The Garden of Forgotten Wishes - Trisha Ashley Page 0,84
became the first of the Lordly-Graces,’ I finished for him.
‘I’m glad I bought a copy of the book. I’m looking forward to reading it,’ Treena said.
‘I read it when I went through the proofs for Elf,’ Ned told us. ‘There was a lot of detail about my family and the other local ones that I didn’t know, though I was vaguely aware there was some slight link way back with the Vanes from Cross Ways Farm – and I’d much rather not have known about that.’
‘The family scandal,’ I said lightly, avoiding Treena’s eye, and inside my dungaree pockets crossed my fingers in the hope he’d never find out I was a part of that clan.
‘Still, it’s so far back, it’s negligible,’ he said, dismissing it.
‘I told you the story of the servant girl who eloped with the younger son of the Lordly-Graces,’ I reminded Treena.
‘And ended up married to my ancestor, Richard Grace,’ agreed Ned. ‘That caused a rift with the Lordly-Graces. Audrey Lordly-Grace, Cress’s widowed mother, still likes to keep her distance.’
‘She isn’t very pleasant,’ Treena said. ‘Talks to me as if I’m her servant and then haggles over the bill.’
‘She’s like that with everyone she considers beneath her,’ Ned said, and then added, since Luke was looking slightly alarmed, ‘She lives at Risings, Luke, but she keeps herself to herself, so you probably won’t cross paths with her.’
‘From the sound of it, that suits me fine,’ he said. ‘Cress’s nice, though, and I’m sure it’ll be very comfortable. Better than trying to commute to and fro between here and Liverpool.’
‘Do you want to see a bit more of the house?’ asked Ned. ‘Upstairs there’s an amazing Victorian bathroom, though luckily there’s also a very new one, put in when my uncle Theo got frail.’
We duly admired the Victorian bathroom, with its absolutely huge, claw-footed bath, but he didn’t open all the bedroom doors, just showed us one that had an ancient dark four-poster bed, and another furnished with a complete Edwardian suite in maple.
‘Furniture through the ages,’ he said.
‘I think old houses should reflect the generations that have lived in them, just like old gardens,’ I said.
At the further end of the corridor, past the splendours of Victorian plumbing, was a door to the new wing – so called – with the modern bathroom, and the bedroom that had been Ned’s uncle’s next to it. There were signs of occupation, so I think he’d taken it over.
A narrow, twisting staircase brought us out near the kitchen, which was a very big room with a somewhat schizophrenic air: what might have been the original Regency closed stove remained, with various bits of metalwork hanging next to it that were probably roasting spits, but looked like instruments of torture. But around the other sides of the room were cupboards and dressers and a range of more modern cabinets, with worktops in a horrid speckled granite finish.
There were some mod cons, though: a big fridge-freezer, a dishwasher and all the usual gadgets, including a gleaming new monster of a coffee machine.
I looked critically at it as he filled up the jug. ‘I think that’s overkill.’
But I accepted the coffee, which was good, and we sat in the kitchen to drink it. It was warm and cosy in there, probably due to the Aga that now sat next to the old stove.
‘I could do with proper central heating,’ Ned said. ‘Uncle Theo had electric night storage heaters installed all over the house, but they only seem to take the chill off.’
‘Something more ecologically friendly,’ I suggested.
‘I don’t know what, but it’ll have to wait till the garden is earning its keep, anyway,’ he said, predictably.
‘Unless you find this treasure that Nathaniel is supposed to have hidden,’ I said with a grin.
‘I’m sure that’s just an old tale,’ Ned said, smiling. ‘The house has been remodelled so much since his time, and people must have searched for hidden places, so it would have turned up if it really existed.’
‘These old stories get passed on like Chinese Whispers,’ agreed Luke, ‘changing with each retelling.’
‘I have found a couple of treasures in an old chest in the library,’ Ned said. ‘The original plan of the apothecary garden, and some impressive documents, including Nathaniel’s will. I expect there’s still more to discover.’
‘Well, if anything relates to the monastic ruin, let me know,’ Luke said hopefully.
‘You’d be better asking Cress, because any papers pre-Nathaniel probably went to Risings when the original family moved there.’