By the time Finn had rearranged his clothes and rushed down the stairs, leaving me to tuck my dishevelled shirt back in, the hammering had stopped. I coaxed Nell out from under the table and followed him down.
‘Cheers, mate,’ I heard him say, before he closed the door and turned around holding a cardboard box. ‘Delivery that needed signing for,’ he said, rolling his eyes. ‘Do you want to come back up?’
‘Best not,’ I said, lightly kissing him over the top of the box.
‘Sure?’
‘I’m sure,’ I swallowed. ‘Some things are worth waiting for.’
‘Haven’t we waited long enough?’ he seductively whispered.
‘Almost,’ I whispered back, before quickly slipping out in case my resolve crumbled.
Earlier than requested, the next morning I headed back to Prosperous Place with a spring in my step and a smile I couldn’t seem to get rid of. Not that I particularly wanted to, but if Chloe noticed me looking so chipper so early on a Saturday, then she was bound to guess I’d staged my intervention and put two and two together, and I wanted to avoid her speedy calculations.
I might have staged a successful intervention and Finn and I might have indulged in another knee-weakening kiss as a result, but I still didn’t know what our relationship was destined to be, and therefore it definitely wasn’t time to unwittingly share any details or purposefully go public about it. But as it turned out, it wasn’t my smile that Chloe noticed.
‘What have you done to your face?’ she frowned, when I met her trying to negotiate the door to Prosperous Place while juggling yet more wreath-making supplies.
She’d come equipped with enough bits and pieces to adorn every door within a five-mile radius, but I didn’t comment. There was something about her frown which suggested that it wasn’t only whatever she’d spotted wrong with my face that was causing it. My friend was clearly feeling the pressure of what lay ahead and, even though I knew she’d be fine once the session started, she didn’t look in the mood to listen to my reassurances, no matter how kindly meant.
‘Nothing,’ I therefore cringed instead, knowing exactly what she’d noticed. ‘Why, what’s wrong with it?’
‘All around your mouth,’ she said, ‘it’s really red.’
‘Oh yes,’ said Luke, who then appeared and took some of the bags from Chloe’s laden arms, ‘it looks ever so sore, Freya.’
I felt my cheeks glow bright enough to match the skin around my mouth.
‘Windburn,’ I said, thinking on my feet. ‘I’ve always been partial to it and working here in the city I thought I’d get away without wearing my usual moisturiser to prevent it, but apparently not.’
Thankfully, the pair seemed to accept this answer and neither suggested beard burn, which I was certain it actually was.
‘Oh wow,’ said Chloe when she entered the dining room and found the fire already lit and the lights twinkling away. ‘I thought it looked lovely when I’d finished setting up last night, Luke, but this is wonderful.’
The room smelt even better than when Lisa and I had used it thanks to all the extra greenery which had been arranged into separate piles on the covered dining table. There were long lengths of green ivy, holly studded with the brightest red berries and fecund bunches of mistletoe. Bowls of small pine cones, cinnamon sticks and satsumas added a forest, spiced and citrus tang to the air and it smelt almost good enough to eat.
‘This all looks amazing,’ I said, wondering if I needed to remind Chloe to tell the attendees that mistletoe berries were poisonous.
‘Luke sorted delivery of most of it,’ she told me. ‘Didn’t you?’
‘It was more Finn really,’ Luke nodded. ‘It’s all from the Wynthorpe Hall estate near Wynbridge, that the Connelly family owns. They supply some of the seasonal greenery for their local auction every December and as they’ve had a bumper year, they were happy to supply us at cost after Finn mentioned what we were doing here today to another friend who lives nearby.’
The friend was doubtless Jake from Skylark Farm and I daresay Finn had mentioned the need for greenery to Angus Connelly himself when they were talking about his sculpture commission. I felt my temperature rise at the mention of Finn’s name. If we did end up together, I was going to be in constant danger of combustion!
‘Right,’ I said, reaching into my battered Barbour pocket to check the time on my phone, ‘tell me what I can do to help.’
My phone wasn’t in its usual spot and I realised I must have left it at Finn’s. That gave me the perfect excuse to go back, not that I needed one, but I didn’t want him to think I was hounding him.
