The Garden of Forgotten Wishes - Trisha Ashley Page 0,40
though I didn’t think Treena had much more interest in old walls and post holes than she had in gardening.
She helped me to carry down the last of the stored things from the spare bedroom and we managed to fit them into the car. There was the little chair and the tiny white-painted bookcase to get in somehow. In the end I had to pile things high, with a travel rug tucked over it all, and leave the roof down, so it was going to be a chilly drive back.
‘It’s amazing what you can get in a Citroën 2CV,’ Treena said. ‘You’d think it was made of elastic.’
‘It’s a Tardis.’ I wished, though, that I could put a giant luggage strap around it, in case it sprang open like a suitcase with a broken lock.
Treena checked her watch. ‘I’m doing evening surgery, then it’s my turn to be on twenty-four-hour emergency call. I’ll take the dogs for a good run now, before I go back. Do you want to come?’
‘I think I’d better take all this stuff back and unload it,’ I said. ‘I might have time for a little walk round the village after that, to stretch my legs.’
‘OK. And let me know how things are going. See you soon.’
We hugged and I drove off, full of hotpot and cream horn and a faint and probably entirely unfounded stirring of optimism.
10
Cat Flap
It was mid-afternoon when I bumped and rattled my overstuffed car across the humpbacked bridge and parked outside the café. It was a pity it was their closing day, because Charlie would have made short work of carrying everything up to the flat.
I had a key to the café door, but didn’t somehow like to use it and instead began to haul everything round to the back door. It took me about a dozen trips, and the chair, with its elegantly scrolled and padded back, was the last thing. The heap sitting on the crazy-paving terrace looked like a slightly dubious garage sale, with odds and ends sticking up out of boxes and strange bundles tied with string.
I sat on the chair for a minute to recover, before going upstairs to open all the doors and deposit the first box in the corner of the living room with those already there.
When I got down again the French window to Myfy’s studio further along opened and she stepped out, followed by a tall, hawk-nosed and handsome man. His silver hair was as long as Myfy’s, but caught back in a thick plait and he was dressed from head to foot in black.
Myfy was wearing a knee-length patchwork and beaded tunic over harem trousers, and a black cloak was draped over her shoulders. Together, they looked as if they’d stepped out of a slightly dark fairy tale, or a mythical kingdom.
Catching sight of me, they came over and Myfy introduced the tall man as her husband, Jacob Springer.
‘He’s an artist too, did I say? Or perhaps more of a sculptor, really, since he mainly constructs three-dimensional moving things.’
‘I’m a kinetic artist,’ he said, shaking hands.
‘Right …’ I said uncertainly, thinking that would be one to google on the new laptop.
‘Let me give you a hand, if you’re taking all this lot up to the flat,’ he offered.
‘It’s the last of the things I had stored with my sister, Treena, in Great Mumming, Myfy,’ I explained. ‘You did say you didn’t mind if I brought it here to sort.’
‘No, of course not,’ she said, as Jacob, without another word, seized the chair and bore it upwards.
‘I’d let him get on with it,’ she advised, when I made to follow with a box. ‘He’s very strong and it won’t take him a minute. I’ve seen Ned, by the way,’ she added, ‘and I’m so happy everything’s been resolved. You can both put the past behind you now, can’t you? There’s so much to do and I’m sure you’ll enjoy working in the Grace Garden.’
‘I’m fascinated by it and dying to know all about Ned’s plans to restore it,’ I agreed. ‘And I’ll soon have your garden tidied, too. It’s just got away from you a bit.’
‘Or quite a lot. My gardening is rather spasmodic – the painting comes first.’
As Myfy’d said, Jacob had everything up to the flat in no time. The last thing to go was the small white-painted bookcase. Then he ran lightly down the steps and smiled.