Chapter Nine
Aileen rolled to her side. ‘Ouch! My head.’
A beam of early morning sunlight escaped from the drawn curtains, straining Aileen’s throbbing eyes.
‘Urgh! Fine, I’ll wake up.’
She struggled to sit up and peered at the clock on the bedside table. It was nine – she’d slept in again.
Scrubbing her eyes, she yawned wide and saw it.
A cluster of wildflowers sat behind the clock.
Tiny petals in all the colours she could imagine twinkled in the dark bedroom. The green ferns cradling them – surely some incredibly aromatic herbs – lifted her lips in a smile.
A tiny card rested against the vase he’d put them in. The illegible chicken scrawl on it, Aileen recognised from afar, but she needed a moment to comprehend the words.
Their colours remind me of you.
Her smile bloomed into a
