Different Worlds Ch. 02

He'd been pleasantly surprised by her, by her humour and her resourcefulness. She seemed very honest, and that was refreshing. He'd liked spending time with her; already he was trying to come up with an excuse to do it again, but he couldn't think of one. He'd checked up on her now, he didn't have a reason to do that again. She had said anytime but what did that really mean? Soon her van would be fixed and she would be off again, like an exotic butterfly, moving on to more beautiful and interesting blooms.

*

The following day at about lunchtime Ivy pulled up in her truck next to Ruth's trailer.

Ruth popped her head out of the door. "Ivy, wow, you fixed it," she said as she looked up at a beaming Ivy sitting at the wheel of her Dodge.

Ivy nodded. "Just finished."

"That's so cool!"

"I still can't believe I managed to do the whole thing on my own," Ivy confessed, "I thought I'd take it for a test drive. That pub in the village, what's it like?"

"Yeah it's nice, we go there quite a bit for Sunday lunch."

"Great! Hop in then, let's go and have a celebratory pint. I'm buying."

As they drove past the farm shop Sally came out and waved at them. It wasn't too difficult to railroad her into joining them.

"I mustn't stay for long though, Ivy. I can't leave Roger on his own in the shop all afternoon."

"Yeah, like I'm really going to spend the entire afternoon in the pub getting rat arsed before I drive this thing home. I've only just managed to get it back on the road. The clutch might fall off on the way back down the hill, I'm going to need to be sober if anything like that happens."

Ruth's eyes widened.

Ivy laughed. "I was joking, Ruth, I'm sure that's not going to happen."

As they pulled out onto the road and the truck began climbing the hill, Ivy sighed with relief. A weight she hadn't realised she'd been carrying seemed to melt away. It was such a good feeling to be back behind the wheel and she was grinning even more by the time they'd finished the short journey to the pub. That scrape she'd always felt between second and third gear wasn't there anymore; she wondered how long the slave cylinder had been leaking.

Ruth and Ivy ordered half pints, Sally had a coffee. They tried to convince her that she needed to have a celebratory half with them but she refused flatly to drink anything alcoholic while she was supposed to be at work

It was a mild day and Ivy was nervous about leaving the truck unattended, so they found a table in the beer garden.

As they all sat down and Sally said, "I'm so pleased you've managed to fix it, you're so clever Ivy, but does this mean you're going to be leaving us?"

"Well we've got to finish the walnuts yet, and I've got to go and see this Kevin bloke about some work. So I don't know, really. I wasn't intending to stay here when I arrived but that option does have a lot going for it right now."

Ivy felt a fleeting sense of panic about committing to stay in one place. She'd moved around so much, never staying long anywhere. She liked being free, no responsibilities, no commitments, but maybe it was time to try something different? Thoughts of seeing Richard again popped unbidden in to her mind but she swatted them away before they could take root.

Sally smiled and interrupted her reverie. "Good, you'll still be here for next month's charity gala at least, then?"

"Oh no, no no no, you're not roping me into helping, Sally. I don't care how much you offer to pay me, I'm not putting that outfit on again."

"I wouldn't dream of it," Sally laughed, "but you're invited."

"How does that work then?" Ivy looked at Sally her eyes narrowed as she wondered if that drunken oaf would be there again, but she didn't mention him.

"It's a annual fundraiser, and traditionally the staff are invited."

"Sally, that sounds really lovely but I'm not staff. You don't need to invite me."

"Yes I do. Terence asked specifically for you to be added to the guest list. I think he still feels bad about what happened on Saturday."

"That bloke won't be there will he, the drunk one?" asked Ivy

"Absolutely not. He'd never been to the house before - he was a school friend of William's, and even if he had been, he wouldn't be welcome after that sort of behavior."

Ivy nodded. "What's the fundraiser for anyway?"

"The proceeds go to a cancer charity. Lady Cartwright died of a brain tumour about five years ago. It was very sudden."

