The Garden of Forgotten Wishes - Trisha Ashley Page 0,125
fudge cake with whipped cream works especially well.’
It did, too, and his suggestion that we go back to the office and put in some orders for the old roses we’d been sourcing on the internet was a distractingly pleasant prospect: the icing on the cake.
Lizzie
A great change came upon my life only a few days later, for it seemed that my father had been summoned by Mr Lordly-Grace, whose tenant he was, and the upshot was that I was to go and live at Risings, there to be a maid and companion to Miss Susanna! On Sundays, though, I must return to the farm early in the morning, to spend the day at Thorstane with the Brethren.
I could see my father did not like the idea of my going, but he had had little choice but to accede, and soon I was installed at Risings in greater comfort than I had ever known. I had a small room off the nursery, where the nanny once slept, so that I could always be on call should my young mistress want me. She was inclined to be spoilt and pettish but, if sometimes thoughtless, not unkind to me. I think she liked having me at her beck and call, and I accompanied her to her lessons with her governess, which I found vastly more interesting than she did, and on walks, which usually tended to take us to Old Grace Hall across the bridge. There we might wander the paths of the walled garden, while the governess drank tea with the housekeeper.
Susanna had two much older brothers, George, who was already a young man-about-town and not seen much at Risings, and Neville, who was still at school and only came home in the holidays. He was a good-natured, merry young man and he won my childish heart immediately. He was destined for a career in the army.
29
Well Rotted
Thankfully, we drove back the long way, which might have been several miles longer than the back road, but infinitely safer.
Call me a coward, but unless I grew a pair of wings like Gabriel, I was never going to let myself be driven back to Jericho’s End by that route.
We stopped off at the dig to see what was happening, if anything, and found the grass and soil had been neatly stripped back in several places, behind rope barriers held by metal stanchions.
The turf had been rolled and stacked nearby and now the volunteers were scraping soil away from the exposed areas with trowels. Charlie was among them and gave us a cheerful wave.
Luke and a thin young man with dark hair were standing in one of the shallow rectangles, laying down white measuring rods and taking pictures, while Treena, hands in coat pockets, looked a little bored. She must be a lot keener on Luke than she was letting on to spend her time off here, instead of walking the dogs or riding Zeph.
Ned, interested, went to see what they were doing but Treena came over to talk to me.
‘So far, this is even more boring than gardening,’ she said. ‘It doesn’t even sound as if there’s going to be very much to show for it, either, as far as I can see.’
‘I’m sure it’ll all be infinitely exciting to Luke, though,’ I said. ‘By the way, I’ve just told Ned what Melinda said to me yesterday, about Mike not being married after all. He said much the same you did: that there was no reason to worry about Mike turning up and he’d see him off the premises if he did.’
‘There you are, then – you’ve got your very own hero, though there’s no reason to think Mike would turn up, is there? By the way, I hope you don’t mind, but I’ve told Luke a little bit about you and Mike.’
‘No, I don’t mind,’ I said. ‘He seems a very nice … friend.’
She went slightly pink. ‘Actually, we’ve sort of drifted into going out together. Or perhaps he steered me into it, because that vague manner hides a brilliant and devious mind.’
She raised her voice on the last part, so that Luke, walking back with the other two, could hear it.
Luke grinned at her and then introduced me to his assistant. ‘This is Ken Lim – he was my postgrad student last year, so this is good experience for him. I can only afford to pay one extra person, so I wanted a good all-rounder.’