I’d never been much of a one for lying in late, not even when I was on holiday. I’d never seen the point of getting out of the habit of setting my regular alarm. If I was awake, I’d get up and get on, no matter what day of the week it was. However, having had such an overwhelming start to the weekend, I did allow myself a slow start on the Sunday. Not that it wasn’t productive.
Luke and Kate had wasted no time in emailing the promised details about salary, holiday entitlement and numerous other perks I would enjoy, should I decide to take up their offer of starting a new life at Prosperous Place. The finer details made for very pleasant reading.
My only real concern about accepting their offer came from the fear that I might not be up to the job and that I would let Luke down. When Eloise was alive, I always felt more than capable, but Jackson’s barbed comments about my lack of formal training and qualifications nagged away at me in low moments when I was missing my friend most.
Deep down I knew he had sown the fear to keep me in place and toeing the line while he sold the estate off, but he had done his job well and my confidence had dipped right when I needed it most. I would have to dig deep if I didn’t want to pass up Luke and Kate’s generous offer.
‘What do you think?’ I asked Nell, hoping for some encouragement as I stretched out my legs to where she was curled up at the end of the bed and gave her a gentle nudge. ‘Do you think we should go?’
She thumped her tail and I wasn’t sure if it was wishful thinking on my part or not, but there did seem to be something of the old twinkle in her eyes. She hadn’t looked this engaged since she’d lost her mistress and entered her period of mourning.
My gaze returned to the details currently filling up my phone screen and I let out a groan as a reminder to ring home flashed up. As loath as I was to do it, I knew I couldn’t keep putting it off. It had been six weeks now since my fortnightly calls to my parents had tailed off and if I left it any longer, they’d most likely start calling me, or worse still, turn up in person. Dreading the thought, I hastily pressed the number for home.
‘Freya,’ answered my mother, her tone full of relief. ‘At last. We’d all but given up on you. We were planning to drive up this afternoon and find out what was going on.’
I could hear my father’s deep voice agreeing in the background and thanked my lucky stars that I had got myself together and called just in the nick of time.
‘I have been meaning to ring,’ I fibbed, avoiding Nell’s knowing stare, ‘but I’ve been so busy, what with the warm weather.’
‘I can well imagine,’ Mum surprised me by saying.
Usually when I made any sort of comment about my workload her standard retort was that it was my own fault for taking on such acreage single-handed. My parents ran a very upmarket landscape design company and were well aware of how many hours of weekly maintenance and what sized team it took to efficiently run somewhere the size of where I was working.
Neither she nor my father had made any secret of the fact that they had been deeply disappointed when I stopped working for them, ditched my horticultural design software and picked up my spade. These days, they didn’t go in for getting their own hands dirty, opting instead for remote project management, whereas I had discovered I still needed the closer connection to nature, the daily dose of green things growing, to keep my mind balanced.
They had never forgiven Eloise for offering me the opportunity to go, quite literally, back to my roots, after I had broken off my engagement. It didn’t matter how many times I told them she had nothing to do with my decision not to marry, they wouldn’t believe me. To their minds, it was all too much of a coincidence and I had long since given up trying to convince them otherwise.
‘I daresay you’re having to go all out to keep things pristine now, aren’t you?’ Mum carried on, surprising me further by sounding almost sympathetic. ‘Well, as pristine as one person can in grounds of that size.’
That was more like it.
‘Jackson won’t want anything out of place when he starts showing prospective buyers around, will he?’
Clearly, word about the sale had already reached her. I shouldn’t have been surprised, she and Dad had contacts everywhere when it came to property sales which included more than a few acres. They were always on the lookout for the next potential project and clients with pockets deep enough to turn their visions into reality, so they were bound to find out sooner rather than later. Definitely sooner, in this case.
‘I can’t deny,’ Mum wistfully carried on, ‘that I had been wondering if, thrown together in grief, you and Jackson might have formed some sort of an alliance.’
I didn’t waste my breath telling her that Jackson hadn’t been grieving, but I was keen to cut her off because the thought of forming any sort of alliance with him made me feel quite bilious.
‘When did you find out he’s selling up?’ I asked.
‘I heard a rumour a couple of weeks ago,’ she told me. ‘And your father and I have been waiting for you to call ever since.’
‘Why?’ I shot back. ‘I wouldn’t have rung to tell you, even if I had known, you know gossiping isn’t my style.’
