‘Don’t be silly.’ She smiled again. ‘Maybe you weren’t up to doing anything about it.’ She touched his arm gently. ‘There’s a time for everything.’
‘You did say it was a bit of a jungle,’ said Maisie and Jess felt her cheeks colour.
‘Out of the mouth of babes.’ Mark shrugged.
‘Sorry.’ Jess grimaced.
‘Don’t worry about it.’ He smiled as Maisie ran over to the water feature. ‘I know I have left it far too long before tackling it,’ he admitted. ‘Di was the gardener and somehow, I am ashamed to say, I let things slide. I kept imagining us both sitting out here, which is a poor excuse, but the thought of us enjoying the garden together, knowing that it could never happen, well, it got to me, you know?’ He took a deep breath. ‘Anyway, I nipped to the garden centre for the plants after I had given myself a good talking-to and decided to get stuck in.’
‘Well, you have done a really good job,’ said Jess. ‘Especially as you don’t consider yourself to be a gardener. Really, it looks lovely,’ she told him sincerely.
She wondered what it had been like when Alice had lived here, picturing stone fountains and maybe raised beds for growing vegetables. Perhaps they had a gardener. She would love to know more about Alice’s life at Wisteria House.
‘Thanks.’ Mark smiled. ‘And actually, now that it looks presentable, maybe I will have a BBQ to repay Alice for dinner the other evening. I know Di would want me to enjoy the garden as well as the work.’
‘That sounds lovely,’ said Jess.
‘Great. I will see when everyone in the block is free.’
Even though the thought of hosting a party scared him a little, he found himself looking forward to being in the company of his neighbours again.
‘Do you have any family nearby?’ Jess found herself asking. She had never noticed anyone visiting, but then she was usually too busy dashing off somewhere.
‘No.’ Mark shook his head. ‘I was thinking about getting some of that bamboo fencing, or some fake foliage with flowers,’ he said, quickly changing the subject. ‘Some of it can look quite natural.’
‘Clematis is a good climber if you want real plants. So is honeysuckle,’ Jess advised.
Her mum’s garden had the loveliest scent of honeysuckle in the summer evenings, when they would sit out and have a coffee or a glass of wine in the small but pretty garden. She missed her mum, and could hardly wait for the following weekend when she was coming to stay from Friday to Sunday.
Inside her apartment that evening, Jess made beans on toast for her and Maisie, as they had eaten a huge picnic earlier. It had been such a lovely day. Maisie was tucked up and fast asleep just before eight o’clock and Jess headed to bed a couple of hours later. She switched the TV on and idly flicked channels. She never did knock and see how Declan was doing. Maybe she would do that in the morning.
SEVENTEEN
Alice’s House Near the Sea
The sun began to fade far quicker than Alice had expected it to, although she had read for almost three hours, enjoying the pot of tea in the library room. It had always been her favourite room in the house with its sash windows and heavy drapes. Looking upwards at the tall ceiling with a beautiful rose at its centre, she recalled her joy when she first noticed it when viewing the house.
She was spending one last evening in the house that she once lived in with her husband as it would soon be someone else’s home.
Alice’s stomach had rumbled an hour ago, and grateful to have mastered the art of ordering food online, she had enjoyed a tasty curry that had arrived from her favourite place on South Road. She ate her meal at a small table that overlooked the distant sand dunes, a strip of the wild Irish Sea beyond just visible. She thought about herself and George then, as she often did, taking windswept walks when they were younger.
One particularly windy day they had laughed when a gust of wind made George’s trousers billow out like a windsock and lifted her hat from her head, sending it rolling towards the water.George had run after it, and managed to rescue it, not before falling flat on his backside in the wet sand, to roars of laughter from Alice.
They had warmed up at home in front of a blazing fire, drinking hot chocolate with a slug of brandy added. The house, long neglected, had been a project, but they saw the potential and over time had transformed it into a stunning home.
It had been fortunate that George’s brother was a carpenter and at weekends they all rolled their sleeves up and got stuck in together. There were so many memories made in this house but, in some ways, it was like a mausoleum now.
She had rattled around the empty rooms of the four-bedroomed Georgian house for long enough when she decided to sell up and rent the small apartment. The fact that it had once been a part of her childhood home felt like fate stepping in.
With the light fading, Alice decided to stay for the evening and take a taxi back to the flat in the morning, so after a whisky nightcap she settled into her bedroom with the primrose-coloured walls and dark-wooden furniture. Her fingers ran over the framed photograph of George that sat on the bedside table in a silver frame.
‘Hello, George,’ she said as she settled down into the bed with the white Egyptian cotton sheets. ‘I have met some lovely people in an apartment I am renting, and I know you would like them,’ she told him. ‘I did consider buying, as I know you think renting is no investment, but at my age I’m not sure there is a lot to invest in,’ she told him. ‘I like to think I can help them in some way, and I know you would agree. Especially Jess and her daughter, Maisie. A more adorable child you could never meet.’ She smiled to herself.
She chatted away to George as if he was in the room.
‘Declan is a fine young man too. I get the feeling it won’t be too long before he is working in the office. Oh, George, can youimagine how wonderful it would be for someone to bring the old office back to life, having meetings with clients, just like the old days?’
She closed her eyes and recalled the busy days in the office when she would call in and insist George took a lunch break and would drag him to a café nearby, where they would drink coffee and eat chicken Caesar salad.
