Heartbreak Hotel by Moggach Deborah

Author:Moggach, Deborah [Moggach, Deborah]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Random House
Published: 2013-02-22T00:00:00+00:00

12

Buffy

‘GARDENING FOR BEGINNERS’ was planned for early October, before the cold weather set in. Spring would have been preferable, being the growing season, but if this was a success they could always set up another one then.

‘I’ll concentrate on pruning, weeding, plant identification, autumn sowings, division of perennials, soil types, planning your garden from scratch, plants suitable for shade, for cities, for window boxes, for containers. Plus basic vegetable-growing, of course.’ Lavinia Balcombe, the course tutor, looked at Buffy. ‘How does that sound?’

‘Splendid,’ beamed Buffy. By God, the woman was terrifying. She was an Hon., the owner of some vast pile over the border in Shropshire whose grounds were open to the public under the National Gardens Scheme. Heaven only knew why she wanted to teach the course. Maybe, like many toffs, she was on her uppers. Or maybe she just liked bossing people around.

‘Will there be some hands-on stuff?’ asked Buffy. ‘You could use the garden here as your guinea pig. So to speak.’

Lavinia didn’t smile. Glancing out of the window, she gave a brief nod. Buffy was relieved. This, of course, was part of the original plan. Though he had got the lawn mowed during the summer, the rest of the place was still a shambles. Now he had got his car sorted out it was time to get to grips with the garden. The beauty of it all, of course, was that people paid him for doing it.

And the first course had been by and large a success. It hadn’t gone entirely according to plan, but then what in life did? On day three Rosemary had decamped with her husband on a second honeymoon in the Brecon Beacons; Des, instead of falling in love with India, had been found in bed with Bella; Amy had decamped to Nolan’s house, reappearing each morning sated with sex and tenderly stroking his bottom when nobody was looking. Then there was the breakaway jewellery group, who had given up on the course altogether and who had gone home festooned like Christmas trees. But they had all enjoyed themselves and the course had made a modest profit.

And now he and Voda were preparing the house for the next influx. All the rooms were booked, with the overflow accommodated in local establishments. The alarming Balcombe woman had submitted her teaching plan for the week in spread-sheet form, each topic itemised and boxed into its allotted half-hour slot, with ten minutes for questions. He wouldn’t be surprised if she turned up in jackboots.

And India was arriving, yet again, to help. This, of course, was welcome – during the last course they had been run off their feet, she had been a godsend. Besides, Buffy always enjoyed her company. But didn’t the girl have better things to do than be a dogsbody to her stepdad? He had actually rung Jacquetta to ask her opinion but his ex had been her usual vague self. ‘India has issues,’ she had said, and gone on to tell him about her own experiments with driftwood sculpture.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.