Chapter 12
If it hadn’t been for her ankle, Gemma would have leapt out of bed.
As it was, she hopped around her room at speed, flinging on clothes and dragging a hairbrush through her curls.
It wasn’t until she reached the hallway outside that she realised it was the first day in a very long while that she was actually looking forward to, instead of wanting to hide herself away from.
Everyone else had still beaten her to the kitchen, but she didn’t care.
She didn’t even care that Mulligan was there and would have knocked her over were it not for a sudden loud warning from Leo.
Mulligan dropped to a crouch at her feet, escorting her the rest of the way to the table in small leaps and bounds, just like a child might who hadn’t yet worked out that jumping required both feet to leave the floor.
He waited until she was seated before squishing his body up against her legs, wiggling slightly with excitement.
Her hand found his head. ‘Morning, Mulligan…’
Willow plonked a mug of tea in front of her. ‘I can’t believe you found it,’ she said, grinning from ear to ear.
Rowan was already at the table, cramming toast into his mouth. He waved a hand as he chewed hurriedly and swallowed. ‘Me neither,’ he said. ‘But from what Leo’s showed us it looks like it’s a perfect match for the site.’
‘Oh…’ Gemma’s heart registered a small pang of disappointment. Had they already been out to look? Without her?
‘On paper, that is,’ added Willow quickly. ‘We wouldn’t go and see it until you were up.’
‘Well, in that case…’ Gemma returned Willow’s grin and, picking up her mug, swallowed its contents almost in one go, despite the heat of the liquid inside. ‘Shall we go and look now? Breakfast can wait.’
She got to her feet, looking around for her stick, before realising she’d left it in her room. ‘I’ll just go and get my—’
‘Oh God, this is painful,’ said Leo, groaning. He turned around so that his back was facing her. ‘Get on,’ he said.
‘What?’
‘Get on,’ he repeated. ‘Piggy back. I don’t think I can bear to wait the length of time it’s going to take you to hobble there and back.’
‘Charming,’ muttered Gemma, but she was smiling.
Getting on, however, was an entirely different proposition.
For one, discounting the time when she’d first hurt her ankle, it had been a very long time since she’d been in such close proximity to Leo’s body, and two, an even longer time since he’d given her a piggy back.
The last time must have been when… She stopped and covered her cheeks with her hands.
This was madness. Madness, but a necessary evil – she was desperate to go and look at the site in daylight, too.
She placed a tentative hand on his shoulder, shuffling closer.
Immediately she felt his hand feeling for the back of her knee.
She lifted it slightly higher to accommodate him, and then without warning, he had her tight in his grip, hitching her higher until, with the addition of a small hop, she was being carried, legs wrapped around his waist. It was undignified, embarrassing and alarming all at the same time.
Ignoring looks from both Willow and Rowan, she waved her hand towards the kitchen door. ‘Come on then,’ she said. ‘Oh, and someone bring the laptop.’
The journey to the old farmhouse seemed thankfully very much shorter than it had been the night before, and she was grateful when Leo lowered her gently to the ground. That he’d been carrying a grown woman on his back didn’t seem to register at all as he turned to face her, still grinning.
‘You do the honours,’ he said, indicating the laptop which Willow held in her arms.
‘It wasn’t just my discovery,’ she said. ‘In fact, I’m not sure it was mine at all. You were the one who spotted the similarities between the sketch and our site here.’
‘Which would have been of no use at all if you hadn’t shown me the document about Brenant House in the first place. And that’s after you’d made the connection with the valley, the nant, where you thought the house might be located.’
Willow handed Gemma the laptop. ‘It’s yours,’ she said firmly.
Opening the lid, Gemma waited until the screen came to life and then followed the same explanation which Leo had given her the night before.
‘So… we don’t know where the big house went, but your dilapidated farmhouse is built in the footprint of the original stable block, just like you thought – meaning where I fell over would probably have been parkland.
The avenue of trees would have flanked the original driveway.
And your kitchen garden, Willow, is right where it would have been all those years ago.
Look…’ She showed them the photos which, even in black and white, couldn’t hide its grandeur.
