Chapter 12 #3
‘No, I’m sorry, love,’ she replied, coming back to Gemma’s table. ‘You used to be able to do that kind of thing at the post office but they took it all out to put in a new freezer. I don’t know of anywhere else… other than the library, but that’s in town.’
‘Well it might have to be there then, but thanks anyway. There’s a book I’ve found mention of, so it might be good to see if they either have it or could get it for me.’
The rabbit hole Gemma had fallen down kept her busy for another hour and a half but at the end of that time, she was really no further forward than she had been in the first ten minutes of reading.
Still, she had the title of a book now which could provide some very useful information, and a few more pieces of the puzzle.
She fired off a quick text to Willow and began to pack up her things.
There was one more thing she wanted to do before returning to the farm.
It wasn’t far to Ashley’s house but, even so, she was grateful to reach the door. How on earth was she going to manage restoring an entire garden when she couldn’t even walk two hundred metres without her ankle complaining?
Her knock at the front door barely raised a sound, but then the wood was so thick it was hardly surprising.
The doorbell didn’t seem to work either, and she felt her spirits deflate with disappointment.
She had assumed Ashley would be at home, and even though she tried both the door and the bell again, no answer was forthcoming.
Admittedly she hadn’t let Ashley know she was coming, but now that she was here, she hated the thought of having to leave without speaking to her.
Apart from wanting to share the excitement of their find, she was banking on Ashley agreeing to come and help out.
Perhaps she might have better luck using the back door.
She peered cautiously around the side of the house and began to make her way down the path towards the back gate.
She’d only got half of the way when the sound of voices cut through the air. Voices which, although muffled, were clearly angry and coming from a small window on the side of the house.
‘We’ve had enough excuses now. The money needs to be in our account by close of play tomorrow.’
Gemma paused, unsure what to do. She didn’t want to interrupt, but one of the voices she’d heard definitely belonged to Ashley and at least it proved she was at home. She doubled back to the front door, surprised when it was suddenly snatched open.
Gemma smiled. ‘Hi… Sorry, have I come at a bad time?’
‘No, not at all. I was just…’ Looking startled, Ashley trailed off, finishing with a smile but not elaborating. ‘Is everything okay?’ she asked, but then her hand suddenly flew to her mouth. ‘Oh God, we weren’t supposed to be meeting today, were we?’
Gemma shook her head. ‘No, don’t worry, I just called by on the off-chance you were in. I probably should have messaged first.’
‘No, that’s okay. Come on in.’
Gemma stepped into the wide hallway. ‘Are you sure I’m not interrupting anything? I thought I heard voices.’
‘Voices? Oh… it was the radio. I turned it off. And of course you’re not interrupting anything. How could you be interrupting?’ She smiled, but she looked more ruffled than puzzled. ‘It’s lovely to see you, in fact. Have you got some news? There’s what looks like it might be a twinkle in your eye.’
‘We found the house,’ said Gemma, grinning from ear to ear. ‘And you’ll never guess which one it is…’
She followed Ashley through to the kitchen and quickly filled her in on all that they had discovered over the last day or so.
‘I’ve also found an interesting article today which I want to follow up, and a few more photos, but I need to get them printed off.
And possibly enlarged, although that might make the definition even worse.
I’m not sure what kind of equipment the library has but I’m hoping they might be able to help. ’
‘I can do them for you,’ replied Ashley. ‘We’ve got a printer upstairs.’
‘Oh… that’s perfect then,’ replied Gemma, surprised. She opened up her laptop and swivelled it around. ‘I don’t want to take all your ink, but if you could just do these two to start with, that would be a big help.’
‘Maybe if you screenshot them first and email them to me, I can try and enlarge them from that. We’ve got an A3 printer – it’s my husband’s. I’ll have a look anyway.’
‘Brilliant. Thanks so much.’
‘Wait here, I’ll be back in a minute.’
‘Before you go, there is one more thing I wanted to ask you.’
‘Oh…?’
‘Just that I wondered… When we met before you said you didn’t work or anything, and if you’ve got a bit of time on your hands…
I’m obviously not able to spend too long on my feet at the moment, so it wouldn’t be straight away, and I want to plan a little more as well, but once I get going on the actual garden there’ll be a lot of work to do. ’
‘Are you asking me to help out?’ said Ashley, her eyes bright with excitement.
‘Yes, if you think you—’
‘Oh God, I’d love to.’ She clasped her hands together. ‘That would be brilliant!’