Sunshine Over Wildflower Cottage Read Online Free PDF

could be so alarming about this Heath bloke. He wouldn’t scare her away. She needed to be here, and so she would put up with him, no matter what.
    ‘Don’t judge him on first appearances is all I ask.’
    ‘I’m sure everything will be fine.’ Viv sipped at her tea, which was strong, just as she liked it. Strong as her resolve not to be intimidated by some old curmudgeon who enjoyed pushing his weight around.
    ‘Once you get to know him, you’ll find his bark is much worse than his bite,’ smiled Geraldine, relieved by Viv’s attitude. ‘Now, bring your tea with you and let me show you where you’ll be staying so you can get settled in. I hope you’ll be all right in the folly. It’s compact, but very pretty and you can shut the door on us at the weekends.’
    ‘Do you live on-site too?’ asked Viv.
    ‘Yes, my room’s at the back of the house, through there,’ said Geraldine, pointing to a door in the corner of the kitchen. She sniffed the air. ‘I must say, your luggage smells lovely.’
    ‘One of my suitcases is full of oils,’ replied Viv, picking up the heaviest one. ‘I blend them for companies.’
    ‘Blend oils?’ Geraldine questioned.
    ‘I have a neurological quirk,’ Viv told her, going on to explain in more detail. ‘An acute sense of smell.’
    Geraldine was looking at her the way most people did when she said as much.
    ‘The best way I can explain it to you is . . . you’ll have seen the picture of white light hitting a prism and dividing into a rainbow?’
    ‘Yes,’ replied Geraldine.
    ‘That’s how I perceive scents. It’s like I’m the prism and when I smell something, each component separates itself from the others in my brain. And I also construct formulas; for instance, if a company want me to recreate the essence of an old library or an autumn walk.’
    ‘That’s amazing,’ gasped Geraldine.
    ‘I know it’s weird,’ returned Viv, ‘but I don’t mind it.’
    The school bullies used to have a go at her about being a freak, but she refused to feed them with her fear.
Ignore them.
They’re just jealous, because they’re ordinary
, her mother had said. Stel had always been as brilliant at giving advice as she had been as rubbish at taking it.
    ‘Sometimes the things that make you weird turn out to be your greatest assets, did you know that?’ said Geraldine, wheeling the smaller of the two cases towards the door.
    Viv smiled. That was such a Stel philosophy it was as if she had just flitted in to join them.
    ‘So who buys these formulas then? People who make candles and those reed diffuser things?’ Geraldine went on.
    ‘Amongst others, yes.’
    ‘Goodness. I didn’t know such a job existed.’
    ‘I’m not sure it does either,’ chuckled Viv, following her out of the door. ‘I didn’t think anyone would take me seriously when I started, but they did.’
    ‘So it makes you some pin money, does it? It’s good that you can supplement your wages, then. It’s embarrassing what we offer here.’
    Viv didn’t say that it made her more money than Geraldine could guess at.
    They headed past Viv’s car, across the yard to the tall, castle-like folly. Geraldine unlocked it with a long key befitting the heavy arched door, which opened with a characterful creak into a sitting room with rough stone walls and a rich dark wooden floor. There was a two-seater high-backed green sofa and a footstool and a table and two dining chairs. Alongside one wall, there was a run of dark wooden kitchen units, a brown electric oven and hob, a sink and a narrow white half-fridge. Above the sink was a yellow stained-glass window, throwing a golden light onto a welcome-basket of eggs, butter, bread and milk on the draining board. Pretty green curtains hung at the side of a large arched window affording a view of Ironmist hillside and a stone seat was set in the deep wall beneath it. It was certainly ‘compact’ but on the right side of cosy, rather than cramped.
    ‘It doesn’t