"Oh, I wondered whether there was a Lady Cartwright," Ivy was reassessing her view of what had seemed like a very privileged group of siblings. "William and Caroline must have been young."

"Yes, they were. It hit Will in particular very hard, he went right off the rails for a while. They were very close and it was just before his sixteenth birthday. I think that's why such a big deal was made for their twenty first."

"I had no idea, what a time to lose your mum."

"No, it's not the sort of thing that just comes up over coffee is it?" said Sally thoughtfully, and then she looked at Ivy.

"You're blushing."

"He just came to see how I was after Saturday," Ivy mumbled, not looking at either of them.

"Who?" Sally and Ruth asked in unison.

She looked up at them both. "Well, Richard, obviously."

"And you made him a cup of coffee?" Ruth asked, enunciating each word with care, "I find it hard to imagine you sharing a civilised word with Richard, let alone making him coffee."

Ivy could feel her face get even redder. Ruth and Sally were watching her, both waiting expectantly for her to elaborate.

"You didn't know? I thought that's what you were talking about." Ivy said to Sally,

Why had she told them? She needn't have mentioned it.

"He came to see how I was. He was just being nice and I was rude to him - again. So I offered him a coffee to compensate. I was making one anyway."

"Oh I see, you were making one anyway?" Ruth asked, looking at Ivy mockingly, "Besides, he wasn't just being nice, I saw the way he was looking at you on Saturday."

"He was mostly scowling at me."

"Exactly."

She folded her arms across her chest and frowned at them. "This is all irrelevant anyway, nothing is going to happen, I'll probably never see him again. He lives up in London and we have nothing in common."

Ruth was laughing now. "You do like him don't you? I can tell."

"And you will see him again, Ivy," added Sally, "He's working on a building project here. He's been coming down from London at weekends every few weeks. And he'll be at the Gala."

Sally's words registered and briefly she wondered about the building project but she was more concerned with refuting Ruth's claim. It was too close to the truth for comfort.

"I don't fancy him."

She knew she didn't sound remotely convincing, she sounded like a petulant child. She worried she might even be sticking her bottom lip out as she spoke.

"You do, I can tell. You're blushing and you keep looking down at the table," Ruth was enjoying herself, "Oh Ivy, I've never known you to get like this before. Besides," she threw her hands up to her face covering her cheeks, "What's not to like? He's gorgeous!"

"He's quite good looking, I suppose. In that foppish, private school boy sort of way," she pursed her lips so she wouldn't stick the bottom one out.

Sally's rich laughter interrupted them. "The lady doth protest too much me thinks."

Ivy cringed, it was time for a change of subject. "We should get going. I need to go and see this bloke about the gardening work and Sally needs to get back to the shop."

To her relief it worked. They were both talking excitedly about the informal job interview she had lined up with Kevin as they walked back to the truck.

They drove back down the hill. The gears seemed to change seamlessly, but Ivy was thankful she'd only had a half, it was a nerve wracking journey.

*

That afternoon she met Kevin, the head gardener - and his Jack Russell Charlie. He was a nice bloke. At first he was reserved and taciturn but as the afternoon wore on he became more talkative. It was clear that he was passionate about his job.

The place was amazing; there were two beautiful, Victorian greenhouses and even an old brick potting shed full of ancient rusty tools. Ivy was fascinated with everything she saw and in her enthusiasm she plied him with questions. As they walked around the grounds he gradually opened up and soon they were nattering away like old friends.

He showed her the Victorian walled garden. Plans were afoot to restore it to supply the kitchens and the farm shop.

High yellow brick walls gave the garden a secluded feel. When they first arrived all she could see were brambles and nettles but while they walked around and Kevin talked her through it, she started to see the remains of ancient beds, running the length of the garden. Then she noticed paths, almost entirely concealed beneath crisscrossing brambles. They'd been built with cobbles, which over the years had become smooth and worn with age. She could see in her mind's eyes just how they would have looked when it was a working garden.

