Read Online With the Headmaster's Approval by Jan Hurst-Nicholson - Free Book Online

its hinges, and they stepped into the earthy atmosphere. It smelled of onions, the season’s crop having been strung up to dry. Beneath the rows of onions were plant cuttings set in compost-filled pots. The grape vines, having surrendered their grapes, had been cut back and stripped of all green foliage. Adam noticed the demi-johns of fermenting grapes. “A wine-maker too?” he asked.
    She laughed. “Not me. Those are Charlie’s , my neighbour. He’s been threatening to make wine for ages. I’ll be glad when he transfers the stuff into bottles and takes it home. I don’t fancy them exploding in here.”
    “This is one thing we don’t have much u se for in Hawaii – a greenhouse.”
    “Did you do any gardening?”
    “Not really. Everything pretty much grows by itself in a sub-tropical climate. But we do have a gardener to keep everything in check.”
    “I expect you have some really exotic plants,” she said, looking wistfully at her own poor efforts struggling for survival in a greenhouse she couldn’t afford to heat.
    “Michelle – my late wife – loved the red jade vine we had creeping over a structure my father made. It was like walking through a tunnel of coral red flowers. They’re quite spectacular when they cascade down. They look like upturned flamingo bills.”
    “Isn’t a red jade vine a bit of a misnomer?” she asked, smiling.
    “I hadn’t thought about it,” he said, laughing.
    “Did you live in Hawaii with your wife and children?”
    “For the first few years, but she wanted the children to have a British education, so we came back here. But we holidayed at my parent’s home in Hawaii, and sometimes on my grandparent’s ranch in Texas. The children had the best of both worlds.”  His bantering tone had gone, and she was sorry she had brought up the subject of his family , it was obviously still a raw wound.
    “Now, where are these herbs you’re so proud of?” he said.
    She led him to the end of the greenhouse where rows of planters held an array of lush herbs. “You can use most of them to make teas, but I prefer peppermint or lemon grass.”
    “Let’s try the peppermint, mint is usually innocuous.”
    She picked up a pair of scissors and snipped off some stems, careful not to damage the plant. “That should be enough. Let’s go.”
    He followed her back to the kitchen and she filled the kettle with water and switched it on before turning to Adam. “Would you like to make yourself comfortable in the lounge while I make the tea?”
    She waited until he’d gone and then called to Erica. “Do you want tea, Erica?” When there was no response she went to Erica’s room and opened the door. “I said, do you want a cup of tea?”
    “No thank you.”
    “But it’s rude to stay in your room when we have a visitor.”
    “I’m not going to sit there and have him secretly laughing at me,” she said sullenly.
    “I’m sure Mr Wild wouldn’t do that. But I’m not going to force you,” she said, closing the door and shaking her head.
    She took the tray into the lounge and explained to Adam, “Erica is still too mortified to join us.”
    He was leaning on the bookcase flipping through one of her books. They were written under a pseudonym, but it was obvious that they must be hers because they were ten of them lined up together all in pristine condition.
    “Is this one of yours?”
    “Yes. But I’m sure it won’t be to your taste,” she said, hoping he’d put it aside. But he continued to read, and she sent up a silent prayer that it was not one of the more racy passages he was reading.
    He turned a page and then, looking directly at her, raised an eyebrow and allowed one side of his mouth to turn up. “Do you do a lot of research before writing your books?”
    She felt the warmth creep into her face. “It’s not exactly erotica,” she snapped.
    He gave a wry smile and started reading a passage aloud: “The honeysuckle had just come into bloom and the heady smell