Thirty-One
Bill Giles opened the padlock in the iron bolt that locked the heavy wooden door of the ancient stone shed that housed the lawnmowers. There was nothing he could do about the building. Its fate was in the hands of the Church Insurance Office but the grounds were heritage listed. The gardens needed to be maintained, even if no-one was currently living in Gladesview House.
Bill had been the head gardener and maintenance manager at Gladesview House for thirty years. He was in love with the gardens. They meant more to him than the embittered woman he called his wife. He’d have divorced her years ago but for their Catholicism and ‘death do us part’ wedding vows. Coming to work every day was an escape from his private domestic corner of hell.
Hank and Wally, two of the men in the g
