No one said anything for a few seconds but a look passed between the couple. Luke raised his eyebrows and Kate nodded. I had no idea what the silent exchange meant, but clearly, they did.
‘Would you excuse me for just a moment?’ said Luke, standing up and walking out.
He was back before I’d drunk the second cup of tea Kate had pressed on me and he was looking really rather pleased with himself.
‘Well?’ Kate asked.
‘We can go over when we’re ready,’ he answered.
‘Assuming Freya wants to,’ she pointed out.
‘Assuming Freya wants to what?’ I asked, putting down my cup.
Luke turned to look at me. ‘Okay,’ he said, taking a breath. ‘Let me just make sure I’ve got your current work and accommodation situation perfectly straight in my head, Freya.’
‘Okay,’ I said, looking between him and Kate.
‘From what you’ve told us, I’m thinking that you might be interested in coming to work here and helping us set up the Winter Garden, yes?’
‘Yes,’ I quickly said, because I was extremely interested. ‘If it wasn’t for the fact that I’d have nowhere to live,’ I hastily added for further clarity, ‘I’d be here like a shot.’
‘And do you think you’d be happy to stay on to manage the garden and grounds once the Winter Garden is established?’
‘Of course,’ I said, feeling confused. ‘It’s a beautiful space. Any gardener would be proud to maintain it, but that still doesn’t alter the fact…’
Luke shook his head. ‘Come with us,’ he said, holding out his hand for Kate, who stood up to follow him.
‘And don’t look so worried,’ she said to me, ‘because I think we might just have found the perfect solution.’
It stopped raining as we made the short journey across the road into Nightingale Square, where I could see there were half a dozen or so lovely houses built around a green. They all looked in good repair and the green was well maintained.
‘This is the one we want,’ said Luke, opening the gate of the second house on the right. ‘How would you like to live here, Freya? Rent-free as part of your salary.’
‘I don’t understand,’ I said, as the door opened and an elderly gentleman ushered us inside.
‘Get in before it starts again,’ he insisted. ‘And wipe your feet. What a lovely dog,’ he added, patting Nell’s head.
She was looking as unsure about everything as I was.
‘Come into the front room,’ he said, steering us inside before I had a chance to gather my wits, ‘and we can talk properly. From the look on your face my dear, I daresay you haven’t got a clue what’s going on, have you?’
‘No,’ I swallowed, ‘I haven’t.’
‘Not a Scooby,’ he laughed. ‘I’m Harold, by the way.’
Having politely refused Harold’s offer of yet more tea, and a cold sausage leftover from his lunch for Nell, the four of us sat in the living room, which had a large bay window overlooking the square, and Kate insisted on explaining everything because she knew Luke’s enthusiasm would get the better of him and he’d end up missing bits out.
‘You see the house next door,’ she said, beckoning for me to look out at the lovely house next to Harold’s.
‘Yes.’
‘Well, I own it,’ she told me. ‘I bought it when I moved here from London before I met Luke. Then, when I moved in with him at Prosperous Place, I decided to keep it and rent it out. A lovely young woman called Poppy lives there now with her brother, Ryan.’
‘Okay,’ I said, still not seeing how that was anything to do with me, or how it explained why I was sitting in Harold’s house when I should be thinking about heading back to Suffolk.
‘As it was part of the original Wentworth empire, for want of a better word,’ Luke couldn’t resist butting in, ‘Kate decided it would be lovely to keep it and view it as an extension of Prosperous Place.’
‘Right,’ I said.
‘And now I’m moving into assisted living accommodation,’ chimed in Harold. ‘I’m selling my house, which has been lived in by my family since Charles Wentworth built it, back to Luke.’
‘So, it’s another piece of Mr Wentworth’s legacy that’s being returned to the fold?’ I guessed. ‘It will be another extension to Prosperous Place, like your house, Kate?’
‘Exactly,’ she said. ‘And the plan was to rent it out, but…’
‘But, as you need somewhere to live, Freya,’ put in Luke, ‘and Kate and I really want you to take the job as head gardener and Winter Garden project manager, we’re thinking that it would be perfect for you.’
It sounded wonderful in theory and my heart leapt at the prospect, but if I accepted, was I going to be jumping from the frying pan into the fire? After all, as lovely as Luke and Kate were, the set-up might end up leading me into the same mess that I was currently facing if things didn’t work out.
‘It would all be above board,’ said Kate, clearly picking up on the reason for my reluctance, ‘we’d have a contract properly drawn up, along with a tenancy agreement.’
‘It’s not that I don’t trust you,’ I began to say.
‘We know that,’ she smiled, ‘but we also appreciate that the circumstances you’re dealing with now would make you wary of potentially facing a similar situation in the future, so we can take steps to ensure that wouldn’t happen.’
I nodded and let out a breath, trying to take it all in.
‘But you don’t really know anything about me,’ I said, still determined not to get swept along. ‘You haven’t asked about references or qualifications, my experience or anything really.’
‘We know enough,’ said Kate. ‘We’re great believers in gut instinct.’
She sounded just like Eloise, and again I thought how this offer of a job and home echoed my last.
‘And I have to admit I have found out a bit about you, courtesy of a quick search online,’ Luke admitted. ‘I found some information about the Broad-Meadows open day last summer, along with your interview in the local press. It made for impressive reading and the photographs were wonderful.’
Eloise had opened the garden up for charity and insisted the focus of the newspaper article was on the garden and my work in it, rather than her life story.
‘I see,’ I said.
‘Look,’ said Luke. ‘Don’t say anything yet. Let Harold show you around and then come back over to the house. I know it’s a big decision for you.’
‘Huge,’ agreed Kate.
‘And there’s no rush,’ Luke added, with a twinkle in his eye.
‘But you would like to start the Winter Garden project in time to have something to show this winter,’ I smiled, making a calculated guess. ‘Am I right?’
‘Exactly,’ he grinned, as Kate shook her head.
‘We’ll see you in a little while,’ she said, ushering him out. ‘And in spite of what Luke says, there really is no pressure.’
Harold showed me proudly over the house, pointing out the room where he had been born and explaining that most of the furniture and some of the contents would be staying as he wasn’t going to have room for them.