down as another Prosperous Place garden volunteer and then about the glasshouse restoration schedule, before he headed to his office, leaving Lisa and me with Kate to finalise the plans for our Winterfest session.
‘We can start outside, can’t we?’ Lisa asked me. ‘And then come in here.’
‘Absolutely,’ I agreed. ‘A tour of the garden will be the perfect kick-start for our session and it will be much more practical to work in here in case it’s a breezy day.’
Lisa had sourced pretty notebooks made from recycled paper in a variety of sizes for those attendees who had specifically asked for her to supply their journal and I had been collecting more brightly coloured leaves for pressing and preserving as I spotted them.
The plan was for the participants to collect their own leaves during the morning garden tour which would, hopefully, inspire them to start their nature diary during the afternoon, but if it was raining then the leaves would be no good, so I had a dry supply, just in case.
‘And these are great,’ I said to Lisa as I read through the list of writing prompts she was using for her creative writing session. ‘I might even be tempted to write something myself.’
‘You should,’ she grinned. ‘You’d be amazed where your imagination would take you.’
‘And I can imagine exactly what the hot hero of your piece would look like, Freya,’ said Kate, with a wink.
‘Oh yes,’ giggled Lisa, ‘me too.’
Clearly Chloe wasn’t the only person who had picked up on my feelings for Finn. Unless they’d assumed that as we were both single and living and working in close proximity to each other, then we were the perfect match? I wasn’t about to ask and find out.
‘Right,’ I said, gathering my leaf collection together again, ‘I’m going to draw a line under this conversation and head for home.’
I said it with a smile on my lips so they knew I could handle their banter.
‘I’m planning an early night, tonight.’
‘Sweet dreams,’ Lisa couldn’t resist calling after me.
I reckoned she was worse than everyone else put together.
* * *
I hadn’t really got a plan for Sunday, but as soon as I woke, I knew what I was going to do and Nell was happy to accompany me. The drive down to Suffolk was as uneventful as the weather, and I had time to stop on the way to buy some beautiful winter blooms to lay on Eloise’s grave.
My excitement to visit her was short-lived, however, as it was immediately obvious that no one had visited or tended her grave since my last visit. It might only have been a few weeks since I was living close enough to pay my respects regularly, but within that time the spot had become overgrown and the last lot of flowers were understandably well past their best and not looking at all how I remembered them.
‘Freya!’ A voice rang out from the church.
I shielded my eyes from the winter sunshine and spotted Samantha, the vicar, waving from the porch.
‘Hello,’ I waved back.
The morning service having finished and the few members of the congregation gone, she strode across to meet me, as brisk and efficient as ever.
‘I thought it was you,’ she smiled. ‘How’s it going? I heard you’d moved.’
I told her all about my new life in Norwich and how much Nell and I were enjoying it. The amused twitch of her lips left me in no doubt that she had heard all about my dognapping escapade.
‘It’s all wonderful,’ I told her, ‘but I feel like I’m leaving Eloise behind. I’ve not been thinking about her or Broad-Meadows quite so much recently and now I come here and find her grave looking like this and it makes me feel awful.’
‘And what do you think Eloise would say about that?’ Samantha asked, her eyebrows raised.
I pursed my lips, but didn’t comment.
‘Exactly,’ she said stoutly. ‘That smile tells me that you know as well as I do that our dear friend would be delighted that you’ve moved on.’
‘But she’d be less than happy to know that I intended to keep coming back here, wouldn’t she?’ I sighed.
‘That she would,’ Samantha agreed.
‘But the flowers,’ I swallowed, pointing out the horrid mess in the vase.
‘Are dead,’ Samantha shrugged, ‘and they make the grave look uncared for.’
‘You’re right,’ I said. ‘I should get rid of them and the vase.’
‘It would be a great help to the mower man if you did.’ Samantha told me, making my decision sound a little