As usual, he gets in first. ‘I thought I’d find you in the second garden. It’s exactly as you said, Zofia.’ He raises one eyebrow. ‘Sorry for creeping up on you. It’s so wonderful I had to join in with your visit, Betty Beth.’
‘Forget about the creeping, why are you here at all,Miles? You’re hijacking my tour!’
I know that when I’m so close to solving my immediate career and cashflow problem I should let this go, but as my main reason to come was to stay out of Miles’s way, I can’t stay quiet.
Zofia shakes her head. ‘This is down to me. When I met Miles in town on my way to pick you up he asked if he could come too, so I thought two birds with one stone– my Boathouse Cottage people can enjoy it together.’ She’s looking from Miles to me and back again. ‘And I am right. You do love it; it touchesbothyour hearts in the way I knew it would.’
I’m organising my reply to that when I see that Miles is staring down at my leg.
‘Is there a rip in your dress?’
I give up. ‘It’s not a dress, Miles, it’s a skirt– at least the top layer you’re talking about is.’ I carry on. ‘It is slightly torn, yes, but I mended it as best I could, and the fabric is so pretty I couldn’t bear to throw it away.’
He’s squinting down. ‘I thought maybe you’d caught it on a rose thorn.’
I shake my head. ‘No, it’s a hole that was already there when I bought it in the charity shop. I may not choose it if I were going for an afternoon at the palace, but for a last-minute outing three mins up the road I decided Zofia might like the daisy print so much she’d overlook the flaw. Can the fashion police forgive that blunder?’
Miles is staring at the sky. ‘I was being concerned, not picky.’
‘Great! In that case, thank you.’ I clap my hands and take a jump towards the most distant corner of the garden. ‘Espalier pears! My mum loved those too. I must take a closer look!’
Miles grins. ‘Anything that interesting I have to see. Shall we all go?’
I frown. ‘As it’s personal to me, you’ll probably get more out of watching the wind on the marigolds.’
He’s still looking hopeful. ‘That’s a hard “no” then, Bethy?’
I nod. ‘I won’t be long.’
I’m not sure what it is about Miles that makes me so agitated when I don’t give a toss about him or what he thinks about me. Before he arrived, I was calm, and now every nerve in my body is on edge.
It’s exactly the same at the cottage. Even if I’m way down Pumpkin’s patch of grass, the moment Miles strolls out onto the terraces, my eyes are drawn to him, and however hard I try, I can’t look away. The only way I can rationalise this is that my sixth sense sees him as a rival rather than a housemate. You wouldn’t turn your back on a shark, would you? If he were a tiger, it would make perfect sense to watch every graceful, beautiful, hungry move, so you could save yourself before he went in to eat you.
At least walking across to the other end of the garden gives me a little distance. He’s this awful blend of super critical and insanely distant, while seriously looking straight down his nose at me at the same time. It’s as if every interaction we have has to end in a verbal scuffle. Every time we see each other, we fight.
As I reach the far wall with its neat lines of fruit tree branches and dangling pears spreading across the stonework I turn and see Zofia’s walking two steps behind me.
I sigh and smile. ‘Mum’s espalier pear was up against our kitchen wall, but it wasn’t ever neat like yours. She’d seen them growing against walls in the National Trust gardens and was determined to try for herself at home.’
Zofia considers. ‘Espaliers need a firm hand with their pruning. Scarlett told me you don’t have your mum anymore.’
I sigh again. ‘She would have loved it here. Whenever I’m anywhere especially lovely, it breaks my heart that she can’t be with me to share it. But she wanted us to live happy lives, so I try to make the most of every moment and not dwell on the sad bits.’
Zofia catches hold of my hand. ‘It means a lot to me that you feel that here. This place is very special, but I am simply a very lucky custodian taking care of it for a while.’
My smile widens. ‘And doing a very good job of it.’
She points further along the wall. ‘See, next to the pears, there’s a medlar tree. They’re very old fashioned; you don’t see them very often.’
I’m remembering GCSE English. ‘There was one of those inRomeo and Juliet.’
‘We must mention that to Miles.’ Zofia comes in closer and lowers her voice. ‘You have noticed that he can’t keep his eyes off you?’
I roll my eyes. ‘We all know how straight guys are with women’s chests. That’s how we don’t die out as a species.’
‘It’s not your boobs, it’s your face. You do know what it means when a man stares at your mouth?’
I have to put a stop to this. ‘I honestly haven’t seen that. And I also absolutely know he never would.’
