Read Online Roses in Autumn by Donna Fletcher Crow - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Donna Fletcher Crow
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“Teatime. Care for a cuppa?”
“I’d love it.” The time in the rose garden had been so calming. Laura didn’t want to recall that she had been too upset to eat her lunch.
They went to a long glass greenhouse just beyond the public gardens, but thoroughly secluded from public view by a screen of trees and bushes. “I had no idea this was here.”
“That’s the idea. We have eight or nine greenhouses, and they’re all well hidden. I think visitors are supposed to believe the fairies grow the flowers.” Glenda laughed and tossed her gold-streaked auburn hair.
Laura was delighted with the information she’d received—both for her book and for use in her own garden—but she couldn’t shake the feeling that what she really wanted was to get better acquainted with Glenda herself. She sought for a way to bring the conversation from roses to the rose grower. “Where did you go to school?”
“I got my horticultural degree at Windsor—King’s College. I’d like to go to Guelph for some advanced work. It’s the top school, but it’s in Ontario, and I hate to go so far away now—” She sighed and took a sip of her cuppa. “I just don’t know.” She finished with an indeterminate shrug of her shoulders.
“Um,” Laura searched for another question that might give the girl a chance to open up to her. “When do you get your vacation?”
“My holiday? Anytime but planting time. Growing season isn’t a good time to be gone either. Now to April is good. I have two days off coming to me. I keep hoping the bugs will take some days off, too, but it never works out that way.” Glenda hesitated. “I was hoping I’d need a few days of vacation—for something really important. But it doesn’t look likely.” She took a sip from her steaming teacup. “Mmm. Hot in here, isn’t it?” She unzipped her coverall and pushed the collar back.
The gesture revealed a small gold fish hanging from a slim chain around her neck. “Oh, me too.” Laura held out her hand to show her ring with a similar engraving on the band.
The women smiled at each other in recognition like first-century believers who used the symbol as a secret code. “I wonder …” Glenda hesitated. “Maybe you’re just the person I’ve been looking for. I need someone to talk to. And all our friends here are really more Kyle’s friends than mine, so I don’t feel comfortable going to them …”
Nearly an hour later Laura hurried toward the car, her mind whirling with the remarkable conversation she and Glenda had just had. “Tom, thank you for waiting so patiently. You can’t imagine what’s happened.” She jumped in beside him.
He looked up from his screen and blinked as if trying to figure out who she was. He methodically saved his work, turned off the computer, and lowered the screen. “Well, you look excited.”
“I am. It’s absolutely incredible—one of those truth is stranger than fiction things that I couldn’t use in a novel plot because nobody would believe it. But the Glen I thought I was meeting turned out to be Glenda, and she’s absolutely Gwendolyn—looks like her, knows everything about roses, and she’s having romance problems!”
“Which you, in the best fairy godmother tradition, can solve for her.” Tom started the car.
“Well, no. As a matter of fact, it may be rather the reverse.” She wasn’t ready to travel that conversational path yet, so she hurried on. “I can guarantee to solve Gwen’s, but not Glenda’s. But it did help for her to have someone to talk to.”
Tom turned onto the highway toward Victoria. “So, are you going to let me in on the agitations of Glenda/Gwendolyn?”
“Not if you’re going to be snide about it.” It was his tone, really. And she so needed this conversation to go well. So much depended on the right lead-up.
“Sorry.”
“Right. That’s better. Glenda met Kyle at church when she first came here more than a year ago. It was love at first sight—at
“I’d love it.” The time in the rose garden had been so calming. Laura didn’t want to recall that she had been too upset to eat her lunch.
They went to a long glass greenhouse just beyond the public gardens, but thoroughly secluded from public view by a screen of trees and bushes. “I had no idea this was here.”
“That’s the idea. We have eight or nine greenhouses, and they’re all well hidden. I think visitors are supposed to believe the fairies grow the flowers.” Glenda laughed and tossed her gold-streaked auburn hair.
Laura was delighted with the information she’d received—both for her book and for use in her own garden—but she couldn’t shake the feeling that what she really wanted was to get better acquainted with Glenda herself. She sought for a way to bring the conversation from roses to the rose grower. “Where did you go to school?”
“I got my horticultural degree at Windsor—King’s College. I’d like to go to Guelph for some advanced work. It’s the top school, but it’s in Ontario, and I hate to go so far away now—” She sighed and took a sip of her cuppa. “I just don’t know.” She finished with an indeterminate shrug of her shoulders.
“Um,” Laura searched for another question that might give the girl a chance to open up to her. “When do you get your vacation?”
“My holiday? Anytime but planting time. Growing season isn’t a good time to be gone either. Now to April is good. I have two days off coming to me. I keep hoping the bugs will take some days off, too, but it never works out that way.” Glenda hesitated. “I was hoping I’d need a few days of vacation—for something really important. But it doesn’t look likely.” She took a sip from her steaming teacup. “Mmm. Hot in here, isn’t it?” She unzipped her coverall and pushed the collar back.
The gesture revealed a small gold fish hanging from a slim chain around her neck. “Oh, me too.” Laura held out her hand to show her ring with a similar engraving on the band.
The women smiled at each other in recognition like first-century believers who used the symbol as a secret code. “I wonder …” Glenda hesitated. “Maybe you’re just the person I’ve been looking for. I need someone to talk to. And all our friends here are really more Kyle’s friends than mine, so I don’t feel comfortable going to them …”
Nearly an hour later Laura hurried toward the car, her mind whirling with the remarkable conversation she and Glenda had just had. “Tom, thank you for waiting so patiently. You can’t imagine what’s happened.” She jumped in beside him.
He looked up from his screen and blinked as if trying to figure out who she was. He methodically saved his work, turned off the computer, and lowered the screen. “Well, you look excited.”
“I am. It’s absolutely incredible—one of those truth is stranger than fiction things that I couldn’t use in a novel plot because nobody would believe it. But the Glen I thought I was meeting turned out to be Glenda, and she’s absolutely Gwendolyn—looks like her, knows everything about roses, and she’s having romance problems!”
“Which you, in the best fairy godmother tradition, can solve for her.” Tom started the car.
“Well, no. As a matter of fact, it may be rather the reverse.” She wasn’t ready to travel that conversational path yet, so she hurried on. “I can guarantee to solve Gwen’s, but not Glenda’s. But it did help for her to have someone to talk to.”
Tom turned onto the highway toward Victoria. “So, are you going to let me in on the agitations of Glenda/Gwendolyn?”
“Not if you’re going to be snide about it.” It was his tone, really. And she so needed this conversation to go well. So much depended on the right lead-up.
“Sorry.”
“Right. That’s better. Glenda met Kyle at church when she first came here more than a year ago. It was love at first sight—at
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