The Key of My Heart Chapter 2

Chapter 2 What was I going to do today, my dad asked me as we ate breakfast together – the only time I really saw him. He was already up, washed, dressed, tie neatly knotted, and I could see that me still being in my night wear annoyed him. I did think of suggesting that I was going to spend some quality time with him, but it seemed a bit petty. And it was too early as well!
What did he think I was going to do all day anyway? Go to the local world-famous museums like I did when I was in Vienna with mum on a conference last year (her, not me)? Now that had been interesting, even if I didn’t speak any German. And she’d made as much time to be with me as she could manage, and she’d looked up places I might like to see beforehand. It had been a compromise, but then what isn’t? At least she’d tried to meet me half way. If the truth be known, I think dad just hadn’t wanted me to go to Albania with mum – he didn’t approve of what she was doing there, and didn’t want me being infected with her ideals. Well, his ideals didn’t look too appealing to me from where I was sitting. What I did do was go back to my park, and hope that she would turn up again. And she did.
“You came. I was beginning to wonder if I’d imagined you.”
“No. I’m real.”
She was wearing the same clothes as yesterday, and I had been right – they did look too small for her. And her jeans looked like they were trendily ripped at first glance, until you saw that they were actually worn with use. “I can’t believe I forgot to ask you your name. Mine’s Jasper.”
She smiled at me.
“It’s Elfrida. My dad was really into Anglo-Saxon linguistics. Most people call me Freddie though.”
But she didn’t look like a Freddie to me. More like an elf – small, shy and a bit elusive. I told her so.
“Not the Terry Pratchett variety then?”
I must have looked a bit surprised, because she said, “I love reading. It takes me away to somewhere else. Wet days, I go to the library – though I think I’ve read most of their stock by now.”
“Terry Pratchett’s one of my favourite authors too!” And that was it – we were away, discussing books for the next hour or so, until she spotted my guitar, and asked me to play for her as well. Elfrida came back the next day as well, and listened to me trying out the song I’d been working on for the last two weeks. She was a good listener – that’s kind of hard to define, but when she listened to me, she made me listen to myself, and hear how it sounded to her. She wasn’t just a good listener either – she was a good thinker too! I wasn’t happy with the third verse at all, but couldn’t work out why.
“It’s not definite enough. I mean, it’s either got to give you a resolution, or ask a question that leaves you realising you’ve no idea what happens next.”
“Go on – that’s interesting. What do you mean?”
“Well, it’s a boy-meets girl song, basically. So, what the listener wants to know is whether this is forever or not. So you have to tell them the answer, or ask them a question where they have to decide what happens next.”
And five minutes later, we were both sitting on the grass, roughing out new third verses between us. The stars were coming out when we finally parted. We’d written stuff together – and if we used her final verse, than I was going to have to re-write half the music in a minor key – and talked and laughed. I couldn’t believe how easy it was to be in her company.
“You won’t get into trouble for being out so late?”
“My aunt won’t care. And she’s taken all the children bowling tonight – it’s Chablis’s birthday. I hope the others remember to let her win. I’ll be home before they’re back.” Lying on my bed that night, listening to some of my favourite music, I couldn’t stop thinking about Elfrida. She had a sweetness about her that I couldn’t explain. The word that came to my mind was innocence. Mum would like her, I thought. My mother always has a soft spot for the underdog, and I got the impression that no-one really cared much for Elfrida. So how come she was so appealing, despite that? Who had brought out that sweetness in her? I wanted to get to know her better yet. Gerda always sleeps late in the morning. It’s my job to get the children up and fed and out to school more-or-less on time. None of them really enjoy it much, so it’s a bit of a struggle. But today I had something to look forward to. Maybe – just maybe – that boy would be in the park again. Feeding them in the evening is my job as well – it was bread and jam only because Gerda hadn’t done any shopping, and hadn’t given me any money either. I had a pretty good idea where she would be. Propping up a bar somewhere in town. Or dancing on the tables, trying to pull some bloke or another. Tamara’s father lasted the longest, and he still comes around from time to time. But he’s a long-distance lorry driver, and it’s sometimes months between his visits. I don’t know haw Tamara feels about this, but she boasts to the other three sometimes about how her father cares about her. I guess he does at least feel some sort of responsibility. Jasper and I had managed to see each other nearly every day for a couple of weeks now, and the more we saw of each other, the more we liked each other’s company. One afternoon, he took me out to a cinema which specialised in showing golden oldies at that time of day, and we watched a very silly musical about a large family of brothers trying to find wives. A lot of the elderly people there sang along to most of the songs. I came out, blinking in the daylight.
