Summer of Love Read Free Page A

He’d had to watch them both and had got bored.
    Sian thought about it. The bucket was heavy but she didn’t want to start a row in front of Fiona. Rory was an easy child on the whole but he could get terribly offended if anyone suggested he was too young or too small for a particular task, and he’d already sulked a bit when they wouldn’t allow him to help pick the flowers. ‘OK,’ she said casually, hoping he’d abandon the idea quite quickly.
    ‘Actually, I could do with a hand with mine,’ said Fiona. ‘Your mum could carry that one but I’m not sure I can manage this one on my own. If you’d be a kind chap and carry it with me, I’d be very grateful.’
    Flattered by this request for help, Rory took hold of the handle.
    ‘It’s quite hard to carry with all this cow parsley, isn’t it?’ went on Fiona.
    ‘It’s not heavy,’ said Rory.
    ‘Not for you, perhaps!’ said Fiona. ‘But you’re a strong boy.’
    Sian let herself lag behind her son and her new friend. It was nice that they got on so well. Fiona was very good with him. She thought Rory might miss her parents, being used to the company of adults. She locked the house and put the key in the pocket of her jeans. Fiona and Rory began to sing as the three of them lumbered up the lane towards the churchyard.
    The church was cool and dark and Rory was a bit overawed until Fiona put on some lights, chatting away as if she was somewhere familiar and friendly. It took Sian a few moments to feel it was OK to talk above a whisper but by the time Rory had been shown the toys, which included a train set, she was soon helping Fiona pull out the faded flowers from the stand of oasis and fielding the dead leaves that missed the curtain Fiona had spread out to catch them.
    A little later she was taking the lower leaves off the cow parsley and handing the sprays to Fiona as if she’d always done it. There was something satisfying about flower-arranging, especially in the calm interior of an ancient building. ‘It only has to look good from the back of the church. That’s where most people sit,’ said Fiona, stepping away and looking at the display with a critical eye.
    ‘It looks good from here!’
    ‘Thank you! I do hope you’ll come back to tea afterwards,’ said Fiona. ‘I’ve made a cake and Jody and Annabelle are coming. Annabelle’s about Rory’s age and you’ll like Jody.’
    ‘That’s so kind. We’d love to meet them and we love cake. Especially homemade.’
    ‘Me too. I’ve trained myself to believe that shop cake isn’t worth getting fat for, but I’m not sure I believe it.’
    ‘You really needn’t have made a cake just for us. We’re not proud about shop cake!’
    Fiona laughed. ‘Actually, I’ve got a bit of a favour to ask you. I thought I’d soften you up first.’
    Sian laughed too, hoping she wasn’t about to let herself in for something she wouldn’t be happy about. ‘Well, anything you think we can do.’
    ‘You don’t really have to do much but it’s not something I can ask Jody, for example.’ Fiona bit her lip, frowning a little as she adjusted her arrangement. ‘It is a bit mad and I don’t want to ask anyone I know well.’ Fiona stepped back from the pyramid of frothy white and green, which to Sian looked like a patch of starlight. ‘Do you think that looks all right? People always say my arrangements are “unusual” and I’m never sure whether to take that as a compliment or not. No one’s ever done anything like that as far as I know but I always remember my mother telling me about Constance Spry having a big jug of cow parsley in the window of her shop, in London, just after the war. I’ve always wanted to do it.’
    ‘I think it looks stunning. Really simple and pure. And if it is unusual, it’s lovely.’
    ‘As long as it looks OK from the back of the church,’ repeated Fiona, walking in that direction.
    Once Fiona was happy with the arrangement and they’d cleared up and put the train