‘I wasn’t suggesting that,’ she tutted, sounding snippy.
‘Why then?’
‘For you to ask if you can come home, of course. I also heard that Jackson’s already moved you out of that poky little cottage, so he can make a bit of money out of it, hasn’t he? So, I’m guessing your services are going to be surplus to requirements soon too. He’s bound to contract your job out. Where has he put you? In the stable block?’
It never ceased to amaze me what she could find out. I bet she’d somehow picked this titbit up via the cleaning agency Jackson had employed.
‘There’s no way he’ll contract out,’ I told her. ‘He wouldn’t want the expense and, for all you know,’ I added, more for the sake of my dignity than anything else, ‘whoever buys the place might want to keep me on. And I’m not in the stable block, I have rooms in the house.’
‘Even if they did want to keep you,’ Mum pointed out with annoying accuracy, ‘I can’t imagine you’d want to work there for someone else, would you? What if they wanted to change things? Goodness knows, the place could do with an overhaul, but I can’t imagine you’d want to be involved with it, would you, Freya?’
Seeing Jackson sitting at Eloise’s desk in the morning room was difficult enough, the thought of someone else instructing me to make changes in the garden was unbearable. Even if they did love the place, like Eloise had, they were bound to want to put their own mark on it, weren’t they?
‘Of course, I wouldn’t,’ I sighed, feeling the fight leave me. ‘I’d hate that.’
For a moment, I’d forgotten all about my potential fresh challenge and possible new home. Thank goodness I had such exciting prospects and, should I be brave enough to accept them, I wouldn’t have to wait to find out what was going to happen to the estate once Jackson had banked his fortune and headed back to the States. In fact, according to my informal contract with Eloise, the one he was so keen to keep waving in front of me, I wouldn’t officially be obliged to wait barely any time at all before leaving.
‘Well, there you are then,’ Mum said smugly. ‘You’ll have to come home, won’t you?’
She sounded a little too happy that my time at Broad-Meadows was coming to an end, but I wasn’t in any way tempted to tell her about what I might be doing next. I wouldn’t be telling anyone until I had given it more thought and shared my answer, whatever that might be, with Luke and Kate.
‘And when you do,’ she carried on, ‘you’ll soon find out that your dad and I have just the thing to get you back on track.’
I wasn’t aware I’d fallen off it.
‘We’ve got a project currently taking shape in Wellington that you can work on,’ she told me. ‘It’s going to be an eighteen-month contract.’
‘At least,’ I heard Dad say in the background.
‘At least,’ Mum reiterated, in case I hadn’t heard him.
‘Wellington,’ I repeated.
‘Yes,’ she said. ‘You know, the capital of New Zealand.’
Of course, I knew where Wellington was. It was only a week or so ago that I had been video-calling my ex who had relocated there.
Peter’s family firm was in the same industry as mine and we had met through a work project. I knew full well that our mutual business interests were one of the reasons why my parents had been so keen for us to get married. I think they rather fancied a future merger that mingled more than blood.
I got the impression that now Mum knew Jackson was a no-go, she was hoping I might consider reforming my alliance with Peter. If that was the track she was hoping to shove me back on, then she was going to be in for a shock. We might have managed to stay friends, but there were no romantic feelings between us whatsoever.
‘Well,’ I said, fiddling with my hair and deciding now was not the time to set her straight, ‘I’ll certainly think about it.’
‘Yes do,’ she said, sounding pleased. ‘A fresh start away from Suffolk is just what you need.’
She was right of course, but I was considering crossing the county line, rather than travelling halfway around the world.
‘Come on,’ I said to Nell, once I’d finally got Mum to hang up and fired off a text to Peter warning him to look out for any hints of rekindled romance that my parents might be about to start sending his way. ‘Let’s go and talk to Eloise.’
It was too soggy underfoot to sit in my usual spot next to Eloise’s head, so Nell and I made use of the nearest bench instead.
‘Thank you for the sign, Eloise,’ I said aloud, grateful that there was no one else about to hear.
The morning service had finished and everyone had no doubt rushed off to tend to their Sunday roasts.
‘As I’m sure you know, it’s led me and Nell to somewhere really rather special.’ I imagined my old friend smiling and nodding. ‘And as wonderful as it is, and as excited as I am to even have the chance to be thinking about taking it on, I am still very sorry about Jackson and his decision to sell up. I know how keen you were to keep the estate in the family. My only hope now is that the next owner will love the place just as much as you did, Eloise.’
