Mornington-By-Mere is a small country village
lying in the Finchbottom Vale nestled between the Ancient Dancingdean Forest
and the rolling Pepperstock Hills.
It is a quaint picturesque village, a proper
chocolate box picturesque idyll, with a Manor House, 12th Century
Church, a Coaching Inn, Windmills, an Old Forge, a Schoolhouse, a River and a
Mere.
But Mornington-By-Mere is not just a
quaint chocolate box English Village it is the beating heart of the Finchbottom
Vale and there were a number of
cottages and small houses on the Purplemere road and Dulcets Lane which formed
the part of Mornington Village known as Manorside and George Harding lived at number
1 Dulcet Mill Lane in the house he was raised in along with his sister
Mariana by his Aunt Julia.
George had just settled himself down in his
armchair when he heard the sound of the front doorbell.
“Oh Bollocks” he said in response and
struggled to his feet to answer it.
He grabbed his crutches and headed slowly
towards the door just as it rang again
“Alright, I’m coming” he said
When he opened the door he found a man and
woman in their early thirties, standing the other side of it.
“I’m Zachary” the man said proudly thrusting
his chest out “I do the garden”
“Oh” he responded
The attractive woman who was standing just
behind him said
“What he means is that he is a very good
gardener and he’s looking for work”
Zachary, he ascertained had a learning
disability of some sort and the woman with him he presumed was his care giver.
George wondered how many houses they had
visited in Mornington before his and how many times she had had to explain.
“Well” He said and he
saw her shoulders slump as she anticipated another rejection.
“I am sorely in need
of a gardener”
And she straightened
up and the broadest smile crossed her face and Zachary looked at her and smiled
“Thank you” she said
and squeezed Zachary’s arm proudly
“Thank you” Zachary
said and held out his hand for George to shake
“I can’t afford to pay
you a lot” George said
“That’s not a problem”
she replied for him
“And you may not want
the job when you see the state of garden, it’s a real mess” George added
“I will do it” Zachary
said holding his head high “I don’t mind hard work”
“Ok then go through
the side gate and I will meet you out the back” he said
He closed the door and
made his way slowly to the back door which he had just opened, when Zachary and
his carer walked through the side gate.
“Oh dear” she said as the
young woman saw the overgrown jungle that was George Harding’s garden
“Lots of work for me” Zachary
said enthusiastically and went exploring in the undergrowth.
“Thank you” she said
“What for?” George
asked
“For giving my brother
a chance” she replied
“Nonsense I should be thanking you” he said
and winced
“Are you ok?” She asked
“Yes, it’s just that I’m not supposed to be
putting my weight on it” he replied
“Then you need to go in and sit” she said
with authority
“I’ll be find” George replied
“Sit” she insisted “We don’t tell patients to
keep their weight off for no reason”
“We?” George queried
“I’m a nurse” Jeanne said and wouldn’t take
no for an answer so she encouraged him inside and then she settled him in his
chair
“Now stay there and rest your leg”
“Yes nurse” he responded
“Jeanne” she corrected him
“I’m George”
“Can I make you a drink?” she asked
“Only if you’re going to join me” George
replied
“I thought you’d never ask” she said “We’ve
been walking around all morning and people have been very nice but….”
“Great” he replied “Black coffee for me
please”
Jeanne nodded and went into the kitchen.
Jeanne Swann went to the kitchen in George Harding’s house and returned a few minutes
later with the drinks which she set down on the small table and then she sat in
the vacant chair.
“So what happened?” she asked indicating his
leg
“Car versus lorry” he said “guess which one I
was driving”
“How long ago?”
“Two years” George replied “and several
operations”
“Any more planned?” Asked Jeanne
“No they have done everything they can so
whatever I have when this has healed I will have to live with” He said soberly
“Is that why the garden is so overgrown?” she
asked
“Only partly” he replied “My Aunt Julia was
the gardener of the family, who sadly spent the last three years of her life in
a home, and as neither my sister Mariana or I have green fingers so it was already fairly overgrown when she died, but it was only two
months after that when I had the accident, so it’s at least six years since anything
meaningful has been done out there, however I don’t know how much better it
would be if I hadn’t had the accident”
“Nor me” she said “but Zachary is a whizz”
George looked at her and saw the pride in her
pretty smile as she mentioned Zachary.
“Zachary loves gardening, when he lived with
mum he was always out there pottering about or working in the greenhouse”
Jeanne almost cried at the thought of a
happier time in their lives George could see her eyes begin to moisten.
Just at that moment through the French window
he saw Zachary reappeared from the wilderness and he was grinning broadly.
“He looks so happy” Jeanne said and she
almost cried again.
