Spring on the Little Cornish Isles: Flower Farm

by Phillipa Ashley

‘I’ll be back in a minute,’ said Will.

  With a doubtful ‘mmm’, Anna nodded and left them in the yard. Jess was going to follow her, but Will lingered, a frown on his face.

  ‘What’s up?’ she asked.

  ‘I might go and check everything’s OK in the packing shed and the day’s harvest is safely in the fridge.’

  Jess knew him too well. ‘You just want some time on your own.’

  He turned to her. ‘Don’t you?’

  ‘Yeah. It’s been a long day and I’m shattered too. It was tiring answering all those questions about Adam and knowing people were talking about us.’

  Will patted her shoulder. ‘They’ll soon find something else to gossip about.’

  ‘Thanks, bro.’

  ‘You’re welcome. Come on, let’s go and set our minds at rest before we turn in.’

  Jess followed him, not unhappy to see if Gaby was OK herself, but also wondering if he had an ulterior motive for checking the day’s work. She’d seen him scrolling through his phone more often than he usually did. She’d had a few glances at hers during the wedding, but Will had been pulling his mobile from his pocket even during the church ceremony. While it hadn’t been ideal leaving Gaby in charge today, Jess had every faith in her abilities. She was experienced and conscientious, and much stronger than she appeared. She guessed that Will wanted to reassure himself that nothing had gone wrong; perhaps he was even hoping to bump into her.

  They walked to the work sheds and flicked on the lights but were met with silent emptiness, as expected. There were still a few rejected stems on the floor and some crates waiting to be cleaned in the entrance. Will opened the door of the refrigerated room where the picked flowers were kept prior to being arranged, and after they were boxed, to keep them fresh before their journey to the quay. Having looked inside, he closed the door behind him and joined Jess.

  ‘There you go. Everything looks fine, doesn’t it?’

  His brow creased. ‘I suppose so.’

  ‘But?’

  ‘Natalia said they hadn’t finished the quota for today and yet the fridge is packed with flowers. One of the crates was almost blocking the door as I pushed it open.’

  ‘Will, it’s late. If they’ve over-picked, it’ll be OK because we have that big order to fulfil. Stop worrying. Now can we finally go home and chill out?’

  ‘Suppose so.’ He didn’t look at all reassured.

  ‘You’re worried about Gaby?’ Jess asked him.

  ‘I’m not worried. I just wonder how she got on today.’

  ‘If you like, I’ll drop by her room and check on her. Either she’ll answer or I’ll hear her snoring or something and then you can relax.’

  ‘There’s no need for that.’

  ‘No, but I’m going to do it all the same. You might as well come too.’

  They set off for the staff house, Jess’s mind working overtime. She’d suspected for some time that Will felt something more for Gaby than an employer’s care for his workers, even though he denied it strenuously. She was now ninety-nine per cent sure he did have a thing for her. Jess already knew Gaby liked him and the teasing, the banter and the looks they shared when they thought no one else could see them had fuelled her suspicions for a long time. Will’s eagerness to see Gaby now sealed the deal in Jess’s eyes.

  However, she also thought she knew why Will was reluctant to get involved with Gaby while she worked for him: it was too complicated. Putting a finger on her lips, Jess approached Gaby’s door; Will kept a discreet distance. There was no obvious sound and no light spilling from under the door.

  ‘She must be asleep,’ she whispered to Will.

  He showed her his watch face. It was past ten o’clock.

  Jess put her ear close to the door, half expecting it to be pulled open at any moment and that she’d fall inside the room like in a sitcom. She thought she could hear the odd snuffle, but the walls were so thin, they might have been coming from someone else’s room or even a mouse or night bird outside. Either way, without knocking and disturbing Gaby, there was nothing more they could do.

  With a shrug, she indicated to Will that they should leave.

  ‘You’ve worked her into exhaustion,’ Jess said as they walked back to the farmhouse.

  ‘I never meant that to happen!’ Will exclaimed.

  After Jess and Will had done their duty, had their tea with their mother, and listened to her appraisal of most of the guests’ outfits, the food and the service, they went to their rooms. To mainlanders it might seem odd that they still lived ‘at home’, but the farm was their family business and staying on site kept costs down.

