“Blimey,” she said. Charlie and Lisbeth laughed.
“You ought to win just for the dress!” Lisbeth volunteered, taking another sip from her glass.
Charlie pursed her lips and grumbled about her only daughter getting half-cut.
Sam grinned. She didn’t care about winning, actually. It would be nice to win, but business was booming, and she thought she might be in love.
“Ah well. It'll be a wonderful evening, regardless.”
To her surprise, Charlie hugged her. “You deserve this, Sam. Dad would have been proud of you.”
Taken aback, Sam had to blink away tears. She stood mute and Charlie took a deep breath. Thankfully, Lisbeth took charge.
“No snivelling, otherwise your mascara will run. C’mon mum, before this gets soppy! Enjoy your night, Aunty Sam—text us when you know the result.”
They left with a great deal of noise and flapping, finally leaving Sam alone in the cottage, waiting for Jonas.
Less than a mile away, Magda, looking nearer to twenty-one than sixteen, was determinedly tying her father's bow tie. Jonas, who was quite capable of tying it himself, stood quietly and patiently while Magda fiddled.
“There! Now you look respectable!”
“Did I look disreputable before?”
She slapped him on the arm.
“Stop fishing! Do you know Dad, since you started going out with Sam, you've become very needy with the compliments. Like, really needy!”
Jonas looked pained.
“I need reassurance like everyone else, you know,” he said and he was only half joking.
“But really—Sam, like—well, she adores you!”
“She does?”
“There you go again!”
“No, Magda—I'm not joking. Does she?”
Magda rolled her eyes.
“Seriously Dad? Have you seen the way she looks at you?”
Jonas was silent for a minute as he took that in.
“Are you ok with her?” he asked eventually.
“Are you kidding? She’s awesome!”
“You like her more than Gerry?”
“Much more than Gerry.”
Jonas shook his head.
“Sorry—I'm being an idiot.” He smiled at her and saw her eyes soften.
“I can't believe you don't see it—everyone else does. Perhaps you should try and look a bit more objectively, rather than be dazzled by her.”
Jonas shook his head again, unable to believe he was taking advice on his love life from his daughter. He hesitated, and Magda put her head on one side.
He took a breath. “I’ve never talked to you about my relationships...but if things ever turned out that way, would you be okay with having a stepmum?”
Magda’s eyes widened, and Jonas wondered if he’d said too much, too soon. “Theoretically, of course,” he added hastily. “Not immediately, obviously.”
Magda grinned at him. “Obviously. But, theoretically, Dad, I think it would be a great idea, I want you to be happy.”
As long as you get to vet the candidates? thought Jonas, with a smile of his own. “Thanks for tying my bow tie,” he said and kissed her nose. She hugged him.
“We'd better go and pick up Sam or she'll think we've stood her up,” he said into her freshly washed hair. She stood back, blinked her eyes, smoothed his jacket and smiled.
They left arm in arm.
Both Sam and Jonas were silent for a moment as she stood in the open doorway. Sam thought he looked magnificent, his strong jaw perfectly framed by the snowy shirt and black tie.
“Wow.”
“I could say the same,” Jonas said a little hoarsely.
Sam gave a nervous laugh. “Shall we just send Magda, and stay in?” she joked. Well, half-joked.
“Actually, I wanted to ask you something before we went to the awards,” Jonas said, stepping into the cottage. Sam paused as she reached for her bag.
“What?”
“I wondered if you would do some work for my company.”
Sam blinked. “Me? I'm no property developer!”
“I want to make more of the garden space in our show homes and demonstrate what people could do with the gardens—rather than just lay everything to lawn with a few shrubs.”
Sam considered. “Um... I will, if you increase the amount of space you allow for the gardens in your planning. At the moment, they're about as big as a pocket handkerchief. I can work with small gardens—we do it all the time—but I'd rather stand up for my principles that everyone should have a garden big enough to grow things, and for children to play in.”
She looked at his expressionless face and her heart sank. “Are you okay with that?” Jonas frowned. “I know you’ve marked me down as just a softy liberal, but I want to do my bit as a businesswoman. Dad would want me to. So I want to try to use unemployed labour in the same way I do at WGD,” she added.
“How will that work if we're building in Germany, or the Netherlands?”
“I don't know—you employ loads of people to find solutions to problems—have them work this out!”
Jonas blew out a breath. “I can see I'm going to have a fair old battle with the Board on this. More space means more cost, employing apprentices means more insurance, more people to train them, which means more cost too.”
“But your company does business based on its principles—why can't mine?”
Jonas smiled wryly. “You're absolutely right of course. If I do this—will you work with me?”
“Do you want me to?”
