‘If you think it would be all right, Vicky, could we move the rose fairly soon?’
‘Whenever you say so, Kate. All I have to do is let Nell know we’re coming up. It’s going to take two of us, though, to transplant a rose that size. It’ll require some muscle. Do you think you could come up with me, Alex?’
‘Absolutely. We can go this Saturday, if that’s okay with you.’
‘Actually, Saturday would be perfect, I’ve got the day off.’
‘I wish I could go with you,’ Kate said, ‘but I have to be at the shop on Saturday. They’re delivering the things I bought at the auction last week.’
Vicky took a sip of wine and twiddled the stem of the glass on the table. ‘By the way, Alex, it might be a good idea if we plan to stay overnight. Do you mind?’
‘Not at all, as long as Kate doesn’t mind me running off for the weekend with another woman,’ he said grinning at Kate. ‘But you’re right, it is a pretty good hike up there.’
Vicky smiled. ‘It makes sense, considering the time it’ll take to plant the rose properly. Besides, I know Aunt Nell will insist on it and I wouldn’t want to disappoint her. She’ll really enjoy the company. She gets so few visitors these days.’
On Saturday morning, Vicky woke just before dawn. She had spent the night at The Parsonage so they could get an early start. Pulling aside the bedroom curtain, she peeked outside. There was enough light, she decided.
Before they got the blue rose out of the ground she wanted to take the cuttings. Now was as good a time as any. She put on her sweater and jeans and crept quietly downstairs, careful not to step on Asp, who was curled up at the foot of the stairs.
With sharp pruning shears, she removed a few of the blooms. Kate was going to attempt drying them. Next, she carefully snipped off twelve slender canes just below a leaflet, removing all the leaves save a couple at the top. She then dipped the lower end of each eight-inch cutting in a hormone rooting compound, after which she planted each of them in its own plastic pot filled with a specially prepared potting medium. After watering them, she enclosed each pot in a clear plastic bag to simulate a minigreenhouse. The whole procedure took less than fifteen minutes.
She carefully placed the pots in an old wooden crate and carried it up to the garden shed where Kate had made a space for them. On the way back from Nell’s tomorrow she planned to pick them up and take them to the nursery for safekeeping. Eventually she would transplant them into larger containers.
Carrying the rose blooms for Kate in a basket, she went back up to the house to make a pot of tea.
Getting Sapphire out of the ground proved more difficult than they had imagined. Vicky stressed the importance of keeping the largest possible ball of soil around the roots, to avoid root damage. The less disturbance the better, she had insisted. To minimize shock to the rose when it was uprooted, and make digging easier, Alex had thoroughly soaked the surrounding ground the night before.
To begin with, the spade sliced easily through the soft, moist earth on the surface. But the deeper Alex dug, the harder the earth became. The roots were unusually thick and deeply anchored for a rose – even an old rose. As Vicky levered up the big root ball with her shovel, Alex gradually wrapped the sheet of burlap around the ball, securing it with twine around the main cane just above the crown. At times, his face was perilously close to the dense red thorns bristling on the branching canes. Seen from inches away, they took on a vaguely menacing beauty.
They stood back for a moment, gawking at the cavernous hole that remained. Asp seized the moment to jump into it and start burrowing madly, determined to make it even deeper. Shooing him out, Alex filled it in and raked the surface smooth. With Alex and Vicky on either side, their hands under the root ball, they heaved Sapphire on to the waiting wheelbarrow. Alex figured that the sack held close to a hundred pounds of soil. With a lot of grunting, they hoisted it into the back of the van. Resting on a shallow box filled with small wood chips, it was tied on either side to the slats on the inside walls to make doubly sure there was no movement. Satisfied that Sapphire would enjoy the trip in comfort they walked up to the house to say goodbye to Kate.