Later as they looked over the plans she made a few cautious suggestions. He seemed impressed with her ideas. Ivy's knowledge of horticulture was pitiful next to Kevin's, although she'd worked casually for Luke and his landscape gardening business, when she could for over a year, it had mostly been grunt work, mowing, raking, building beds and moving the earth into them, only occasionally planting but she had ideas and enthusiasm to make up for it.

Suddenly they arrived at the project that Sally had mentioned earlier in the pub. The building under construction was going to be a café and a function room. The main structure was built, but there was still a lot of work to do. When it was clear she was interested, he offered to take her inside and show her around, she gladly agreed, wondering if she gain some insight into the mysterious Richard. It was all constructed to ecological criteria. The building had been built out of mainly reclaimed materials, and even though it had a very modern feel there were references throughout to the historical periods of the rest of the estate. She wanted to ask more about it, but Kevin seemed reticent so she held her tongue.

When they went outside again and walked around the perimeter of the building he explained that planting was a key element of the project, but that he didn't understand all these new fangled ideas and they were planning to get a posh landscape designer down from London to design it. Ivy didn't think he sounded entirely happy about this.

It was a beautiful space and again Ivy was brimming with ideas about the best ways to utilize it. Kevin was a very traditional gardener. He'd been taken on as an apprentice at the house as soon as he'd finished school, but Ivy could tell he was open to her ideas.

She fired questions at him, making dozens of suggestions, until he started having ideas too and he was too swept up in her enthusiasm to notice he was breaking his own rule about not being involved in the design.

Soon they had a few basic themes worked out. Ivy was good at over-arching ideas, although she hadn't been involved in the decision making when working with Luke, she'd picked up some stuff while she was implementing his designs and Kevin had the horticultural knowledge required to fill in the details.

And they laughed together. Ivy knew enough hippies to be able to gently mock the ideas around eco building and sustainability while pandering to their ideals and talking the lingo. Kevin of course was the real McCoy.

As they parted company, he offered her the job. It came as a surprise, she'd assumed it would take a few days for him to decide and a conversation with Terence at least but he informed her Terence was sold on the idea of having her on the staff. He said she could start that week if she liked and explained that there would be a trial period of three months.

When she got back to the truck she hugged herself. A Victorian walled garden, in need of a complete overhaul. It was her dream job, and she knew she was going to learn loads working with Kevin. She'd always wanted to have a go at growing vegetables, but had never stopped in one place long enough to try it out. She was hoping she would have the opportunity to get involved in planting the beds around the new build too, but that seemed to be something Kevin was reluctant to get involved in and she was working for him, so maybe it wouldn't work out.

*

Over the next few days Ivy and Ruth finished pickling the walnuts. They jarred them up and put them on sale in the farm shop. People were interested and Terence was delighted to have something in the shop that had been produced on the site. They talked about the possibility of making other products.

She started with Kevin on Monday. They focused mainly on the perennial features of the kitchen garden at first. The plan was to plant a large asparagus bed in the autumn, and her first job was to prepare it by removing the weeds. It was back breaking work but despite this Ivy was happier than she could ever remember being. She loved living near Ruth, she was enjoying getting to know Sally and Kevin and her new job was great.

She had grown very fond of her little nook in the woods. It was lovely having a hot shower that she could use every day. It wasn't a very good shower, the water pressure was pants and the hot water ran out after about 5 minutes but it was still better that not having one at all. She shuddered at the memory of strip washes in the truck on cold winter mornings.

The Charity Gala loomed, Ivy was nervous about it. She didn't normally go to that sort of thing, it all felt a bit weird. But it would be rude not to go and she didn't want to offend Terence.

She was worried too. There was going to be a meeting with Richard the following week. She liked him and although she'd thought about him quite a bit since they'd had coffee, she wasn't quite ready to admit to herself she was attracted to him. It didn't seem like very professional behaviour and she needed to stay professional about this.

Thank you so much for reading if you've made it this far and for the votes and faves and comments, they really make all this worthwhile. Again any feed back on my writing would be much appreciated. Until next time folks xxx