  Besides, thought Jess as she brushed her teeth, the farmhouse wasn’t a bad place to call home, even with its quirky plumbing and low beams that Will was forever bumping his head on even now. Jess had her own large bedroom with an en suite. Will’s bedroom was slightly smaller but he had his own bathroom too.

  There was a snug downstairs where she and Will retreated at various times, as well as a family sitting room and a room their mum liked to call the ‘drawing room’, which had been added back in Edwardian times. Space wasn’t a problem but privacy was, and any relationship was conducted in the full glare of friends and family. As Jess got ready for bed, she thought about Adam’s cottage. She hadn’t been to look at it for months now because the memories of the happy times they’d spent together over the previous summer were still too painful to dwell on.

  Her mother had urged her to be sociable at the wedding, which Jess took to mean she should look for a man. It was so bloody retro in the twenty-first century, but in one way, Jess agreed with her mother’s advice: she couldn’t mope forever. She’d danced and chatted with a Cornish guy who’d come to work as a chef at a local eaterie. They’d had a few drinks and he’d said he’d call her, but Jess wasn’t holding her breath. He was nice and good-looking and claimed he intended to stay long-term on Scilly, but she hadn’t clicked with him in the way she did with Adam. Maybe he would call … maybe she’d give him a try.

  She yawned and put her pyjamas on. It wasn’t the best day to be dwelling on what might have been.

  Before she climbed into bed, she went to draw the curtains. Her room overlooked most of the north side of the island and she could see the chimney on Adam’s place on a clear day and the lights in his bedroom window at night. She peered out of the window, half hoping to see the yellow glow, but no matter how hard she squinted, all was dark. Cursing herself for being stupid, she was about to close the curtains when she spotted a beam of light wavering in the yard. She switched off her bedroom light and rushed back to the window. As her eyes adjusted, in the silvery gloom, she spotted Will making his way across the yard in his pyjamas.

  Chapter 10

  Gaby was riding pillion on the back of Stevie’s motorbike. She was clinging onto him for dear life, her screams snatched away by the wind roaring past her ears. She didn’t have a helmet on and she was begging him to slow down. He was crouched low over the handlebars, and her hands kept slipping from his leather jacket. The harder she tried to cling onto him, the more she lost her grip. A dazzling light blinded her and the next thing she knew she was flying through the air and landing with a massive thud in a clump of bushes.

  Her first thought was that it was quite odd that she had survived a seventy mile an hour ejection from a motorbike when she wasn’t wearing a crash helmet and her second thought was, who is that man shining a torch in my eyes?

  ‘Am I in hospital?’ she said in the croaky, panicky way people did when they’ve been woken up very suddenly and unpleasantly.

  ‘No, but you were asleep on the floor!’

  ‘Whaaaa?’ She prised her lids open, flinching in the light. Her bottom was damp. In fact, most of her was damp and she was also very cold. She realised that she was lying on the rough concrete of the field workers’ shelter. ‘Ow …’ She rubbed at a sore spot on her thigh.

  A light flashed in her eyes again, temporarily blinding h
er but she knew the voice instinctively.

  ‘You must have been in here for hours,’ said Will. ‘Why are you on the floor?’

  Gaby shaded her eyes. ‘I dunno … would you mind not shining that in my face?’

  The beam disappeared and Gaby rubbed her eyes. It took a few seconds to get used to the twilight again. Meanwhile, Will was talking a lot.

  ‘What happened? What were you doing in here? Did you pass out or have a fit and hit your head or something? Do I need to call the paramedics?’

  ‘Oww …’ Gaby groaned. Her lower back throbbed. She tried to sit up, but two hands pushed her down, which probably wouldn’t have been the best idea if she really did have a spinal injury, thought Gaby. However, they were Will’s hands and as she was still dazed and confused, she decided to let him carry on for now.

  ‘No, you’d better not get up. You might have broken something and I don’t think you should move. That’s what they tell us at rugby. You need to keep absolutely still. Shit, I’d better hold your neck still or something.’

  Will got behind her and held her head between his hands. His face was upside-down from her point of view.

