FOLLOW YOUR HEART

Chapter 15 - Something Majestic

Tally kept looking at George as if he was some kind of strange species, as he sat on the kitchen table so the old man didn't have to bend over too far to treat his injured knee.

"Will it need stitches?" Shawn asked.

"No, it's just a graze, looks worse than it is, I'll get it all patched up," Tally said. Camila watched the scene in amazement. They were all highly suspicious of each other and it made for a very awkward atmosphere. George, for his part, kept sneaking glances at her. She hadn't told him her real name yet, but she had given up the accent which he had to have noticed.

"That's where I know you from!" George clicked his fingers. "Stitches! You're that Canadian singer....Shawn...." Well of course he's Shawn, he's already told you that! Camila thought. What a moron. She realised that was harsh and was glad she didn't say it out loud. "Mendes! That's it, Shawn Mendes!" Then he turned to her, his eyes widening.

"And you're the girl he's been seen with in the gossip mags, Camilla..."

"Cameeelah," Shawn said, frowning.

"Yeah, you're her, right?"

So he wasn't a reporter, unless he was a really good actor.

"What were you really doing in the secret garden? Why do I feel like you were lying to me?"

George looked at them both, from one to the other.

"So did you really inherit this place?"

"Sort of, it's going to be sold and the money given to charity, eventually." Shawn answered. She shot him a frown. Why did he keep telling him things? The rules of the will stated it wasn't allowed! But George had a way about him that made Shawn tell him things he shouldn't, and he affected her quite differently. She felt a strange interest him that she couldn't explain.

"The garden," she reminded him of her question. "Why were you there, and don't spin that mother and book story again."

"It's not a story," he protested. "My mother was literally obsessed with the book, The Secret Garden. When I was twelve we moved into a small complex of flats simply because it had a little overgrown garden courtyard in the middle and it reminded her of the garden in the book and the movie. We had that on DVD too, and watched it constantly."

"You don't anymore?" Camila asked. She waited for him to tell them his mother was dead, it would cement his story.

"No, my mother lives in a retirement community just outside London, she is too busy going to Bingo and day trips to the Cotswolds and community theatre productions to waste time watching old movies with me these days." He smiled, and his teeth were startling in their whiteness against his brown skin. "She retired early, and she is having a fine time."

"And your father?" George's smile faded.

"He died when I was very young, I don't remember him actually."

"I'm so sorry," Shawn said.

"So do you live around here?" Camila asked.

"No, I saw the garden in an article, a pretty old one actually, and I wanted to come and see it. It's sort of an obsession of mine, I've seen a lot of them. I caught the train up this morning and I'm heading back to Lancaster this afternoon."

"Well that's it then," Tally said, putting the last piece of bandage on. "Let me get you a pair of pants to replace those ones, I'll be back."

After Tally left, George jumped down with a wince. "This place is bloody amazing," he said. "Don't suppose you have time to show me around?"