“You look sad, Elf. Why? Didn’t you enjoy the film?” “No. The film was great! I loved it! Thank you for taking me!” My words were almost falling over themselves.
“So why the sad face?” The only thing I could do was tell Jasper the truth.
“It reminded me of the last time I went to the cinema. It was my eighth birthday treat - I went with my parents and my best friend Linda. We had pizza out afterwards – I can remember it all so clearly. The next weekend, my parents flew to Strasbourg for a conference, where my father was presenting a paper. They never came back. The plane went down.”
I watched Jasper’s face change, and wondered how this would alter things between us. But he surprised me. He pulled me into his arms and hugged me for a long time before he spoke.
“You poor child. What an awful thing to happen to you.”
It had been years since anyone hugged me. Gerda never showed me any affection – I don’t know why she kept me, unless it was because I was useful with the children. But I think she could have coped herself, and it would have been one less mouth to feed – something she’s always complaining about. We went to the park afterwards and Jasper played me the song we’d worked on together a while back. He’d gone with my final verse and done a lot of re-writing of the music – I’d written a very open ending, and he’d made the music sound questioning and a little sad.
“Minor keys,” he explained. “Wonderful for setting the mood. Elf, can I see you again tomorrow?”
“If I can make it, I’ll be here. But what about you?”
“My father won’t care what I’m doing. He’s much too busy for me.” I finally got all the children into bed that evening, and then switched out the light. Wayne is frightened of the dark, and cries if the light isn’t left on while he falls asleep. Then I cleaned up a bit before going to bed myself. But my head – and my heart – were full of Jasper. It was so long since anyone had been kind to me. Tomorrow, I would show him my greatest treasure. It didn’t look much to anyone else, but I knew he’d understand its value.

The Key of My Heart Chapter 1

Chapter 1 This was not shaping up to be a good summer. To begin with, I was having to spend it with my dad – mum was going to Albania for three months, and he kicked up such a stink at the thought of me going too, and started insisting on his “access rights” so loudly, that mum said I’d better go and stay with him and keep him sweet.
That wouldn’t have been quite so bad, actually, except that his firm had posted him somewhere else for the summer. So instead of being in Newton, where at least I had friends from before the divorce who’d be quite pleased to see me again, I was in a fancy apartment in a place I’d never been before, and never wanted to go to again. I think dad felt a bit guilty, because he gave me the biggest bedroom. But it was all so impersonal. The apartment was OK – the kitchen had all the latest gadgets, including a fancy coffee-maker – but the town was, quite frankly, a dump. Dad’s a lawyer, and he was here to look into a complicated case of company fraud. Or not – it might just be incompetence. That was all he said to me, and I wasn’t even to say that much to anyone else. I slumped at the table in the smart kitchen, and contemplated the next three months with a sinking feeling. I knew dad and his work – it would be sixteen-hour days, seven days a week, either in the office, or here at the apartment. And when I poked my head into the sitting room, I saw that I was right – he was already pulling up documents and scrolling through them. There was a nice big TV, but I didn’t think I’d get to watch it much, except during the day, when dad was out. And I’m not really into daytime TV that much. But I had brought a few things with me, to try and make life a bit more bearable. Dad doesn’t get my passion for music. He really doesn’t understand how I feel about it. OK, I don’t expect him to approve of the posters and so on, but he can’t understand why I also like playing. Mostly guitar now, but I’m pretty good on the piano too – it’s amazing what an hour and a half a day practising can do for you. At least the bedroom looked a bit more like me now – and it was at the other end from the sitting room, so I should be able to play stuff without him complaining too much. But I couldn’t spend all day stuck in here – I was going to have to find somewhere to go out to. A week later, I found my somewhere. It was a little park – a quiet and slightly shabby place, but it suited my mood. It didn’t seem to have any dodgy characters hanging around in it, but it wasn’t busy either. According to the plaque on the gates, it had been founded by Miss Octavia Wilmington, in memory of her five brothers and fiancé who had been killed in the Great War, and a sum of monies had been set aside for its upkeep for ever, so that others might find the peace and tranquillity that she so badly needed herself. From the look of the place, the sum of monies hadn’t quite kept pace with