“I haven’t actually—and they’re only in the Hedges?” she asked.
“At the moment, yes. Near the door, actually.”
Her eyebrows furrowed. “The door . . . ? You mean the exit arch?”
“No, the blue door,” I said. “And that reminds me—the garden there, is that also one you want to make over for the bicentennial?” If so, it would need alotof work, and even then I wasn’t sure I could make it look like more than an after-thought. It still irked me that I hadn’t found it until now. If I hadn’t seen it for myself, I’d think it was impossible.
She seemed utterly perplexed regardless. “A blue door in theHedges?” she repeated, her hand going to a necklace, the pendant of which was hidden beneath the collar of her blouse.“Oh no, dear, you must be mistaken.” Then she gave a laugh. “There’s no blue door in theHedges!”
Could I have been mistaken? My cheeks burned with embarrassment. Great. The first time I meet Eula Beck in person, I make a fool of myself. I didn’t want my employer—however temporary—to think I didn’t have a strong sense of the garden.Especiallyafter a month tending to it.
“Right, sorry,” I said, laughing it off, more confused than ever. Because if Eula said there wasn’t a garden in the Hedges, then where had I been?
It had been a long and unseasonably warm day, I decided, and I was already distracted because of the Harriett of it all. Maybe Iwasmistaken. It was probably in the Central Garden—or behind it. Somewhere close. I decided to find it again first before I mentioned it again.
I parked Eula on the veranda and pulled up a few chairs for the rest of us. As nighttime settled across the garden, little solar-powered Edison bulbs popped on overhead and across the railings, giving off a warm, incandescent light.
Once I sat down, she leaned over and put a gentle hand on my arm. “I would just like to express my gratitude. I appreciate that you came all the way up here to futz around in my garden. It was a tall ask—so thank you for answering the call.”
“Um—it was—of course,” I stumbled, baffled. It helped that no one knew exactlyhowtall an ask. “It’s my pleasure.” She smiled. “Pleasure is still often hard work, dear.”
“I … suppose it is.”
Content, she sat back on her walker. Juliette and Wykofski came out a few moments later with a tray of tea and a dozensugar cookies. They sat down in the chairs I’d pulled up, putting the tray in the middle.
Eula prepared her drink with sugar and milk and inhaled deeply. She sighed. “There is nothing quite like a good cup of tea at home.”
“Are you sure your doctors signed off on you being here?” Juliette asked worriedly, taking her tea with so much sugar even a honeybee would die.
“What could they do?Keepme?”
“Yes,” she deadpanned.
Wykofski shook his head, all milk and no sugar in his tea. “I fear you sometimes, Euls.”
The woman laughed. It was a bright, joyous sound. “Even death fears me, it seems,” she declared, taking a sip. “Though, even so, my lawyer reminded me of a part of Henry’s will that I must honor. Even though he passed the estate on to me, there is one obligation that he requested when we first made it out that I happily agreed to. It was thirty years ago, and the bicentennial felt like a lifetime away. But now it is upon us, and wills have to be followed, it seems. At least that’s what my lawyer said.”
Wykofski scratched his beard. “What exactly do you gotta do, Euls?”
“I must find Lilymoor’s next steward, my dear friend.”
We all stilled.
She went on lightly, her words at odds with her tone, “Henry and I both knew that we wouldn’t be here forever, so we gave ourselves time, but time goes much too quickly when you’re having fun.” She winked at us, but there was a sadness to her words. “Henry and I knew that when we were gone,Lilymoor would go on without us—what thatlookslike … I can’t yet say. We never discussed what came after. We just focused on the seeds, and flowers, and the gardens as each season came to us. It seems rather shortsighted now,” she added, a little bitterly, “considering it all. We thought we had time.”
Quietly, I fixed myself a cup of tea, plopping two sugar cubes into it. While this was terribly sad, I felt like I wasn’t privy to this conversation—I was just passing through, after all. I’d be back in the city by autumn. I wasn’t really sure why I was invited to listen.
“So,” she went on slowly, rolling the idea around on her tongue, “I believe I would like to use the bicentennial party to announce both my retirement and Lilymoor’s successor.”
I shifted my gaze between Wykofski and Juliette, who both seemed blindsided by the revelation, staring at Eula with open mouths. I sipped on my tea, then added another cube of sugar to it.
Finally, Juliette broke the silence. “Well. That’s … that’s interesting—”
“It’s so soon,” Wykofski interjected, saying exactly what Juliette was too polite to. “You sure about this, Euls?”
She set down her teacup. “Yes, I fear I am. Besides, I don’t have much of a choice—and I wouldn’t want to disappoint Henry,” she lamented, turning her gaze out onto the garden. Almost instinctually, her hand went to the chain around her neck, and finally I saw that it was connected to an unassuming, rusted skeleton key. It looked like any of the ones Juliette or Wykofski or I kept on our estate key ring. “He entrusted this to me. So I must be brave.”
“But …” Wykofski started to say, his voice fading as hesank back into his chair. “Euls, if you’re gone, then who will . . .” His mouth twisted sharply as ifinherit the placewas a dirty phrase.
