The Making of May

by Gwyneth Rees

  It was Miss Johnson.

  For a moment I thought that she was here to tell everyone what we had done – that she wasn’t a proper guest at all, but had arrived quite deliberately to expose Ben. But then Aunt Charlotte appeared and greeted her as an old friend, and I realized that she was just here as a party guest after all. And seeing Miss Johnson, old and blind and leaning on her stick, brought back what we had done in a horrible, sickening rush. I felt a little bit guilty, but more than that, I felt scared. What if Miss Johnson told everyone the truth about us? What would Mr Rutherford think of Ben? What would he do to him? What would Alex say to me? And it hit me just how much Ben and I had to lose.

  Before Mrs Daniels could send me to go and make another cup of tea, I rushed across the hall past everybody, heading outside to find Ben.

  ‘Ben! Ben! Miss Johnson’s here!’ I screeched, when I found him trimming a bush at the far end of the front garden, as far away from any guests as he could manage to get.

  ‘What?’

  ‘Miss Johnson is one of the guests for the birthday lunch! Alex’s aunt must know her! Ben, what are we going to do? What if she tells anyone about us?’ I started to talk so rapidly that he had to raise his voice to get me to be quiet.

  Ben was gradually turning pale as he took in what this meant. ‘If she tells anyone I’m not really a gardener, we’re done for!’ He had let his gardening shears fall to the ground and I could see that his brain was working overtime. ‘You’re sure she didn’t recognize you?’

  ‘She can’t have – I didn’t say anything!’

  ‘She’ll only recognize us if she hears our voices, which means we just have to make sure we don’t speak in front of her . . .’

  ‘But, Ben, we’re helping out at lunchtime,’ I pointed out, because Mrs Daniels had already asked us to help by serving things at the table.

  ‘We’ll just have to help without speaking,’ Ben said, trying to sound calm, though I could tell that underneath he was as panicky as I was.

  For the next two hours it was easy enough to avoid Miss Johnson, who had joined the other guests in a formal tour of the garden led by Mr Rutherford and Aunt Charlotte. I saw her bending down to sniff the roses and I only hoped nobody mentioned Ben’s name as they passed the wooden archway between the two rose gardens, where Geoffrey’s clematis had come to a sticky end.

  At lunchtime, our hopes of slipping into the background were dashed when Ben approached the table carrying a tray of food and was greeted with cries of, ‘So you must be Ben – the new gardener!’

  ‘And you must be Mary,’ an old lady added, as I arrived with a basket of bread rolls. ‘You and Alex have done marvels with the walled garden, my dear. Did it take you a long time to do it all?’

  ‘Not really,’ I mumbled, in a gruff sort of voice that I hoped Miss Johnson wouldn’t recognize.

  Mr Rutherford was seated at one end of the table and Aunt Charlotte was seated at the other. All of the guests – most of whom were old like Aunt Charlotte – were seated in between. Alex was helping to bring out the food too and he was also getting a lot of attention, which at least helped divert it away from Ben and me.

  Suddenly Miss Johnson spoke. ‘The roses in the walled garden smelt especially fragrant,’ she said.

  ‘Yes,’ Mr Rutherford replied, smiling at me. ‘Mary has done a splendid job of rescuing those.’

  ‘Though I could also smell the paint,’ Miss Johnson added, laughing. ‘I only wish I could see the paintings.’

  ‘The flower stems aren’t dry yet – that’s why you can smell it,’ Alex said. ‘Chris says he really likes the smell of oil and turps together, but I think it stinks a bit – don’t you, Mary?’

  I kept my mouth tightly closed and just nodded.

  ‘You must have green fingers, Mary,’ Miss Johnson said, as if she could sense that I was close by as I worked my way round the table with the rolls. When I didn’t say anything, she added, ‘Have you found that you enjoy gardening too then, like your brother?’ I had reached her place now and, with everybody looking at me, I just froze. Instead of answering her, or asking if she’d like a roll, I sort of lobbed one on to her plate and darted off back towards the house, even though I hadn’t finished serving everyone yet.

  ‘May!’ Ben yelled after me angrily.

