Total pages in book: 120
Estimated words: 117740 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 589(@200wpm)___ 471(@250wpm)___ 392(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 117740 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 589(@200wpm)___ 471(@250wpm)___ 392(@300wpm)
“I wouldn’t know if it precedes her, per se, but I’ve experienced her prickly personality first hand more than once,” I replied, sipping the tea. “I was somewhat strongarmed into coming today, so I wasn’t sure what to expect.”
Tasha laughed. “You aren’t the first one. Sometimes it’s Shaun, sometimes it’s Jake, and sometimes she bypasses them entirely and convinces her fellow allotmenteers to volunteer their teens for a few hours. Work experience, she called it last time.”
“Who are Shaun and Jake?”
“Oh, I thought you might know them, Your Grace. Jake is Rose’s younger brother.”
Why was I relieved to hear that?
“And Shaun is her childhood best friend. They’re quite inseparable.”
Never mind.
“He’s a police officer and the one who usually keeps her out of trouble,” Tasha said with a grin. “So, of course, the kids doubly love it when he comes. He often brings his car—oh, with permission, of course.”
“I see,” I said coolly. “Well, Rose and I aren’t close enough for me to know about her acquaintances outside of our business together.”
She eyed me for a second before looking away once more.
I didn’t like that look. “What was that look for?”
“Nothing at all, Your Grace.”
I still wasn’t used to being called that. Would that ever happen?
“Mm,” I replied. “Does Rose often come and do this?”
“Garden with the children? Yes, about once a month, even during the winter. She refuses to accept payment for it, too. She says seeing the kids learn about the outdoors and get their hands dirty is payment enough.”
That… sounded a lot like the Rose I knew, actually.
I cast my gaze across the outdoor garden space. It was a relatively sizable, fenced area with raised beds, a small greenhouse, and various other coloured pots and planters. “It’s a lovely garden. It must have taken you a while to get it like this.”
“Oh, not really.” Tasha touched her hand to her cheek. “It was sponsored by the late duke and Rose, after all.”
I paused. “It was?”
“Gosh, didn’t you know?” She looked over at me. “Hmm, I suppose not. I did hear that you and your grandfather weren’t very close.”
“You heard correctly.”
“I’m sorry. That wasn’t my place to say.”
I waved my hand dismissively. “It’s no secret that we didn’t always get along. Will you tell me about the garden?”
“Oh, yes, of course. We’re very indebted to your grandfather,” she said. “It was about five years ago when one of the local factories closed down—not all the children here receive government funding as they should thanks to bureaucratic nonsense, and a lot of parents expressed that they would have to unenroll due to them losing jobs at the factory. When your grandfather found out, he offered to sponsor all those children for a minimum of six months. It meant there was little disruption to the lives of the children and their parents could seek work without worrying about childcare or schedules.”
“I had no idea. How did the garden come about?”
“We run an after-school club for kids between the ages of five and twelve, and every year, the local primary school sets their year five and six classes a challenge to plant and raise a small fruit or vegetable plant. They naturally ended up bringing them here, and it ended up becoming a project for us all, too, when the little ones got interested. Lawn and Order has done the general maintenance here for ages, but when Rose saw what we were doing, she… well, she went very… Rose.”
I didn’t know what it said about me that I perfectly understood that sentiment.
“Originally, it was just the vegetable beds. The shed was donated by a retiring allotmenteer, and many others donated old and excess pots and tubs. Your grandfather donated the greenhouse and sponsored the general build of the garden, including booking Rose’s company to get everything set up. Just when we thought it was all over, Rose showed up with her van full of young plants and seeds and announced she’d spoken to the nursery director and would be going through the relevant checks so she could come by once a month to teach the children about gardening.”
“And she’s done it ever since?”
“Every month, come rain or shine. Even in the colder months when there’s not much to be done outside, she has them growing things like onions and garlic that grow through the winter. In really bad weather when she’s unable to reschedule, she’ll do indoor lessons.” Tasha smiled softly as she looked at Rose getting dirt smeared on her face by a toddler. “She’s a bit wild and weird, yes, but her heart is always in the right place. She really does care. Which is why she’s waged war publicly on you and your plot to close the allotments.”
Jesus. I couldn’t escape that, could I?
“Yes, I’m acquainted with the ‘wild and weird’ part of Rose,” I said dryly.