inflation. I could play my guitar here, and forget myself in the demands of the practice. I could even write some new songs, and try them out. I was playing one day, something I’d written myself, concentrating hard, when I became aware of someone else. I looked up, and there she was, watching me. And I got the feeling she’d been there for a while too, but so unobtrusively that I’d only just noticed her. At first, I thought she was just a kid, and wondered why she wasn’t in school – I’d finished for the summer early because of my exams, but I knew that the schools didn’t break up for another three weeks yet. She was a skinny little thing, with a T shirt that looked a bit too small for her, and worn-out jeans. I don’t normally like people listening when I’m trying to write something, but there was something different about her. It was the first chance I’d had to get away from home for ages. My aunt had been “away” for several days, and I’d had to look after the children. But she was back now, and I’d slipped out of the house as soon as the children were off to school, leaving her sleeping in bed. Miss Octavia Wilmington’s park was one of my favourite places, and I only wished I could have told her how much it meant to me. Seeing as she’d died fifty years ago, though, that would have been a bit difficult. I heard the music as I went in through the gates. Normally there was no-one else here – no swings or slides for children, too far from anywhere for teenagers, too uphill for the elderly. He had his back to me at first, and I stood for ages just listening. Even when he turned round, he didn’t notice me for ages. That suited me just fine. It was such a change from the chaos and mayhem of home. And it was lovely listening to someone trying to create something, rather than destroy it. I watched him, his face intent on what he was doing, half-humming, half-singing to himself as he tried out different chord progressions, or a different arrangement of the words. Eventually he noticed me properly, and stopped playing.
“Don’t stop – that was lovely.”
“I need a break – I’m going brain-dead trying to get this right. Do you know, you’re the first person I’ve seen here, and I’ve been coming here for a week.”
“Well, I’ve been coming here for months, and you’re only about the fourth person I’ve ever seen too!”
He laughed, and sat down on the bench, inviting me to come and sit next to him.
“So you live round here?”
I nodded. “And you’re new here?”
“I’m only here for the summer – I’m staying with my dad, and he’s working here for a few months. But there’s not a lot to do round here.”
“I’m afraid that’s true!”
We sat and chatted for quite a while – until I asked him the time and realised that I’d better leave if I was to get home on time.
“Will you be coming here tomorrow?” he asked. “If I can get away. It all depends.”
“Then I’ll have to hope that you can get away. It would be nice to see you again.” I took the memory of his smile home with me. Wayne was outside the apartment, tormenting Tamara – but to be fair, she’d probably asked for it. My aunt has four children. No husband, nor has there ever been – and I’m not sure if she knows who all the fathers were, either. Chablis is her favourite, and the one who can do no wrong, and gets everything she wants as well. She was having a go at Jason as I went inside. When he turned round and had a go back at her, she pulled her “everyone picks on me” face, but it doesn’t work on me. Tamara came and whined at me as I was getting dinner ready for them all – and then, when I wasn’t sympathetic at all, said she’d tell Gerda on me; but we both knew Gerda wouldn’t pay any attention to her. I ignored her anyway – I was busy thinking about the boy I’d met in the park. And I didn’t even know his name.

Talisman Chapter 26

Chapter 26 I turned to look back at Ship House as I set off for school that first day. The painters were busy on the outside of the house – mostly round the back at the moment, but you could get some idea of how it was going to look when it was all done. I still couldn’t quite believe that we were actually living there now! The school was a big, modern building – I found out later that the old one had just got Too Small.
“So they built this new one instead, and turned the old building into a community centre,” someone explained. “They took down all the portakabins that we used to have lessons in, kept the playing fields and swimming pool – and now there’s a gym there, a café, a toddler play area, a games room – it’s a fun place to go to. You should come some time.” I needn’t have been too worried about starting somewhere new. The head of 6th form, Mr Longwood, asked Rachel Swaledale to look after me while I found my feet, and she was really friendly. While I was settling into my new school, Sapphire was carrying on with the decorating. And the shopping! I came home one day, and all the stuff for the dining room had arrived. Sapphire had gone for blue and white and yellow in that room.
