t believe that she had gone outside in the chilly morning temperatures. Her feet, now dry, were blue with cold.
“Would you take offence if I was to suggest afresh change of clothes?” he asked, as he leant back on his heels, looking up at her. Her hair was, if anything, wilder than it had been when he had first encountered her in the garden. She appeared unconcerned that there were still bits of twigs and leaves randomly caught in the matted locks. It was strange, he thought, even though she appeared unkempt and unwashed she didn’t smell at all bad ...in fact, from where he was kneeling, he caught the pleasant drifting scent of sweet peas from her, as if fragrant from the heat of summer’s sun.”
“Do I offend you?” she regarded him, eyes wide and a little taken-aback by his suggestion.
“No. No! Not at all,” he denied. “I merely thought you might prefer clean, dry clothes and some warm socks.” He took the bull by the horns,...hoping not to be gored by her anger if she chose to be affronted, “But, while we’re on the subject …if you don’t do something about that hair soon, you’ll be in danger of having small birds arriving to make their nests in it, come springtime.” Her hair reminded him of a Helena Bonham-Carter up-do gone completely feral…he went on quickly, giving her no time to respond to his suggestion before he spoke again. ”Now, would you like some tea and something to eat before you give me a piece of your mind for being so forward and rude?”
At that, she threw back her head and laughed. It was the first time he had heard real laughter from her and it sounded delightful. They ate a cooked breakfast then went upstairs where Hamish dug around in the chest of drawers until he found some garments suitable for her to wear. Digging under a mound of too-big pullovers, he eventually unearthed a dark blue merino polo neck top that he had managed to shrink in the wash and that was now several sizes too small for him, and a pair of black cotton tracksuit pants with an elasticised waistband and ankles. He handed them to her, saying, “If you pull the draw-cord in tight on those, hopefully they should stay up. I’m sorry, they’re not exactly high fashion, but it’s the best I can find for now.” He had nothing that would do her for underwear, but, if memory served him correctly, that didn’t seem to be a high priority where she was concerned. He ran the upstairs bath and after checking that she had an ample supply of soap, shampoo and dry towels, left her standing watching the steam rising gently from the deep, warm tub. He closed the door on her and returned downstairs.
Soon after, as he’d expected, Matthew rang the doorbell, saying that his mother was waiting for them next to the dovecote with the birds. Hamish donned a jacket and his outdoor footwear and walked through the serpentine hedges with Matthew skipping excitedly beside him. In the background, there was the sound of dripping water. The sun had come out with warmth that had quickly burned away the mist and was now rapidly melting the remaining snow. Sara and Matthew had arrived this time in a van, with the same ‘Blaine’s Nursery’ Logo painted on its side that Hamish had already seen on her business cards. It was parked in front of the carriage house and Sara had opened the side door to remove the bird cages from the rear. As they came along the path, all Hamish could see of her was a view of her trim jeans-clad backside as she reached for the last cage. At their approaching footsteps, she turned, cage in hand. Two others were sitting with their cooing occupants on the gravel at her feet and Hamish picked up one of these and a sack of grain, similar to that which Sara had provided for the swans. He gestured for Matthew to take the other cage. “Good morning, Sara. A Happy New Year to you. Looks as if it’s going to be a great day, doesn’t it?”
Sara returned his greeting, adding, “You look like the cat that swallowed the canary this morning. What’s made you so cheerful?”
“Oh, this and that,” he replied, not wanting to give away too much information about his returned house guest. “Shall we take the birds up to the dovecote and let them go? They’d probably like to be out of these cages, I imagine.”
“And then you can pay me!” Matthew crowed jubilantly.
His mother laughed. “Ever the businessman.” she said
“I wonder from where he gets that?” Hamish questioned with a wide smile on his face.
“It’s not that obvious, is it?” Sara feigned an expression of mock-shock, before adding, in a more seriously tone, “It’s not such a bad thing, I think, for children to learn the value of money. It’s been a struggle for me to get the business back on its feet. Dad was getting a bit past it by the time I took over and things were run down, so Matthew knows that if he wants extra toys and gear that he has to contribute something towards them. The pigeons are his responsibility to feed and care for so it’s fair enough that he gets any profits from sales.”
