The Garden of Forgotten Wishes - Trisha Ashley Page 0,72

livery/riding school as where Treena kept Zephyr. But since Cress hadn’t been around at Risings when Treena had been out to look at her mother’s Pekingese, she hadn’t made the connection.

I’d slept surprisingly well after this, which might have had something to do with all that bitter shandy and also, perhaps, the cathartic effect of baring my soul to Ned …

But somehow, in the light of morning, that made me feel a little shy about seeing him again. Confessions and soul baring often do have that effect, and perhaps he felt the same, because I didn’t see him all morning.

I began the day by removing the second rosemary bush, making short work of the root ball with the pickaxe.

I was just about to go into the rose garden after I had disposed of its remains, when Myfy wandered round the end of the cottage, wrapped in her tasselled coat and a dreamy air.

‘Good morning!’ she said, with her tilted smile. ‘I was up at Jacob’s but I woke early feeling wonderfully inspired, so I’ve come back. And you must have been up even earlier!’ she added, looking at the freshly dug earth where the rosemary had been.

‘I wanted to get this bush out, then there’s only one more, which I’ll do tomorrow.’

‘I’ll have three new places to plant more lavender,’ she said happily. ‘I must look for some new ones.’

‘I hope to prune the rambling rose at the bottom of the garden later today. It really needs doing now. I got a bit carried away when I found that little folly in the rose garden, or I’d have done it earlier.’ I sighed. ‘I love clearing the rose garden, but I’m equally longing to help Ned with the apothecary garden too. It’s like having a wonderful box of chocolates and not knowing which one to eat first.’

‘I suppose it must be. I expect Ned feels the same way.’

‘He does, and though he needs my help with the rest of it, he decided he wanted me to clear the rose garden first. Still, now you can get round the paths, it’s just down to a major pruning back and then enriching the beds. Oh, and there’s that smaller area at the top of the garden to tidy up, too. I’d forgotten that.’

But Myfy’s mind had clearly slipped back to whatever inspiration had struck her this morning and her dark eyes were looking at something that only she could see. With a vague smile, she strode off towards the door into her studio, coloured tassels swinging, and vanished inside.

I spent the rest of the morning working in the rose garden, finding a few more metal plant tags along the way. I have to admit, I cleared away the ivy and encroaching branches from around the folly first, so it was all ready for Ned to clean up.

I sat on the rather green bench at the back of the little temple to drink my flask of coffee and contemplate the urn on its pedestal.

It was amazing how much work I’d managed in so short a space of time, though it had to be said that when Ned had helped it had all gone about four times as fast. But then, he was about four times as big as me.

Caspar appeared from one of the newly cleared paths, stared at me, then pulled a silent face and padded off back the way he’d come. He, like Ned, mustn’t have been feeling sociable this morning.

I got up after a bit and went to look at the other, much smaller but equally overgrown, end of the garden. When I’d walked along the road past it on the day I arrived, all I’d been able to see above the short stretch of railing-topped wall, was another thicket of thorns.

About one o’clock I went over to the Potting Shed for lunch and found Gertie and James there, finishing theirs, along with Steve, who’d been helping James clean up plant tags. I added my latest haul to that of the apothecary garden.

Gertie told me Ned had had to go out earlier, but was now in his office, so maybe I’d been mistaken and he hadn’t been avoiding me after all.

‘Cress brought me some manure down, so I’ve started a new heap. But I can let you have some of my well-rotted stuff when you’re ready for it,’ she said, as if promising me a high treat.

‘That’ll do them old roses a power of good,’ agreed James, which it certainly