“It’s nice and bright, and as this is a breakfast-only room, that’s what we need. We don’t need soft romantic evening light. We want people to feel cheerful and energised, and looking forward to their day ahead.” My garden was growing steadily – school work, helping with the decorating at weekends, and the garden were taking up pretty much all of my time. Harry was looking forward to cooking with what I’d grown.
“But I think we’ll have to get some help with this garden once we open,” he said to me one evening. “You need a life too. You need time to socialise and get to know people.” I was getting to know people though. Slowly, but steadily. Some of the other people at school had lived in the village for generations, and their grandparents were quite pleased to have a Mallerby back at Ship House. I’d been a bit worried that people might think we were rich or posh or something, but the fact that we were trying to start a business seemed to make a difference.
I looked out at the sunset from the window in my tiny study (at the total jungle of a front garden) and decided that this was a good place to be, for all three of us. The painters would be finished painting the house soon, and then we could make a start on repairing the walls round the garden. We still needed someone to help us clear the front garden though – it was too big a task for us to manage alone.
Then I pulled myself together, stopped day-dreaming, and went to help Sapphire paint the study. Sapphire had worked her magic on the study as well, and done it out in some very restful green and yellow tones. She was beginning to master the computer (with some help from me) and was experimenting with spreadsheets at the moment. We couldn’t do anything about a website for the business until we’d finished making everywhere look good – no-one in their right minds would come here with it looking the way it did at the moment! But we were making progress! Harry used the computer too – mostly browsing the web for recipes, but he did have a couple of cooking blogs he liked to follow as well. Dee’s was his favourite: he liked her imaginative use of fresh ingredients, and he was beginning a list of Things I Absolutely Had To Grow Next Year.
We’d bought some bookcases, and I’d unpacked all the books the professor had left for me: all his years of research into the Mallerby family. From time to time, I dipped into them, but I didn’t really have time to sort them all out properly. Something else I could do with some help over. As soon as we’d finished one of the bedrooms, we invited Granny Thomas over for a visit. She was very impressed with what we’d done so far – and raised her eyebrows somewhat at what was still to do! When Harry had gone downstairs to prepare lunch, Granny Thomas collared Sapphire.
“There’s something you need to know – but I don’t think we’ll bother Harry about it. Young Tallie told me all about that Brett fellow and what he was trying to do – well, I had a visit from him.” Sapphire paled visibly.
“What did he want?”
“Your address, of course. Don’t worry – I didn’t give it to him.”
“But what happened?” Sapphire was getting upset by now, but Granny Thomas laughed.
“He got a bit more than he bargained for. You see, one of my army grandsons was visiting.”
Granny Thomas has three “army grandsons” as she calls them – Tom, who’s in the Royal Marines, Dave, who’s in the SAS, and Charlie, who’s in the Royal Engineers. I like Charlie and Tom a lot, but Dave scares me a bit.
“Which one?” “Dave! And he really didn’t like Brett threatening me.” Granny Thomas grinned like a girl when she was telling Sapphire about it.
“So he put the fear of God into that Brett character. And told him in no uncertain terms that if he ever came near me, or you, or Harry or Tallie again, then he would personally put him through the mincer. Brett believed him. So, Sapphire, if he bothers you again, let me know. And Dave will personally sort him out.”
Sapphire could hardly believe her ears.
“You mean – we’ve really seen the last of him?”
“Oh yes. No questions asked. Now, where’s that cup of tea I was promised?” I came home to find them all reading in the sitting room.
“We’re testing it out,” Granny Thomas said with a smile. “It’s very important to test things out. Now show me this garden of yours.” Granny Thomas came and helped me with the evening watering, weeding and general gardening.
“You’ve done a good job here, young Tallie. Looks like you picked something up from me after all.”
And I had: I had learned from her as well as from Talisman de Malherbe.
