Her Garden Angel - Book 4, The Porth Kerensa Series

Chapter Sixteen

Porth Kerensa, August 1943

When Evie looked back on the summer of 1943, it seemed the hottest, brightest summer of her life. They were golden days that even the shadow of war could not dim. It was the summer she fell in love for the first time. It was the summer she learned that when love came calling, there was little you could do to stop it. It was one of the happiest of her life.

As the month of August waned, it seemed to everyone around them that Evie and Tom were hardly ever apart. She would stop by his room after breakfast with Max, to collect Tom for their daily jaunts out to the garden. As Max’s confidence around Tom had grown he’d expressed a desire to ride on his lap in the wheelchair. He was a sturdy nineteen month old, with unforgiving feet when they found a target, and Evie had seen the look in Tom’s eyes at the thought of the child coming into contact with his stump. She’d put Max off, but he kept asking, until eventually one morning Tom had asked Evie for a pillow. She handed it to him and he placed it on his lap, before lifting Max and sitting him carefully on the pillow.

“Listen up, chap,” he said gravely. “We’re going to play at being soldiers, I’m the captain and you have to do exactly as I say. We’re going on a reconnaissance mission, looking for the enemy and we have to be as quiet and as still as possible. “He looked seriously at Max, but his eyes sparkled with amusement. Max nodded and Tom smiled. “Good chap, now Evie is going to drive us to our destination. What do we have to remember?”

“Be kiet and still,” Max whispered, staying as still as stone.

“Excellent, let’s go, Evie,” Tom said cheerily.

Every morning they played the same game, and thanks to Tom’s imagination, Max never tired of it. He sat quietly, without moving, content to let Tom amuse him with a whispering commentary in his ear as Evie pushed them down to the garden. She found herself watching the two of them together and imagining that Max was their son. She knew it was a silly day dream, a ridiculous fantasy, but she couldn't help herself.

As soon as they arrived at the kitchen garden, Tom would lift Max onto the ground and the little boy would run happily to greet his father, eager to check on his plot of land and the vegetables they were growing together. Sometimes Evie pushed Tom around the garden, but usually they went to the bench that everyone now thought of as theirs and sat talking non-stop for the hour that Max spent with his father.

After they collected Max from Bruce, they would play a game of catch with him before lunch, ensuring he was ready for his nap afterwards. While Max slept, she’d push Tom down to the village for a daily jaunt, greeting villagers and getting him used to people seeing his bandaged stump. He had found it difficult at first, but he was used to it now and the villagers greeted him cheerily, hardly seeming to notice his disability.

In the evenings, after Evie had finished her duties for the day, she would bring tea and cake to his room and they’d sit talking whilst Evie caught up with her sewing. Sometimes Tom read to her; but mostly they talked about their childhoods. He had been kind and compassionate when she had told him her mother and granny were dead and she now lived with her aunt and uncle.

It was Evie’s favourite part of the day, so she tried to avoid conversations about the future, for they invariably depressed Tom and brought out the bitter side of his character. She knew that one day soon, with enough encouragement, he would begin to see that there were no reasons why he couldn’t live a fulfilling satisfying life. However, Evie believed the gentle approach was for the best.

She knew she was falling in love with every day that passed. Every time Tom smiled at her; every time he touched her, however fleeting, it reminded her how very much she wanted him. It was a new feeling for Evie; she had never experienced anything like it before. Even when he was doing something innocent, like chatting and playing with Max, she couldn’t tear her eyes away from him, or stop the feelings that flooded through her. When she woke in the morning his face was the first image that jumped into her mind, and she fell asleep with it too. Every day she wondered if this would be the day that she told him how she felt, but she never did.