George edged forward on his seat in readiness
to stand.
“And where do you think you’re going?” Jeanne
said sternly “You need to stay seated”
“Yes nurse” he said obediently and he watched
Jeanne with an appraising eye as she walked to the French doors and opened them.
Zachary immediately stepped forward and
hugged his sister
“Well what do you think?” George asked while
still admiring Jeanne’s figure.
“It’s big Jeanne” he said laughing
“Can you help me with then?” George asked
“Oh yes” Zachary replied eagerly
“Then come and shake on it” George said and Zachary
strode forward and shook Georges hand as Jeanne looked on proudly.
“The only snag is that I don’t have much in the way of tools” George admitted
“I have tools” Zachary
said proudly
“Ok then, when would
you like to start?” George asked
“Now” he replied “I
can start now”
“I think tomorrow
would be better as we have disturbed Mr...”
“Harding” George said
“But please call me George”
“We have disturbed Mr. Harding enough for
today” she continued
“Ok Jeanne” Zachary agreed
“Tomorrow then” George said
“Tomorrow then” Zachary echoed
“We will see you Tomorrow then, we’ll let
ourselves out” Jeanne said and steered Zachary out the door “because George
needs to rest his leg” She directed her eyes in George’s direction as she said
it and George said
“Yes nurse”
On Saturday morning George got himself going much earlier
than usual and showered and shaved and put on a smart shirt as he wanted to
give a better impression of himself than he had the day before if Jeanne was
going to be coming with Zachary again.
He was sure he remembered her say “We will
see you tomorrow” but then by the time nine o’clock came and went he began to
think he had imagined it.
But at 9.15 he heard the side gate rattle so
he got up and opened the French doors.
And with the aid of his crutches he stepped
ungracefully onto the patio just as the lovely Jeanne walked through the gate.
She was wearing a bright floral summer dress
presumably as it was going to be a nice day.
Whatever the reason he was pleased with the
outcome.
She stepped to one side and held the gate open
as the front wheel of a wheel barrow appeared followed by the wheel barrow
itself, full of tools, and Zachary, who was pushing it.
“My word you are well equipped” George said
and blushed as he realized he was looking at Jeanne as he said it.
“Yes I
am” replied Zachary with pride
“We’re not too early are we?” Jeanne asked
“He’s been ready since 7 o’clock”
“No not at all” George replied
“Did you have to wheel those tools far?”
“No, only from Dulcets
Road Cottages” Jeanne replied
“Really?” he said with surprise
“Yes, we’ve not been in the village long” she
replied.
Zachary was wearing work boots and overalls
and was raring to go, Jeanne on the other hand, dressed in her summer frock and
sandals was clearly not and George hoped desperately that she was staying.
“So are you gardening or cheering him on from
the sidelines?” George asked hopefully
“I’m definitely cheering him on” she replied
with a giggle.
“Well we can sit out here if you’d like I’ve
got chairs and stuff in the garage” George suggested
“That would be lovely but let me and Zachary
get the chairs” she said
“Ok I’ll put the kettle on” he said
“If you must” she said disapprovingly
The kettle had just boiled when Jeanne came
in to the kitchen
“Ok, you can leave that to me now” she said
and ushered him out onto the patio again where he found Zachary had just
finished dusting down the chairs.
George found himself unable to fathom out the
best way to seat himself in the chair, it was one of those chairs that when
seated you lifted the arm rests and the back went down and the foot rest came
up.
But he couldn’t get the chair to stand still
while he lowered himself into it.
“Haven’t you sat down yet?” Jeanne asked
“No but it’s not for the want of trying” George
replied and she laughed as he tried again and failed.
“Zachary will help” she said “Give me your
crutches”
He complied with the nurses instruction and
then Zachary scooped him up in his arms like he was a child, he was immensely
strong, and lowered him gently into the chair.
Jeanne and George sat on the patio and
chatted as Zachary toiled in the jungle, they knew he was there even though
they couldn’t see him, as there were tell-tale sounds of a man at work.
In truth George initially listened more than
conversed as his mind wandered and he ended up just looking at her.
He thought she had a pretty face and he loved
her bobbed soft brown hair and the way it framed her face perfectly.
He also looked at her eyes and pronounced
them internally to be hazel.
“So you’re a nurse” he said as she caught him
watching her
“Yes” she replied taking a sip of her tea.
“I’m a nurse at Oak Dale”
Oak Dale was a
Retirement Village and Nursing home in Dulcets Green.
“That was where Aunt Julia spent her last few
years” he responded “Is Alexandra
Barrileau still in charge?”