“It’s nice here. I’ll take a look around tomorrow, while you’re at school. And I’ll give you a hand with the garden at the weekend – but I must go back Monday, or my own garden will be dying.” Granny Thomas was very interested in the archives that the professor had left me, and said that I should go to the library, and find out some more – and try and sort them out as well. “You could use this in the publicity for the house – all this history would be interesting.”
So I went to the library (which was the factory I’d seen in Talisman Malaby’s day: it has been converted into a rather nice library. And the trees round it weren’t dying any more) and headed for the local history shelves. I was just reaching for a book that looked promising, when someone else reached for it at the same time.
We did the whole confused apology thing, and the: no, you were here first; no you have it stuff, and then got talking properly. “But I’m really interested in local history too!” the lady said. “We’ve only just moved here, with my husband’s job, and so I’ve got time on my hands while I job-hunt too. I really got into it because my husband’s family had lived in the same place for years and years, so it was very easy to make a start. Then I got addicted to it – and traced his family tree back for generations! It’s like a crossword, or a jigsaw puzzle: you keep finding one more piece, and filling in a bit more of the pattern.”
She was very chatty, but very friendly with it. I mean, she didn’t come over as desperate or creepy or weird or anything, so we went on talking. “My family’s been here for years as well, but I’ve only just moved here. And I have all these documents and stuff, and I want to sort it out, but I don’t really know where to start. I’d like to put a history together, but how do you begin? And some of the stuff, I can’t understand: I can tell it’s in Latin, but I can only read the odd word or two.”
“Contractions and abbreviations – people didn’t write out the whole word if you could abbreviate it! Once you get to know them, it’s easier. Look, I don’t want to seem pushy – after all, we’ve only just met, but I could help you – and I’d love to! Honestly. It’s a bit boring being somewhere new, and not settled into anything yet. Why don’t you come for tea or something, and bring your parents as well?” I didn’t bother trying to explain about Harry and Sapphire not really being my parents, but I did say that would be very nice, thank you. We swapped phone numbers and addresses – she lived the other side of the river.
“In a huge Edwardian house! It’s a bit big for us really, but when the children all come home, we need the space. And my eldest daughter is expecting, so we wanted space for the grandchildren to be able to come and stay as well. The garden’s really boring at the moment, so we’re going to get my youngest son to re-design it for us – he wants to be a landscape gardener, so we reckoned he could start practising on us.”
We talked for a while longer, and then I headed home, with a possible tea-date on Saturday if Harry and Sapphire were free. On my way out of the library, I met Rachel’s mum, Evie, who asked how I was settling in, and was Rachel doing a good job of looking after me (but she asked that like she knew I was going to say yes) and would I like to come for a meal after school some day. I left the library feeling as though I was beginning to settle into the village as well as into the house. I was getting to know other people at school as well. Vesper was in my Latin class (don’t ask about the name! His parents are really into early music. They are mortified that he plays the guitar in preference to a lute or rebec or hautbois) and we took to doing our homework together when it was Ovid translations.
“This guy is just going on and on about the dust on her dress,” I complained.
“Yeah,” Vesper grinned. “Cause he wants an excuse to brush it off.”
I liked Vesper, and the boys in my maths class as well, but sometimes I felt years older than them. Rachel had commented on it too.
“You’re just so mature, Tallie. You feel older than you really are.”
“Oh no! I’m old and staid and boring! Middle-aged at sixteen!”
That made her laugh, but she said, “Not like that! But grown up, I guess. Never mind, I’ll still be your friend, even though your pension’s nearly due.” And that made me laugh.
But I knew what she meant. And I knew why: it was the other Talismans. They had changed me. Mrs Longwood called round, to introduce herself to Harry and Sapphire. Sapphire liked her straightaway, which confirmed my earlier thoughts about Mrs Longwood. After working behind a bar for a fair while, Sapphire’s a very good judge of character. Harry got on well with her too, and we fixed a definite tea-date for Saturday.
“You must let me bring something,” Harry said – and Mrs Longwood was about to say don’t bother, really it’s no trouble, but we all told her that she had to try out Harry’s latest recipes, and we needed to road-test them, so she agreed. It was just as well Harry had brought some food with him, Mrs Longwood said, because her youngest son, Jake, had turned up unexpectedly. And he had a bottomless pit for a stomach…He was very appreciative of Harry’s baking though!
