Free The Great Allotment Proposal by Jenny Oliver Page B

and the roof bashing down on top of it. Gerty sprang back on her bum, clicking the shutter of her camera by mistake. The surprise made her cry as Annie scooped her up and away from the wreck.
    Jack jogged over to check that they were OK and when it was clear everyone was fine, stood next to Emily watching a couple more bits of wood snap and the walls slide further sideways, before saying quietly, ‘Got your gossip?’
    Emily turned to look at him. ‘I had no idea,’ she said. ‘I’m really sorry.’ Not even bothering to mask the fact they’d been caught gossiping.
    Jack just shrugged. ‘It’s life.’
    ‘And you’re OK with it?’ she asked, glancing sideways to see Josephine cuddling a shocked, crying Monty.
    ‘What would the alternative do?’ he said. ‘There’d be no family.’
    Emily frowned, unsure at his reasoning.
    Jack smiled. ‘You can’t stop what will be, Em,’ he said, then reached forward to grab a slice of vanilla sponge. ‘Your shed is buggered.’
    Annie rolled her eyes. ‘Tell me about it. All our tools are in there.’
    ‘What’s that?’ Jack nodded his head towards what looked like the corner of a wooden box sticking out the earth where the side wall had collapsed.
    ‘I don’t know.’ Emily said, taking a step forward. ‘Looks like a wine crate. Maybe it’s vintage champagne. That’d be fun.’
    Annie and Jack followed her forward. Handing his vanilla sponge to Emily, Jack bent down and pushed the earth away from the top of the box and then scooped it out from the sides. ‘You want me to pull it out?’
    Annie nodded.
    He kicked the wall of the shed out the way and hauled the box out from the ground, carrying it over to one of the chairs and plonking it down.
    Emily handed him the vanilla sponge back and dusted the rest of the earth off the lid of the box. ‘It
is
a wine crate. I think there might be wine in here,’ she said. ‘How do we get the lid off?’
    ‘We pry it open,’ said Jack and went over to his own shed to find a hammer.
    They all gathered round as he teased the lid off the box with the hammer claw.
    Gerty was the first to look inside when the top came free, breaking out of Annie’s hold and nuzzling her nose in to get a good look. ‘It’s old books,’ she said.
    ‘Books?’ Emily frowned. ‘I thought it was wine.’
    Annie stepped forward and picked up one of the leather-bound volumes. ‘It’s diaries,’ she said, flipping through the pages. ‘It’s the diaries. Enid’s. That Jane and Holly have been looking for. This is them.’
    Emily took another one out of the box. ‘Blimey. She buried them.’
    ‘Why would you bury your diaries?’ Jack asked.
    ‘Because they say something you don’t want anyone to see?’ Annie said.
    ‘What do they say?’ Gerty asked.
    ‘I don’t know, Gert,’ Annie said, ruffling Gerty’s hair. ‘But I think we’ll probably find out soon enough.’
    ‘Shall we read them now?’ Emily asked.
    Annie shook her head. ‘No I don’t think so. I think we have to give them to Martha. They’re hers, aren’t they? Enid was her mum, after all. And if she doesn’t want to read them, then I think Jane should. She’s the one who’s been looking for them.’
    Emily shrugged. ‘Can I just have a sneak peek?’
    ‘No.’ Annie laughed and whipped the diary out of her hands. ‘Have some cake instead.’
    Emily settled for a slice of cherry pie. When she held it in her muddy hands, the cherry juice oozed down over her fingers and she licked it away, feeling like a real pro gardener, unconcerned by a bit of earth with her cake.
    She watched Jack eating the vanilla slice and Gerty taking photos of Monty laughing at the chickens. She looked at Ed’s arm draped over Josephine’s willowy shoulders and Alan lounging back on a deckchair letting the sun warm his face. You’d have to be pretty tough to make sure that that wasn’t destroyed, to rise above the bitterness and let what will be be.
    She glanced back to Jack and