Page 90 of A Secret In The Garden

Darius didn’t budge; instead, he sat on the railing with a devastated expression. He was going to jump—he’d decided.

I moved toward him. Jasper held his hand up to stop me from moving and startling him.

Hester was suddenly on the balcony, more visible now than before but still faint. I glanced around the room and quickly realized I was the only one who could see her ghost. With a calm expression, she lifted herself to sit on the balcony’s wide railing next to her husband. She moved across the railing behind Darius’s back and put one hand on his bicep and the other on his shoulder. He jumped a little at the contact, looking to where she had touched him, but seeing nothing, returned his focus to Jasper.

She wasn’t going to let him jump; she was blocking him.

“I already lost her; don’t make me lose you too.” Jasper widened his arms, urging the lost man into them.

Darius broke down completely. In a quick movement, Hester shoved him, and he stumbled across the balcony and into Jasper’s arms.

I hurried over and shut the doors behind them, pausing for a second to let Hester in; she strolled through and moved to stand next to her husband and son. I hated that they didn’t know she was there with them. I wondered how many times that happened, that our loved ones were standing right with us, and we didn’t realize it.

“Mr. Blackwood, how are you doing, sir? Would you mind coming with me? I want to get you somewhere that will make you feel better and ask you some questions if that’s all right,” a kind officer said, grabbing Darius’s arm in a way that appeared nothing but friendly.

“Can my son come?”

“I’m going with you. Let’s get you some help, okay?” Jasper said softly, turning back to me with an appreciative nod before turning out of the room and down the hallway with the other men—followed by me and a beautiful, faintly corporeal ghost.

Chapter 28

Eliza

Jasper remained stationed next to Darius as he talked to the police and repeated to them what had happened to Hester.

It was heartbreaking to watch Darius relive the nightmare when he spoke about his company going under after spending every spare penny to their name trying to find a cure for Hester and failing. His eyes grew distant, as if he was unable to cope when he recounted the process of burying the love of his life himself and then the horrific night that followed, eventually unable to stay with her and the guilt he felt when he had left both her and Jasper behind.

Though everyone seemed to feel for the mentally troubled man, Sowerby remained stiff and cold with Darius throughout, understandably still angry with him for leaving Jasper. When asked about it, Sowerby had his own heartbreaking tale of secrets.

“You knew?” Darius asked his old gardener.

Sowerby nodded. “As you’re aware, Hester and I were great friends and spent a lot of time together working in the conservatory.”

Darius clung to every word, almost as if hearing Hester’s name gave him strength.

“She told me when she realized she wasn’t going to make it. Confided that she wanted to become one of her plants and be buried beneath the soil. She asked me to check in on Darius and Jasper to ensure they were doing okay. She had managed to get me another live-in job at another large estate.” Sowerby cleared his throat, pulling off his dark newsboy hat to run his hands through his short gray hair. “By then, the majority of the other staff had left, with only a few still remaining, and my quarters were empty. I wasn’t supposed to stay, but I couldn’t leave her quite yet, knowing she was so sick. Whenever I couldn’t sleep, I would go to the conservatory and do the upkeep, set up Hester’s area so it was all ready for the next day, mostly just filling bottles with neem spray as that’s all she had strength for by then. One night, I couldn’t sleep again and went to the conservatory. You were already inside. I watched as you refilled the hole. I knew she was really gone. You were burying her where we had just cleared everything and planted the corpse flowers. It was her most prized plant of all of them.” He breathed out a sad laugh. “She always had a sense of humor. She’d known the whole time I planted them that that’s where she had chosen to be buried. You didn’t even understand the irony of her resting under the corpse flowers. It was perfectly her.”

He wiped his wet eyes before continuing. “I left. That night I had a dream that Hester was frantic and upset, but none of it made any sense. I came back in the morning to find them arresting Jasper.” He was so choked up that he had to collect himself for a few moments before speaking again. He looked at Jasper with loving eyes. “Good thing I did too.” He rubbed his eyes. “I could’ve killed you, Darius. I would have, had I seen you. I still want to,” he admitted.

“You knew all along, and you never told me.” Jasper’s face was lined with hurt. “You let me believe she was still alive this whole time,” he said angrily.

Sowerby’s head dropped, unable to look directly at Jasper. “I didn’t want the same thing to happen to you that happened to him.” He pointed accusingly at Darius. “There wasn’t much left of you when I found you; I couldn’t bring myself to do another thing that would bring you pain; you should’ve seen yourself. What if you lost it like your father? You refused to leave the manor, and I couldn’t afford anything else. I did the best I could.”

“You should have told me she was dead—and in my house,” Jasper bit out.

“I cared about you, Jasper; that was all I knew. I was a gardener, not a psychiatrist; I didn’t know what the hell I was doing.” He raised his voice. “And you know what? I’d do it all over again in a second if it meant I kept you sane. At first, I didn’t tell you about your mother because I assumed Darius would come back for you. But after a few weeks, he sent a letter from both of them, and I didn’t know what to do but wait it out. I’m sorry.”

“I’ll never be able to thank you enough for what you’ve done,” Darius said softly to Sowerby, who glared at him.

Jasper took Darius to the hospital with the police. After matching DNA from the bones to the blood found on Jasper’s shirt the night of the incident, they confirmed that the autopsy of Hester did reveal her to have sulfhemoglobinemia, an incredibly rare condition that, because of her diagnosed kidney disease, was diagnosed so late it had caused her death. In a morbid way, Hester belonged among her rare plants; she was one of them.

Jasper and I hadn’t spoken other than him quickly asking me to stay at the manor until he returned, to which I agreed.

}

I woke up to the feeling of arms sliding under me, lifting me. Apparently, I had fallen asleep on the couch in the main room. The clean scent of men’s soap and sterile hospital lingered in my nostrils as I looked around. Everything was dark; it was late.

“Shhh, it’s okay, I’ve got you,” Jasper cooed, lifting me. “I’m sorry. It took longer than I thought.”