Page 22 - Secret Garden

“One garden’s locked up,” Martha warned her. “Has been this ten year.” What a strange place this was: a house full of locked rooms, and now even
a locked garden!
“Why?” asked Mary.
“Mr Craven had it shut up after his wife died so sudden. It was her
garden, see. He were that sad, he locked door an’ buried key.”
Then Martha went back into the house and left Mary to explore.
How do you lock up a garden? Mary wondered.
Beyond the wide lawns and wintry flower beds, beyond the grey fountain
not spouting water, there were smaller gardens surrounded by high brick walls. One was planted with vegetables. One was an orchard.
A flicker of red and a twittering drew Mary’s eye to a bird on a branch beyond the orchard wall. There must be another garden on the far side of that wall. The robin burst into sudden song – just as if it was calling to her. So cheerful! So friendly! Mary’s thin lips wriggled into a smile.
“Is that where you live?” she asked the robin, and looked for a way in. There was no gate.
A space with trees in it, surrounded with a high wall, and no way in?
Surely Mary had found the locked garden! But though she searched and searched, she could not find a gate.