Read Online THE TRYSTING TREE by Linda Gillard - Free Book Online Page B

suppose you could say she painted with plants and the garden was her canvas. Maybe Phoebe might like that idea?’
    ‘It could certainly be worth a try. I’d really like to get her outside in the spring, but she’ll need some motivating.’
    ‘So now the house is off the market, will you make a start on the walled garden?’
    ‘I’m going to tidy up at least. Find out what’s still alive. But it will be a massive clearing job and I’m not sure how much I can achieve on my own. I’ll have to discuss with Phoebe what she wants me to do and how much she’ll let me spend.’
    ‘Could I make a suggestion?’
    ‘Of course. I’d value your advice.’
    ‘I’m looking for a restoration project. A big one. I want to restore something from a ruin to a garden anyone would be proud to own. And I want to photograph every stage of the process and blog about it.’
    ‘Why?’
    ‘To drum up trade. I want to stop working for other people and set up my own garden business and since Phoebe turned down my insulting offer, I can now revert to Plan A, which was to set up Grenville Garden Landscaping . But I need a flagship project. It needs to be local, interesting and challenging. Restoring Beechgrave’s kitchen garden would tick all those boxes and I think there could be a lot of local and media interest, especially as the garden’s owned by a famous artist.’
    ‘But Connor, there’s no way Phoebe’s in the market for all this. She may be famous, but she isn’t working. And she hasn’t sold a painting in ages.’
    ‘Ah, but that’s the beauty of it, you see. You wouldn’t have to pay me.’
    ‘We wouldn’t?’
    ‘No, not if you allow me to use your garden as a bit of a show home, post photos of it online and maybe use some of them in a book about Beechgrave and the Mordaunts, the one Ivy wanted me to write. I can link your project – the garden – with my project – the family history. I think I could get an attractive book out of it and carry out my grandmother’s wishes. And you have to admit, restoring the garden would make the house easier to sell when the time comes.’
    ‘So you’re offering to work for free ?’
    ‘Yes. But I think I might need some help.’
    ‘What sort of help?’
    ‘Well, if you see yourself as a gardener’s boy, I could definitely use another pair of hands. At the moment I’m just a one-man band. And I’d probably need quite a lot of tea and biscuits.’
    ‘I’m sure that could be arranged. Anything else?’
    ‘No, that’s all.’
    ‘Connor, I don’t know what to say. It’s a very generous offer—’
    ‘And naturally you don’t think you can trust it. Quite understandable, but there are two things you need to factor in to the equation. The first is how much I want to be a part of the Beechgrave story, how much I need to know what Ivy discovered. I don’t suppose for one moment the answer lies in the garden, but I just think if I’m on site, working where she was born, in the shadow of those beeches, I’ll be as close as I can get to solving the mystery, short of checking in to the re-hab clinic next door.’ He paused. ‘Does that make any sense?’
    ‘As much sense as me wanting to make reparation to a garden.’
    ‘You see, I have to assume that, in the end, Ivy didn’t want me to publish a book about her family, but I don’t think she could object to a book about the old garden. Especially if it helped get my business off the ground. So… what do you say?’
    ‘Well, it all sounds pretty convincing.’
    ‘And there’s absolutely no risk to you. I would run everything by you and Phoebe, from plant lists to the possible intrusion of TV cameras. You’d be the boss.’
    ‘I thought I was the gardener’s boy?’
    ‘The chain of command will be complex, but I’m sure we can make it work.’
    ‘Connor, you’ll have to come and discuss all this with Phoebe. I think she’ll be up for it, but I can’t make any promises.’
    ‘Of course. I’d love to