Was that because she’d been struggling to maintain it?
Had she become ill and gone into a home?Was she sick?Anything else was too much to consider.He should have contacted her before now.
Who would know what had happened?
His heart raced and his chest squeezed as if trying to stop the racing.He gasped for breath and closed his eyes, going through the breathing exercises his psychologist had taught him.
When he could breathe normally again, he glanced across the road.The simple brick and tile house belonged to the Education Department and teachers came and went, but Aunt Maggie had always welcomed the new ones with a cake.
He exhaled and crossed the road to knock on the door.
A short, plump woman answered it and she took a step back, her eyes wide when she saw him.
Ethan shifted back and tried to relax his tense muscles, knowing his broad almost six-foot frame could be intimidating.He smiled.“I’m sorry to disturb you.I was driving through town and decided to visit Aunt Maggie.”He gestured over the road.“I haven’t heard from her in a while and it looks as if the place is abandoned.”
The woman put her hands to her lips, her expression sad.“I’m so sorry to tell you this.Aunt Maggie died last year.”
He stepped back as grief hit him, his throat tight, eyes stinging.“How?”
“She fell off a ladder,” the woman said.“My husband found her, but by then it was too late.”
He wanted to shake his head to deny it, but there was no point.He gritted his teeth as the grief threatened to overwhelm him.She’d been his family, and he hadn’t known she was dead.What kind of person was he?
“How did you know her?”the woman asked.
“I did garden work for her when I was a teenager,” he answered.“She was always kind to me.”
“Are you Ethan?”
He blinked and nodded.
“She spoke about you.She was ever so chuffed by the bilby chocolate you sent her last year.I’m surprised none of the family told you about her death.”
Chelsea.She would have been devastated.Maggie had been her surrogate grandmother.“Is Chelsea in town?”
The woman shook her head.“No.I met her and her mother, Sabine at the funeral, of course.Maggie left the house to Sabine, and Sabine said she would hire someone to upkeep the gardens while she decided what to do with it, but I guess she didn’t get around to it.”
Ethan had never been impressed by Chelsea’s mother.She’d left Chelsea with Maggie for an entire summer while she toured Europe with her new husband.Chelsea had been struggling with the fact her stepfather didn’t want her to join them, and hadn’t enjoyed moving to Sydney.She’d been vulnerable, and Ethan had done everything he could to make her feel wanted.
The woman cleared her throat.She stood patiently in the doorway while he processed the news.What the hell did he do now?“Would it be all right if I looked around the garden?”He didn’t want her calling the police and getting him arrested.
The woman smiled.“I’m sure no one would mind.There’s been a property developer scoping out the place as well.”
He raised his eyebrows.
“Wants to build a retirement village from what I hear,” the woman said.“It would be such a travesty to see the property turned into units, but I guess all of Maggie’s hard work is disappearing as it is.”
A possessive feeling swept through him.The garden had been Maggie’s life.He couldn’t bear to see it reduced to nothing.“Do you have Sabine’s phone number?”
The woman shook her head.“I should have got it at the funeral, but I didn’t think of it.I believe she and Chelsea live in Sydney.”
He nodded.“Thank you for your help.”
He returned to Lilydale Cottage and circled the house.The little pergola in the private garden still stood, its white paint starting to age and peel.Underneath it sat a round wooden table with four bench seats where he’d spent many break times drinking tea and eating biscuits with Aunt Maggie.
This amount of deterioration couldn’t have happened in under a year.When was the last time he’d actually visited Lilydale?
It must have been three years ago when he’d been coming back from training down south and stopped for a couple of nights on the way back to the city.