‘I reckon a bite of breakfast might not be a bad idea,’ Luke suggested. ‘I bet you haven’t eaten yet, have you, Chloe?’
After a hearty breakfast with the family in the kitchen, Luke left Chloe and me to it and we ran through the schedule she’d drawn up and checked through her supplies again.
‘I know it’s silly, to feel so nervous,’ she told me, as she wiped her clammy hands down her jeans. ‘And I was fine until this morning but then the alarm went off and I realised just what I’d let myself in for.’
‘I was the same,’ I smiled, ‘but once you get into the swing of it, you’ll be fine.’
I left her in peace and went to find Kate to ask if everyone had now collected their preserved leaves which I had rinsed and separated into named bags. There was only one bag left and that belonged to Sara, the young woman who had signed up to do everything.
‘So, how’s it going, Sara?’ I asked her, once Chloe had registered the day’s attendees and we were taking a quick tour of the garden.
‘Really well,’ she nodded. ‘I’ve been keeping up with my nature journal and planning the children’s stories and a group of us met up for our first walk last week.’
‘That’s great,’ I said, thrilled that they were making good on the promise to keep in touch and do things together throughout the winter.
‘We went to Whitlingham Lake,’ she told me with a shudder. ‘It was absolutely freezing, but that said, we did feel better for the fresh air and exercise.’
‘That’s fantastic,’ I smiled, noticing Chloe was waving to get my attention, ‘I’m so pleased you’ve all kept in touch. I’ll have to add the lake to my list of places to visit.’
Finn had already suggested a tour of the cathedral, perhaps he’d fancy joining Nell and me for a walk around Whitlingham too. Or was I getting ahead of myself, imagining us strolling hand in hand, wrapped up in scarves and cosy layers, before settling down to supper in front of a roaring log fire?
‘It’s definitely worth a look,’ Sara smiled, unaware of my fireside fantasy, ‘but do wrap up warm.’
After helping Chloe, who was already feeling more confident, with the tour, which included admiring the hares in the meadow lawn and seeking out the dragons in the fern garden, I then acted as assistant while my friend gave a competent demonstration in the art of wreath-making. I found my helping hands were much appreciated as everyone twisted, formed and secured their wreath bases.
As I rushed around handing out wire and helping to weave willow ends into place, I realised that was the trickiest part of the process and it took a while to get it right.
‘There’s no point skimping on the base,’ Chloe told everyone as she checked their progress. ‘Think of this as your foundation. The tighter and more solid it is, the better the end result will be. Time spent on this now will pay dividends when it comes to longevity and impressing your neighbours.’
A ripple of laughter ran through the group and they carried on with renewed vigour. By the time we were ready to fill up on the lunch Carole, Kate and Luke had been preparing, and the smell of which was making our stomachs grumble, everyone had the firm foundation Chloe had insisted on and were looking forward to embellishing their efforts during the afternoon session.
‘Here’s one I prepared earlier,’ Chloe said, Blue Peter-style, as she handed me another base from her bag. ‘This is for you,’ she smiled. ‘Everyone will be able to manage to wire in on their own this afternoon, so I thought you might fancy making one for your front door.’
‘Oh, thank you, Chloe,’ I smiled back, taking the tight and tidy wreath from her. ‘I’d love to have a go.’
As before, lunch was homemade soup, and bread from Blossom’s, and everyone was in fine spirits as they sat around the big kitchen table, talking about their festive plans and how Luke’s Winterfest was making them view the season with fresh eyes. The expression on his face told me that he was well-pleased and Graham, who joined us to check the log basket and stoke the fire, looked equally happy. I knew he was loving Winterfest too, but it was his time helping me in the garden which had really given him a sense of purpose.
‘You’ve got a visitor,’ he said, as he drew level with me.
I followed his gaze and spotted Finn in the doorway, holding a big bunch of eucalyptus. It was so noisy in the kitchen that I hadn’t heard him come in. Chloe spotted him at the same time and went to stand up.
‘I’ll take it,’ I told her, meaning the extra greenery, ‘you finish your lunch.’
She gave me a knowing smile, which I pretended not to see.
‘I didn’t get to eat much the day I worked with Lisa, and I felt a bit grim as a result,’ I quickly added, more to justify my rush to spend a moment with Finn than in concern for her blood sugar level.
