might be gearing up to rain and there’s loads I still want to get done today.’
‘You haven’t forgotten I need to leave early, have you?’ Chloe asked.
‘Bunking off now it’s getting cold, are you?’ Finn tutted. ‘You didn’t strike me as a fair-weather gardener.’
‘Not at all,’ she said primly, swatting him with the end of her scarf. ‘I have a meeting at school about a student who came to us recently and is struggling to settle in.’
‘You’re in demand, Chloe,’ Finn smiled.
‘All the more reason to cut the chat and get on then,’ I butted in, striding off with the heavy tray of daffodil bulbs under my arm.
‘Fair enough,’ said Finn, sounding equally crotchety as he relieved me of the tray. ‘Let’s get it over with, shall we?’
‘Whatever’s the matter with you two?’ Chloe demanded.
‘Nothing,’ we said together, before sharing a glance which told me very little about how Finn was feeling, other than that he didn’t really want to be anywhere near me.
Chloe didn’t look as though she believed us and I could hardly blame her.
‘I’m just feeling the pressure,’ I elaborated, as she came to link her arm through mine. It wasn’t a lie; I still spent plenty of time worrying that I wouldn’t hit the open day deadline. ‘And it’s making me jittery because I desperately want it all to be perfect.’
‘It will be,’ she said, squeezing me close. ‘We’re a team, right?’
‘Of course, we are,’ I swallowed.
‘Absolutely,’ Finn reluctantly joined in.
The area which formed the meadow lawn had been cut at the end of the summer which made it easier for us to negotiate. We looked at it from all angles before carefully marking the spots where Finn’s trio of hares would be most admired. Thankfully, focusing on the task had eased some of the tension between us and it didn’t take long to plot the prime positions out.
‘They’ll be great here now,’ I said, adding covers to the tops of the cane markers for obvious health and safety reasons, ‘but when the grass starts to grow up around them in the spring, they’ll look even better.’
‘And if the grass gets too high in summer,’ Chloe suggested, ‘we could trim it, but just around the bases.’
‘That’s a good idea,’ I agreed, feeling better for being out in the fresh air again.
‘And what about this lot?’ asked Finn, pointing at the bulbs. ‘Are they going in here too? There’s an awful lot of them.’
‘Yes,’ I told him, ‘they are. You need a lot if you want to make an impact.’
‘We’ve forgotten the planter,’ Chloe tutted. ‘I’ll go back and get it.’
I’d added the short-handled one to the tray but forgotten its long-handled cousin which kept bending to a minimum and saved a fortune in muscle soak.
‘You can go, if you like,’ I said to Finn, suddenly self-conscious now that it was just the two of us.
‘No, it’s all right,’ he said, picking up one of the bulbs and rubbing its papery skin. ‘I’ll stay and give you a hand. How are you going to decide where to put them?’
‘I have a trick up my sleeve,’ I told him.
‘Ah yes,’ he smiled, making my heart melt, ‘Luke mentioned that you have a way with bulbs, but he couldn’t tell me what it was because you had insisted on keeping it a secret even from him.’
‘I want it to be a surprise,’ I told him, ‘so if you are staying, you can’t go blabbing.’
‘I won’t.’
‘Promise?’
‘Scout’s honour,’ he said seriously. ‘I’m good at keeping secrets.’
I was just about to suggest keeping our kiss a secret when Chloe came back and the moment was lost.
‘Right,’ I said, ‘you two stand back.’
I carefully stepped up on to a tree stump and then used all of my strength to launch the bulbs from the tray on to the grass where they fell in exactly the haphazard muddle that I had been striving for.
‘Beverley Nichols?’ Chloe grinned, clapping her hands together.
‘Beverley who?’ Finn frowned, looking from her to me and back again.
I think he thought I’d gone a little mad.
‘Yes,’ I gasped, looking at Chloe who was laughing and shaking her head. ‘How did you know that?’
‘My nan was a huge fan,’ she told me. ‘She loved his books and had loads of clippings from his magazine column.’
‘Well, I never,’ I smiled back.
Other than Eloise, I’d never met anyone else who’d even heard of him.
‘Him?’ Finn frowned, looking more confused than ever.
‘Yes,’ I said, stepping down and handing him the long-handled planter because he