‘I did, I promise. I do feel a bit tender,’ she admitted.
‘Then stop pushing the emotional bruise. Let this experience heal you. Your mom bought you a ticket and it won. I mean, what’s not to love about that parting gift? All you have to do is pull some weeds at this house and plant some flowers, right?’
‘Yes, you’re right. I promise to stop pushing the bruise.’
‘Good. Call me when you get to the house. I can’t wait to hear everything and see photos.’
‘Okay, speak tomorrow,’ said Amanda.
Lainie was right. All she had to do was move in and start pulling out the weeds and planting some pretty flowers in the garden. That didn’t sound so hard. It was going to be a fun summer.
*
After a train trip and two bus changes, Amanda had finally succumbed and called a taxi to get her the last few miles to the house. She was tired and grimy and ready for a shower and to call Lainie.
‘Oh,’ said Amanda, looking out the window when the taxi pulled up outside the house.
‘You’re staying here?’ asked the taxi driver.
‘I was planning on it,’ she said.
‘It looks abandoned,’ said the man, winding down the window.
But Amanda didn’t see it. It was just the garden that was neglected. The house was beautiful – old, but not ostentatious – and if the garden was cared for, then the beauty of the house would be easier to see.
She opened the door and the driver brought around her suitcases from the trunk of the car.
‘Thanks,’ she said, using her card to pay. Once the taxi had driven away, Amanda assessed the house and the best way to get inside. There was a round gate at the front but she walked to the left and found a driveway that led to the side of the house. With determination despite her tiredness, she set off walking up the drive.
‘Miss Cox?’ She heard her name and turned to see an older woman with a small dog next to her.
‘Call me Amanda, please,’ she said, walking to meet the woman halfway.
‘Diana Graybrook-Moore,’ she said. ‘And this is Trotsky.’
‘Hey there, Trotsky,’ said Amanda to the dog and then smiled at Diana. ‘Nice to meet you. Thank you for choosing my mom’s ticket. I have to tell you, this is the craziest thing that’s ever happened to me.’
Diana raised her eyebrows. ‘Then you’re very lucky. I’ve had too many crazy things happen to me.’ As she said the word ‘crazy’, she made quotation marks in the air and then smiled.
Amanda nodded. ‘You’re right. I am lucky.’ She looked at the house. ‘It’s really beautiful. Who lived here before me?’
Diana pulled Trotsky away from sniffing an empty drink can on the ground.
‘Me… and generations of my family before me.’
‘Gosh and you’re giving it to someone outside of the family? That’s intense. I mean, I don’t want to pry, but don’t you have any family left?’ Amanda asked. She couldn’t help herself. She needed to understand why she was here and why this woman didn’t have even a distant cousin to leave the house to when she died.
‘No, no family,’ Diana said quickly. ‘Now, come and put your bags in my gatehouse and then I can show you around starting from the moon gate.’
‘The moon gate? You mean the circle thing?’
Diana sighed. ‘Don’t be so reductive. It’s a moon gate. Come and I will show you.’
Amanda left her suitcases and followed the woman to the front gate. The gate was unlike any she had seen before, being set within a circle, and was not wide enough for a car to drive through yet bigger than an ordinary gate.
The circular gateway was made of stone and brick and the iron gates were rusted, yet still quite sturdy. Some sort of rose and a purple vine was tangled around it, bees buzzing almost angrily, she noticed. As though her presence was disturbing them.
‘I’m sorry, bees,’ Diana said to the insects. ‘But Amanda lives here now and I think you will have to get along for everyone’s sakes. Isn’t that right, Amanda?’