I let my thoughts drift, mulling over what Mum had said, and listened to the soft susurration of the trees, enjoying the feel of the gentle breeze stirring my hair as I turned my face to the sun.
‘And that’s exactly why,’ I eventually carried on, having come a little closer to making my decision, ‘I won’t be offering to stay on when Jackson makes his sale. The new owners are bound to want to make changes,’ I swallowed, ‘and even if they do end up being wonderful, I don’t want to be in any way responsible for them.’
The fact that the sign I had asked her for had been sent was evidence enough that Eloise did understand, and I couldn’t help thinking that the tone of my little monologue made it sound very much like I had found my courage, set aside Jackson’s attempts to knock me down and decided what I was going to do.
It felt as if a great weight had been lifted from my shoulders as I took a deep breath and walked back to the van.
‘Luke, hi,’ I swallowed, ‘it’s Freya.’
I had planned to make the call when I got back to the house, but having made up my mind, I couldn’t wait a second longer so rang him from where I’d parked at the church.
‘Freya,’ he said, ‘hello. We weren’t expecting you to ring so soon. Kate’s here. I’m going to put you on speakerphone. Hold on.’
‘Hey, Freya,’ said Kate. ‘How are you?’
‘I’m good,’ I said, nodding even though she couldn’t see me. ‘Great actually. I’m not interrupting your lunch or anything, am I?’
I could hear the girls in the background.
‘No,’ said Kate, ‘we’re eating later.’
‘Okay,’ I said, ‘great. I’ll probably do the same myself today.’
There was a beat of silence and then Luke spoke. ‘Look you two,’ he said, sounding flustered, ‘as lovely as this small talk is, can we please just cut to the chase?’
I couldn’t help but laugh and Kate did too.
‘Sorry,’ I said.
‘We are actually on tenterhooks here,’ Kate said, and I could tell she was smiling. ‘Luke’s even got his fingers crossed.’
‘Really?’ I laughed again.
‘Really.’
‘So,’ he said, ‘are you ringing with good news or bad?’
‘Good,’ I said, deciding to put him out of his misery. ‘Well,’ I added, ‘good for me and I hope good for you.’
I quickly batted away the fear that I might not be good enough, which was still determined to rear its ugly head.
‘You’re coming?’ Luke questioned.
‘I’m coming,’ I said firmly. ‘I’d like to take you up on your offer of a job and a home in Nightingale Square.’
Luke let out a very loud cheer, which started Abigail, at least I think it was Abigail, crying.
‘Oh, that’s wonderful Freya,’ said Kate. ‘Fantastic news.’
It really was, so why I found myself on the verge of tears, I had no idea.
‘And were you happy with everything in the email?’ she asked as Luke made soothing noises in the background. ‘The salary, terms and so on.’
‘Yes,’ I said, ‘more than happy, which is more than my current employer will be when I tell him that I’m leaving.’
I had told Kate a little more about my time working with Eloise and how it contrasted with working for Jackson.
‘Don’t worry,’ said Luke. ‘We won’t be expecting a reference. Your experience speaks for itself.’
‘Along with your gut instinct,’ I reminded him, brushing away a happy tear and sitting up straighter knowing that he was right; I was up to the task.
‘Exactly,’ he laughed. ‘So, when can you come?’
‘Well,’ I said, mentally flicking through dates, ‘as long as we can get all the paperwork sorted and Harold is happily settled in his new place, I can come at the end of the month. I only have to give a week’s notice for every year I’ve worked at Broad-Meadows, so that’s three weeks in total.’
‘That’s Hallowe’en weekend,’ said Kate, shuffling papers. ‘We can get everything drawn up and signed by then and Harold is moving next weekend, so that will give me time to sort the house out a bit.’
‘Oh, please don’t worry about that, Kate,’ I insisted. ‘Everything there looked fine to me.’
‘Perhaps I’ll just fling the hoover about a bit,’ she said.
‘I can’t tell you how pleased we are, Freya,’ said Luke.
I really couldn’t believe this was happening. These wonderful people had landed in my life and solved my employment and housing problems in one fell swoop!
‘I won’t let you down,’ I told them both, my tears gathering apace. ‘The Winter Garden is going to be wonderful.’
