Page 101 of The Queen of Roses

The Gables, Pasadena

Dear Macalister,

After my last visit, I wonder if it would be wise to consider bringing some new interest to the front garden. I worry that it is rather plain compared to the plans we have laid out for the back of the house.

Sincerely,

Mrs. Guy Whitley

March 1, 1907

Dear Mrs. Whitley,

If you’ll bring your plans for the front garden the next time you visit, I would be happy to take a look.

Sincerely,

Alex Macalister

April 11, 1907

The Gables, Pasadena

Dear Macalister,

I have paid the bill for the new tools that you requested. You should be able to collect them from the railway station in a fortnight’s time.

Sincerely,

Mrs. Guy Whitley

chapter thirty-eight ADELE

April 1907

Spring.

What a glorious time of year in Pasadena!

The season was different, of course, from those Adele remembered growing up with. In England, the first days of spring seemed to burst forth from the inevitable gray of February as bulbs fought to emerge from their winter slumber. The brilliant sunshine would bring everyone in London out, riding, driving, and walking in the parks, before a turn of the weather would send them all back indoors to seek shelter from the wind and rain.

In Pasadena, the change of season was less stark but no less welcome. As Adele left the city limits one late April morning, she couldn’t help but smile as the huge swaths of wildflowers coating the Altadena foothills came into view. She drove through verges of California poppy, sage, and buckwheat, bees heavy with pollen buzzing around her. She breathed deeply, feeling once again as though she had the room to.

Although Adele was out of her seclusion, she was still in mourning, with the last dinner parties, balls, and even the card parties of the Valley Hunt Club that closed out the winter season beyond her reach. Instead, she’d fallen into a solitary sort of routine, writing letters in the mornings and reading gardening books in the afternoons while she made plans for spring planting.

The only excitement and variation in her routine came from her visits to Rosewood House every few weeks to check on Macalister’s progress. The winter had been characterized by hard work clearing, leveling, and sculpting structure into a land where there had been very little before. Spring, however, was for planting, and she found she enjoyed checking on the progress of her plants on each visit.

Each time she drove her buggy into the foothills, she wondered if Macalister would make mention of the gloves he had sent her. Each time she alighted from her buggy, he simply unhitched her horse as before and led it to the paddock to join his. Then he’d show her around the grounds, detailing where he and the men he’d hired had dug irrigation ditches and how he’d mapped out the beds she’d painstakingly drawn on her plans.

And so the gloves remained unspoken of and unworn, locked away in the bottom drawer of her writing desk.

The sun was already climbing high when Adele drew up to Rosewood House, and no one came out to greet her. With a frown, she climbed down from the buggy unassisted and tied the reins to the porch railing to keep her horse from wandering off. Then she went in search of Macalister.

She found him alone, hunched over the long potting bench he’d built out of planks of wood. She watched him for a moment, the sleeves of his cream-colored cotton shirt rolled up to his elbows and his usual disreputable straw hat pulled down so that she could not see the golden ends of his hair. His shoulders bunched and unfurled as he worked at something, and she edged a few steps to her right to see better.

She watched him reach into a folded piece of paper and draw something up before placing it on a bit of soil in what looked like a paper cup. He was sowing seeds. He did it again and again, moving with careful and deliberate motions to gently press the seeds into place. Then he took up a round sieve and shook soil over the tops of the little pots in front of him.

“What are you planting?” she called out as he reached for his green watering can.