‘Well, we can wait up here and see if one comes by or we can go and get some cake,’ Carrie said. ‘My stomach’s rumbling.’
‘And your heart is pining for Guy,’ Jules teased.
‘Maybe that, too,’ Carrie said, a bit sheepishly.
Jules reached out to touch the stone again before they headed back towards The Manor. She needed to create some new dreams. Maybe up here would be the place to begin.
They walked back down the path through the woods and halfway down took a slightly different direction, which led to a little wooden gate.
‘It says private,’ Jules said.
‘But we can use it,’ Carrie replied. ‘The Major doesn’t mind.’
‘You get on well with him, don’t you?’
‘I do now. I’m very fond of him. He can be a bit crabby, but underneath it all he’s just lonely. He and his wife were devoted to one another. She’s responsible for a lot of the landscaping of the gardens.’
‘What about his family? Didn’t you say he had a son?’
Carrie wrinkled up her nose.
‘Lives abroad. Not really interested in this place. Wants his dad to sell up and settle in a retirement bungalow. What on earth would he do with himself then? Besides, he’s only in his seventies. That’s not old these days. And it’s this place that keeps him going.’
They walked along the top path between glossy-leaved magnolia bushes and down a little slope towards the tea garden.
‘I’ll get this,’ Jules said, ‘if you want to go and touch base with your beloved.’
‘I’ll just let him know we’re here. You never know, he might get time to join us for a quick cuppa.’
‘Which cake do you want?’
‘Surprise me,’ Carrie replied and headed off between a gap in the hedge in search of Guy.
Jules carefully carried her tray over to a table in the shade and pulled out a chair. She tipped her sunglasses back down over her eyes and surveyed the people at the surrounding tables.
Contentment swirled around the space, weaving in and out of the slatted tables, over and under the wooden chairs. Julesthought that if she stuck out her tongue, she’d be able to taste it, absorb it like a medicine. A dark-haired girl, deep in concentration, picked her way lightly across the grass holding a cardboard box. Jules was tempted to shrink down in her chair, hoping she wouldn’t be seen. But it was too late.
Erin smiled broadly as she got closer and Jules tilted her glasses up on to her head.
‘Hi!’ Erin said. ‘How are you?’
‘I’m good, thank you,’ Jules replied. ‘We’ve been up to the Longstone.’
‘That’s why you looked deep in thought. It does that to you. Sorry for the disturbance, but I thought it might be rude to just walk past.’
Erin balanced the box on the edge of the table.
‘And I needed to shift my grip on the box. Didn’t want to drop these.’
She lifted out a small pottery vase filled with garden flowers.
‘Oh, that’s pretty,’ Jules said, as a bee immediate landed on a spray of miniature roses.
‘Carrie suggested that Dad made a few pots to go on the tables, and we’re going to try and sell a few bits and pieces in the shop here, too.’
‘That’s a good idea.’ Jules picked up the vase and turned it around to catch the light. ‘It’s beautiful. I love the colours.’
‘Actually, I made that one.’
