‘I want to learn all about gardening, get to know everything Uncle Tom knows – and he knows so much I think it will take me years to catch up – so that one day mebbe I can be in charge of a garden. I’d like to learn to cut those bushes into shapes like chessmen, though I’d settle for trimming a box hedge straight for now,’ she laughed. ‘You don’t think it’s daft, do you, that I should want to learn and mebbe even be a head gardener somewhere?’

‘’Course not. Why would it be daft?’

‘Well, I’m just Ellen Arnold, who lives in a tied cottage in Little Grindle and hasn’t much of an education. It’s not like I live in a place where there’s lots of different things happening and opportunities to do them.’

‘You never know, you might still get to do all sorts,’ said Edward. ‘If you work hard enough, I reckon you can do whatever you want. It’s not about where you come from, is it, Nell? It’s about where you’re going: all the things you’re going to do in your life. When I saw you this morning you looked as if you knew exactly what you were doing with all those little plants. That’s a start, isn’t it?’

‘Thank you, Ed. There’s so much to learn that I sometimes feel as if I’ll never get anywhere with it. I am trying hard, though.’

‘I know you are. And think how much you’ve done in the time you’ve been at the Hall. I reckon Mr Arnold wouldn’t be putting up with anyone who was a hindrance and not a help. He wants the best for the Hall garden, and he won’t waste time with you if you’re no good to him, even if you are his niece.’

‘True,’ Ellen conceded. ‘He’s kind, but I know he’d say if I were hopeless. And you’re kind, too, pulling up my spirits like that.’

‘Aye, well, just don’t be setting off down the road to success and forgetting who your friends are, will you?’ Edward said. ‘And I’d really miss you if you went away to be head gardener at some other big house. We all would – Mum and Dad as well as me,’ he added, shy about his feelings and safely diluting them by bringing his parents into it. ‘I’m a farmer’s only son so I shan’t be going anywhere. My future was mapped out at birth.’

‘Well, I’m here for now, and for at least the next ten years if I’m to learn everything about gardening from Uncle Tom,’ smiled Ellen. ‘Now, I’m starving and I expect you are, too. What’s your mum packed in that picnic basket? It’s heavy enough for a feast.’