The Garden of Forgotten Wishes - Trisha Ashley Page 0,46
maybe my arrival was the cause?
I looked away and found the surface of the water smooth again … and there were our reflections, side by side: my heart-shaped face, with wings of black hair springing from either side of my forehead and eyes darkened by the shadows, so that I looked like a little goblin, green jerkin and all, next to his tall fairness.
I turned quickly and saw that the peacock was strutting through the open gate to the Grace Garden, followed by his drabber and more homely mate.
‘Lancelot and Guinevere,’ Ned said, seeing where I was looking.
‘Really? That’s a coincidence,’ I said, and told him about imagining a hand and arm appearing from the middle of the pond, Excalibur fashion, brandishing a gilded rake.
That surprised a grin out of him that made him look much more like his old self. ‘You’re crazy! Though of course, if we could get it to make a regular appearance, it would certainly draw in the visitors.’
He stood up suddenly, giving me a half-smile that told me he didn’t entirely yet trust me, but wanted to, and this time I didn’t feel angry. In fact, it was sort of endearing, like a badly treated dog trying to wag its tail. That image made me grin back, which unfortunately seemed to unnerve him.
‘Right, I’d better give you a quick tour of the garden and then start you off on something – though God knows, there’s enough to do to keep ten full-time gardeners busy for a year and I’ve been managing with Gertie and James, and Wayne one day a week, till I fired him.’
‘Well, now you’ve got me too, and I’m not afraid of hard work – in fact, I can’t wait to start,’ I said, then paused before adding, ‘Actually, I had a brief encounter with Wayne yesterday afternoon on the bridge and he wasn’t very pleasant.’
I gave him the gist of what Wayne had said and Ned ran a hand through his tawny hair, so that it stood up on end like a ruffled eagle’s crest, and sighed. ‘I’m sorry about that. He’s got a bit of a grudge about my firing him, but he wasn’t only useless, he took things.’
‘He did say something about you begrudging him a few vegetables to take home.’
‘He helped himself to a lot more than that. The odd bit of produce for his own family wouldn’t have mattered, but he was taking tons of stuff and selling it. Gert was livid; the vegetable and fruit gardens are her preserve. Then I caught him red-handed one day, sneaking out with most of the early potatoes and a brand-new hoe, and that was it. Other things had gone missing too – more garden tools and a tenner from James’s jacket, when it was hung up on a spade handle, but we just hadn’t caught him at it. He denied it, of course.’
‘I suppose he would, but you can’t really talk your way out of a sack of new potatoes and a hoe, can you?’
‘No, especially since he was actually carrying them out to his van when I accosted him. Anyway, nothing went missing on days when he wasn’t there, so unless the peacocks had turned light-fingered, it had to be him.’
‘He must have known that made him the obvious suspect, but I suppose it was better just to let him go quietly than make a fuss about it?’
‘Except he’s not going quietly. He came round here on Monday, blustering and threatening – said if I didn’t give him redundancy pay, he’d take me to an employment tribunal!’
‘Could he do that?’
‘Not really. He’s self-employed and he always wanted to be paid in cash, so I reckon he wasn’t declaring all his income. He shut up and went away when I suggested HMRC might be interested in investigating his tax returns.’
‘Checkmate!’ I said.
‘I hope so, and that that’s the end of it, but if he bothers you again, let me know and I’ll deal with him,’ he said grimly.
‘OK,’ I agreed, then changed the subject. ‘Myfy told me that James won’t let anyone help him with the front borders, so I won’t touch those.’
‘Much better not. They’re his pride and joy, though his taste in spring and summer bedding plants is a bit garish, to say the least. Still, he helps out with the rest of the gardening when his rheumatism will let him and he’s going to man the ticket office when we open to the public.’