Poppy glanced at her mother uncertainly, and Kenzie nodded encouragingly. ‘It’s okay. Do you need me to lift you up to reach?’
She picked her up, watching as Poppy reached out and banged the brass knocker three times. ‘Fairies? Can we come in, please?’ Poppy asked in a timid voice.
After a beat, Vera said, ‘You can open the door now.’ She looked every bit as excited as Poppy, and Kenzie couldn’t help getting caught up in it too. There was something about fairies that brought out the little girl in her.
The big door swung open and revealed a lush green world. It really felt as though you were stepping into another realm. The trees in this part of the garden were tall and leafy, theircanopy blocking out the sky and creating a shady, cool place to escape the growing heat of the day.
They followed the fern-bordered gravel path, liberally sprinkled with bright pottery mushroom garden ornaments and fairy houses. Little fairy doors adorned the bases of trees, and small birds fluttered about in the higher branches. Bees buzzed happily among the wildflowers and the little creek that ran through the middle of the garden babbled merrily.
A small timber bridge crossed the creek further along, and Poppy ran on ahead gleefully.
‘Vera, this is …’ Kenzie paused, at a complete loss for words.Magicalwas the only word that came to mind. ‘I’m honestly expecting a fairy to pop out of the trees at any moment,’ she said with a small chuckle.
‘If you believe in them, you might just get your wish,’ Vera said, in her singsong Scottish accent.
‘This must have taken a mammoth effort to establish.’
‘It was a lot of hard work,’ she agreed. ‘The trees were already established. As Callum mentioned yesterday, the previous owners had been here for five generations and a lot of the bigger trees and plants were already in place. They’d intended to create an oasis with the shade and the creek.’
‘Mummy! Come here!’ Poppy’s excited call led them across the bridge, into a small clearing where a tiny fairy village had been set up. The little town had a post office, cupcake shop, wishes store and several houses of all shapes and sizes.
‘Holy cow,’ Kenzie whispered.
The little buildings barely reached shin height and were realistically detailed, with washing lines, chicken coops and small gardens. One sported an old-fashioned dunny complete with a half-moon shape carved on the door.
‘It’s almost too much, isn’t it?’ Ewan’s deep voice sounded close by, making her gasp and her heart rate jump a little, not completely from the unexpected fright.
‘It’s … I’m lost for words.’
‘That’s my mother for you. She never does anything by half measures.’
They watched on as Poppy and Vera explored the village, keeping an eye out for any fairies nearby.
‘She opens the gardens up to the public once a year for a fundraising event and gets people from all over the country coming out. It’s a pretty big deal.’
Kenzie could only shake her head. It was beyond anything she could have expected. ‘Did you grow up with this?’ she asked.
‘Not like this. Mum always had the dream to create gardens on Laire-Mor, and she’d made pretty good headway, but it’s only been the last seven or so years that it’s really taken off.’
‘What an amazing legacy to have created.’
‘It’s pretty special.’ They stood in silence for a moment as they watched grandmother and grandchild creating precious memories together. ‘Thank you for doing this,’ Ewan said, gesturing towards his mother smiling fondly at the small child beside her. ‘It means a lot.’
‘I never wanted to deliberately keep Poppy from the other side of her family,’ Kenzie promised. ‘I just never knew who they were.’
‘I’m glad we met again.’
‘Even if it completely messed up your life?’ she asked.
‘Yeah, well … maybe you saved me.’
She didn’t know what to make of that comment, so she left it alone.
‘I haven’t been able to stop thinking about yesterday,’ he said, breaking the silence a few moments later, and once again messing with her heart rate. She really wished he’d stop doing that. ‘I know you don’t want to talk about it. I just wanted you to know that what happened took me by surprise, and I wasn’t expecting that kind of chemistry to still be there,’ he said in a rush, as though to get it all out before she could argue with him. ‘Just so you know,’ he tacked on almost stubbornly, not realising he sounded just like his daughter when she was in a particular mood.
Kenzie bit back a small grin. ‘I wasn’t expecting it either,’ she admitted.
‘I’m glad it did, though,’ he added, and she felt his gaze on her, but wasn’t sure if she was brave enough to look at him. He had some kind of weird ability to make her knees go weak and the rest of her do un-Kenzie-like things.
