The Rose Garden (37 page)

Her dad and Luke’s dad got on like a house on fire. Molly came over to join them all as they chatted together over plates of food.

Gina and Paul arrived with a big chocolate birthday cake.

‘My contribution to the party,’ she said, placing it carefully in the kitchen before they got some beers and headed out to the garden.

‘Enjoying yourself?’ asked Luke.

‘It’s the best night ever!’ she said, kissing him to huge cheers from all around.

‘It’s okay! We’re engaged!’

Everyone sang ‘Happy Birthday’ loudly as Kim blew out the candles on her cake. The party went on for hours and they stayed
outside, as it was such a warm, still night. Luke’s friend Alan had brought along his guitar and soon everyone was singing Dubliners and Beatles and Thin Lizzy and Frames songs. It was nearly morning before she and Luke eventually got to bed.

On Sunday Molly had organized a late lunch for Kim’s family and her friends from Dublin before they went back, but now Luke’s family were invited too.

‘They have all got to get used to each other,’ remarked Luke as he shaved and pulled on his pale-blue shirt.

Molly had set out two long tables on the terrace, the large canvas parasols open as the sun streamed down on them all. Kim was delighted actually to get time to talk to everyone properly. Emma and Jake were leaving for Australia in two weeks’ time and she would miss her cousin.

‘We’ll be back,’ Emma promised. ‘We just want to see a bit of the world before we settle down to our careers.’

‘Go and enjoy Sydney and Melbourne and the Barrier Reef and New Zealand and Fiji for the year,’ Kim urged. ‘I had a wonderful time there and still think about it.’

‘I’m going to really miss her,’ admitted Molly, getting a bit tearful.

‘I promise to bring her back home safely,’ Jake reassured her.

‘Tell us about the wedding plans,’ urged Evie and Lisa, coming over to sit beside Kim.

‘For heaven’s sake – give us a bit of time! We’ve only just got engaged!’

‘So it won’t be till next year or so?’

‘No,’ she said firmly. ‘The one thing Luke and I have decided is that we are definitely not waiting a whole year to get married. We just want to get on with our lives.’

Later that night they collapsed on the sofa together, exhausted.

‘Why does everyone keep asking about the wedding?’ she yawned.

‘It could drive you mad!’ complained Luke.

‘I know. At the party Jenny was talking to me about themes and flowers for a wedding.’

‘Don’t mind her!’

‘She’s a florist – it’s her business,’ she reminded him. ‘My job is to try and help her sell them! But maybe she’s right – we do need to start thinking about what kind of wedding we both want.’

She looked up and realized that Luke was fast asleep and snoring.

GINA STILL FOUND IT HARD TO BELIEVE THAT NORAH CASSIDY HAD
been so generous to her. She and Paul debated long and hard over what to spend the money on, torn between setting up a college fund for the boys, taking a big family holiday of a lifetime, or just putting the money in a high-earning interest account. With her inheritance from Norah there was a very real chance that she would be able to rent or put a down-payment on a small café or restaurant of her own. It was something she still really wanted and dreamed of.

She had found the perfect place but was unsure how to approach it. Molly had been so good to her and given her so much business already over the past few months, but Gina had no idea how she would react to this proposal.

‘You have to say it!’ urged Paul. ‘She will understand – I’m sure she will.’

Mossbawn was busy with the O’Flynn family gathering, Molly and Kim trying to make sure everything ran smoothly.

‘Gina, did you see the plans of the maze anywhere?’ asked Kim. ‘It’s time for the big treasure hunt now!’

‘I think I saw them on top of the piano in the drawing room,’ Gina replied, laughing and going to look for them.

Molly was outside cutting flowers for the hall and the tables for tomorrow’s welcome dinner.

‘Here, Gina – please take these blue delphiniums and some roses. I just need to get some more gyp to add to the vase.’

Gina filled her arms with the flowers, bringing them back into the kitchen as Molly followed after her.