  ‘No, I’m fine. Honestly, I’m fine …’ she said, feeling that things might have gone far enough, actually.

  ‘You don’t know that. Do Not Move. Do not bloody move! Jess!’ he shouted over his shoulder towards the open door.

  ‘Will. Please don’t worry,’ said Gaby. ‘I fell asleep, that’s all. I must have rolled off the sofa onto the floor.’

  Slowly, Will removed his hands from her head. She was still wearing the tea cosy. ‘Oh.’

  ‘Now, can I please get up?’

  Her back clicked as she pushed herself up to sitting. She was as stiff as a board. Will was crouched by her side. He shone the torch around the wooden building. Gaby became aware of creaks in the old timbers and the wind whistling through the cracks. She also noticed something odd about Will.

  ‘Are you wearing pyjamas?’ she asked.

  ‘Yes, I went to the wedding in them instead of the suit.’ He sighed. ‘No one could find you earlier and we thought you were asleep in your room, but then I wondered if you’d had an accident out in the field or in the equipment sheds and I thought I’d check in here … I saw the fridge was full of flowers and put two and two together. What were you trying to do? Finish the whole field on your own?’

  Gaby tried to stand up. She did feel light-headed but that was only from getting up suddenly and having had no dinner. She decided not to share this with Will though in case he started CPR, although maybe that wouldn’t have been a total disaster … In fact, it was a shame that she no longer needed her head cradled in his hands … On the other hand, what a prat she was to have fallen asleep and rolled off the sofa. No wonder she’d dreamed she’d fallen off Stevie’s bike. By the look of Will’s pyjamas, he’d also got out of bed specially to look for her.

  ‘What on earth were you doing?’ he said, still kneeling beside her, but brusquer now he was sure she wasn’t really hurt.

  ‘We’d almost finished the field by close of play so I sent the team home. They did well for newbies, especially Natalia, but then I came back and thought there wasn’t much to do and maybe I could carry on until the light had gone. I remember sitting down for a little rest after I’d done the last one and then … absolutely nothing until someone shone a great big light in my eyes and started shouting in my face.’

  ‘I thought you might be dead. You are completely mad, you do know that?’

  ‘It has been said,’ said Gaby proudly. ‘And I’m not dead, as you can see.’

  Will stood up and put the torch on the sofa. He loomed over her. ‘But I might be after tonight. You almost gave me a heart attack when I saw you lying on the floor. There’s no way I would ever have put you under pressure to finish that field. You should have clocked off at the same time as everyone else.’

  ‘Probably,’ said Gaby, embarrassed but not wholly disappointed that he’d been so worried. She certainly didn’t want him to know the real reason that she’d stayed out to get the job done.

  ‘Let me give you a hand up.’ He reached out and pulled her to her feet. Still stiff and groggy, she overbalanced, so he steadied her with an arm around her back.

  This was the moment when he should have let her go and she should have shrugged off his arm. There was no need for his help now she was upright and yet they were still connected. One hand in the small of her back became two hands on her waist, which swiftly turned into them both grabbing each other and kissing as if their lives depended on it. Even though the tassels of her hat kept getting in the way, it was an amazing kiss. Not too soft, not too hard, confident but not crushing – who knew he would be such a good kisser? The warmth spread through her face and arms, her back and right to the centre of her.

  She moved her hands to the back of his pyjamas, resting her palms on his bottom through the thin jersey. He wore nothing underneath! Gaby suspected he’d only put the trousers on to come outside and the fabric did little to hide how his body was reacting to her. He slid his hands under her sweater and flicked the clasp of her bra which sprung open. His tongue explored her mouth deliciously and she pressed herself harder against him. Would he have a condom with him, she thought as he ran his warm palms over her back and started moving them around to her breasts. It was unlikely … they’d probably have to creep back to her room or be super careful. But how could she possibly wait, when she was already about to burst and Will was setting every nerve ending aglow and driving her insane with lust?

  ‘Hello? Is there anyone in there?’

  ‘Shit.’ They both said the word at the same time and sprang apart as if they’d been stung.

  Will waved his torch in the air. ‘Jess! Gaby’s here in the shelter. She’s fine. She fell asleep.’