The
y carried the three cages up the steps to the dovecote. Matthew helped Hamish to put the screens in place before releasing the pigeons into their new home. Unlike the swans these birds were well used to being handled so it was a much less traumatic experience for all involved. The nine pigeons fluttered gracefully out of their cages and instantly made themselves at home, strutting around exploring the space and cooing to one another. They were dainty turtle doves, slightly larger than a blackbird. Their upperparts were distinctively mottled with chestnut and black and their black tails had a white edge. Sara explained that they had started breeding the birds in response to their numbers dropping so much in the wild that they were now considered endangered. Hamish spread feed, and made sure they had a shallow bowl filled with fresh water before they left them to settle in. As they retreated down the stairs he invited Sara and Matthew back to the house for coffee.
There was no sign of Liana as they entered the house. Hamish assumed she must still be upstairs bathing, and took the others through to the kitchen. He boiled water for fresh coffee for himself and Sara and gave Matthew the last of the hot chocolate.
“I thought you’d said that you had run out of that?” Sara pointed to Matthew’s drink.
“Well, I have now. It’s a rather involved and long story. I’ll tell you sometime.” Hamish demurred.
“And where on earth are you getting these amazing flowers from?” Sara had spied the flowers in the laundry and gestured to the huge bouquet that Liana had brought in earlier, still sitting in the basin. “They’d have to be imported at this time of year ...and some of them aren’t even florist’s flowers anyway. Granny’s bonnets don’t generally last long enough for most florists to bother with. And this is Aquilegia vulgaris ‘Nora Barlow’,....she held up a stem with spurless pink, cream and green double flowers, ...it’s sooo gorgeous, ..I could do with some of this in the shop.”
“I’m afraid those are part of the long story as well.” Hamish felt bad not sharing his source with her, but he knew that Liana’s trust in him was still in its infancy and would be severely shaken, to say the least, if he betrayed her confidences to him at this early stage.
“Which you, obviously don’t want to tell me. Yet. Well, that’s your business. I can respect that.” Sara looked somewhat disappointed, but did her best to hide it. She changed the subject, filling Hamish in on what care the new birds would require. When she had finished, Hamish excused himself to go through to study and get Matthew payment for the birds and feed. He was coming back through the study door into the sitting room when Liana appeared at the same time through the door from the stairs. She moved with such a sense of poise and grace that she had turned even his baggy clothes into runway garments. The sleeves of the top had been too long for her and she had rolled them up to her elbows, but it was her hair that had altered her appearance the most. The forest litter and almost-dreadlocks had gone and her long Titian locks were now loosely braided over one shoulder in a style that reminded Hamish even more strongly of the statue by the pool. The change was a distinct improvement, thought Hamish. What he said was, “I trust that you enjoyed the bath?”
“My scalp is still smarting from all the combing and I left a considerable amount of my hair in your bathroom bin, but yes, it feels good to be washed and clean,” she replied.
“I have some friends in the kitchen,” he warned her. “They’ve brought over the pigeons for the dovecote. Would you like to come and meet them?”
She frowned and looked for a moment as if she might turn and flee back up the stairs. He put a hand on her arm in gentle restraint. “They’re really very nice ...Sara would be about your age...” he stopped, nonplussed, “Ah, Um, well, perhaps not ...but you look about the same age as her ...and she has a twelve year old son called Matthew. Come on. Come and talk to them, please. I’m hoping that Sara might help to get you some new clothes.”
“New clothes.” That piqued her interest. “Well, why didn’t you say? It’s not that I don’t appreciate these,” she paused, “…garments,” she indicated the loose dark-coloured pants and top, “but black is not really my best colour.”
“I’m sorry. I don’t run to a very colourful wardrobe. I’m sure Sara will be able to find something better suited to you.” He opened the kitchen door for her and they went through to the warmth. Sara turned and with a raised questioning eyebrow said, “I didn’t realise that you had a guest staying, Hamish?”
“Liana came to stay, late yesterday.” Hamish didn’t elaborate any further, instead introducing the three to one another. Then he asked Sara if she would help him by shopping for Liana, who had no clothes, he said, other than those she stood up in. Sara looked even more intrigued, and was obviously dying to ask questions. She looked Liana over.
“You’re at least six inches taller than me ...so that would put you at around five eight or nine, right? Liana nodded, “And you’re what, a size six? Eight?” she turned to Hamish, grinning “I assume you’ll be paying?” When he nodded assent. “Good, this should be fun then”
“No black, please,” Hamish said, eyeing Sara’s dark leather jacket and black jeans, “Liana says she likes colour.”
