very core of me and I needed a friend to turn to, albeit a long-distance one. Had Jackson been another man, I might have turned to him, but he was the polar opposite of his benevolent relative.
I was exceedingly grateful to now have kind folk I could talk to nearby, even if none of them were privy to what it was in my past that had led me to Nightingale Square. I felt a lump form in my throat as I acknowledged that Eloise was no longer my present or my future.
‘Goodnight, Eloise,’ I said, to the framed photograph of the two of us which stood on the nightstand. ‘I’m sorry I can’t be with you tomorrow.’
It was going to feel strange not going to visit her at the church, but I knew she would understand. After all, she was the one who had sent the sign and led me to this special place.
* * *
I didn’t make it over the road early enough to help with the Grow-Well tidy up the next morning, because I had to do some shopping, but I did arrive in time to meet the rest of the team before Luke’s announcement. Lisa reckoned I was looking even more bewildered once I’d added another few names to the mental list I was already struggling with, and she solemnly promised to set her kids to work making name badges for everyone to help me out.
‘So, how are you settling into my old house?’ asked Harold, who had arrived on his mobility scooter just after me. ‘Have those pipes been giving you a scare in the middle of the night?’
When I thought of some of the noises and whisperings I had been subjected to at Broad-Meadows, not all of them plucked from my imagination to frighten Jackson, I knew it would take a bit more than just creaky plumbing to spook me.
‘Very, very well,’ I told Harold, ‘and thanks to your note, explaining what the noises are and when to expect them, they haven’t given me too much bother.’
‘Well, that’s good,’ he nodded. ‘And have you got everything you need?’
I knew it must have been a wrench for him to leave so many of his possessions behind and his gentle enquiry confirmed it.
‘I have, thank you and I’m very grateful to you for letting me have use of your lovely things. I’m looking after them all, I promise.’
‘I don’t doubt it, my dear,’ he said, reaching for my hand and giving it a squeeze.
‘And how are you settling in?’ I asked.
‘Just grand, thank you,’ he said, his tone much brighter. ‘Although there’s never a moment’s peace.’
I could completely empathise with him there.
‘Oh?’
‘Yes, it’s either come and play dominoes here, or let’s go and have a singsong there. Sometimes I have to pretend I’m not in,’ he laughed, sounding like a much younger man.
I was pleased the move had suited us both so well.
‘I had to creep out just now,’ he confided. ‘If anyone had heard me, I’d have been roped into helping set up tonight’s bingo!’
We laughed together and I looked up just in time to see Chloe arrive with Finn. He bent to say something to her and she threw back her head in response and laughed so loudly, the sound carried all the way to where I was standing with Harold.
Considering Chloe had said she’d never met him before, they certainly seemed to have bonded with lightning speed. But then, for all I knew, perhaps that was how the god of thunder rolled when he found a woman he liked the look of.
‘If you’ll excuse me, Harold,’ I said, quickly banishing the flash of green I felt must have been lighting up my eyes and which took me completely by surprise, ‘I need to check on Nell.’
I soon found her and she looked happy enough, initiated into the gang which included both the Prosperous Place cats and Gus. For a previously solitary creature, she was swiftly finding her feet and I was pleased to see them all asleep out of the chilly breeze in the bothy. Even if the sight did make me feel irrationally redundant.
‘So how do you cope with it then, Freya?’
I hadn’t realised anyone had been talking to me and turned to find Graham standing close by.
‘Sorry,’ I said, tuning back in, ‘I missed that, Graham. How do I cope with what?’
‘The changing seasons,’ he said, turning up the collar of the coat which had replaced his gilet now it had turned