  I didn’t go inside the house. I left the basket of rolls at the side entrance and headed straight for the walled garden. But now that the door of the garden was open so that anybody could get inside, it didn’t feel like a secret garden any more.

  I felt terrible, even after I’d stepped inside the garden and shut the door. Didn’t Ben realize that he’d just blown our cover by yelling at me like that? Miss Johnson had not only heard his voice, she had also heard him call me by my old name! And now that Miss Johnson knew who we were, she was bound to tell Mr Rutherford that Ben wasn’t a gardener. Then he would realize that we’d lied on Ben’s reference and Miss Johnson would find that out too! What would happen to Ben then? Would he get into trouble? Would they report him to the police? If only I could escape to the real secret garden, I thought – and take Ben with me. I was sure that nothing bad could ever happen to us there.

  I didn’t feel safe inside our garden any more. I quickly left it, cutting back along the narrow path, past the outbuildings and round the front of the house, to avoid the lunch party which was still going on at the back. I couldn’t tell if Ben was still outside with them or not. Maybe Miss Johnson hadn’t yet told Mr Rutherford about his not being a gardener. Maybe she was waiting until later.

  I managed to get back to the cottage without being seen and once I was inside I locked the door, drew all the curtains across and switched on my video. But I didn’t feel soothed when the oboe music began. I just carried on feeling like I was about to lose something really precious.

  ‘Oh, Mary,’ I murmured, as my old friend appeared on the screen, as sour-faced and skinny and friendless as she always was at the start of the story.

  I watched the whole video through to the end. I cried quite a lot, which I never usually did when I watched it.

  After it had finished I just lay on the sofa in a sort of trance until there was a loud knock on the door and I heard Alex’s voice outside.

  ‘Mary! Are you in there? The judges have been and they’ve given our garden second place in the competition!’

  I dragged myself off the sofa and stumbled to open the door. ‘Second place?’ I sniffed.

  Alex was standing outside in the sunshine, grinning at me. I blinked because it was so bright.

  ‘Why did you run off before? Everyone’s been asking about you.’

  ‘It doesn’t matter,’ I mumbled. ‘Did we really get second place?’

  ‘Dad and Ben think we should have come first, and they’re going to have a look at the garden that won, because it’s just in the next village. They want to know if we want to go with them. They’re waiting in the car.’

  ‘You go,’ I said. ‘I want to stay here.’ Miss Johnson couldn’t have told anybody about us yet if Alex’s dad and Ben were still on friendly terms. She must be waiting until the party was over. But what if I spoke to her first? What if I told her why we’d done what we’d done? Maybe she would be on our side about it. Maybe she wouldn’t tell on us after all!

  As Alex went off to join his father and Ben, I hurriedly tidied myself up. Even though Miss Johnson wouldn’t be able to see what I looked like, I felt that I ought to look smart for her. Then I went up to the main house. A few of the guests were milling around outside and one of them told me that Miss Johnson had gone up to her room to have a lie-down. I didn’t see Mrs Daniels at all, which was a relief because I was sure that when I did she would demand to know why I’d run off earlier.

  I entered the house through the side door and headed for the smaller staircase. Earlier this afternoon I’d overheard Mrs Daniels saying that she had given Miss Johnson the room closest to her own corridor, so that she would be nearby if the old lady needed
anything during the night. Miss Johnson’s room must be almost directly below the tower room, I thought, as I knocked on the door and waited until she called out, ‘Come in.’

  ‘Miss Johnson?’ I said, going over to the bed where she was lying down.

  Straight away she smiled and said, ‘May? Or is it Mary you like to be called now?’

  I sat down beside her on the bed. ‘Miss Johnson, I’m really sorry I didn’t speak to you before. You see . . . you see . . .’ And I started to tell her everything.

  But before I could finish she interrupted. ‘My dear, I’ve known all along that you and Ben were here.’

  ‘You have?’ I exclaimed in surprise.

  ‘I’ve known all about it from the beginning. Michael phoned me when he received Ben’s reference.’

  It took me a couple of seconds to realize who Michael was. Then I gasped, ‘Mr Rutherford phoned you?’