Willow stared back at the space where she had been working day in, day out.
‘I knew it,’ she said. ‘I knew there was something about it. The day I started work on it, I walked round and round the site, do you remember, Rowan? And I kept coming back to that spot. In some ways it wasn’t ideal because it was quite long and thin, but I could see it in my mind’s eye.
See how it would look when it was burgeoning with produce…
’ She put a hand over her mouth as a sudden wave of emotion hit her.
‘Thank you,’ she said to Gemma. ‘It all makes sense now.’ Willow stared at her in wonder.
‘All those years ago… How many years?’ she asked.
‘Ah… that’s the bit we don’t know yet,’ said Gemma.
Willow dropped her gaze back to the screen. ‘And what’s this?’ she asked, frowning. ‘It looks like…’ She stared at Gemma, open-mouthed.
‘It is,’ replied Gemma. ‘It’s a beautiful garden. The kind which belonged to a stately home. And it was right here, somewhere at the back of where the farmhouse is now.’
Willow looked at Rowan, then at Leo, before finally returning to Gemma, her eyes shining.
‘The very first day you came here, you told me you’d liked gardening once upon a time.
And now you’re the one to discover this.
Doesn’t that tell you something? When I asked if you wanted to restore the garden, I had no idea what had been here in the past. I know it would be a miracle if anything was left of it now, but if anyone can find it, it’s you.
You’ve got to do it, Gemma. I think this garden has been waiting for you. ’
Gemma followed Willow’s pointing finger, a strange feeling burbling low in her stomach. Could Willow be right? Had the garden been waiting? Because if it had…
She had succeeded at making a decent loaf of bread, but it was still very much Rowan’s area of expertise.
Likewise, Willow had a way with growing vegetables that would probably always be beyond her.
But flowers… this was something she could do.
And suddenly she knew exactly what the strange feeling in her stomach was.
The remnants of the younger woman she used to be were beginning to stir…
It was excitement, something she hadn’t felt in a long while, and she hugged it close, scared lest it slip through her fingers again.
The rest of the morning passed in a blur of excited chat.
Somehow the chickens got fed, the eggs got collected and a fresh loaf of bread was made.
But in between these activities there was much discussion about the possibilities which lay ahead of them, including the addition of a few beehives to the farm, although not just yet, Willow confirmed.
‘I’ve thought about so many things we could do here, but never about having a proper garden,’ said Willow, heating up some soup for their lunch.
‘But only because spending time on something which wouldn’t be productive didn’t feel like the best use of our resources.
Not right now. But I can see that perhaps it’s the wrong way to think about it.
Of course we should have a proper garden…
Having somewhere to relax, to rest and enjoy should be just as important as anything else we do here. ’
Gemma nodded. ‘Wasn’t it William Morris who said “have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful”? Well, presumably that applies to the outside of the house as well.’
‘If it doesn’t, it should,’ added Rowan, who was laying the table.
‘Wouldn’t it be amazing if we could return the garden to how it used to be?’ said Gemma. ‘But that’s going to be difficult with only a couple of grainy photos to go on.’
Leo scooted Mulligan out of the way so he could sit down.
‘But surely now that we know what the house was called, we ought to be able to find out more information about it? Perhaps discover what happened to it, because it didn’t just disappear into thin air, and we could find out about the garden, too. Maybe even learn who designed it.’
Gemma nodded, trying to bite down the rising tide of impatience at her injury.
‘If Brenant’s owners were a wealthy bunch, it could even be someone of note,’ she said.
‘That would be amazing.’ But then she groaned.
‘This damned ankle, though… I want to make a start right away. How long do you think it will be before I’m back on my feet again? ’
‘About that…’ Willow shot her husband a glance. ‘Rowan mentioned your idea that Ashley might like to give us a hand here, and if you haven’t already asked her, maybe she could work with you on the garden?’
‘She might. I’ll ask. And meanwhile, I can get researching and hopefully make a start on some plans. I’ve virtually nothing to go on at the moment, so even a couple more photos would be a help.’
Leo grinned. ‘Well, you know what they say – fail to prepare and you should prepare to fail.’