‘Which they do,’ beamed Chloe, clearly as impressed as the rest of us. ‘And this afternoon you’re in the spotlight, Freya.’
‘I will be if I get Nell dropped off in time, and I need to pick something up.’
‘You can’t have forgotten anything,’ she laughed. ‘You’ve been going through your lists all week!’
‘I’m on the hunt for more baking sheets,’ I then felt I had to explain. ‘because I’m not going to have enough. Everyone wants to have a go at preserving leaves in glycerine and I’ve only catered for about half of them picking that option.’
‘I can go to the pound shop and grab you some if you like,’ Finn offered, quickly stepping up. ‘They’ve got stacks of them.’
‘Really?’
‘Yes,’ he said. ‘they’re not all that big, but they’re only a quid each.’
‘If you wouldn’t mind, and you can spare the time, that would be really great,’ I said, pulling my phone out of my jeans back pocket, as the weight of worry lifted a little.
I always kept a ten-pound note stashed in the back of my phone case for emergencies.
‘We’ll settle up when I get back,’ Finn insisted, as I tried to juggle the phone and Nell’s lead.
She wouldn’t usually be on one, but given her tense reaction to the extra bodies in the house, I was worried she might be a flight risk.
‘Thanks, Finn,’ I said, suddenly feeling heaps better. It was a genuinely kind gesture, especially given that we’d been snapping at each other just the day before. ‘I really appreciate it.’
‘And if you give me your house key,’ Chloe kindly offered, once I had told them why I was taking Nell home, ‘I’ll take her back and get her settled so you can go back in.’
‘Are you sure?’
‘Of course,’ she insisted. ‘I’ll drop your key over when I’ve got her sorted.’
‘I really do appreciate this you guys,’ I said, feeling a little choked that they had so readily offered to help.
‘That’s what friends are for,’ Chloe told me.
Given our complex karma, I still wasn’t sure I could call Finn a friend, but I felt truly grateful that he was willing to help me out of the tricky situation.
‘Come on, my love,’ said Chloe as I handed her the lead and she and Nell wandered off.
‘I’ll be as quick as I can,’ said Finn, rushing after her.
I went back inside, grabbed a buttered roll and headed back to the dining room to set out my nature diary and the books I had brought along. Looking at those first would be a slight change to the schedule, but I was sure Finn, with his long legs and lengthy stride, wouldn’t be all that long.
‘Could you write the names of the books down?’ asked one of the group, as they passed my treasured tomes amongst them.
Along with my own diary, I had given them my copy of The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady by Edith Holden, along with Emma Mitchell’s books about the healing power of nature and how to survive winter, (one of which described how to preserve leaves using the glycerine technique we were going to be trying), and another two by Simon Barnes, one of which advised how to go about making nature more visible. They formed the larger part of my required reading list, when it came to connecting with the great outdoors.
‘I’ve written out a suggested book list,’ I said, handing them out and feeling pleased they had asked and even happier that I’d had the foresight to prepare something. ‘There are lots of titles on here but if you don’t want to buy them, I know there are copies of most in the local libraries.’
‘Not for long,’ grinned one of the guys. ‘We’ll have these all checked out by next week.’
Everyone nodded in agreement and while I was still waiting for Finn, we made a start on recording the morning’s walk in the journals. It made for a wonderful first entry and although some were nervous about finding the right words, or adding a less than perfect sketch, Lisa and I coaxed and encouraged and they were all soon industriously working away.
‘Sorry,’ said Finn, puffing in the doorway, far later than I had expected him to be.
Fortunately, everyone had been engrossed by the pressing demonstration I had just given and a few were now, under Lisa’s supervision, giving laminating a go, courtesy of Luke’s office laminator, so there was no harm done. Finn looked relieved when I told him.