Gigi wrote to Anna du Plessis in January with a single question about the arboreta. Anna wrote back with fourteen questions of her own. Gigi answered all of them correctly, which is why Anna came.

She arrived on a Tuesday with a battered leather case, a roll of surveying twine, and a small cedar box that she has not opened in anyone's presence. By the time the kitchen was lit on her first morning, she had already walked the full orchard perimeter, identified three things requiring immediate attention, and smoked one small cigar against the frost. The weather station on the cottage sill is hers. The notecards are in constant use — dispatches going out to correspondents in Normandy, in Uzbekistan, in a valley in Chile that apparently still maintains the old stone fruit varieties no one else bothered to save.

Packages arrive for her. Small ones, unmarked. Rutherford signs for them without comment.

She will be here through April. Possibly May. The quinces, she has indicated, will require a conversation.

The orchard is in very good hands.

Visit The Guest Cottage

Or did you need to follow the butler back to The Main Hall?