Page 49 of Wild About You

After a week or two of thinking about further steps in our rewilding strategy, but not actually committing things to paper, I decided to request to work from home the following week. When I was at Stonemore, it was way too easy to leave my desk and go out onto the estate. Whether I was weeding, planting, raking or coppicing, the more physical the job the better and the quieter my mind was. But now I had to focus; I needed to think about which partners we should approach, including charities and conservation experts; and there were some smaller projects at Stonemore that I hadn’t nailed down yet. Callum cleared my working from home request, but later that day he came to find me.

I was working at Belheddonbrae, on my knees planting some newly arrived plug plants, when he appeared behind me and nearly made me jump out of my skin. ‘Jeez Louise!’ I cried, almost dropping the red campion plant I was holding.

‘Sorry,’ he said, smiling. ‘You’ve got mud on your face.’ He carefully brushed my cheek with his forefinger.

‘What’s up?’ I said.

‘Jamie just wanted to check you’re okay,’ he said, looking faintly awkward. ‘I told him you’re going to be working from home for a bit. There’s not an issue, is there? Some other reason you want to be at home?’

‘No, I’m fine,’ I said, in a brittle, chipper tone, which he thankfully failed to catch on to.

‘Great, I’ll tell him that,’ he said, assembling his vape.

‘Pass me that trowel, would you?’ I said.

He did and watched me fill the hole around the plug plant before I patted it into place with my hands, melding the plug with the damp, pre-watered soil. ‘Also,’ he said, with a gust of blueberry-scented vape fumes, ‘Jamie said he wants a field of sunflowers.’

I glanced up at him, raising my eyebrows.

‘His mother’s favourite flower. Reminds him of his childhood. At least an acre.’

I surprised myself by not even considering a yes. ‘Nope.’

‘Really?’

‘Not part of the plan.’ I started digging a hole for another plug in the finely turned soil.

‘How can I persuade you? Can I make you a hot chocolate?’

I sniggered and rocked back on my heels to look at him. ‘Tell him you’ve left it with me.’

Callum saluted. ‘When you’re back in the office let me know, and I really will make you a hot chocolate.’

He headed off and I carried on planting, listening to the birdsong and the murmur of the breeze through nearby shrubs. The conversation had turned a little cog in my brain. It was clear Jamie wasn’t at peace with the idea of Belheddonbrae being a wildflower meadow, and the thought occurred to me that I could always make some reference to its past, even if it wasn’t through a direct re-creation of the old garden.

Back in the office, and waiting for the hot chocolate from Callum, I composed a quick email to Emma, the archivistwho worked in the house one day a week, in case she had any historical notes on Belheddonbrae’s history.

As I clicked send, I heard a distant wailing noise, coming closer: a Tally distress call. She was making it as she descended through the house. She appeared, carrying Hugo clumsily in her arms.

‘He’s done a wee on the Boulle cabinet,’ she shrieked, depositing him on the carpet where he gave her a dark look.

‘He’s normally so good though,’ I said, stroking his ultra soft ears. ‘Perhaps he needed to go out and they missed his signals.’ Hugo looked dolefully at me and sniffed my garden-scented jeans. ‘I’ll take him out now.’

Tally stomped over to her desk. ‘I’ll have to get the conservator inagain. It’s the cabinet that was just cleaned! Lucinda is furious.’

‘Hmm.’ The idea of the perpetually sunny Lucinda being annoyed was suddenly, wickedly appealing to me. ‘Good boy, Hugo,’ I murmured to him, picking up his lead and delving in my drawer for some treats. ‘Very good boy.’

Hugo looked up at me and licked his lips.

On my first day working from home I was bored by 3pm and was pushing womanfully on with the sustenance of a packet of chocolate digestives when I heard a car pull up. Racing to the window at a speed that would have put Hugo to shame, I saw Fi climbing out, carrying an enormous bunch of flowers in a gift bag.

‘They’re not from me!’ she said as I opened the door.‘They were delivered to the office so I thought I’d bring them over.’

‘Come on in, it’s teatime,’ I said, ushering her in. ‘Luckily I haven’t hoovered up all of the biscuits. You were just in time.’

She smiled and put her bag down on the sofa. As I clicked the kettle on, I turned and looked at her. There was something different about her face. A clearness in her eyes and skin; a vitality in her movements. Something clicked in my mind.

‘Do you have news for me?’ I said.

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