Chapter 10
Ben Weatherstaff
Ben Weatherstaff was never one for orders and the latest one was plain daft. Not do any gardening midafternoon? With all the work he had to do? Nonsense. He was seeing to his gardens and Mr. Roach could like it or lump it!
So it was a surprise to him when he heard whispering and giggles coming from inside the locked garden. A surprise and a shock. Putting his ladder against the wall, he climbed and peered over. What he saw made him angrier than he’d ever been in his life. That lass! Laughing and messing about with a lad. ‘What are you doing?’ he yelled at her. ‘You bad little wench! How dare you go in there? How dare you?’
Mary almost dropped her trowel when she saw the old man glowering down at her.
‘How’d you get in? How’d you get?’ the gardener ranted.
‘I… I found the key. The robin showed me where it was,’ Mary stammered.
That made Ben almost fall off his ladder with rage. ‘Don’t you make fun of me! Robin, indeed! A vandal, that’s what you are. Going where you’ve no business.’
He began to shake his fist at her. Mary became quite scared. Colin, who had been hidden from view, called across to DIckon. ‘Wheel me over there, DIckon. Hurry!’
Ben Weatherstaff’s eyes nearly popped out of his head when Colin came into view.
‘Do you know who I am?’ Colin demanded, his face as furious as the gardener’s.
‘Well… I… I reckon that must be Master Colin,’ Ben replied, feeling a lump rise in his throat. He shook his head slowly. ‘You look just like her,’ he whispered.
Colin glance across at Mary and frowned. ‘Do I? Well, I suppose we are cousins.’
‘Not ‘er,’ Ben replied, ‘your mother. Mrs Craven. You’ ave her eyes.’
‘Do I?’ said Colin, taken aback. ‘You knew her? You knew my mother?’
Ben nodded. ‘Aye. I helped her in there. She loved to grow things.’
‘This was her garden?’ Colin asked.
‘Aye.’
For once, Colin was lost for words.
‘I’ve tried to keep it going,’ Ben continued. ‘I used to climb over and do it. Can’t get to it now I’m not as fit as I was. My legs are going gammy like yours.’
The old man hadn’t meant to be rude but the comment made Colin angry all over again. He knew he had a weak, feeble body. He only had to look at Dickon to see that! But here in the garden, he felt different. Stronger.
‘My legs aren’t “gammy”!’ he yelled. ‘I’ll show you!’ Placing his hands on either side of the chair arms, he slowly began to rise. The blanket covering his lap fell onto the ground. ‘I can use my legs,’ Colin repeated, staring up at the gardener. ‘I can.’
Ben blinked. Mary and Dickon daren’t even breathe as they watched Colin put one foot on the ground, then the other, until he was standing upright. Upright! For the first time in his life! ‘See!’ said Colin, ‘I can use my legs! I can!’
‘Aye,’ Ben nodded. He felt tears in his eyes.
Colin flopped back down in his chair with a proud grin on his face.
That night, Colin slept long and deep. When he woke, refreshed and full of energy, he had a plan. ‘I am going to learn to walk,’ he told Mary and DIckon as soon as they reached the garden. ‘It will be like a scientific experiment. I shall record my progress and write a paper on it for a scientific journal. I shall probably end up rather famous.’
‘Big head!’ Mary snorted but underneath she was really pleased. It was the first time Colin had talked of what he would do in the future. What she didn’t know was that Colin wasn’t doing it just for science. He was doing it so his father would be proud of him. ‘He’ll want to see me when I am awake as well as asleep,’ he thought to himself.
The first few times he tried to walk, Colin could only shuffle forward a few steps with Dickon on one arm and Mary or Ben on the other. Slowly, over the days and weeks, the garden worked its magic. As the trees blossomed and the shoots turned into the most beautiful flowers, Colin, too, changed. His arms grew stronger. His legs grew stronger. He took three, then four, the five, then six steps by himself. Then, on a day when even the robin flew down to watch, Colin Craven walked all the way round the garden.
By the time summer turned to autumn, he was not just walking, but running too. ‘It’s a miracle,’ Ben Weatherstaff said. But the garden hadn’t finished working its magic just yet.