“I’ve been living off baked beans, spaghetti bolognaise and whatever was on special offer for the last three months! This is bliss.”
It was a bit embarrassing when I discovered that Mrs Longwood’s husband was the Mr Longwood who was head of 6th form. I went very quiet. Jake was the one who wanted to be a landscape gardener. He’d had a six month contract at a park in Wales, but the budget had been cut, and the project shelved half-way through, so he was home again. He took me into the garden – partly to tell me what he was planning to do with it, and partly to get me away from his father.
“I remember how weird it is to meet your teachers out of school! But he’s okay, really.” I started asking him about his plans for the garden.
“Well, there’s loads of clearing and pruning to do. Then mum wants a really interesting and exciting garden for the grandchildren to play in. I thought tree house, maze, sandpit – but the challenge is to make it look good as well. And anything I do here can go in my portfolio. Do you like gardening?” So I told him about Ship House, and what I’d done there already and what was still to do.
“The contractors are coming to do the wall starting Monday, and hopefully that’s not going to take too long. Then we need to get as much done as we can before the winter, and get it looking good enough to photograph in the spring.”
Jake was fascinated. “So you’re going to be trying to restore and update a whole garden? Are there any historical records?”
I laughed. “Boatloads! Your mum said she’d help me sort through them.”
“Well, that’s her field. She did a Ph.D. in Mediaeval History, you know – that’s how she met my dad, researching his family. She’d be a brilliant person to help you, especially if you have got records going that far back, but even if you haven’t. She was an archivist as well, at our old county library, until the cuts to library grants.” This sounded really promising. “Now, about this garden of yours – what exactly are your plans for it?”
I had to say I didn’t know. The kitchen garden and orchard I’d had definite plans for – but the front? That was a different matter.
“Can I come and look at it?”
“Well, you can, but it’s a total jungle.”
“I want to see it – to get a feel for its bones.”
“It doesn’t have bones – it has brambles!”
But it was fun talking to Jake, and by the time we all left, we’d agreed that Jake would come round tomorrow to see the garden – and Mrs – “do call me Alice” – Longwood would come and sort through some stuff with a view to looking at the really early records. The contractors had repaired the garden wall, and the ugly chain-link fencing was gone. The new bits of wall didn’t have the ivy growing over them that the old bits did, but the brick was as good a match as we could manage. Jake was more and more fascinated by the garden each time he came. “This part looks like it was some sort of decorative shrubbery once. But that statue looks old. I can’t work out how come nobody nicked it all the time the house was empty.”
I could. Ship wouldn’t have let them. “Tallie, this garden is fabulous. Or could be, once again. Listen – what are your plans for doing it?”
I hadn’t got any, and he knew that. He went on a bit diffidently.
“Because I’d love to be the one to do it. And I’d do it for very little, if I can use it afterwards as an example for my portfolio. My parents say I can live with them rent-free, but I need to earn enough for my food, and my share of their bills…” He was beginning to gabble in his nervousness. I put him out of his misery.
“I think it’s a great idea, if it suits Harry and Sapphire as well. Especially Sapphire – she’s the one with the vision for this really.” Sapphire came out and joined us among the brambles. Jake listened as she talked about what we needed.
