Chapter 3 #2
By the end of the evening, I’d decided that the next day, my penultimate one in Willowell, would include a trip to meet Constance Clarke who lived at fabulous Fernside.
Not only would I be able to ask her about the woods she had for sale, I would also get a proper look at the exterior of the house.
Possibly even the inside if she asked me in.
Had Kaya popped up and asked me again if I was in the market to buy some woods, I still wouldn’t have known how to reply, but I didn’t think there was any harm in checking them out and settling my curiosity, especially when the viewing potentially killed two birds with one stone.
Scattering Dad’s ashes had been made possible by a serendipitous nudge from Fernside, so it might just be conceivable that what I decided to do next with my life might come to light via there, too…
‘What have you got planned for today, Tilly?’ Melody asked, as I walked around to the store the next morning just as she was refilling the buckets with yet more beautiful bunches of fresh flowers. Abundant and locally grown, they seemed to be one of her bestsellers. ‘Anything exciting?’
I’d barely slept and was feeling rather jittery about the idea that I had been brave enough to allow to take root during the long hours of the night.
Whereas before I had been wondering if, after my trip to see Zack, I could become a part of something that already existed workwise, now I was considering the possibility of becoming the sort of person who set up their own something and became a business owner myself.
It was a huge leap, even though it was only happening in my head, and because it was all still just a daydream (or a wide awake in the middle of the night dream), I didn’t feel ready to share the details.
Not that Melody had asked for the ins and outs, but if I didn’t get anywhere with Constance, it wouldn’t have been worth explaining, anyway.
‘I thought I might pop down to Fernside,’ I said casually, sticking to the bare minimum. ‘Introduce myself to Constance and ask her about the woodland.’
‘So, you really are interested in buying it then?’
Melody looked as wide-eyed at the prospect as I did.
‘No,’ I blagged, while fiddling with the strap of my rucksack so I didn’t have to look at her.
‘Not buying it. I’m just interested in the…
trees. You know, what species grow there, that sort of thing.
I used to volunteer in some woods, and I’ve developed a bit of a passion for woodland in general.
I’d love to have a look around, but not without permission, so I’m going to ask if I can walk there.
’ I hoped that was going to be enough information to satisfy her curiosity.
‘Do you think she’ll mind me dropping by unannounced? ’
Melody cocked her head. ‘She might,’ she said. ‘She’s a bit of a character.’
‘Right.’ I sighed, wondering then if I had the courage to risk it. I didn’t want to get off on the wrong foot with Constance Clarke, but there had been no phone number or contact details on the for sale board, so other than just turning up, I wasn’t sure how else to get in touch.
I suppose I could have asked Melody to do it on my behalf, but as I didn’t want to divulge that I really was thinking about buying the woods, it didn’t seem likely that Constance would welcome me, a stranger, into her home, on the pretence of simply talking trees.
‘But if I phone to tell her that I’m sending someone along with the grocery order she phoned through last night,’ Melody then suggested, solving the conundrum, ‘she’s bound to be more amenable.
And you’ll be doing me a favour because I’ll either have to get Kaya to take it for me later or leave her to run the store while I go over there. And neither option fills me with glee.’
‘In that case,’ I said, as I turned around and rushed off before I lost my nerve. ‘Consider me your delivery driver. I’ll go and start the car.’
The lane leading to Fernside felt far narrower in my car than it had on foot and I drove down it with my fingers crossed in the hope that I wouldn’t meet anything coming from the opposite direction. Unfortunately, luck wasn’t with me.
‘Damn,’ I muttered, as I spotted a car in the distance and no obvious place for either of us to pull very far over.
My attitude changed, however, when I saw who was behind the wheel. He had the biggest smile on his face and no passenger today.
‘I recognise that hat,’ grinned the most gorgeous guy on the planet as we drew level.
‘I bet you didn’t really believe that I wore it, did you?’ I laughed.
‘I did wonder…’
‘Well, here’s the proof.’
‘In all its glory,’ he said, biting his lip.
‘Hey,’ I objected because he clearly didn’t think it was glorious. ‘Don’t be down on the hat.’
He went to say something further, but another car pulled up behind him.