“Yes she is”
“I liked her very
much” he said “She really cares for the patients”
“She’s very dedicated” Jeanne agreed
“So have you been there long?” he asked
“Only about six months” she replied “I was in
the Emergency Department at the Winston Churchill for five years, dealing with
the same people time and time again having done the same thing that got them in
there the previous time and knowing that after you patched them up they would
be back again the next month for the same reason, it was very disheartening”
“So what prompted the change?” George asked
“It was when my mum was in The Hedgerley Court Hospice in Applesford and I saw the dignified way they dealt with the poor souls who were on
the edge of the abyss and the comfort they bestowed upon them as they slipped
away, and I thought that a much more important role than patching up the drunks
and addicts, and that’s my role at Oak Dale”
“And when you’re not working you help your
brother” George said
“I try to” she said
“He has a real passion for gardening and he’s
good at it, really good, but you’re the first person to give him a chance, I
can’t tell you how grateful I am”
“I’ll be honest with
you Jeanne when I said yes it was because I could see how your spirits sank
when you thought I was going to say no, but also I thought that well the garden
is such a mess, what harm could he do, not a particularly noble reason”
“Being honest is
noble” she said
After a few moments of silence George asked
“So how did he come to be living with you?”
“Well my dad worked all his adult life for the
St George family, in Highfinch, as a chauffeur, amongst other things and when
he died mum stay on in the tied house until her death”
Jeanne paused to take another sip of her tea.
“When Mum died Zachary had to leave, but the
St Georges weren’t prepared to put him out on the street so they offered him a
cottage in Mornington and so I moved in with him and got the job at Oak Dale”
“Well that sounds almost perfect” George said
“Almost, the only downside is that the
cottage only has a very small garden and Zachary is used to something a lot
bigger to keep him occupied”
“Do you have any other family?”
“Yes I have an older brother, Danny, but he’s
a real waster, I wouldn’t have let Zachary go to him even if Danny had
suggested it, which he didn’t” she said frankly
“What about you? Any family”
“Yes I have a younger sister, Marianna” he
said “But she’s in New Zealand and I haven’t seen her since Aunt Julia’s
funeral”
“I’m sorry to hear that” she said
“I really miss her” he confessed “But we
skype every week and email in between”
“Aunt Julia loved her garden and she would
hate to see it like this” George said
“But here we are, about to restore it to its
former glory” She said positively
Just then he looked at his watch and realized
it was time for lunch
“Oh look at the time let me go and make some
lunch” George suggested
“Nonsense you need to stay off the leg, I’ll
go and get something”
She offered
George opened his mouth to protest but Jeanne
gave him a look that said her mind was made up, then she leant towards him and
whispered
“Zachary will want a meat pie anyway”
“Oh” George said
“What do you want for lunch Zack?” she
shouted
“Meat Pie” he replied instantly
“Well that’s settled then” George said “I’ll
get my wallet”
Jeanne gave him another look so he settled
back into his chair and she walked into the village to Addison’s Bakers to pick
up lunch.
After lunch Zachary went back to work and Jeanne
and George resumed their conversation.
“What about an allotment” George suggested
“For Zachary I mean”
“We tried that” Jeanne said “The nearest ones
are in Shallowfield but they said they were full, but I know they were lying”
George raised an eyebrow and gave her a
doubtful look.
“They are still advertising for new members on
the internet, they just didn’t want a retard in their society”
She almost cried but she managed to compose
herself.
“So what do you do?” she asked
“I’m a web design consultant” George said
“And who do you work for” she asked having no
idea what a web design consultant was.
“I’m a freelance” he said “so fortunately I
can work from home”
“Well that’s handy” she said encouragingly
“Yes but I’ve lost a lot of work because of
this” he said patting his leg “with operation’s or hospital appointment and
physio”
“That’s not so good” Jeanne said
“No, but I’m lucky really” George said “I
have some regular clients who have been very understanding and of course I’m even
luckier not to be dead”
By the end of the afternoon Zachary had made
significant progress cutting back the shrubbery but there was still a long way
to go.
It was a big garden as you would expect with
a Victorian detached house, it was 60 feet wide and more than treble that in
length
George’s Aunt Julia always had it in very
good order and it was her pride and joy.
Zachary was loading his tools back into his
wheelbarrow
“Put your tools in the garage Zachary” George
said
“Then you won’t need to bring them with you
every day”
“That’s a good idea isn’t it Zachary?” Jeanne
said
“Yes it is” he agreed
“Will I see you both again tomorrow?” George
asked hopefully
George was quite sad to see her go at the end
of the day it had been such a pleasant day, it had been quite a while since he
had had any meaningful conversation and even longer with such lovely company.