“Shouldn’t be a problem,” Sara replied. “Though it’s not my thing for clothes –I tend to concentrate my colour on my hair and accessories, “as if to prove her point, today the tips of her hair were an-eye-watering shade of bright iridescent green, which contrasted with hot pink Doc Martens, “… but I have a good eye for colours when I need to ...comes from all that training in floristry.” She turned to Liana, “ The shops are all shut today obviously, being a national holiday and all …but I could go first thing tomorrow since, if that’s all you’ve got to wear, it looks like it’s a bit urgent,” then back to Hamish, “It’s as quiet as the grave at the nursery ...everyone’s away on vacation still and it hasn’t exactly been great gardening weather these past few days, so I could take a few hours off, no trouble. I’m sure Dad will keep an eye on things till I get back.”
“I need to shop for groceries too,” Hamish remembered. “It’s starting to look like Old Mother Hubbard’s in my pantry, so I’ll drive if you like.”
“Is there room for Matthew in that sardine can that you call a car?” Sara asked.
“Absolutely. I’m sure I can squeeze him in the back.”
“…Clothes shopping and grocery shopping,” Matthew interjected, wailing. “Yuk. No Thank You!” His tone was filled with distaste for such boring activities.
“You’ll have to stay with Granddad if you don’t come with us,” Sara retorted, not happy about leaving him behind.
“You don’t want to come? But, I thought we might leave your mum to get on with the clothes shopping while we checked out the bike shops,” Hamish countered. “I thought, maybe that you could show me this mega-cool bike and the skateboard that you want? But, if you’re not interested...” he left the invitation hanging.
“…Yeah! That’d be cool!” Matthew enthused, now seeing the shopping expedition in an entirely new light. “And we’d get to go in your car too. It’s way cooler than mum’s lame old nursery van. I bet it can go fast too!”
“Great,” Hamish said, “I’ll be at the nursery to pick you both up at eight-thirty in the morning. “O.K.?” he looked over Matthew’s head to Sara, who was smiling appreciatively at the way he had handled her son.
“What about you, Liana? Wouldn’t you like to come too?” Sara turned again, questioning Liana. “I’m sure we could buy something fairly quickly for you to change into. Then you’d be fine for the rest of the shopping. That way you would be able to make your own choices.”
“No,” Liana was adamant, “I dare not leave here.”
Before Sara had a chance to ask anything else, Hamish broke in, “Liana has not been very well, and she is still recovering, so I’m sure it would be better if she was to stay here. With your good taste, and my credit card, I’m sure we’ll manage quite admirably.”
Sara was happy enough with his explanati
on and she and Matthew left shortly afterwards. Liana retired upstairs for the remainder of the day –reading and re-reading the diaries in solitude. If she found anything of import in their pages she didn’t appear inclined to share it with Hamish and he retreated outside to continue with the work of resurrecting the herb garden beds and trimming the hedges surrounding the knot garden paths. The previous night’s confidences were not repeated and he went up to bed frustrated at her apparent need for solitude and secrecy.
***
The shopping expedition was fun. This was something of a surprise to Hamish, who having more in common with Matthew than he would admit, had never been a great fan of clothes shopping. At Sara’s suggestion, they drove to the royal Victoria Place Shopping Centre in Tunbridge Wells. Hamish parked and Sara started in Laura Ashley, insisting that Liana would look good in something fresh and flowery. He agreed, thinking that would be truer than Sara could ever guess, so he and Matthew trooped into the shop with her, prepared to be bored. However, Sara was a decisive shopper, trying and discarding clothes with awe-inspiring speed and within twenty minutes they’d left the shop, already laden with bags. They made lightning-fast stops in Topshop and Next, where she added trousers, pullovers and skirts, then a shoe shop, to buy soft canvas and leather shoes, and boots using a template they had drawn of Liana’s foot to help chose the sizes. A short conversation about underwear followed. Sara had spotted the Ann Summers store in the shopping centre but Hamish when said he thought Liana had a rather old-fashioned sensibility and might find some of the items a bit risqué. They made a short stop for morning tea at Muffin Break where Matthew devoured two large iced chocolate muffins and a spinach and feta roll before separating for the next hour, Sara saying that she would sooner shop for underwear and nightwear without male assistance. So while she headed towards BHS, Hamish and Matthew spent an enjoyable time in the sports stores looking at bikes and skateboards. They were wandering past the Waterstones window when Hamish noticed a display on planets and stars that coincided with the launch of a new book, so the two went in to have a look.
Flowers in the Morning Page 26
