“Okay, Leonie should listen to this. We need a witness.”
“I’m here,” Leonie says.
“Right. I want you to use all the revenue generated by Hope Gardens and the apartment to help everyone else affected by this injunction.”
Evan must have already known what I would say because he answers right away. “Are you sure, Evie? This is your money, and there’s rather a lot of it.”
“Good. You’re all going to need it.”
“I won’t lie to you. This is a very welcome and desperately needed gift. It might…” He breaks off and clears his throat. “It just might save us.”
I wave to my customers and beckon them to the potting area.
“Evie.” He’s still talking. “This is a loan, not a donation. If and when we come out of this, I will repay you every pound. I’m going to send you receipts so it’s all above board.”
“No need.”
“Every need. Evie, it’s a deal breaker. I won’t take your money without proper—”
“Fine, fine.” I clamp the phone between my ear and shoulder while finding aprons for all my customers. “Promise me you won’t give up on Kendric Park and its community.”
“You’re asking me?” He chuckles softly. “But Evie, I need your address to send you a record of all the payments.”
I collect spare gloves and trowels while giving him the address to my cheap little cottage, then say a quick goodbye.
Chapter Fifty-three
Two days later, Leonie calls with an update.
I’ve just cleaned up after a small workshop, Christmas Berries and Miniature Berry Trees. When her call comes through I pause just inside the entrance and perch on a crate.
“Tell me, any news?”
“Evan gathered all the partners Monday afternoon,” Leonie says.
“Monday?” That was just after our phone call. “He’s quick. Did they have a community dinner?”
“No, no. He didn’t wait for dinner. Didn’t wait to discuss it with Haneen, either, and he runseverythingby Haneen normally. He just sent Wyn and Rhian to round everyone up for an urgent meeting. They hurried into the ballroom with various shades of worried.” Her voice sounds like she’s smiling.
“I was dying to tell them, but it was Evan’s place, not mine. Anyway, he didn’t waste time on preambles. Just explained why the legal ban on drawing an income didn’t apply to you, then told them they could each have a small loan from the Hope Gardens fund. You should have seen it, Evie. The relief went round the group like a Mexican wave.”
My own Mexican wave of pleasure washes into my heart and around my body. It’s the first real pleasure I’ve felt since leaving the Kendric Park community. The same community that helped me so much when I needed them. I’d agonised about how I was ever going to pay them back.
And Osian promised me there would come a time when I could help them.
“Except Osian.”
I’m so far away in my own thoughts, it takes me a couple of seconds to realise she’d spoken.
“Except Osian, what?” I ask.
“He wasn’t happy. He actually interrogated Evan about whether you really offered or if you’d beenleanedon.”
“Leanedon?” How could he suspect such a thing? “No one leaned on me. I hope you told him. You heard me.” Thank God I had the foresight to insist Leonie witnessed the conversation.
“We did. But then he started questioning if you knew how much money you were donating. He kept saying that you shouldn’t be allowed to do this.”
I don’t know how to feel about this. “Is he being protective or just overly righteous?”