“Yes if that ok” Jeanne said
“I’ll see you both tomorrow then” he said and
smiled
The next day was Sunday and was spent in the
same pleasant fashion as the first one was with Jeanne and George relaxing and
poor Zachary doing all the work and all three of them loving every minute of
it.
Jeanne
didn’t go with Zachary every day, she still had to work and if she was on
nights then she would be sleeping during the day.
Then there were days
when she had housework to do or errands to run, shopping, paying bills etc. and
those were the days George came to dislike intently.
Some days of course George
wouldn’t be at the house to see her if she were there because he had errands to
run himself or hospital appointments or physio.
But they both secretly
loved it when they were both there together.
After a few weeks Zachary
had cleared the garden right down to the end and cut all the weeds bramble and
nettles down to ground level and was left with two enormous piles of garden
rubbish one of them being the decapitated shrubbery.
“What now?” Jeanne
asked
“Well I suppose we can
compost the green stuff” he said “In the bottom corner”
Zachary nodded
enthusiastically
“What about the rest?
Can we burn it?” Jeanne asked
“Well we could but I
think we’ll hire a chipper” George replied
“A what?” she queried
“A wood chipper” he said
“What’s that?”
“Well it’s a machine that you stick the woody
stuff in at one end and it mashes it all up into chips which come out the other”
George said
“Zack likes chips” Zachary said and laughed
and George and Jeanne joined in.
“So it’s a big boy’s toy” Jeanne said when
they had stopped laughing
“Yes pretty much” George admitted “but you
can have a go”
“Ok, where do we get one?” she said
As the weeks had gone
by George had grown more and more fond of Jeanne and at the same time his
mobility had improved to the point that he was able to ditch the crutches in
favour of a single walking stick and it was when he was at that stage when he
was at his least gimpy that he chose to ask Jeanne out.
It was a very hot day in
the middle of July and he was sweating, but it wasn’t the heat that was
responsible for him sweating it was because he had decided that he would ask
her that day, Zachary was way down the end of the garden sorting the compost
and George was pacing up and down the patio, she had phoned earlier to say she
was coming straight round from work.
So when Jeanne arrived
she was still wearing her uniform, not one of the sexy “Carry on Nurse” type
uniforms but it was still very nice, which merely made him sweat even more.
“Would you like a
drink Jeanne?” he asked “There’s wine in the fridge”
“I’d love one” she
said and plonked herself down in a chair.
George got the wine
from the fridge and poured two glasses instantly drained one and filled it
again.
He took the drinks
outside and they sat on the patio in the evening sunshine drinking their wine
“Jeanne I was
wondering” he began
“Wondering what?” she
replied and took a long sip on her wine.
“Well I was wondering
if, and feel free to say no, but um I thought that well um, if you were erm, not
on nights or busy or anything, that maybe, if you were free then perhaps um, we
might um, well you know, go out for dinner, maybe on Friday”
She had been staring
at him for every tortuous second of his inept babbling, looking at him like he
was a gibbering idiot, which of course wasn’t far from the truth and then she
smiled.
“I’d love to” Jeanne
replied putting him out of his misery
“I thought you were
never going to ask”
“Well I’ve been
meaning to for a while” George explained
“What made you ask me
now?” she asked “Was it the uniform?”
George and Jeanne made
love for the first time after their second date which didn’t altogether go as
planned, because at a crucial point in the preceding’s George’s bad leg
suddenly cramped up and he fell out of bed.
When Jeanne had
stopped laughing and George’s leg had returned to some semblance of normality
they tried again.
“I’ll go on top this
time” Jeanne suggested
“Good idea” George
agreed “then if you get cramp, you can fall out of bed, and I can laugh at you”
They finally completed
the act an hour later.
It was after they had
been going out together for a couple of months, when summer had given way to
autumn, when there was a ring on the doorbell.
George was working on
his laptop in the lounge while Zachary was laying turf in the garden.
George got up from his
seat and paused briefly to marvel at what a great job Zachary had done before
heading towards the front door.
He opened it to find a
short emaciated man standing there, he was pretty sure he didn’t know him but
there was something familiar about him.
“Yes” George said
“My name is Danny
Swann” he said “Can I come in”
George realised why
there was something familiar about the man he was Jeanne’s older brother.
