Trugg's Garden

My Blog is going to take on a bit of a twist from today. At least for a while I am going to experiment with something which I hope you will all enjoy although it may conclude in literary suicide for me.

I have been wanting to write a book for years and have indeed started one on many occasions. You see, what I lack in intelligence and knowledge I feel that I might make up for in imagination.

So I have taken the plunge and started to write Trugg's Garden.

Now the dodgy bit for me, although I have the idea and told myself the story in my head for a few weeks it is not complete except for chapter one.

Below is Chapter one in it's raw state and I would like to know if it catches your imagination and there is enough to hold you and indeed if you find it interesting?

I may never complete it so to ensure that chapter two is written I will love your feed back thus far. If I get a minimum of ten comments I will proceed with chapter two and I need those comments by the 1st July. If they do not come I will remove the story and take the hint.

A bit about Trugg's Garden (without revealing too much)

Blow it......................just read on and hopefully it will become apparent!

By the way, I reserve the right to change anything if I feel I have got it wrong or can enhance the content in any way. View it as a work in progress.

Trugg's Garden

Property developer Simon Jenkins was in an excited state. He was on route to Privett air strip to join a charter helicopter which he had hired to do an aerial survey.an>

Jenkins is a property developer and has just sold eight mews houses in London
for £7.6 million that he had bought after the property crash of the late eighties for a mere £850,000.  He was looking to get out of the city and build a golf course and country club with luxury apartments set in grounds of two to five hundred acres and Bristol and Catchpole, the up market Agents had arranged a viewing of six estates, each with it’s own country house and arrangements of tied houses and farmland. 

The properties ranged from Smethics, a one hundred and fifty acre arable farm with lake to Belvedere House a eight hundred acre estate boasting seven tied houses, two farms and extensive, although somewhat overgrown formal and walled gardens. 

Jenkins was considered rather talented by the bank who had seen him progress from a normal house buyer to successful property developer in just eight years, making an impressive six million pounds a year in profits. 

It was an exciting and adventurous project that lay ahead but nothing could prepare Simon Jenkins for this tragic journey of love, greed and murder that would unfold.

Chapter one 

Simon arrive at the airfield as Peter ‘pip’ Piper, Simon’s lifelong friend and business partner screamed up the approach road in his TVR Cerbera. Peter was a renowned ladies man and lover of fast sports cars. 

‘Morning bud’ Shouted Simon as Peter screeched to a halt. ‘Morning matey’ Replied Pip and he lit a Marlboro slapping his chum on the back. 

‘Bloody good celebration last night, wasn’t it?’ said Pip. ‘You bet, it was the satisfaction that we had rid ourselves of the Mews and pocketed the dough that made it the sweeter’ replied Simon. 

As the two friends chatted they were distracted as the engines of the 4 seated helicopter churning into life as the pilot fired up the engines. 

David Huntingdon-Catchpole a partner for agents Bristol and Catchpole has arrived twenty minutes earlier and had just briefed the pilot on his requirements and agreed an order for the flight. 

He wanted to leave Belvedere House until last for two reasons. The first was because the price tag of £3.9 million pounds meant a bloody good commission for him and his company and secondly, it was the best proposition for what Simon and Pip had planned. 

.‘Simon!, how are you dear boy?!’ exclaimed David in a rather Captain of the regiment sort of voice. ‘You can see I have ensured the finest of weather for our viewing flight’

Pip rolled his eyebrows and muttered ‘prat’ under his breath but managed a brief handshake as he turned towards David. ‘Good morning Young Pip’ Said David, ‘how was your party last night?’ 

‘Bloody marvellous’ replied Pip, ‘In fact the best’ he replied without making eye contact. 

‘Right lets get on board’ encouraged David ‘time is money for all of us, I am sure’ 

The group boarded the copter and buckled up. The first stop was Smethics just six minutes flight away. The Captain took the group in close and circled three times and hovered over the yard for a minute or so. 

‘What a quaint place’ Said Simon. ‘I knew a girl who looked after the stables here, bit of stunner I recall’ Simon winked at Pip. 

‘Not big enough for 36 holes or decent grounds to work with around the farm either’ said Pip. 

‘I agree’ David Chipped in. It was what he wanted to hear as he hoped Belvedere would be the one. 

The group scooted round the countryside studying the topography around each property. They took time to consider the natural lie of the land with the water courses and potential ponds for the irrigation. 

It was nearing lunch so David hurried them along and at four thousand pounds per hour for the copter it was in all their interests to conclude this initial recce as soon as possible. 

Simon was a hard headed business man and every penny spent now had to be dropped into the bottom line later so he was keen to keep costs down. 

They flew north with the sun overhead and very slightly behind them and approached Belvedere. As they passed over a small hill they group were dazzled by the glare coming from the façade of the big house. 

‘Wow!’ Exclaimed Pip. 

‘Wowee!’ Retorted Simon. ‘That is one impressive house. 

‘I knew you would like it’ Said David ‘The piece de resistance for sure, if you ask me’. David didn’t want to appear too keen but felt for sure that Simon had fallen for it Belvedere straight away. 

‘Building commenced in 1890 and first occupied in 1898’ Explained David. ‘Lord Belvedere was new money after making his fortune supplying ordnance to the British army during the Boar War’ David continued. ‘He was only forty years of age when the house was completed and the story has it he was rolling in lolly’ David was keen to paint a rosy picture and keep his interested party enthralled in Belvedere’s trance. 

