Amanda felt herself blush. ‘We’re just friends,’ she said.
‘Where are you off to after the summer?’ Dennis asked.
‘Don’t know yet,’ Simon said. ‘See where the winds take me.’
Dennis nodded. ‘It’s nice to be free and easy when you’re young.’
Janet stood up. ‘Time for a cup of tea and some of Shelley’s apple cake.’ She looked at Amanda and Simon. ‘She always brings the leftover cakes from her deli, and I tell you, they are delicious. Frank cooks them.’
Amanda looked at Frank who was nodding proudly.
‘Okay, so tea and cake it is,’ she said.
The gardening club members were in the small kitchen organising and chatting, and Amanda stretched. ‘They’re all so great – I love them,’ she said to Simon. ‘Do you love them?’
Simon laughed. ‘I don’t love them but they seem pleasant enough.’ He paused for a moment. ‘But only you could make me come to a random country gardening club on a Thursday night and only you could bewitch the club to come and help with the garden. You really are something else, Amanda Cox.’
And with that he stood up and went into the kitchen for cake, and Amanda wondered if his observation was good or bad – or did it even matter what he thought about her?
15
Diana
Diana was ready to walk Trotsky and when she opened the front door she found a woman with pink hair and a denim jacket standing in her front garden assessing her petunias.
‘Excuse me, can I help you?’ Diana asked.
The woman jumped back. ‘Oh goodness, I’m sorry, I thought this was part of Moongate.’
‘It is, it’s the gatehouse,’ said Diana with a sniff.
‘You’re Diana Graybrook-Moore,’ said the woman putting her hand out. ‘Janet Swan, president of the Foxfield Gardening Club and new friend of Amanda.’
Diana took the hand briefly and then clicked her tongue for Trotsky to come. ‘Amanda is in the house,’ Diana said as she leaned down and put on Trotsky’s leash.
The pain in her hip was quite pronounced but she held it in while the woman was invading her space.
‘Oh I know, Amanda just gave us a brief tour and then told us to have a wander around, get the lay of the land, so to speak.’
‘Well the lay of the land doesn’t include my home,’ said Diana. ‘If you can inform the others.’
Diana pulled on the lead for Trotsky to follow her as Janet scuttled from the garden and back towards the main house.
There was a reason Diana had avoided spending time with others and more so people from the village; they were all busybodies and more than likely liked to gossip about her and what they assumed would be her sad, lonely life.
As Diana walked along the driveway towards the road Amanda popped out from the moon gate.
‘Diana, I was coming to see you,’ she said, her smile brighter than ever.
Diana took in Amanda’s apple-green sundress with work boots and a battered straw hat. Her skin was pale, with a light sprinkling of freckles.
‘That hat looks familiar,’ said Diana, peering at it closely.
Amanda put her hand up self-consciously to touch the hat. ‘I found it in one of the bedrooms. Did you want it back?’
Diana laughed. ‘No, dear, I don’t need it. I am just trying to think where it came from. Perhaps it was Mother’s.’
Amanda looked back at the house. ‘Will you come and meet the Foxfield gardening club?’ she asked. ‘I invited them for a tour, and they said they will help me clear it.’
