thrown when I told her I had a new job in Norfolk and that I wouldn’t be taking up her and Dad’s offer of a fresh start with an old flame in New Zealand. She had wanted details, but I told her the same as Peter; I’d fill them in properly as soon as I was settled.
‘That’s something we have in common then,’ Chloe laughed. ‘Not all that long ago we would have had long hair in common too, but I cut mine off. I didn’t do it myself,’ she hastily added. ‘I paid someone to cut it and I loved it straightaway but my mother thought I was having a breakdown. My Britney phase, she called it, and was all for staging an intervention.’
Chloe’s mum sounded even more of a handful than mine.
‘Anyway,’ said Chloe, shaking her head, ‘sorry. I didn’t mean to overshare.’
‘You haven’t,’ Luke and I said together.
‘I think you two are going to get along very well,’ he carried on.
‘So do I,’ Chloe and I then piped up in unison, and we all laughed.
Once Luke had loaded the dishwasher, we walked around the garden together and I assigned the pair a number of jobs to be getting on with straightaway. I also offered a list of prospective plants, bulbs and shrubs for Luke to consider buying, which he eagerly embraced. Given how mild the weather still was, should anything I’d suggested take his fancy, there was still time to get it planted.
‘And these three silver birch trees,’ I pointed out as we wove our way back towards the office, ‘they’d look even better if they had a wash and brush up.’
‘What?’ frowned Luke, looking up into the branches.
‘Are you being serious?’ Chloe laughed.
‘Yes,’ I said, ‘look at the bark. It’s such a beautiful colour and it would look even better if it was clean. The National Trust and RHS gardens are all doing it now,’ I added. ‘Google it tonight and you’ll see what I mean. If you fancy it, you could even illuminate them in different coloured lights once they’ve been cleaned up a bit.’
Luke nodded and I got the feeling that I would find him out early the next morning with the power washer.
‘Warm water and a nice soft brush will do the trick,’ I told him, just in case he was really considering giving them a blast.
With our schedule of work for the next couple of weeks agreed, Luke headed off to collect Abigail from Carole and then Jasmine from school, leaving me with Chloe.
‘I’m sorry I asked if you had any children, Chloe,’ I said to her, because it had been bugging me all afternoon. ‘I hate it when people ask me and I’m sorry if I upset you. I don’t know why I did it.’
‘It’s the ring,’ she said, holding up her hand. ‘It was a logical assumption.’
‘Even so,’ I apologised, ‘I am sorry.’
‘I keep telling myself it’s time to take it off,’ she said, staring down at it. ‘Because it’s not as if I haven’t come to terms with it all. It’s not as if I’m stuck in the past or anything, I’m living a completely different life here and a happy one at that, but I just can’t bring myself to take it off.’
‘Then there’s absolutely no reason why you should,’ I said firmly.
‘You know what,’ she said, linking her arm through mine, ‘Luke was right, you and I are going to get along, Freya.’
I felt the same way too. My own new life was going to be very different to the one I was used to, but it was going to be fun working with other people for a change, and I was about to say as much, but was distracted by a sudden blast of music in the courtyard.
‘What on earth’s that?’ I frowned.
I hadn’t thought I’d seen a radio in the office, so I was certain I hadn’t left one playing but the sound definitely wasn’t coming from the house. It was too far away, even if the volume had been cranked right up.
‘It’s coming from over there,’ I said, setting off at a pace with Nell still shadowing me as she had been all afternoon. ‘You don’t think someone’s broken in, do you?’
‘What, and alerted everyone within a ten-mile radius by blasting them with music?’ laughed Chloe, rushing to catch me up.
She had a point.
‘It’ll be the artist guy in the studio,’ she told me.