“No I don’t think so” George
said
“Ok I’ll say what I
have to say on the door step” Danny said
“Go on then” George
said
“I hear you’re
exploiting my brother Zachary” he said “Using him like a slave”
“Well not that it’s
any of your business” George said “But I pay Zachary to do my garden”
“You can’t give him
money he’s not responsible enough to have money” he said
“Is that right?” George
asked
“Yes so you can pay it
to me in future” he said “and I will look after it for him”
“I don’t think so” George
replied
Danny Swann leant in
towards George and whispered
“You will pay the
money to me, unless you want all your neighbours to know you’re taking
advantage of a mong”
“A mong?” George said
with disgust “you have no idea who or what your brother is, do you? Now get
lost”
George slammed the
door shut and immediately phoned Jeanne.
They didn’t hear from Danny
anymore after that day and they assumed that was the end of the matter until
two months later.
It was Jeanne’s day
off and she and George were looking forward to spending the day together, in
truth George was just contemplating a cosy siesta with the lovely Miss Swann when
the doorbell rang.
George opened the door
and was greeted by a rather rotund middle aged woman with ridiculous hair.
“Maureen Dunne” she
said holding up an ID badge “Social services, can I come in”
George invited her in
and when Jeanne had made drinks they all sat in the lounge.
“We have had a report
that you are using a vulnerable person as slave labour” Mrs Dunne stated
“I can guess who that
was” Jeanne said with disgust “my brother Danny”
“I can’t divulge the
name of the complainant” she said
“Bloody nerve” George
said “He was here demanding that I pay Zachary’s wages to him, and I refused
which is why he’s made a complaint”
“So Zachary Swann
hasn’t done work for you?” Mrs Dunne asked
“Oh yes he has worked
for me, but I pay him” George said
“And how much do you
pay him?” she asked
“He gets minimum wage”
Jeanne interjected
“Can you prove that?”
She asked
“As a matter of fact I
can” George said and stood up “I am a bit OCD when it comes to records, so yes
I can”
George reached up to
the top shelf and took down an A5 note book.
“This shows
everything” George said “This lists all his hours, how much he earned and at
the back are the receipts for the deposits into his account”
“As you can see at the
beginning” Jeanne said “He did a lot more hours but they have tailed off now
because he is only doing maintenance”
“We have before and
after pictures which shows how much he has achieved” George said
“What are these
figures in red?” Mrs Dunne asked
Jeanne and George both
laughed
“Do you see that jar
on the sideboard” George said indicating a China fruit jar
“That contains the
money I overpay him, if I pay him for more hours than he has worked, he puts it
in the jar”
“And those are the
figures in red” Jeanne said “he is no fool and he only wants to be paid for the
work he has done”
Mrs Dunne was silent
for a moment as she studied the rest of the book and then she asked
“And how many hours is
he working today?”
“Oh he’s not working
for me today” George said
“But isn’t that him in
the garden?” Mrs Dunne asked
“Yes that’s Zachary” Jeanne
said
“And he’s gardening” Mrs
Dunne persisted
“Oh yes always” George
replied
“For you” She said
“No” George replied “Today
he’s gardening for himself”
“I don’t understand”
said Mrs Dunne
“Jeanne and Zachary
live in a cottage and have a very small garden, the local Shallowfield allotment
society won’t rent him a plot because he has learning difficult so I have given
him half of the garden to work for himself, in fact its Zachary’s garden now,
not mine”
“As you can see he loves gardening” Jeanne
said proudly
“I can see that, but
you must appreciate how it looks, a man giving half of his garden to a virtual
stranger” Mrs Dunne said with eyebrows raised
“What if he was going
to be my brother in law?” George said looking at Jeanne
“What?” Mrs Dunne
asked a little confused
“Are you proposing to
me?” Jeanne asked
“What?” Mrs Dunne
asked again even more confused
“Yes” George said
“Not the most romantic
way to be asked” Jeanne added
“Well I’ve been trying
to ask all week and couldn’t get it out” George said
“You know what I’m
like”
“Well in that case”
she said “I will have to marry you”
“You will?” George
said and they stood in the middle of the room and kissed
“Case closed then” Mrs
Dunne said
There only remained
one obstacle to Jeanne and George’s engagement.
If Zachary wasn’t
happy then Jeanne couldn’t marry him and she was adamant about that.
So it was on a crisp
autumn morning that George and Jeanne chose to ask Zachary a question and when
they were all sitting in the lounge, Zachary was a little fidgety as he wanted
to get back to the garden and his eyes kept wandering to the window
“Would you like to
live here Zachary?” George asked
“No” he replied very
definitely
“Why not?” he asked
“Jeanne will be lonely
without me” Zachary said “I don’t want her to be lonely”
“I don’t want her to
be lonely either Zachary” George said
“Which is why I
thought it would be nice if we all lived here together”
“Ok then” he said and
went back to his garden
George turned to Jeanne
and said “Ok then”
“Ok then” Jeanne said
“Let’s get married”