“We need car parking, but I don’t want it to be too ugly. I want to market this place as good for family holidays, so we’ve got to make this pond secure or get rid of it. I thought we might make a children’s play area at the back of the house – between Tallie’s vegetables and the orchard, as that’s very safe. I want the garden to appeal to grown-ups and teens as well – and it has to look great on arrival. Can you show us some plans and give us some costings?” “Give me a week, and I should have something to show you. As I told Tallie, I’m happy to keep my wages to a minimum, if I can show other prospective clients round the garden – by prior arrangement with you, obviously. I don’t have my own company yet, so I’d be sub-contracting heavy work like the tree-felling: if I get a couple of quotes for those sorts of jobs, that would give us a ball-park figure…”
Jake had been hesitant with me, but he was beautifully business-like with Sapphire. The long and the short of it was that he did get the contract, and began clearing the ground outside almost straight away. Inside, meanwhile, the decorating was continuing apace. Sapphire had found the original front bedroom wallpaper reproduced, and the room looked like it had in Aunt Violet’s time. Aunt Violet’s room looked quite different – but I didn’t mind. The bedroom off it had been done out as a small twin-bedded room, so the two rooms could be let together to a family. The bathrooms were finished – one of the smaller bedrooms was turned into two en-suite bathrooms, and the other two were the original ones. The upstairs landing was still gloomy and dingy though. And the hall and stairs had seen better days – like in the 1920’s and 30’s – but as Sapphire said, there was no point in starting on them until everything else was done. But now it was – and Sapphire and I were looking at wallpaper samples, paint, panelling and so on. Jake got the garden cleared with amazing speed – partly by getting in touch with the other people who’d been working with him in Wales, and who were all glad of something to do. It was beginning to look as though we might make our Easter opening goal. Sapphire began polishing up the website in earnest, with the help of one of my 6th form friends, who was only too glad to earn a little money. Jake would often stay at the end of the day to help me with my vegetable garden. We’d talk about anything and everything under the sun. He was the easiest company, and unlike the boys at school, he didn’t feel too young. “You need an automatic watering system for this garden, Tallie. There’s going to be too much here for you to cope with as your exams get nearer. I’m planning a trickle irrigation system, and we’ll harvest as much rainwater as possible. You’ve got lots of roof here.”
Was I silly to be so pleased that he was thinking about my workload? We were going to open on time! We’d made our Easter goal! And we had bookings!!! Jake had transformed the garden, and the house looked serene and lovely. The mature trees had been hugely expensive, but totally worth it, as even Sapphire agreed. The lake area was a serene area of calm. Jake had planted it with white and blue only – white for evening effect, if anyone wanted to sit out in the evening. The old tennis court was a lovely children’s play area (and we had a teenage play area down in the cellars too. Along with a television room, a laundry, storage space – the house hadn’t been so well-used for years). The old stables had been converted into a self-catering annexe – we’d had no problems with planning permission. In fact, the inspector had said that half the modern houses he looked at weren’t so well built. The landing and the hall looked clean and elegant. A bit bare still, but Sapphire said that we’d find out what we needed as we had guests, and it was as well to have extra space to put things in. Jake came round to have a last check-round the gardens before the first visitors arrived the next day.
“Tallie, doing this garden has been fantastic. I’ve never felt so creative. And I’ve already got three more jobs lined up on the strength of it – only small ones, but I have to start somewhere. Oh, and that reminds me, mum’s coming over later – she got really excited about something she just found out. Is it really true that there’s been a Talisman Mallerby here since mediaeval times?” “Yes.”
“Wow, that is so cool!”
“But I’m the last – and I’ve got no brothers.”
“Well, if you get married, you’ll have to get your husband to take your name. I mean, I would, if I had a wife with a history like yours.” “Do you really think someone would?”
“No questions asked. And Tallie – if he doesn’t love you enough to do that, then don’t marry him.” Alice didn’t even wait until she got inside before she broke the news.
“Tallie – we’re related – well, you and I aren’t really, except by marriage, but you and Jake are! One of my husband’s ancestors married a Talisman de Malherbe! He was a de Malherbe too, but then he took his mother’s name when he inherited her manor.”
“Really!” I couldn’t believe it! Talisman de Malherbe – and her happy marriage.
Alice looked down at me, smiling as though she knew something I didn’t.
“And when you’re old enough, Talisman Mallerby, I hope that same happiness that they shared comes to you.” I looked at her and then looked away. I no longer found Alys Mallerby’s feelings totally weird. The more I’d seen of Jake, the more I’d liked him, and the truth was that I knew I was now deeply in love with him.
Alice read my face all too well, but her own expression was soft.
“Tallie, you’re nearly seventeen. But you are so mature for your age. Jake won’t ask you to be his girlfriend while you’re still at the school where his father works, but if you know how to wait for a while…”
I knew how to wait. I had learnt a lot about waiting – and I’d learnt that snatching often spoiled things. Waiting was worthwhile. I looked up at Alice Longwood, straight into her eyes.
“I can do waiting. If you’re on my side.”
She hugged me tightly.
“There’s nothing I’d like more, Tallie. There’s nothing I’d like more.”
And it seemed to me, as I stood there in the garden of Ship House, that I couldn’t ask anything better out of life.