  ‘Of course! He recognized my name and address on the reference. I’m one of his sister’s oldest friends and I’ve known him since he was a little boy. He asked me about Ben, so I told him what I knew. I told him Ben hadn’t done any gardening for me, but that I was sure he’d do a good job at whatever he tried. I told him how much I liked you all as a family – you and Ben and Louise – and how I thought you deserved a helping hand. Ben was looking after you in the same way that Charlotte had looked after him and that fact didn’t escape him. So he said he would take a chance on you.’

  ‘So he’s known the truth about Ben all along?’ I could scarcely believe it.

  ‘Oh, yes! He thought about telling Ben he knew right at the start, but I advised him not to. I knew what Ben was like when it came to accepting help from anybody. I said it was best to let him think that he was wanted purely for his gardening skills. Mrs Daniels wasn’t happy about having a bogus gardener, of course, so Michael had to promise that if it all went horribly wrong, he would give Ben his marching orders. But he hasn’t had to, has he?’

  ‘You mean, Mrs Daniels knows as well?’

  She nodded. ‘I gather there isn’t much that goes on in this house that can be kept secret from her.’

  ‘But Mrs Daniels said . . .’ I broke off, realizing that, despite not having the hold over us that I’d thought she had, Mrs Daniels had still had the power to get Ben sacked. So in a way she hadn’t tricked me completely, when she’d made that deal with me about Ben.

  Just then we heard a noise above our heads.

  Miss Johnson sighed. ‘I must say that whoever’s in that room above me has been making quite a racket since I came up here to have a rest.’

  I stared up at the ceiling. ‘What sort of racket?’ I asked, trying to keep my voice steady.

  ‘Oh, just footsteps . . . a chair scraping . . . voices . . .’

  ‘Voices?’

  ‘Arguing, I think.’

  ‘Do you know where Mrs Daniels is?’ I asked her.

  ‘She said she was going up to her room for a lie-down too. She said she had a headache and that she’d clear up the lunch things a bit later on when she was feeling better.’

  I didn’t believe that. I knew where Mrs Daniels was – and I knew that she wasn’t in her room. Briefly I considered confronting the housekeeper when she came down from the tower room, but then Miss Johnson said, ‘Let’s go back downstairs and you can take me for another stroll in that lovely walled garden of yours.’ She was holding out her hand for me to help her up.

  Mrs Daniels – and whoever she had in the tower room – would have to wait, I decided. Anyway, it would be much better to confront her when Alex was with me.

  ‘Is Mr Rutherford going to tell Ben that he knows the truth now?’ I asked Miss Johnson as I led her carefully down the stairs.

  ‘Oh, yes. I think he’s planning to tell him later today. He’s got something else he wants to propose to him as well, I believe.’

  ‘What’s that?’ I asked warily.

  ‘Oh, I don’t think it’s for me to say. Don’t worry! You’ll find out soon enough.’

  As we reached the bottom of the stairs, we heard footsteps behind us and I turned to see Mrs Daniels following us. As usual she was carrying a tray.

  ‘Are you feeling better, Mrs Daniels?’ I asked, not bothering to keep the sarcasm out of my voice. ‘Has your headache gone yet?’

  ‘Just about,’ the housekeeper replied crisply. ‘And how are you feeling after your little episode at lunchtime? Have your manners come back yet?’

  I scowled at her and thought how satisfying it would be to bang her over the head with that tray.

  Mr Rutherford had his talk with Ben that afternoon after they got back from inspecting the garden that had won first prize in the competition. Ben told me afterwards that Mr Rutherford had been quite matter-of-fact about knowing that he wasn’t really a gardener and had been quick to make it clear that he had no intention of sacking Ben.

  Ben had been shocked at first to find out that his employer had known about him from the beginning – and then hugely relieved as he realized that he didn’t have to pretend any longer and that his job at Thornton Hall was safe. And then, of course, Ben had wanted to know why Mr Rutherford had employed him in the first place. That bit had been the most difficult for Ben to swallow, by the sound of it. Mr Rutherford had told him straight out that he and Miss Johnson had both thought we could do with a bit of help. Just as Miss Johnson had predicted, Ben hadn’t liked that one bit and had launched into his usual rant about how he wasn’t a charity case.

  But Mr Rutherford had got impatient with him then and told him that part of being grown up was realizing that accepting help from another person was sometimes a necessary thing to do.

