Since our lovely walk out on and around the Avalon Marshes a few weeks ago, I’ve been thinking a lot about pools and ponds, and in fact have written two poems!
Occasionally ponds among trees and water with light on it have featured in my stories, usually just in passing; however in ‘The Stalking of Rosa Czekov’, the main character Tyche meets someone she suspects might be Rosa’s stalker at a lovely garden belonging to a country house, Glenmarden Garden. my imaginary place is loosely based on Benvarden Garden in County Antrim.
In this episode, Tyche meets Tic in the rose garden:
Glenmarden Garden was part of the estate of a private country house; the house, square and white was not open to the public, but its grounds were. There was a walled jardin potager and through an arched gateway was the rosarium; gravelled paths took the visitor to the parkland which fell away through specimen trees to the River Marden. It was peaceful and lovely and the busyness of the world faded away in the tranquillity of the place.
From the main road, stopping at the gate house to pay her token £3, Tyche followed the drive winding through the copse to the car park beside the walled garden. His car was parked there but there was no sign of him and she was unexpectedly apprehensive; she was unnerved by her own behaviour last night, the abandoned weeping, the complete breakdown of control and control was all. If she didn’t have control of herself now she was lost; she checked her appearance in the mirror, put on her shades, pulled down her cap and was ready to meet Tic.
She continued the act; she got smoothly out of the car, aware as always that someone might be watching. She wandered through the arch into the kitchen garden and admired the rows of cabbages and beets and carrots and the further beds of currant and berry bushes. There was a profusion of the more exotic, giant artichokes, cardoons, feathery fennel. It was pleasantly peaceful to wander along the gravel paths, her feet crunching quietly with no-one else in view.
She meandered round, peeping into the greenhouses, mooching through the gap in the fruit covered walls to the rose garden and into a curtain of scent, the sweet musky perfume hanging between the old red brick walls. Tic was sitting on a bench in the centre of the checkerboard of colour, his back to her.
She could go. She could turn and walk away without him seeing, quiz him on the phone instead. Her high-heeled sandals clicked on the stone flags and he must have heard her coming but he didn’t turn.
Later they walk round the grounds and come to the Dark Pool; they have a row and Tyche pushes him into the water. There actually is a pond at Benvarden, the water seems black because of the peat, but there are always wonderful reflections on the surface, even on a cloudy day!
Here is a link to my book about Rosa Czekov… can you guess who the stalker is?
…and here is one link to Benvarden:
https://www.gardenvisit.com/gardens/benvarden_garden
Lois Elsden 