Christmas at the Little Clock House on the Green. Eve Devon

      ‘What the—’ she broke off as she looked at Elton. ‘I miss swearing so bad,’ she confessed. ‘So, Gloria’s putting together a Calendar Girls but with boys?’

      ‘I think that’s the gist. To be honest, I tried not to pay too much attention.’

      ‘Is it possible you’ve got this all wrong?’

      ‘I don’t think so. Lady Chatterley was mentioned. She even asked me to wear my hair down.’ He tugged self-consciously on his man-bun because he knew it was only a matter of time before his family started referring to him as Pirate Pete from TOWIE. He should have got his hair cut months ago. One more thing he hadn’t had time to do. As soon as Juliet opened up her hair salon, the better. ‘Both visits were awful. Just awful,’ he said. ‘No cake is going to make up for what the two of you have started.’

      ‘Are you sure? It’s lemon drizzle. Sheila Somersby made it.’

      Jake paused because as well as running Whispers Wood B&B, Sheila baked really nice cakes. He deposited Elton on one of the kitchen chairs and, unable to resist, lifted the lid of the box. ‘Okay, this can stay. You can leave it with the one that Mum dropped around yesterday.’

      ‘We just care about you, Jakey.’

      Jake snorted.

      ‘Ever since—’

      Jake held up a hand. ‘Unless you bought ear-defenders for Elton, we’re not talking about “ever since”. And to show me you really care how about putting a halt to the endless parade of women. It’s ridiculous, completely unnecessary and did I mention … ridiculous?’

      ‘Okay, okay. No more women. Promise.’

      Jake wasn’t going to be stupid enough to believe her. He knew his family meant well but ever since he’d taken over this place and ever since – well, last Christmas – discovering they didn’t think he could run Knightley Hall without a good woman by his side was too much. Hadn’t he been working his arse off all year to show everyone he could manage the place on his own?

      ‘Have you got time to show me which part of the gardens you’ve been working on?’ Sarah asked, with a grin that said, ‘See, I can change a subject with the best of them.’

      ‘Why?’

      ‘I thought I’d bring a photographer friend down to take some shots.’

      Jake stared at his sister, his eyes narrowing. ‘Is your photographer friend female?’

      ‘Yes.’

      ‘Single?’

      ‘Yes.’

      ‘For God’s sake, Sarah.’

      ‘No, it’s not like that. She works for Rural Rooms magazine and I was thinking if we got some shots of the gardens through all the seasons then you could use them for publicity.’

      ‘Wouldn’t she need shots of the house, too?’ Because he really didn’t have the time, not to mention the money, for a large feature article which was only going to expose how rundown the place had become since he spent every penny he made on restoring the gardens to their former glory.

      ‘The fam can tart up a couple of the main rooms for you, but I’ve stressed it’s the gardens that you’re going to be opening up to the public, not the house.’

      ‘As long as the focus isn’t on the inside. When can she come?’

      ‘Soon, hopefully. I’ll show you some of her work in a minute. Oh, and I have something else to show you.’ She held up her laptop and grinned determinedly. ‘If you don’t love it, tell me you do anyway, because it took a gazillion number of hours and it’s probably the best thing I’ve done in ages.’

      ‘Hey, you always do good work.’ Jake knew his sister struggled to feel like she was back at the cutting edge of her work since she’d had Elton and he’d seen on more than one occasion glimpses of how shocking she found motherhood. She was a brilliant mum but both she and her husband were way more used to their tech than a little person who didn’t behave like one of their designs, even though, technically, he was. ‘I wish I could pay you for doing the brochures for this place when we’re ready.’

      ‘Please. Are you planning on charging all of us whenever we come to you for advice?’

      ‘Maybe if any of you actually took it …’ It still befuddled him that any of the Knightley brood, of which there were another three brothers and a sister, came to him at all, for advice. Particularly as he wasn’t the eldest.

      He guessed he was the one best able to cope with no longer having the family’s money to fall back on though – probably because the estate had never been about money for him. Out of all of them he was the one who carried this place in his bones, his heart, his soul. And maybe having those roots so deeply embedded represented a familiarity – a stability – that the actual Hall couldn’t because even when he’d been in London and his siblings dotted all over, they’d been drawn to him whenever their lives got chaotic.

      Sarah sipped her tea. ‘Has Seth been around since the split?’

      Seth was their youngest brother and had been married to Joanne for two years, yet they seemed to be happier apart than together. ‘I think he knows that if he does, I’m just going to send him straight back to her.’

      ‘I don’t know, Jake. It sounds sort of final, this time.’

      ‘As opposed to the other times? If it’s all so bad, why did he bother marrying her in the first place?’ An uncharitable anger kicked against his insides wanting to get out.

      ‘Maybe if he stayed with you for a while,’ Sarah suggested.

      ‘No. Way. I’ve got enough to do without babysitting a grown man with zero interest in what I’m trying to do here.’

      ‘But maybe a little hard work would make him see sense.’

      ‘No.’

      ‘Is that a, “No”, no or a—’

      Jake simply stared at his sister.

      ‘Okay so that’s a real and actual no.’

      Elton chose that moment to chase Bingley around the table with a marker in his hands. As Jake reached out to grab the marker, Sarah took her son in her arms and settled him on her lap. ‘So, what’s all this, then?’ she asked, indicating the plans that had been spread out on the large kitchen table.

      ‘I found them in the library last night.’

      Jake watched her turn her head to look at the plans and found himself holding his breath for her reaction.

      ‘It’s the rose garden you’ve been working on, right?’

      Jake nodded. ‘Notice anything unusual?’

      Sarah leant forward to stare at the plans, making sure she captured Elton’s sticky hands in her own so that they couldn’t reach the age-spotted foolscap drawings. ‘This looks bigger somehow.’

      ‘I know. I don’t know why this area was never finished, but finally I’ve found the missing part of the puzzle.’

      ‘All this time there’s been a missing part of the garden?’

      ‘Mmmn. Every time I’ve worked in that area I’ve kept feeling as if the perspective was off. And I was right. Look,’ Jake said, pulling out a kitchen chair and shoving his mug down on the end of the plan to stop it rolling back up. ‘This looks like the same wall that divides the kitchen garden from the rose garden, but it isn’t. There’s another small private garden that extends down from a doorway that’s been bricked up.’

      ‘You mean, like a …’ her nose scrunched up. ‘Secret garden?’

      ‘Exactly. A secret garden.’ Jake grinned, trying and failing to keep