bag and trying to sound placatory for fear of further rousing Mr Hyde from his lair. ‘I didn’t mean to disturb you. I’m just about to pack up for the day.’
‘In that case,’ he said, stepping out, reaching for my sleeve and pulling me in before I had a chance to free myself from his grasp, ‘come and give me your opinion before I bottle it and start to take them all apart again.’
I had barely time to draw breath, let alone object to his gentle but nonetheless forceful manhandling, before I was over the threshold and the door had closed behind me.
‘Where’s Nell?’ he frowned, releasing me and thankfully putting a little space between us.
‘Asleep in the office,’ I told him.
‘Good,’ he said, biting his lip, ‘because I haven’t had a chance to sweep up yet.’
I could see that. The place was littered with all sorts of sharp-looking odds and ends.
‘So,’ he said, puffing out his cheeks and raising his eyebrows, ‘what do you think?’
He nodded towards the back of the studio and I followed his gaze. Another gasp rose unbidden in my throat and this time I did nothing to check it.
‘Oh, Finn,’ I cried, abandoning the bag of bulbs and rushing over, all thoughts of our crossed swords, my good intentions and determination to wheedle out of him what he had said about me, instantly forgotten, ‘they’re incredible!’
He came to stand next to me.
‘You really think so?’ he asked, running a hand through his wild hair and staring at me intently, a frown etched so deeply across his forehead it looked like a freshly furrowed field.
‘Of course, I do,’ I told him. ‘How could I possibly think anything else?’
His shoulders dropped, the frown cleared and his expression was transformed. The biggest smile lit up his face and he looked like a completely different person. Dr Jekyll was definitely in the house. Or studio in this case and as far as being miffed with me for sticking up for him was concerned, I was pretty certain I was forgiven.
‘They’re for the meadow lawn,’ he told me.
The huskiness of his tone told me he was clearly touched by my reaction.
‘They should be in a gallery,’ I said back, and I meant it too.
‘Well,’ he said, cocking his head as he started to study them again, ‘I don’t know about that.’
All of the tension in him had disappeared and his tone was softer. It really would have been heresy if he had ‘bottled it and pulled them all apart again’.
‘Well, I do,’ I insisted, moving to admire them from another angle. I felt tears gather behind my eyes and knew my emotive reaction was not only the result of admiring his outstanding work, but also because of the dramatic change in him. ‘How on earth have you made them look so alive?’
What he had created from various coils, springs, cogs and cylinders were a trio of hares. The first in the sequence was poised to leap, the second was at full stretch and the third had just landed. They were utterly mesmerising and I wouldn’t have been at all surprised to see them turn their elegant heads in my direction and blink. They were going to look perfect positioned in the meadow lawn.
‘I honestly don’t know,’ he said with a self-deprecating shrug. ‘I just kind of get a feel for the subject and then put together the shapes that I think will work.’
He was utterly self-effacing and it infuriated me to think that Zak and his father were so ignorant and dismissive of his talent. Perhaps once the garden was finished and they could see Finn’s art, because that’s most definitely what it was, in situ, then they might change their opinions. They’d be stupid not to.
With some difficulty, I tore my eyes away from the sculptures and took in the rest of the space.
‘Did you draw these?’ I asked Finn, as I walked over to the bench, which was covered with sketches of hares in various poses.
‘Yes,’ he said, ‘I know this guy, Jake, who has a farm over near Wynbridge with hares on the land and I spent some time there, photographing them and then sketching them in the fields.’
‘Amazing,’ I sighed, meaning both the real hares and the essence of them that Finn had captured in just a few strokes of a pencil.
The marks he had made appeared effortless, but for someone who struggled to come up with so much as a competent doodle, I knew they