For sure, both Jenkins and Pip were in a trance alright. This seemed the perfect spot and the imposing house was the glamour they needed for the reception to their country club. 

The pilot hovered in front of the house above the large ten acre park. Two sweeping drives approached from each side of the park and met in a large gravelled space below the long stone steps up to the main door. 

Unfortunately, the house had been empty for six years and the park and formal gardens at the front of Belvedere had been badly neglected. The gravel drives were covered in weed and in places the grass and drive were indistinguishable from each other. From the air it looked as though the grass had broken free and flooded into the drive as though it a river. 

The pilot took the craft down lower so that they were level with the roof.

 

 

 

 

 

‘The roof has been maintained throughout’  Said David

Simon, didn’t need to be steered. He was well aware of the the game David was playing. Agents were part of his life and it was plain Jenkins that David wanted to make this sale badly. 

David went on .‘The trust has ensured that the building itself has been kept in a good condition. I am sure there will be a lot to do to get it up to the standard that you need but essentially, the infrastructure is sound’

‘The same can’t be said for the gardens’ Said Jenkins. ‘It looks as though someone walked out, closed the front gate twenty years ago’. 

‘It’s a sad tale’ David’s tone lowered into a sympathetic softness. ‘Charlotte‘Charlie’ Belvedere lived here alone at the end, refusing all calls to leave and go into a home.

Apparently, she died broken hearted having never married after falling in love when she was a young girl. It was a forbidden love and it ended so tragically that she never got over it . She would spend her days walking the vast grounds and gardens, sometimes sobbing openly’. 

‘Ok old chap!’ Pip butted in at this point. He thought David was on the verge of tears and he couldn’t bare sob stories. He wanted to hear what potential lay in store for making both he and Jenkins richer if the master plan succeeded. 

‘Show us the rest of the grounds old bean’ Pip demanded in a pseudo Chelsea drool. 

David asked the pilot to move to the rear of the house so the group could get a good look at the formal and walled gardens. 

The rotors of the chopper thundered into the breeze as the pilot turned sharply and lifted the bird up above the building bringing her round in a semi circle so that the were positioned broadsides looking due south into the back of the house and hovering just behind the walled garden. 

‘Impressive isn’t is’ asked Jenkins. This is the one, I am sure this has the potential for what we need Pip’ Pip nodded and grinned. ‘Where do we sign’ laughed Pip. 

It was music to David’s ears as he turned to the pair and he too grinned but in a kind of way that seemed to have greedy overtone rather than a genuine satisfaction. 

David asked the pilot to do a sweep of the 800 acre estate so that the duo could take in the landscape and have a brief look at the topography from above. There was still a lot that needed to be planned if they were to proceed but first things was first and that was to make sure that the grounds would suit their purpose. 

All seemed good from the air. There were valley’s, lakes and a decent sized river to boot. All the trees on the land were mature so the thirty six holes on the golf courses would have instant presence and once growing in had been completed Jenkins felt sure it would give him the edge. 

‘Can you take us back to the house for one more look before we leave?’ Jenkins was smitten and his head was starting to vision the set up and needed to just take in the layout. 

This time he took a few snaps so that he could look at them on his laptop when he got home that evening. 

‘Can we go a bit lower?’ Asked Jenkins. 

‘Of course’ Replied David and the pilot took them down as close as he dared and hovered over the walled garden. 

‘Look at that’ Pointed Pip ‘Why. In all of that vegetable turbulence is a there a lawn?’ In fact, it was not just a lawn but a small area of grass that looked as though you could play a top game of croquet on. 

‘How bizarre!’ Exclaimed Jenkins. ‘The whole of the walled garden is so overgrown, yet we have this little patch of immaculately tended grass’ Jenkins enquired of David. 

‘I have absolutely no idea’ David was as perplexed as the others, but promised he would make further enquiries. 

‘Better still’ David’s tone of voice rose excitedly. ‘I think we should take this bird back, have a some lunch at the poachers and come back this afternoon’. 

‘That’s all well and good’ Said David ‘but I have a three o’clock to deal with’. 

‘Do you want this bloody deal or not’ David Snapped. He tolerated agents because they were part of the whole process and world he revolved in but at times he could throttle the greedy selfish bastards. 

‘I would like to come back here this afternoon’ Simon went on. The tone still pressing and he knew very well that Huntingdon-Catchpole would miss that ‘three O’clock'. 

‘Ok, ok!’ David conceded, I will telephone the estate and tell them that we will be returning. 

The three made their plans to return after lunch and the pilot climbed high, nose down and powered back to the airfield.

Comments

[AtWaG]

Phil - I'm not usually a reader of fiction but I did finish wondering what happened next so that must be a good sign!

[Jk]

Bonjour Philip,
Go on, you know you want to continue & now you've started, it would be impolite not to.
Also, have you considered doing e-cards from perigordvacance?
There are very few sites doing views/themes of France, or so I've found & rather than just send mail, I always send an e-card, especially of France. It need not be an elaborate scene or view but with a little imagination, who knows.
lui donner quelque pensée peut-être?
www.bonjourlafrance.com has a small selection but the potential is there. Themes on a month or season basis perhaps.

[steven loftus]

go on,go on,go on.go on,id change the tvr for an e type jag,a cobra or a austin healey 3000