secret place. It was close enough to the path to admire but not so close that it would be subjected to inquisitive hands.
Just like the one scaling the wall, it was made from all manner of metal materials, cogs, coils and springs. There were no softened or rounded and smoothed edges like there were on the hares. These were far more ferocious-looking beasts; all raw edges and sharp points. The real deal, straight from the pages of Tolkien and Carroll.
As mesmerising and enchanting as they were, I was annoyed to find them. Finn and I were supposed to be working out where to put his sculptures together and I hadn’t even been aware that he’d already created this pair. I abandoned my recce of the garden and made straight for the meadow lawn. Just as I suspected, there were the three hares.
So, this little after-dark mission was the reason why Finn hadn’t put in an appearance at the Christmas carnival. He wasn’t worried about feeling lonely amongst a crowd at all, he was just feeling petty. After our crossed swords at the house I had been resolved to let my efforts at friendship go, but I was still willing to maintain our professional partnership, but not now.
He knew how passionately I felt about the hares, he had been moved enough by my reaction to seeing them for the first time to take me in his arms and quite literally sweep me off my feet. He had kissed me with a force I’d never before experienced and now, because for some reason he was going out of his way to pretend it hadn’t happened, he had snuck out in the night and positioned the sculptures without me. He had known full well that I had been looking forward to placing them and he’d done it on his own. It was as if he didn’t want me to be a part of the magic.
I squatted down to look at the hares through the grass. It wasn’t as long as it would be during the summer, but my hunkered-down position gave an idea of how it would all look in a few months’ time. Pretty spectacular was the conclusion I grudgingly came to. Even Nell was admiring the trio, with her head cocked to one side or, given her doggy genetics, perhaps she was sizing them up for another reason?
‘What do you think?’
The voice calling from further along the path belonged to my boss and he sounded impressed, as well he might.
‘I spotted them from upstairs in the house,’ he beamed, shoving one arm into his tatty old gardening jacket as he juggled a slice of jammy toast. ‘The light catches them beautifully, don’t you think?’
‘They’re stunning,’ I agreed, because I couldn’t deny their beauty.
‘And this is just the spot for them,’ Luke carried on, now striding backwards and forwards to look at them from all angles as he bit into his toast. ‘Well done to the pair of you for picking it.’
‘Well…’ I began, ‘I might have…’
‘And facing them that way,’ he chewed and swallowed, ‘I never would have thought to put them that way around.’
He was going to have indigestion at this rate.
‘That part really was all down to Finn,’ I said, no doubt sounding a little sulky.
We might have decided where the hares were going to go, but I had played no role in the final positioning of them.
‘I suppose that’s fair enough,’ Luke grinned, rubbing his crumby hands down his jeans. ‘After all, the artist knows his work better than anyone else, right?’
I didn’t comment.
‘And there’s no damage to the grass or paths,’ he carried on, looking around, blissfully unaware of my bullish mood. ‘How did you manage that?’
‘I wasn’t here,’ I shrugged. ‘I’m as surprised to find them here as you are.’
The sculptures were heavy and yet there was no evidence as to how they had been transported from the studio. How had Finn managed that? Perhaps he’d employed some kind of levitation spell. He certainly looked like a god, maybe he really was one?
‘Finn!’ Luke shouted, spotting the deity himself. ‘Oh mate,’ he enthused. ‘These look spectacular. They’re even better than I could have imagined, and you know I had pretty high expectations.’
Finn ducked his head, unaccustomed as he was to hearing his artistic efforts praised.
‘They’ve not turned out too bad, have they?’ he said, not meeting either of our eyes.
‘Not turned out too bad,’ Luke tutted as he clapped him on the back. ‘They’re a bloody