  Gaby’s cheeks burned. In fact, the rest of her, so cold before, burned for all kinds of reasons. Had she really grabbed a handful of her boss’s admittedly lovely arse? Had he really stuck his tongue inside her mouth and enjoyed the best French kiss ever? Had they been minutes from shagging each other on the sofa in the barn in the dark?

  It was hard to believe that any of that had happened given the way that Will was standing six feet away from her by the door as if she was Dracula. Any minute now, he’d be holding up a cross and garlic.

  A torch beam wavered in the doorway and Jess materialised from the shadows.

  ‘In the shelter? What happened?’

  Will hurried over to her. Probably for protection, thought Gaby.

  Jess was wearing a hoodie over her pyjamas which were tucked into wellies, like Will’s. ‘Is everything OK?’

  Will blinked. ‘It’s OK. Gaby decided to finish the field and fell asleep and rolled off the sofa. Disaster averted.’

  ‘I wouldn’t have said it was a disaster,’ said Gaby, fired up by his sudden change in attitude. ‘Sorry, Jess. I didn’t mean to worry you and Will.’

  Jess stepped inside. ‘Have you finished the whole field?’

  ‘Sort of and then I must have nodded off.’

  ‘Will?’ Jess shone her torch right in his face as if he was a suspect she was about to interrogate.

  He winced. ‘It’s not my fault. I never expected them to finish it all. And would you mind not pointing that light right in my eyes?’

  Jess lowered the beam and spoke to Gaby kindly. ‘We didn’t expect you to do that. They were a new team. No one expects miracles on the first day,’ said Jess, obviously blaming Will for putting pressure on Gaby and her team.

  ‘It’s all fine,’ said Gaby, joining Jess. She was anxious to put space between her and Will now he’d gone so cold on her. ‘And I apologise for causing any anxiety and getting you both out of bed. Now, I’d really like to see mine, so shall we all go back inside?’

  ‘Why don’t you come into the farmhouse for a hot drink?’ said Jess. ‘Will, I think you’d better go inside and put the kettle on,’ she said pointedly.

&n
bsp; Gaby cringed. The last thing she wanted was to sit around the table playing happy families. The evening had turned awkward enough. ‘No honestly, I am OK.’

  ‘Let’s get you warmed up first and then we can all go to bed. Will. Kettle.’

  Still in two minds about accepting the offer, Gaby finally decided that it would cause more fuss if she refused. She walked with Jess and Will out of the shelter and through the back door into the farmhouse kitchen. The heat from the still warm Aga hit her immediately and she sat down on an old carver chair at the scrubbed table.

  Will leant his bottom against the worktop, shooting glances at her when he thought she wasn’t looking. His feet were now bare and he’d put on an old faded hoodie as well as the pyjama bottoms. She knew he had nothing on under the hoodie or pyjamas because she’d had her hands all over his gorgeous, smooth, bare skin. He probably slept in the nude, Gaby thought, and shifted uncomfortably in her seat.

  ‘Tea or coffee? Or hot chocolate?’ Jess asked.

  ‘Chocolate, please.’ The words came out as a squeak. With Will brooding sexily a few feet from her, Gaby thought it was all getting very Cold Comfort Farm.

  ‘I’ll get the biscuits,’ Will muttered darkly. ‘Or there’s some fruit cake. If you fancy it.’

  ‘I do fancy it,’ she said. ‘Thanks.’

  There was a large scrubbed oak table with grooves and dents that testified to its many decades of use. Initials had been scratched in the table: WG, and a failed attempt had been made to polish them out. No prizes for guessing whose they were. Gaby imagined Anna or their father giving Will a telling-off for carving them. However, despite the slight air of shabbiness, the framed prints of old Scilly scenes and the vintage china on the dresser gave the room a cosy feel that perfectly suited the age of the building. Family history was ingrained into every beam and picture. The farm was clearly part of Will’s DNA.

  When Jess opened the fridge to get the milk, Gaby noticed a couple of photos of Will, Jess and their mother tacked by magnets onto the door. There were none of their father, as far as Gaby could see, which was hardly surprising since he’d left in acrimonious circumstances. Some of the experienced workers had long ago warned Gaby not to mention him.