  Ben flushed as he recounted what had happened next. ‘I sort of lost it then! I mean, how dare he lecture me on what being a grown-up was all about, you know? So I said he could stop being so patronizing, because I’d grown up a long time ago, thanks very much – without any help from him or anybody else!’

  ‘Wow!’ I gasped. ‘You really said that?’

  ‘Yeah . . . unfortunately. So he said that maybe that was my problem and then he really laid into me for speaking to him like that. I felt like I was back at school getting into trouble from the head or something.’

  ‘Alex said his dad always has to have the last word in every argument,’ I said sympathetically.

  ‘Yeah, well, this wasn’t just one word – it was a whole earful of them. I guess I shouldn’t have spoken to him like that though,’ he added gloomily. ‘I mean, he is my boss, after all, and he has been pretty good to us. I did apologize afterwards, but he said he was going to come round to see me tomorrow night to talk to me some more. I just hope he doesn’t change his mind about keeping me on here.’

  ‘We can always go to Australia if he does,’ I said lightly (which so wasn’t the right thing to say at that point, but I just couldn’t help it).

  On Sunday evening, when Mr Rutherford came to the cottage, Ben was nothing but respectful, and I could see how relieved he was when Mr Rutherford confirmed that he was still happy to let Ben stay on as gardener for as long as he wanted. But then he added that he couldn’t help wondering whether that was the best thing for Ben.

  ‘What do you mean?’ Ben said hoarsely, and I felt my insides go tense as I waited to hear what was coming next. I’d thought that our life here was secure now that everybody knew the truth. But maybe it wasn’t.

  ‘I’ve been making some enquiries on your behalf, Ben. You got such good A-level results and you were offered a place at university to study history before. I really don’t see why you shouldn’t apply for a university place now as an older student. I’d be more than willing to act as your referee.’

  Ben looked flabbergasted. ‘But I can’t just go off to university! You know that!’ He looked at me as he said it.

  ‘Mary could come and live with us during term-time if you wanted,’ Mr Rutherford said. ‘Goodness knows there’s enough room! You could come back and work as our gardener during
the holidays – and I can get some other help when you’re not here. Mrs Daniels is keen to do more in the garden herself, so I might hire someone else to help out in the house. Anyway, Mrs Daniels and I would gladly take care of Mary while you were away.’

  Ben was staring at him speechlessly. ‘I don’t have any money,’ he finally croaked.

  ‘You’d have to get a student loan, which you could pay back once you started earning. And you’re a hard worker, so I know you’ll find part-time work to help bring in some funds while you’re studying. But the other thing is this: my aunt who left me this house also left me a sizeable sum of money to go with it. She loved her gardens and I’m sure she’d be very pleased if, in return for your continuing to work here in the holidays, we sorted you out with some sort of sponsorship to help you with the fees.’

  ‘I couldn’t accept any money from you!’ Ben said hotly.

  ‘It’s not charity, Ben, believe me! It’s a way of keeping you here as our gardener, at least until you finish university. You’ve no idea how hard it’s been to find someone to be the gardener here who Mrs Daniels doesn’t feel is making her Geoffrey turn in his grave!’

  To my amazement Ben actually smiled at that. It was the first time I’d ever seen him smile when somebody offered him financial help.

  ‘I don’t know . . .’ he murmured, but usually he did know – that was the thing.

  ‘I don’t want to stay at Thornton Hall on my own,’ I said quickly, just to remind everyone that it was my future we were talking about here, not just Ben’s.

  ‘You wouldn’t be on your own, Mary,’ Mr Rutherford said. ‘Mrs Daniels or I would always be here. And Ben would be spending a lot of time here too. University terms are much shorter than school ones, you know. Alex will go back to live with his mother, of course, but I’m sure he’ll come to visit at the weekends sometimes – and he’ll certainly be back in the school holidays. Ben may well come back for some weekends too, if he doesn’t apply to a university too far away.’

  I shook my head. It wasn’t just that I didn’t like the idea of staying at Thornton Hall – which I didn’t, chiefly because of Mrs Daniels and the weird goings-on up in the tower room. The thing was, I had a much better idea.