The Garden of Forgotten Wishes - Trisha Ashley Page 0,95

café for coffee and ice-cream with Treena, who had rung to say Audrey Lordly-Grace had called her out to the Pekes yet again, but she’d also seen Cress and had a quick look at the stables up the hill behind Risings and thought she might move Zephyr over at some point fairly soon.

‘I felt guilty about charging so much for the call-out to the Pekes, now I know it’s Cress’s house and she’s struggling to make a living from it.’

I told her about the phone call to the garden office and that I was sure it was Audrey Lordly-Grace. ‘She was really indignant about having to pay four pounds like anyone else if she deigned to come and see the gardens, so she’s obviously penny-pinching in other ways.’

‘Since you heard her mention Wu and Wang, it has to be her,’ Treena said, then sighed. ‘They’d be much happier little dogs with less sugary biscuits and more walks. I keep telling her, but she doesn’t listen.’

Treena couldn’t stay long and when she’d gone I walked slowly back to the Grace Garden and followed the sound of voices borne to me on a brisk breeze.

Ned, Charlie and Jacob were grouped round the little waterfall that Ned had created above the new pond, watching small, iridescent metal flowers slowly opening and closing their petals amongst the mossy rocks and frondy ferns.

Jacob looked up and smiled. ‘I had to go back to the barn and make a few small adjustments. But it’s all working now.’

‘It looks absolutely magical!’ I told him.

‘Yeah, it’s fantastic,’ Charlie said. ‘Really cool.’

‘You’re both right,’ Ned agreed, all doubts evidently vanished. ‘It’s so strange, but yet, it does look as if it somehow grew there.’

‘It did, with a bit of help from Jacob,’ I said.

22

Signs

When Jacob had gone, Charlie and I helped Ned with the next task on his endless to-do list, moving the remaining boxes of stock that had been stored in the office across to the shop.

Then we began to fill the empty spaces on the shelves and racks with books, souvenirs printed with Myfy’s pretty design, packets of seeds and flower-printed trowels and forks.

True to his word, Charlie hadn’t brought back any of our leaflets, but he did have a whole box full of other people’s, pressed on him along the way. Some of them sounded really interesting, like the cracker factory on the other side of Great Mumming, which I remembered Ned mentioning once, too. I filled one of the clear plastic stands with those and stood it on a shelf near the entrance door. There was plenty of room, because the stock was a little sparse. I was going to have to take the situation in hand …

We carried out a tiered plant stand and set it in the courtyard by the door, ready for Gert’s pots of herbs and other surplus plants. Then Ned said there was something in one of the old stables that might give her a bit of extra display room and he and Charlie went to find it. They came back with a funny old flat-topped barrow, with a painted iron frame and wheels.

‘There we are,’ Ned said, parking it next to the plant stand. ‘Gertie can put some of the bigger pots on it; it’s strong enough to take them.’

‘Yes, and it’s got character,’ I agreed. ‘Maybe a bit too much character? Would James remove the rust and give it a quick coat of paint?’

‘It’s just the sort of job he loves – providing we can get it into the back of the Potting Shed, where he can be cosy. But it’s not much bigger than the barrows we keep in there.’

‘Let’s try it now,’ suggested Charlie obligingly, and they squeaked and grated it over the cobbles and squeezed it through the door.

It might not be my idea of a high treat, but I was sure James would be delighted. And with his geraniums, when they arrived.

The others went off down the garden again, this time intending to put down the wooden walkway that would cross the top marshy area and perhaps, if there was time, the small bridge that was to go over the stream above the waterfall.

Apparently, everything was pre-cut and numbered, so I expected it really would be just like giant Lego to Charlie and they’d have it done in no time.

I left a space on a shelf for the glossy brochures, which were allegedly arriving the next day, and then I could do no more,