‘Of course,’ she grinned, turning her attention back to the lady sitting next to her.
Finn followed me into the dining room, set the stems down on the table and quickly pulled me into his arms. I was delighted that he was as keen to see me as I was to see him.
‘And there was me thinking that you turning up here was purely to bolster supplies,’ I laughed, once we had kissed a very warm hello.
It was a truly wonderful, if risky greeting. Anyone could have walked in, but with eyes only for each other, we hadn’t thought to close the door.
‘I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you, Freya,’ he said huskily, which had the effect of weakening my knees again so he had to hold me tighter, ‘and I’m not just talking about after last night either. You really have been in my head from the moment I first set eyes on you.’
‘Shouted at me you mean,’ I cheekily reminded him, and he kissed me again. ‘You’ve been on my mind a bit too.’
‘A bit,’ he laughed, letting me go.
‘A lot then,’ I admitted. ‘And I was hoping I’d see you today.’
‘How about I come over to yours tonight, when you’ve finished up here, and we have a takeaway or something,’ he suggested.
I didn’t know about the takeaway, but I was already looking forward to the something.
‘There’s something I want to talk to you about,’ he then said, which rather took the wind out of my sails. ‘It’s important.’
That didn’t sound like the sort of something I’d had in mind.
‘All right,’ I swallowed, hoping it wasn’t another complication which would call a halt to our romantic progress. ‘I’ll see you tonight.’
‘Don’t look so worried,’ he grinned, ‘it’s nothing bad.’
That was a relief.
‘Promise,’ I whispered.
‘Scout’s honour,’ he laughed. ‘And if you give me your keys, I’ll pop over and check on Nell if you like. Let her out in the garden for a bit if you haven’t got time.’
‘Thanks,’ I said, reaching for my coat, ‘I am almost out of time so I’d appreciate that.’
I knew Nell still wasn’t all that struck on Finn so this might be an ideal bonding opportunity for the pair without me hovering about and fussing.
‘Oh, and I almost forgot,’ said Finn, pulling my phone out of his pocket, ‘you left this in the flat.’
The sound of someone clearing their throat caught our attention and I nearly dropped the phone as he handed it over and we sprang apart.
‘Windburn, my arse,’ Chloe laughed, looking from one of us to the other.
In spite of my preoccupation with how Finn and Nell were getting on and what it was that he wanted to talk to me about, I did still manage to be of some use to Chloe and produce a very pretty wreath for my front door.
Everyone was delighted with their day’s work and left happily weighed down with wreaths which they promised to photograph once they were in situ and share online, tagging Luke and Winterfest, which made him very happy indeed.
‘There’s not as much left as I thought there’d be,’ I said to Chloe as we swept and tidied. ‘I thought you’d got far too much stuff, but you hadn’t, had you?’
‘No,’ she said, ‘thank goodness. I didn’t want anyone having to skimp.’
I bundled together a few stray cinnamon sticks and a partly clove-studded satsuma and added them to the bits Chloe said she could make use of.
‘You might as well get off,’ she said to me. ‘You’re helping Poppy and Mark tomorrow, aren’t you?’
‘Yes,’ I said, stifling a yawn, ‘I am.’
‘You’ll be shattered by Monday.’
‘That’s why I’m giving her the day off,’ said Luke, who had come back to help.
‘No, that’s all right,’ I told him, shrugging the suggestion off, even though it was rather appealing.
‘I insist,’ he said firmly. ‘By the looks of the forecast, it’s not going to be great gardening weather anyway. In fact, take Monday and Tuesday off and Chloe, you come in just on Thursday next week. You’ve both been flat out and I really appreciate it.’
‘But there’s still loads to do ahead of the Winter Garden opening,’ I protested, but he wouldn’t hear of it.
‘You’ve got an extra pair of hands now, thanks to enlisting Graham, and you were the one who told me that it was going to be a work in progress, weren’t you?’
‘I was,’ I admitted.
‘There you are then.’
He wouldn’t be swayed and I went home looking forward to the lazy start to my working week as well as the evening ahead. The only thing hampering my mood was Finn’s insistence that he had something to tell me. I really hoped it wasn’t going to be anything that would throw us off course again.