‘Be careful while we’re gone,’ Alex said, giving Kate a hug. ‘If that American chap–’
‘Alex, please don’t worry. In another fifteen minutes, I’m going to the shop. I’ll be there all day. I’m staying with Peg and Stuart tonight – then back at the shop tomorrow. I’d call that pretty safe, wouldn’t you?’
After promises to phone, they debated briefly whether Asp should stay with Kate or go with Alex and Vicky. While Kate often took him to the shop, she was reluctant to take him to Peg’s house overnight. Looking at him across the courtyard, sitting in the cab of the van, with his little red tongue bobbing in and out, they decided that he would enjoy the trip to Shropshire.
As they turned out of the drive on to the road, Alex adjusted the rear view mirror. In it, he could see Kate, still waving.
‘We’d best take it nice and easy, Alex,’ Vicky said. ‘The less trauma the better. Besides, I don’t think this old van is used to marathon drives.’
Alex laughed. ‘Frankly I’m not sure, after all that wine last night, whether I’m up for a long drive either.’
Unnoticed by Alex, a dark-coloured BMW pulled on to the road behind them.
The journey was uneventful. They arrived at Aunt Nell’s house in the late afternoon. It was located out of sight from the road, at the end of a narrow curving lane. Clumps of grass in the middle of the lane indicated that few cars had passed over it for some time. The hedge on either side was tall and overgrown. Prickly, snaking canes of dog rose and blackberry clawed against the van as they passed. Alex parked the van on a gravel patch under an old apple tree. Asp leaped out of Alex’s door and was already off exploring, sniffing up and down the hedgerow, as they both got out to give Sapphire a quick check. The rose appeared to be none the worse for the journey.
As they approached Nell’s modest two-storey brick Victorian house, Alex stopped to peer over a side gate. All he could see was a tangled mess of dense foliage that had once been a garden. ‘You’re right Vicky. They’ll have a bloody hard time finding Sapphire here,’ he said.
A diminutive white-haired woman stood at the open front door. ‘Hello, Vicky,’ she said with an affectionate smile. Then she half turned to Alex. ‘You must be Alex,’ she added.
With her snowy hair tied in an unruly bun, periwinkle-blue eyes, ruddy cheeks and floral print frock, she was the quintessential aunt. Right out of Central Casting, thought Alex.
‘That’s me,’ he said, returning her smile. ‘Pleasure to meet you, Aunt Nell.’
‘I would imagine you both must be ready for a grownup’s drink.’
Alex knew immediately that he would get on famously with her.
A few minutes later, they sat in her small parlour in comfortable wicker chairs warmed by an aromatic wood fire crackling in the hearth. Alex had opted for scotch, not knowing that Aunt Nell poured it like lemonade. She and Vicky had settled for tea.
Aunt Nell poked a log in the inglenook fireplace, sending a shower of sparks up the chimney. ‘What’s all this hush-hush stuff about then, Vicky?’ she asked, blithely.
‘Sorry I couldn’t tell you too much on the phone. The upshot is that Alex here, and his wife, Kate, discovered this rare type of rose on their property. We have it in the back of the van. There’s a big chance that it could be quite valuable.’
‘My heavens! All this fuss over a rose. What makes it so special?’ Aunt Nell peered at Alex over the top of her bifocals.
‘Only one thing, actually, Nell. The rose is an unusual colour. There’s never been one like it before. Ever.’
‘It’s sort of a botanical aberration,’ Alex said.
Nell gave him a quizzical look.
‘A freak of nature,’ Vicky chimed in. ‘We know that people in the business are desperate to get their hands on it. In fact, the word is already out. The people advising Alex and Kate have warned them to be careful.’
‘My goodness, how exciting,’ said Nell, her eyes twinkling away.
‘That’s why we thought of your garden, Auntie. We decided, on their recommendation, to hide the rose for a while – at least until we decide what to do with it. Only the three of us, Kate and a professor, will know where the rose is hidden. By the way, we’ve nicknamed the rose Sapphire.’