‘I’d better move,’ he said, as he glanced into his rearview mirror and put his hand up to the person waiting. ‘It was nice to not quite meet you again.’
‘Likewise,’ I said, then breathed in nervously as both cars squeezed by with just a couple of inches between us.
I refocused on the lane and pulled my attention back to the task in hand, but I couldn’t help smiling that our paths had crossed again.
Forgetting further about his previous passenger, I wondered if a third time really might be a charm…
With any luck, if we did see each other in the future, I might even be wearing something other than Mum’s old hat and a bright red complexion!
A little further on, I turned off the lane, through the gates, and drove down the drive to Fernside.
‘I don’t believe it,’ I gasped, as I looked at the front of the house for the very first time.
It was exactly how I had always imagined it would look.
Four chimneys, five multi-paned sash windows, three above, two below, equally spaced and with a tiled and ivy-covered entrance between the bottom two.
The front door was painted green and on either side of it stood two huge pots filled with yet more overflowing ferns.
The gravelled drive swept right around the house, and it had a large closely cut turf circle at its centre.
It all looked very grand and very beautiful and there were no obvious signs of the work that Melody had mentioned needed doing.
As I parked up and then lifted Constance’s grocery order off the passenger seat, I wondered if she was going to be as grand as her home.
I should have pumped Melody for details to help me make a decent first impression.
I quickly put the box down on the drive, left Mum’s hat on the passenger seat, ran my fingers through my hair and smoothed down my baggy shirt.
‘Well,’ I muttered as I picked the box up again, ‘I’m here now and I’ll have to do.’
I waited for what felt like an age after knocking before I heard someone moving about behind the front door.
‘Who is it?’ came a voice that didn’t exactly exude a warm welcome.
‘I’ve got your groceries from the store,’ I responded because my name, unless Melody had supplied it, wouldn’t have been any use.
‘You should know to come round the back by now. I don’t use this door. The gate’s unlocked as usual.’
I took a step back and, having worked out which way I needed to go, I struggled through the gate, along the side of the house and around the back to where an elderly woman wearing a floral-patterned dress and leaning on a walking stick was waiting.
My eyes wanted to take in the extensive garden and the back of the house, but knowing that would have been rude, I kept my gaze on her and offered a cheery smile.
‘Hello, Miss Clarke,’ I said, still smiling. ‘I’ve got your—’
‘So you said,’ she interrupted. ‘But who are you? You’re certainly not Melody or that flighty sister of hers.’
‘I’m Matilda,’ I explained. ‘Tilly. Melody said she was going to call and let you know I’d be dropping your shopping off on her behalf today.’
‘Well, she didn’t,’ Constance Clarke huffed, drawing her lips together into a thin line.
If I’d been asked to age her, I would have put her in her mid-eighties, though she was not particularly frail. I wouldn’t have been at all surprised if she opted to give me a whack with her stick if she wanted to see me off her property.
‘Or perhaps she did call.’ She frowned and looked suddenly less fierce. ‘I think I did hear the phone ring, but Melody should know better than to call when I’m listening to my news programme…’
My arms felt like they were going to drop off with the weight of the shopping I was holding.
‘Well,’ I said, with an effort to keep smiling, ‘here’s everything you ordered. Where would you like me to put it?’
She looked at me for a long moment, and I got the impression that she was weighing me up. I wished she’d do it a bit quicker. The box was starting to slip and so was my smile.
‘I suppose you’d better bring it into the kitchen,’ she said eventually and headed back inside. ‘And I prefer to be called Constance, not Miss Clarke. I’m not a schoolmistress.’
‘Sorry,’ I apologised, even though I felt it would have been presumptuous to have called her by her first name.
‘Melody usually unpacks the shopping for me, but I suppose I’ll have to see to it myself today.’
‘I don’t mind doing it,’ I said, my eyes darting everywhere as we went first through a large, untidy, plant-filled sunroom and then turned left into a chaotic kitchen.
The interior of the house, or the little I’d now seen of it, didn’t look how I had expected it to, at all.
‘That is, if you’d like me to,’ I added, hoping to get into her good books.
‘I won’t pay extra for it,’ she grumbled. ‘And Melody makes me a pot of tea to go with the cake before she goes. She hasn’t forgotten the cake, has she?’