All right.
Apparently, he wasn’t grumpy with everyone.
Just me.
I was going to start taking this personally if it continued. What had I ever done to him?
Fine, okay, sure, I could be a little annoying sometimes asking him questions, but I was just interested. Besides, it wasn’t like I was a five-year-old who asked the same thing over and over and over. I was asking intelligent, informed questions that would help me on my quest to getting my qualifications.
It wasn’t my fault if he didn’t like them.
Was it?
“Oh, Gabi, there you are.” Alexander wiped his shirt across his brow. “What took you so long?”
“I didn’t want to come back out,” I said slowly. “I also searched for Aunt Cat but she’s still not home.”
He frowned. “Where has she gone?”
“I don’t know, but wherever it is, she’s probably causing trouble. I’ve asked Arthur to see if he can use his skills to track her down.” I hugged my cardigan tighter around me. “Are you done? It’s getting late and the light is waning. It looks like rain, too.”
“Yeah, we’re done. Caleb came by to feed the goats and got them all locked up in the barn. He said he’d talk to Aunt Cat about getting this fence heightened and reinforced if she doesn’t want them to be on a stake.”
If the goats kept escaping, I rather feared my father would turn them into a steak.
“Mm,” I said, peering over the fence. As he’d said, Caleb had locked them into their barn and barricaded the stable door, if the pile of heavy stone blocks in front of it was anything to go by.
Caleb was the farmhand my father had demanded we hire after Aunt Cat went on her little farm animal shopping spree. He knew there was no way she was going to clean them out or even keep up with the most basic of chores, so he agreed that she could keep them if she kept them enclosed and hired someone.
Twenty-four-year-old Caleb had once worked for a local restaurant, but his grandfather had been a farmer. He’d always wanted to follow in his footsteps but after his grandfather had sold the farm in hard times, he’d given up his dreams of inheriting it. As far as he was concerned, this was the next best thing.
He also saved my father a lot of work by tending to his horses, and Dad loved him so much I once thought he was going to try and set us up.
If Caleb had a title, he would have done.
And I might have gone for it. Unlike the majority of suitors my father shoved my way, I actually liked Caleb.
Although I did wonder if that was because he didn’t take any of Aunt Cat’s crap.
“Well, if you are done, you should come in and get some tea at the very last. It’s getting chilly.”
Alexander nodded. “You’re right. Miles, will you join us for some tea?”
He glanced at me, then shook his head. “No, thanks. I have to finish cleaning up and go home. The cat needs feeding.”
He had a cat?
He didn’t strike me as a cat person.
Didn’t strike me as an anything kind of person. Except a grumpy one, mind you.
“Are you sure?” I asked, fighting the urge not to shiver as a cloud moved and fully covered the sun. “Arthur is making a pot anyway.”
“I’m sure.” He picked up his tools and nodded at us. “Thanks for the help, Alex. I appreciate it.”
“Anytime, mate.”
Miles walked past me without looking at me, and I frowned, staring after him as he passed through the gate and into the public gardens.
“What’s wrong with you?” Alex put his arm around my shoulders.
I shrugged him off. “Do you see it now? How he’s rude and dismissive of me?”
“Now, Gabriella, I know this is hard for you, but not everybody has to like you.”
“I know that. There are plenty of people who don’t like me, but at least I know why. I’ve never done anything to him for him to not like me.”
“Why are you so bothered? You’ve talked about him for half the day, and now you’ve got your knickers in a twist because he didn’t talk to you.”
I straightened, sniffing indignantly. “I am not bothered, and my knickers are most certainly not in a twist, thank you very much.”
“You are. I know you.”
“Fine, okay.” I stopped and looked around, making sure nobody was near us. “I’ve asked him a few times while he’s been working about care for some specific plants for my schoolwork. I know I can look it up online, but there’s nothing better than getting it from someone who knows. I didn’t think I was bothering him, but obviously I was. I just—until today, Aunt Cat was the only one who knew that I was learning aside from Adelaide and Evangeline. Dad won’t be happy, and I simply want to complete the course so I can do something. Garden design, maybe. I don’t know.”
“Have you considered telling Miles that you’re doing this course? Perhaps he doesn’t want to help you because he thinks you’re being a nuisance or getting in his way. If you explained that you were only looking for some advice from an experienced gardener, he might be willing to help you.”
I made a noise that was neither here nor there. I didn’t think that would work at all, and there was the chance my father would find out. He would have to eventually, and I was under no illusions about that, but I wanted it to come from me.
“Oh, come on. I think you’re building this up into some big dramatic thing in your head. It won’t be that bad.”
“Alex, you’ve just seen it. Even if he knew, he wouldn’t help me. He doesn’t like me, and that’s fine.”
“The more you say it’s fine, the more I know it’s a bunch of bull.”
I swatted at him. “Oh, give over. I’m entitled to be a little put out if someone doesn’t like me for seemingly no reason. Either way, I’m sick and tired of talking about him now. Can we move on?”
“Fine, fine. Is Aunt Cat really not back yet?”
“Nope. She might be now, but she wasn’t when I came out.” I pushed open the mudroom door and stepped inside. It took me a moment to pull off my wellies and set them upside down on the boot rack. Why did they always get stuck on your feet?
“There you are! It’s about to rain!” Aunt Cat said when we walked into the kitchen. She held up a china teapot and smiled. “Here, Arthur made a pot of tea.”
I blinked at her. Was she serious right now? “Where on Earth have you been?”
“I’ve been right here all day. What do you mean?”
“Don’t lie,” I replied. “I know you haven’t been here, and you definitely were not in the kitchen a little while ago when I went out to get Alex. Arthur has been looking for you.”
“Oh, fine. I went into town and met Samantha for dinner. Is that better?”
“No, it’s not. Your bloody goats escaped again.”
“Did they? Did they have a nice time?”
I looked at Alex as if to say, “You see what I have to put up with?” and to his credit, he stepped forward.
“Aunt Cat,” he said in a soothing tone. “They caused carnage. They ate some of the bushes in the public gardens and it took us twenty minutes to get them back in between me and Miles.”