I could hear Abigail cranking up the volume again and felt as if I might be about to match her.
‘I really don’t doubt it,’ said Kate, raising her voice above the din, ‘and I can’t wait to see it. I’ll email you with more details about everything later today, okay?’
‘All right,’ I said, ‘and thank you.’
‘Bye for now,’ they said together.
‘Bye,’ I said, ‘see you at the end of the month.’
‘See you on the thirty-first.’
I ended the call and had a bit of a sob before driving back to Broad-Meadows. Nell rested her head on my lap and I wondered what I was going to do about her now I had made up my mind to move.
Back at the house I tried to creep up to my room, but my plan was thwarted as Jackson was in the kitchen and insisted that I join him for lunch. He made it sound like a pleasant invitation to socialise, even including Nell in the party, but I was on my guard, which was just as well, because he had barely finished carving the joint of beef – badly – before I realised that this was very definitely a working lunch and the thrilling thoughts I wanted to indulge in about my new job and home were going to have to wait.
‘I think that should be enough to be going on with,’ Jackson smiled, once he had finished reeling off a list of tasks for the following week, very few of which had anything to do with the role that I had been employed for.
‘I should say so,’ I said, puffing out my cheeks. ‘I only hope you can find someone at such short notice to undertake them. I’ve more than enough to keep me occupied in the garden and of course, you let the housekeeper go, didn’t you?’
Jane Taylor had worked for Eloise for decades but Jackson had dismissed her within days of his arrival. He had reckoned, long before he had got the measure of the place and the work involved in looking after it, that it didn’t require live-in domestic staff. The agency he had since employed to clean, and who I suspected of gossiping, were slapdash to say the least.
‘I’ll be expecting you to muck in, Freya,’ he told me, with a challenging look in his eye. ‘You’re living here now too, after all.’
I bit my lip, determined not to tell him yet.
‘In lieu of charging you rent, I need you to help out in the house.’
What he really meant was, do most of the work that Jane used to do.
‘And you’ll have to go,’ he said, looking at Nell and addressing her in a completely different tone to the one he had only minutes before welcomed her with. ‘I can’t be doing with you cluttering up the place. Can you remember which rescue home she came from, Freya? With any luck they might take her back.’
That was it. I threw down my napkin and pushed back my chair. My determination not to share my news had flown straight out of the window.
‘Don’t worry about Nell,’ I told him. ‘I’ll be taking her with me.’
‘Taking her with you?’ he frowned. ‘What do you mean? Where are you going?’
‘I’m handing in my notice, Jackson,’ I said. ‘I was going to tell you tomorrow when I’d had a chance to write my letter of resignation, but your abhorrent attitude has forced my hand.’
He opened and closed his mouth a couple of times, turning redder by the second.
‘But you can’t leave,’ he blustered. ‘I need you here to look after the garden. I’m going to have prospective buyers coming around in a few weeks’ time and the lawns will still be growing.’
‘Not my problem,’ I shrugged.
‘You can’t have another job lined up,’ he said, eyeing me with an expression of annoyance and curiosity, ‘you haven’t had time and I haven’t been asked for a reference.’
‘Where I’m going and what I’m going to be doing is no concern of yours,’ I told him, ‘and you needn’t panic, I’m not leaving with immediate effect.’
‘Of course, you aren’t,’ he said, sounding further nettled, ‘you can’t because you’ve got to work notice.’
‘That’s right,’ I agreed.
‘That’s right,’ he repeated.
‘Three weeks,’ I smiled.
‘Three weeks,’ he choked. ‘That can’t possibly be right!’
‘One week for every year that I’ve worked here,’ I reeled off. ‘That’s what your aunt and I agreed and that’s what I’ll honour. It’s all in my contract – not that, as you’re so keen to keep reminding me, it’s legally binding.’
I was certain I would be getting something far more formal from Luke and Kate and, given what had happened here, I was pleased about that. I supposed I had been a bit naïve when I moved to the estate, but then neither Eloise nor I had ever envisaged a situation like this occurring when she took me on.
‘I’m going to check that,’ Jackson said bitterly. ‘I’m going to check that, right now.’
He jumped up from his chair and stormed out of the kitchen.
‘And get that damn dog out of here!’ he shouted over his shoulder.
‘Gladly!’ I shouted back, rushing to give Nell a hug.