Page 23 of The Beekeeper's Cottage
Flora lifted her face to the sun again. ‘Do you want to do this before, or after breakfast?’ she asked. ‘It shouldn’t take long.’
Amos’s stomach rumbled into life.
‘After it is then,’ said Flora, grinning. ‘Come on.’
Amos had eaten far more than he should have, but Hannah was such a good cook his willpower dissolved in an instant. He would pay for it mid-morning when he had a few hours’ work under his belt and all he wanted to do was sleep in the sunshine, but for now he followed Flora across the yard, intrigued by her query.
They were headed further down the yard than he had explored before, towards a series of low-lying buildings at the far end. As they got closer, he recognised them immediately.
‘Of course!’ he exclaimed. ‘The milking sheds.’ He’d had one or two stints in similar places over the last couple of years.
Flora glanced over her shoulder. ‘Sorry, I’m paranoid,’ she said. ‘But if Fraser knows I’ve come down here with you, he’ll put two and two together quicker than I can say it.’
Amos remained silent until they had rounded a slight bend which took them out of view from the main yard. He could see Flora visibly relax.
‘Don’t worry, we’re not doing anything wrong,’ she said straight away. ‘Both Hannah and Ned know we’re here, it’s just that… Look, come with me, and I’ll explain.’
She led the way along a concrete path to the closest of the sheds and pulled open the door. Her face looked pale in the dim light.
‘This is where Fraser had his heart attack,’ she explained, pressing a switch on the wall to her left. After a flickering hesitation, two banks of fluorescent lights sprang into life and the shed was filled with harsh light. ‘Even I don’t like coming in here, so you can imagine how Fraser feels.’
‘I see,’ said Amos slowly. The shed was empty of machinery, just a concrete shell, but he could feel the emptiness inside it deep within him.
‘We had all the equipment removed. Well we had to, we needed to sell it, but since then, well, as you can see it’s not been touched.’ She gave an involuntary shiver. ‘Sorry, do you mind if we go back outside to chat?’
Amos stood aside to let her pass, grateful himself to be headed back out into the warm summer air.
‘It’s so weird,’ added Flora. ‘I mean, Fraser’s fine. He’s recovering beautifully from his operation, just gone five months now. I won’t deny it’s been tough but we’re in a much better position than we’ve been for a long while.’
‘But?’
Flora smiled. ‘But… Fraser won’t set foot in here.’
Amos thought for a moment. ‘No, I can understand that. It’s hiswhat if,’ he said. ‘We all have them.’
‘I’m sorry?’
‘Hiswhat if. You know…what ifthis had happened. If he had died… Too many memories locked in there. Sometimes we almost need to keep them, as a reminder that we’re okay, that the worst didn’t happen. But for some, it’s too much.’
Flora stared at him. ‘You’re exactly right!’ she exclaimed. ‘But short of knocking the sheds down, I haven’t been sure how to improve the situation. What I do know, however, is that these buildings are a valuable resource, and it seems criminal not to use them. So, I’ve been thinking…’ She turned back to look at the shed again. ‘In fact, I can’t stop thinking – about Grace.’
Amos smiled. ‘You too?’
‘Really? I just hope she’s okay… Grace is the loveliest person you could ever wish to meet and she helped me a lot when I first came here. I think she understood what it felt like to be so lacking in confidence…’ She looked up at Amos. ‘She wasn’t always like that apparently, and she puts a brave face on it, making light of things, but apart from coming here or going to work in the shop, Grace hardly ever goes out. I can’t bear to think of her being treated so badly, or losing the house, her garden…’
‘The bees…’
‘Exactly! And then I got to thinking about our conversation last night and what she might do, what we might be able to do to help her, and that’s when I began to think about the sheds.’
‘Go on…’
‘Well, I’ve always had a mind to expand what we do here in time. At the moment it’s all we can do to keep up with the planting, but I would love to have a shop here in due course, or run workshops, something anyway…’
Amos could see she was buzzing with excitement.
‘But what I don’t know is how easy it would be to make something of the buildings here, what our options might be. And, more to the point, what it might cost.’
‘Which is where I come in…’
