had any experience looking after pets—none that I recall, anyway.’ Yet no dog or cat had come running to greet them when they’d first entered the house. It was very puzzling.
‘Ah…yes. We’ll do a quick tour upstairs and then I’ll take you to see them.’
There were two bedrooms upstairs, one with an en suite bathroom, and along the corridor was the main bathroom. Saffi couldn’t quite work out the layout up here. There were fewer rooms than she’d expected, as though something was missing, but perhaps her senses were off somehow.
‘Okay, shall we go and solve the mystery of these pets?’ she murmured. Maybe her aunt had a small aviary outside. She’d heard quite a bit of birdsong when they’d arrived, but there were a good many trees around the house that would have accounted for that.
They went outside to the garden, and Saffi caught her breath as she looked out at the extent of her property. It wasn’t just a garden, there was also a paddock and a stable block nearby.
‘Oh, no. Tell me it’s not horses,’ she pleaded. ‘I don’t know anything about looking after them.’
‘Just a couple.’ He saw her look of dismay and relented. ‘No, actually, Annie mainly used the stable block as a store for the fruit harvest.’
She breathed a small sigh of relief.
Fruit harvest, he’d said. Saffi made a mental note of that. On the south side of the garden she’d noticed an archway in a stone wall, and something flickered in her faulty memory banks. Could it be a walled garden? From somewhere in the depths of her mind she recalled images of fruit trees and glasshouses with grapes, melons and peaches.
They walked by the stable block and came to a fenced-off area that contained a hen hut complete with a large covered wire run. Half a dozen hens wandered about in there , pecking the ground for morsels of food.
‘Oh, my…’ Saffi’s eyes widened. ‘Was there anything else my aunt was into? Anything I should know about? I mean, should I ever want to go back to medicine, I don’t know how I’ll find the time to fit it in, what with fruit picking, egg gathering and keeping track of this huge garden.’
He laughed. ‘She was quite keen on beekeeping. There are three hives in the walled garden.’
Saffi rolled her eyes. ‘Maybe I should turn around right now and head back for Hampshire.’
‘I don’t think so. I hope you won’t do that.’ He gave her a long look. ‘I don’t see you as a quitter. Anyway, it’s not that difficult. I’ll show you. Let’s go and make a start with the hens.’
He led the way to the coop. ‘I let them out in the morning,’ he explained. ‘They have food pellets in feeders, as well as water, but in the afternoon or early evening, whenever I finish work, I give them a mix of corn and split peas. There’s some oyster shell and grit mixed in with it, so it’s really good for them.’ He went over to a wooden store shed and brought out a bucket filled with corn. ‘Do you want to sprinkle some on the ground for them?’
‘Uh…okay.’ This had all come as a bit of a jolt to her. Instead of the peace and quiet she’d been expecting, the chance to relax and get herself back together again after the trauma of the last few months, it was beginning to look as though her days would be filled with stuff she’d never done before.
She went into the covered run, leaving Matt to shut the door and prevent any attempted escapes. An immediate silence fell as the birds took in her presence.
‘Here you go,’ she said, scattering the corn around her, and within seconds she found herself surrounded by hens. Some even clambered over her feet to get to the grain. Gingerly, she took a step forward, but they ignored her and simply went on eating. She shot Matt a quick look of consternation and he grinned.
‘Problem?’ he asked, and she pulled a face.
‘What do I do now?’
He walked towards her and grasped her hand. ‘You just have to force your way through. Remember, you’re the one in charge here, not the hens.’
‘Hmm, if you say so.’
He was smiling as he pulled her out of the run and shut the door behind them. ‘They need to be back into the coop by nightfall. As long as their routine isn’t disturbed, things should go smoothly enough. They’re laying very well at the moment, so you’ll have a good supply of eggs.’
‘Oh, well, that’s a plus, I suppose.’
He sent her an amused glance. ‘That’s good. At least you’re beginning to look on the positive side.’
She gritted her teeth but stayed silent. Now he was patronising her. Her head was starting to ache, a throbbing beat pounding at her temples.
‘And the beehives?’ she asked. ‘What’s to be done with them?’
‘Not much, at this time of year. You just keep an eye on them to make sure everything’s all right and let them get on with making honey. Harvesting is done round about the end of August, beginning of September.’
‘You make it sound so easy. I guess I’ll have to find myself a book on beekeeping.’
‘I think Annie had several of those around the place.’
They made their way back to the house, and Saffi said quietly, ‘I should thank you for everything you’ve done here since my aunt died. I’d no idea the caretaking was so involved. You’ve managed to keep this place going, and I’m very grateful to you for that.’
‘Well, I suppose I had a vested interest.’ She frowned. ‘You did?’
He nodded. ‘Your aunt made me a beneficiary of her will. Didn’t your solicitor tell you about it?’
She stared at him. ‘No. At least, I don’t think so.’ She searched her mind for details of her conversations with the solicitor. There had been several over the last few weeks, and maybe he’d mentioned something about another beneficiary. She’d assumed he meant there was a small bequest to a friend or neighbour.
The throbbing in her temple was clouding her thinking. ‘He said he didn’t want to bother me with all the details because of my problems since the accident.’
He looked at her quizzically and she added briefly, ‘Headaches and so on. I had a short attention span for a while, and I can be a bit forgetful at times…but I’m much better now. I feel as though I’m on the mend.’
‘I’m sure you are. You seem fairly clear-headed to me.’
‘I’m glad you think so.’ She studied him. ‘So, what exactly did you inherit…a sum of money, a share in the proceeds from the livestock…the tools in the garden store?’ She said it in a light-hearted manner, but it puzzled her as to what her aunt could have left him.
‘Uh…it was a bit more than that, actually.’ He looked a trifle uneasy, and perhaps that was because he’d assumed she’d known all about it in advance. But then he seemed to throw off any doubts he might have had and said briskly, ‘Come on, I’ll show you.’
He went to the end extension of the property and unlocked a separate
