I was finishing up in the rose garden when I heard giggles and whoops coming from inside the house. The white silk curtains were billowing out the open French doors and streaming across the flagstone patio.
I crossed the lawn with a bucketful of rose blooms ready for Flora to arrange in vases throughout the house. In early autumn, the best way of prolonging the late blush of blooms is to pick them on a daily basis.
My name’s Charlene, and I’m the gardener at The Willows, the country homestead of Flora and her family. Most of the time her twin daughters are away at boarding school, and I never knew her husband, long since departed. I graduated five years ago with a degree in horticulture and a burning passion for Flora, whom I met when I was on a placement at the local nursery.
Not that Flora knew that I longed for her lissom limbs to be entwined around my shoulders and my face to be busily buried in her twat. Oooooooooh, noooooooo. And to Flora I was Charlie the Gardener, though I did notice that whenever I wore my tight khaki shorts with my Blundstone boots and work socks, she often stayed on the terrace and watched my departure down the driveway at the end of the day. I always sashayed my arse a little as I went. Once she even ran her hand down one of my long tanned leg, telling me she was sure she saw a bug on me. I dunno about that, but it sure felt good!
Not that that particular fantasy had any chance of coming true today. I was about to leave as soon as I deposited the cut roses on the patio, and Flora was out, not due back until late that evening.
Then I remembered that Flora’s girls, Daisy and Marguerite were coming home this weekend, and I guessed the noise coming from inside the house heralded their arrival. The girls went away at thirteen, the week after I started the job. I had watched them grow up in that weird way that happens when you only see people every few months at vacation time. Now they were all grown up, and gorgeous. Just last month they had held their eighteenth birthday party here on the lawns. It was the social event of the summer season, and I made sure the gardens were outstanding. I hadn’t attended the party, not being a friend of the girls, but I had heard Flora making arrangements for months as she sat on the pool terrace talking to caterers, decorators and party planners on her mobile phone.
I neared the open window and was sure I could hear more than two voices. I recognised those of the twins, but there was someone else there as well – no doubt a school friend. It was a deep, husky, you might even say almost sultry voice, which sounded more mature than the girls’.
The words “They were caught by Miss Beveredge and expelled” drifted out on the breeze.
“Well they deserved it for THAT!” exclaimed one of the girls.