As the gloomy grey clouds descended the garden looked dull and unloved, the once pride of the county roses looked like they were in mourning for the sun.
Lily as her name suggests was a pretty little girl, blonde, naïve and a little bit cheeky, She was 8 years old.
She lived at the manor house, with her mind, really old people, this would suggest that they were in their 90’s, but actually her aunt and uncle were in their mid 40’s and still had all their own teeth.
Lily loved the gardens, especially when they were in bloom and the pretty bright colours shone when the light hit them, and the smell was glorious.
Lily was sometimes curious and would forget where her parents were and why she lived with her aunt and uncle, and was always told the same thing, when your old enough we will tell you, that was all well and good, but when would that be?.
The manor house was something quite spectacular, it was situated in the Somerset levels somewhere near Taunton, but hidden away from prying eyes. It was more than a hop, skip and a jump away from a main road and had quite a few number of hectares of land, it comprised of a tennis court, stables, a croquet lawn and the infamous rose gardens, which stood proud and defiant against all weathers, and little girls who would try to pick them, they would fight back by having very pointy thorns on their storks, so she would cry if she tried.
There were all sorts of different types as well according to Reg the gardener, from damask to climbing roses, all looked different and with different aromas, the whole place came alive in the warm spring weather. But there was one in particular that was lily’s favourite, according to Reg it was a rambling rose called ‘the fairy’. It would normally be found decorating the archway into the garden and was gorgeously pale pink with a yellow centre, and looked very dainty and light, even though it was a ‘ vigorous grower’ according to Reg.
She wanted to remember all the different types of roses but she realised quite soon that her little brain couldn’t cope with too much information like that, plus she couldn’t pronounce the Latin names of them even if she tried.
Today was special, the annual county show people were coming round to inspect the roses before picking their favourites to exhibit for the show, a highly prestigious event that the adults loved, Lily didn’t care, they were just not taking her favourite.
After afternoon tea and a walk around the rest of the gardens the committee ended up at the rose garden, and were suitably impressed with what they saw, even though the weather today could have been nicer there was no drop of rain or a cool breeze, everything was still and warm for a spring afternoon.
The committee comprised of 3 women and 1 man, they looked around the same age as her family, all old of course. The women all wore pastel shades and flower brooches, they had soft features and they all had their hair tied back like in an old film, and the man wore a dickey bow and had a funny little moustache. They all sounded very posh.
They talked softly, almost a whisper, she could hear lots of oohs and aahs and a lot of nodding heads and pointing fingers towards the different variety of roses, they were smiling and everything seemed to be going well.
As the roses were being picked by Reg for the purposes of making a display for the show, Lily noticed a little squeaky noise when they were cut, like a tiny scream, it unnerved her a little and she asked Reg what the noise was,
‘Why it’s a soul of an angel of course’
he said with a smirk on his face, Lily wasn’t sure what to make of this, in a way it was nice to know that there were angels all around, but why were they in the flowers?. Reg explained that when someone good lives in the house that dies their souls get transferred into the flowers by magic, and that randomly her favourite flowers on the archway were her parents, he then laughed and went back to his pruning. She thought that it could have been a silly joke, he did have a weird sense of humour, but suppose it was true, Lily shuddered a little as she heard more ‘screaming’ from a distance.