“Absolutely. You've got a wonderful talent. I’d like you to work with Connor. I’ve known him for years—you’ll work brilliantly together.”
Sam stared.
“Will he want to work with a Billy no-name like me?”
Jonas smiled.
“He will. He does. He thought your design for Brook Lodge was genius.”
“He did? Blimey...” She smiled as a buzz of excitement started to shiver along her veins. “Ok, then…since I’m in such exalted company.”
“Shall we shake on it?”
Sam looked at him quizzically and then her brow cleared and she laughed. “I know what you're doing! You're getting me tied up before I've found out if I've won the competition!”
Jonas put out his hands and smiled charmingly. “Guilty as charged. Connor also mentioned that I might not be able to afford you after tonight. What do you say?”
“Have one of your people get in touch with one of mine,” she said, and then grinned at him. He kissed her.
“You'll have to put more lipstick on,” he said unrepentantly when he released her a couple of minutes later.
“And you, Dad, will need to wipe your mouth!” said an exasperated Magda from the door. “Are you two coming to this awards thing or not? Honestly!”
“We're coming,” said Sam meekly, finally picking up her bag and heading to the car.
WANT TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?
The next book in the series, Love-in-a-Mist, follows Sam’s fledgling relationship and introduces Jonas’ best friend, garden designer bad boy Connor McPherson.
Love-In-A-Mist
Book 2 in the English Garden Romance series
When Lady Susan, owner of historic Ashton Manor asks Connor McPherson to design a garden to host a wedding ceremony, he can’t refuse. The reason? His best friend Jonas Keane is getting married there! And now he’s accepted the commission, he needs to get on with it to meet the summer wedding deadline. If only the rain would stop.
While owner Lady Susan shares Connor’s vision of a garden for future generations, snooty estates manager Ella Sanderson couldn’t be less enthusiastic.
Tall, aristocratic Ella who manages the farms and estate at Ashton Manor knows what she likes—and she doesn’t like Connor’s design. She’s horrified at the ultra-modern plans and thinks a more traditional garden would complement the house better. To top it all, Connor is just the type of man she’s learned to mistrust. Brigh
t blue eyes and all that Irish charm may have captivated her employer Lady Susan—but not her! She wants to protect her employer, and while she can’t go against Lady Susan’s wishes, she can just… not help.
The stage is set for a stand-off between the hot-tempered Irishman and the cool, calm and collected Ella as the weather worsens and money begins to run short.
But when the problems force Connor and Ella to work together, Connor slowly begins to realise that beneath her buttoned-up exterior, the estates manager has a passion equal to his own. And a secret story she’s hidden for years.
As she battles to get the garden she hates launched in time for the wedding, Ella finds herself increasingly drawn to the feisty designer. Who, she discovers, has his own secrets to protect…
Meet old friends from The Garden Plot in Love in a Mist, Book 2 of the English Garden Romance series.
Sign up for news of the release date at my website www.sarasartagne.com.
Afterword
Thank you for reading my debut novel and thank you for supporting independent authors. Writing can often be a bit of an echo chamber...scribbling away, but no-one is reading! So—if you liked The Garden Plot, please leave me a review. It’s an enormous help to authors just starting out! And if you’d like to know when I’m releasing the follow up book in the English Garden Romance Series, Love in a Mist, sign up to my mailing list on my website—sarasartagne.com.
I won't send endless emails, but enough to say hello, tell you news and offer some freebies. Talking of which, if you sign up to the mailing list, I’ll send you a free novella called A Bouquet of White Roses, which tells how Sam’s mum met her dad, and started the whole story.
You can get this, for free, by signing up to my mailing list. Alternatively, if you’d like to connect on Twitter, say hello to me at http://www.twitter.com/SSartagnewriter.
Acknowledgments
Writing a book can be incredibly difficult. I’d like to thank the following people:
Jan Page, aka Jess Ryder, for her unstinting support and guidance, and for pointing out plot holes you could drive a bus through;
Jilly Woods, for calm common sense, insightful comments and wry good humour in the midst of her own self-publishing journey, and
J A Clement, whose enthusiasm got me started in the first place and without whose technical support, this would still be a sheaf of A4 pages.
And finally, I’d like to thank my wonderful Fiona, who has always believed in me.
About Sara Sartagne
Having wanted to be a journalist when she was a teenager, Sara actually ended up on the dark side, in PR. From there, it was a short skip to writing for pleasure, and from there to drafting her first book. The Garden Plot is the first novel in a trilogy based around gardens and having green fingers—passions which Sara has for real.
She recently moved from London to York and is loving the open skies and the green fields. And a HUGE garden!
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