My phone beeps.
Declan: Okay… but only because I want to see you. Not because I believe that this key actually leads to anything.
My heart flutters. He wants to see me. I want to see him.
But more than anything, I want to get into that garden.
Me: Can we go early? Like 7am?
Declan: You think 7am is early? Gardeners get up at 5 ;-)
I grin and text him back:5 it is!
* * *
Belle doesn’t come homethe first night. Aunt Kate calls and tells me she’s having another panic attack and wants to stay longer. The dorm room is so quiet and weird when I’m the only person in it. I manage to fall asleep around midnight, and when my alarm goes off at four thirty in the morning, I desperately wish I could stay in my warm, comfortable bed.
But I have a garden to explore.
I get up, throw on some clothes, and spend more time than I want to admit putting on makeup and fixing my hair. I want to look cute for Declan, even though he’s seen me looking pretty lame in my school uniform. Technically, we’re supposed to wear our uniforms on weekends too, but it’s so early, I really don’t think we’ll run into anyone. At least I hope not.
I slip out the door right at five, and see Declan standing outside the staff dorms, waiting for me. I can’t help but grin.
“Hey,” I say, walking outside to meet him. “You have the key?”
He pulls it from his pocket. The key is longer than your normal key. It’s longer than the length of my hand, heavy and sturdy. He holds it out to me.
I take it gently, reverently. This key means everything to me right now and I can’t believe I finally have it in my hand.
“What makes you think you’ll find a secret door for this key?” Declan says as we walk toward the nearest garden hedge.
“I’ve already found it,” I say.
He snorts. “There’s no way. I know these gardens in and out.”
“So you know about the secret door?”
He quirks an eyebrow. “There is no secret door.”
“Clearly you don’t know the gardens as well as you think you do.”
He frowns. “Are you serious? Do you seriously know a secret door? Or is this some elaborate joke?”
We slip into the gardens, and I lead the way. The path to the hidden garden is intricate, with lots of twists and turns, and it takes about fifteen minutes to walk there at a normal pace. But I know it by heart.
“Of course I’m serious,” I say. “Why would I be joking about this?”
He shoves his hands in his pockets. “The hidden garden is a rumor at Shelfbrooke. A legend. I don’t know how it got started, but people are always passing it around from one class to the next. So naturally, everyone comes to the gardener—me—thinking I’ll tell them where it is. But it doesn’t exist. My dad doesn’t know anything about it, and neither does my grandfather. I don’t think they would lie to me, either. It’s just really annoying whenever someone starts being my friend and then I realize it’s because they want access to a place that doesn’t exist.”
“Trust me, this is real,” I say. “I wouldn’t lie to you.”
Declan is cute when he looks skeptical. I lean over and bump into him as we walk. “I promise.”
He grins. “How did you find it?”
I snort. “Oh you know…wandering around the gardens feeling sorry for myself.”
“I’m sorry everyone treats you like crap. I mean, you weren’t exactly super nice to me when we met but, you don’t deserve that.”