‘They all look lovely! The garden is really at its best. You won’t believe it, but two gardening clubs wanted to come to visit. Kim set it up for next Saturday morning. She thinks I should consider opening the gardens next month and for a few months of the year. I know gardeners – they just love to ramble around places like this and compare them to their own gardens and get ideas, and of course we have the kitchen garden, and the rose garden and the lavender walk and the borders to explore. The club asked if we could give them morning coffee or a lunch. Did you ever?’ she laughed. ‘Where would we put them? In the drawing room?’

‘Actually, Molly, Kim mentioned it to me and that is something I wanted to talk to you about.’ Gina hesitated.

‘The garden?’

‘No,’ she explained. ‘I mean, maybe it is something we should consider – opening a café here in Mossbawn and serving afternoon teas, and lunches, and probably morning coffees.’

‘A café! Where would we put it?’ Molly laughed.

‘There are the old stables and outbuildings. They are totally separate from the house and yet overlook part of the garden,’ Gina said calmly. ‘I’m sure they could be converted to tea rooms or a café.’

‘But they haven’t been used for anything except storage for years.’

‘I know – I store some of the tables and chairs, and wine and all kinds of things there, but everything is bone dry and I’m sure you could convert a part of them the way you have done with your cottage.’

‘But why? Why bother?’ asked Molly, flummoxed.

‘I believe a café here could do very well. There’s a big gap for people living locally since Norah’s café closed, as there’s nowhere to go for a lunch or a scone or afternoon tea, or to just meet for a coffee, and I’m sure if you open the garden to visitors they would
also enjoy it. I certainly would be interested in opening and running a place like that.’

‘Gina, do you mean it?’ asked Molly, sitting down at the table. ‘But we’re not even in the village.’

‘There is the Maids’ Gate – the pedestrian entrance that practically opens next to the lane beside the chemist. People could use that if they are walking, otherwise there is plenty of parking.’

‘You’ve obviously been thinking about this!’

‘Ever since Norah’s closed, I’ve been thinking about it and trying to find somewhere to rent.’

‘But what about catering for our weddings and events here?’ asked Molly.

‘That wouldn’t change at all, I promise. With only a function or so a week I can easily manage to do both,’ she reassured her. ‘If anything, it could be useful, as we could put in a larger kitchen and also do some smaller events within the café.’

‘I understand what you are saying, Gina, but Mossbawn is not some big stately pile. It’s just an old Irish country house.’

‘Molly, please think about it. There is nowhere decent to go for a nice coffee or a lunch close by – you know that.’

‘That’s true, and it’s such a nuisance,’ agreed Molly. ‘You either end up having lunch in the hotel or the Kilfinn Inn, or staying at home having coffee.’

‘A café set here in a courtyard garden, only a few minutes’ walk from the village, would do well. I know it would,’ she insisted.

‘Let me have a think about it,’ said Molly, seriously. ‘I don’t know if I can afford to take on something like that, or if I even want to.’

‘I’m willing to invest or rent from you – whatever you want,’ Gina found herself offering.

That night, as she lay in Paul’s arms, she told him what had happened.

‘I know that I said far too much. I should have done it slowly, taken my time approaching her. I’ve probably blown it.’

‘Molly Hennessy is a good woman, kind as they come, but remember she’s smart too and wants only the best for Mossbawn,’ he counselled. ‘Don’t rush her. Just see what happens after those visitors turn up next week.’

Gina knew he was right. She just had to be patient.

SO GINA HAD TAKEN PAUL’S ADVICE AND BEEN PATIENT, AND AS
the summer days turned to autumn Molly finally made her decision.

‘Gina, I think you are right about the café. Having somewhere to have a cup of tea or light lunch here in the gardens would be a great addition to Mossbawn House and to the village,’ she said decisively. ‘I think we should both put on our thinking caps and talk to Trish. She’s the architect and will know what she can do with the old stables in terms of design and costs. And of course Paul would do all the building work.’

Gina was so happy she felt like jumping up and down like a little kid. She couldn’t wait to phone Paul to tell him the good news.

‘We want the café to be a place people really want to come to,’ Molly continued, serious. ‘Not just in the summer, but all year round. They need to feel relaxed meeting their friends or comfortable to just have a bowl of soup on their own.’

