Chapter 2
Julia was awake with the first light and the first birdsong.
She found that when Sean spent the night, she could somehow sleep in a bit – but on her own, she struggled to break the habit of her years as a social worker, when people would be anxiously waiting for her all over London.
She knew without looking at her bedside clock that it was unconscionably early, but, instead of turning over, plonking a pillow over her head and trying to catch another half hour’s sleep, she got up.
Chaplin, who had been sleeping at the bottom of the bed, opened his eyes.
They had reached a compromise on the sleeping arrangements.
Julia abandoned her no-cats-on-beds policy, and Chaplin kept to the lower half of the bed.
Now, he leapt off with an excited proowww, impatient for his breakfast. He followed her down the corridor and into the kitchen.
‘You’re a very spoilt chap, you know that?
’ she said, spooning gloopy cat food into his bowl.
There was already a bowl of dry cat biscuits on the counter, but Chaplin liked a fresh bowl of wet food in the mornings.
Julia felt mildly ashamed of the cost of feeding one small feline when there were people in the world not getting enough to eat, and awkward about the fact that it was grouse flavour, which seemed worse, somehow, than chicken.
On the other hand, it was organic and free-range and fair trade, and a portion of the price of every pouch went to sterilise stray kittens in Bangladesh.
And he did love it, as evidenced by the growling, purring noise he made as he gulped it down.
She stroked him and enjoyed the blissful rattle of his lungs under her palm.
Jake greeted her arrival in the kitchen as if she’d been away at sea these last many months, and just this very moment, against all odds, stepped safely onto dry land.
It was gratifying to be loved with such ferocity, even if some of his delight had to do with the fact that she was holding his food bowl.
She made him sit and stay for an endless, quivering, slobbering half-minute and then said the magic words, ‘All right’, which sent him diving nose-deep into the bowl.
Last but not least, the chickens. Out in the garden, she opened their pen and they ventured out, led, as usual, by the intrepid Henny Penny.
She was a magnificent chicken, with the colour and shine of a chestnut, and an imperious air.
While the hens spread out to investigate the cool, damp grass for insects and slugs, Henny Penny strutted over to Jake, who nosed her feathers enthusiastically, ruffling them up.
‘Oh, look at them, the odd couple,’ Julia said to herself, smiling.
She tossed the kitchen scraps on the ground for the hens and checked that their feeder was full.
She took a moment to appreciate the sight of the last of her furred and feathered co-habitants all having enjoyed a good breakfast. It pleased her to see them, and to see her little garden in the soft morning light.
As was her daily habit, she walked slowly around it, making a mental note of what needed to be done, picking off a dead bloom, or pulling up a weed if it caught her eye, and hatching plans for improvement.
She noticed that she had left her trowel lying on the garden table and paused.
Berrywick had recently found itself in the throes of a spate of petty thefts, and at the last town meeting, Hayley had advised residents to make sure that they put all their possessions safely away.
‘We’re dealing with an opportunistic thief,’ she had told them, ‘And while he’s unlikely to be dangerous, until we catch him, please try to be careful.
’ Julia sighed and picked up the trowel.
‘Good morning, Julia.’
Julia jumped slightly, startled. The voice came from over the fence. Clearly Hester, her neighbour, had likewise made an early start. Hester’s morning responsibilities included tending to beehives and their buzzing inhabitants, as well as a bountiful vegetable garden.
Walking over to greet her, Julia saw that her neighbour was in work clothes, with a large spade in her hand. ‘You look like you mean business. What are you doing?’
‘I’m taking up half of my lawn to create a meadow.’
Julia could see, now, a large freshly dug section on the far side of Hester’s garden. Squares of lawn had been piled up alongside.
‘I’m going to give the lawn to the school to replant, and I’ll fill this area with wildflowers. With all the development in the countryside, we need to nurture the wildflowers, and it’s a better habitat for insects than grass is. More food for the bees.’
‘If you’re looking for wildflowers for the new bed, you should have a look at the meadow between Berrywick and Hayfield. It’s full of beautiful flowers, all different sorts, and they’re going to dig up the whole meadow in a week or so to build a shopping centre.’
‘Really? I hadn’t heard.’ This was not surprising. Hester was very taken up with her bees and her garden, and never one to involve herself in neighbourhood matters.
‘I was there on Sunday, and I felt sad about all the flowers that would be destroyed. I shouldn’t think anyone would care if you dug up some plants and took them home.’
‘I don’t know the meadow.’
‘It’s off the main road, to the right…’
‘The road with that pub?’
‘I don’t remember seeing a pub, but there’s a very big willow tree on the corner, and there’s a handsome piebald horse that lives in the next field. Really big fellow.’
After a few more rounds of unedifying questions, Julia said, ‘I tell you what, I’ll take you there and show you. It’s not far away, and it seems a pity for all those flowers to go to waste.’
‘It does. In fact, they should be saved. We’d be doing a good deed. What are you doing later this morning?’ Hester asked, with growing enthusiasm. ‘We could go and dig some up today. I’ll drive us in the van. Coral can come, too, to help with the digging.’
Julia hadn’t imagined her morning panning out this way – in fact, she’d thought she would make a start on her filing.
This was, if truth be told, all the more reason to go on a botanical mercy mission with Hester.
Julia hated admin. Hester and her friend, and now lodger, Coral were pleasant company.
And Julia would like to rescue some of those pretty wildflowers from destruction.
‘Fine. I’ll come over at eleven, shall I? I’ll bring Jake – you know how he likes an outing.’
‘Perfect. See you later.’
There wasn’t any point starting the filing now, thought Julia.
The sensible thing to do would be to tackle it another day, when she would have the whole morning free and could get it done in one go.
Yes, that was definitely for the best. She’d clean up the breakfast things and do her word games before the meadow expedition, and tomorrow she would get cracking on the admin.
A couple of hours later, Julia was back at the meadow with her neighbours and Jake.
Hester was delighted with the landscape, and eager to get going.
She handed Julia and Coral each an old cardboard box lined with newspaper, with instructions: ‘Just dig up whatever you fancy, and make sure you get a good bit of soil as well as the bulbs or roots.’
‘Are you sure we’re allowed to?’ asked Coral, glancing nervously about, as if expecting the Wildflower Police to sweep in at any moment and drag the three of them off to jail.
‘The owners won’t care. Look, they’re getting ready to dig it all up,’ said Julia, pointing to the far corner of the field where an area had been cordoned off with wire fencing, behind which was an old building with peeling paint, and a small front-end loader.
‘How do we know what plants to take?’ asked Coral, who was not very outdoorsy.
‘It doesn’t really matter. Whatever you get will be fine. We’ll have a mixture,’ said Hester with a barely noticeable edge of annoyance.
‘Come with me. I was here a few days ago and I saw a very pretty patch of different kinds of flowers. We can start there,’ said Julia.
She took her box, and the trowel she’d brought from home, and set off towards the trees where she and Sean had sat and picnicked.
Coral trotted along behind her. Jake accompanied them in a series of loops and circles, following his nose and picking up the odd potato crisp or sandwich crust that had been left behind by the picnickers.
‘It certainly is pretty here,’ Coral said. ‘I’m learning a lot about nature, since I’ve come to live at Hester’s place. She knows so much, not just about the bees, but the flowers, and apple trees.’
When the two women had both lost their husbands, and both discovered that their nest eggs had been tied up in the same dubious investment, Hester and Coral had decided on a house-share, to cut costs and keep each other company.
Coral had her own little suite – a bedroom and bathroom, and a study – on the top floor, and they shared the kitchen and living area.
From what Hester had told Julia, the two of them had found a good balance between independence and companionship.
The meadow looked different without the happy villagers milling about.
It felt wild and primal, and gloriously untouched.
If anything, it seemed more beautiful, more precious.
A gentle sadness fell over Julia, in spite of the prettiness of the surroundings, and the pleasantness of the task she was embarking on.
Humans very often made things worse with their selfishness and short-sightedness, she thought to herself.
She sneezed three times in quick succession, diverting herself from the contemplation of human failings.
‘Bless you, bless you, bless you,’ said Coral.
They were near the willow trees now, in the same spot where she’d run her fingers over the meadowland and whispered the names of the flowers to herself.