‘Molly, I’ve been thinking of nothing else for months,’ Gina admitted, ‘and I’ve lots of ideas for what we can do with the stables and a new kitchen that I’ll talk to Trish about. However, the most important thing is to keep the garden element as much as possible.’

The following few months were hectic, with everyone trying to agree a design with Trish and waiting for planning permission to come through.

The house itself had been hired by the film company for six weeks’ shooting and Gina found herself catering for the crew and cast, doing everything from early breakfasts to late dinners and a huge number of warming tasty meals twice a day.

Mossbawn’s calendar of events for the rest of the year was also beginning to fill up and Gina was working harder than ever, but loving every minute of it. The fact that she would now have a business of her own was exciting. She was taking a ten-year lease on the new café premises. Both she and Molly were investing in the business, and Molly would take a percentage of the profit once the café began to make one.

As March turned to April, the days brightened and Molly had decided to open Mossbawn’s gardens for a few months of the year, closing them early if they were hosting a function.

The old stables were now transformed into a bright café area. The original stone walls had all been preserved and Trish had designed an inner courtyard with a glass roof which connected the old tack and harness room to the rest of the buildings. Molly was delighted to be able to start planting all around it.

‘That courtyard is small, I know,’ the architect explained, ‘but on wet Irish days it will ensure the café still feels open air.’

The back of the stables opened up by simple drop-down windows and garden doors that gave out on to a large new terraced area that Molly was planting with pretty cottage-garden plants and year-round cover.

The old wash-house was now a modern kitchen. Gina stood there, wishing that Norah Cassidy could see the place. She had sunk practically every penny of her inheritance from Norah into the new venture. They had talked about a big family holiday to Disney World, but had settled instead on a weekend trip to Eurodisney in Paris. The boys, Paul and herself had had a great time!

For the new café she was re-using as many of Norah’s old tables and chairs as possible. They had been sanded down and repainted in soft Farrow & Ball colours, which worked well with the old
stone walls. She had worked out a simple menu and would use as much produce from the kitchen garden as possible.

As the opening of the Garden Café neared, Gina was nervous as hell that people mightn’t turn up, or that she had got it wrong and it would all be a disaster.

‘It will all be fine!’ said Paul soothingly. ‘The café is lovely.’ But the night before the café opened she tossed and turned, unable to sleep, worried that things would go disastrously wrong …

She and Inga were there bright and early to bake fresh scones and cakes to welcome visitors. They chopped up vegetables for the soup of the day, rolled out pastry for the goats’ cheese tarts and cut up chicken for the chicken-and-leek bake. The place looked wonderful and she thanked heaven that the day was dry and fairly bright. Molly had put little glass vases of fresh flowers on each table and Gina had hung a framed photograph of Norah Cassidy behind the counter.

They opened at eleven and Gina could hardly believe it when Johnny Lynch walked through the door and took a seat near the window. He ordered his usual: a scone and a pot of tea.

‘It’s on the house this morning, Johnny!’ she laughed, giving him a welcome hug.

The old man was like a good-luck charm, she thought, as a load of her regulars came along to wish her well too. The café was kept busy all morning and was packed out at lunchtime. Everyone wanted a table and a chance to eat at the Garden Café.

MOLLY SAT IN THE ROSE GARDEN. THIS GARDEN, WHICH HAD
possessed and obsessed her, was finally finished. When she had begun this garden she had been so sad, so full of grief and loneliness. She had buried herself in the task of restoring it. Now there were roses everywhere; old roses and new roses covering the stone walls and the frames and the painted gazebo with the archways, creating a rose bower just like she had imagined, pink and peach and blush-coloured roses in bloom everywhere, and the garden bringing her immense joy.

Here the roses were protected from damage by wind and bad weather; the garden was sunny and warm even in winter. She watched the buds and leaves of each rose bush protectively, ready to deal with black spot or aphids or fungus. Each one needed care, and they rewarded her well for the attention they received. She was especially proud of the old roses, planted long before her time, that had suddenly rallied, returned to vigour and begun to grow again, sending their new shoots and tendrils skyward as they reached for the sun and light, producing buds and blooming in their heavy, blowsy fashion like old film stars and divas attracting the attention.