Chapter 28

The day had almost drawn to a close before Celia and KC finished their tour of the gardens and nearby orchard. The two walled gardens were not side by side, but were divided by an area of not quite natural woodland. The trees and other plants seemed to be growing wild, without any interference from human hands, but Jack was aware of far too many inconsistencies in the types of plants before him to believe they were any more native to the island than the orchids he had just seen in the first glasshouse. As they crossed the substantial gap between the two gardens, making their way tentatively through the edges of the miniature forest, he was sure he had caught a glimpse of a building deep within it. Shrubs and branches obscured his view, almost more so around the shadowy shape than anywhere else in the woodland, and before he could make anything out his attention was called back to KC's vivid, and almost certainly over-exaggerated, descriptions of the state of the herbal garden when he had first visited it.

The second walled garden housed a vast array of vegetables, along with some soft fruit trees winding their way up the walls. It also contained another long, partitioned glasshouse at its farther end. Unlike its floral counterpart, however, the separate areas in this construction all seemed to share the same environments, and house the same plants. Vines draped themselves lazily over long wooden poles and around the chains suspending them. Heavy bunches of grapes weighed them down, ripe for the picking. Tomato plants snaked upwards to meet them, an instant, if somewhat random, reminder of Dal, and ketchup.

"The grapes will be getting harvested any day now," Celia was saying, fussing over the plants like a mother hen over chicks. "There should be enough to make a small quantity of wine, which we'll store. The apples from the orchard that we walked through to get here are for eating or cooking with, but we have a larger orchard for cider apples and another for other fruits. Some of the cider we distill to make apple brandy. I can use that for making up herbal treatments. Nothing is wasted though. If the fruit is too sour for brewing we can use it to make vinegar and pickle things. The alcohols produced at the start of the distillation process can be used for cleaning, especially in the hospital..."

"You have a hospital?" Ebony cut in, just as Jack opened his mouth to say the same.

"A working one!" KC grinned. "Stocked by our own home-grown supplies too!"

Walking round the walled vegetable garden had been impressive, but considerably less so than touring the first garden. Celia had led them on a bee-line straight to her pride and joy at the far end - the glasshouse - but had insisted on introducing them to every plant, and its uses, both inside and out. They had strolled through beds of culinary and medicinal herbs, smelled the scented flowers and other plants used for perfumes and aromatic oils, attempted to guess, mostly unsuccessfully, at the colours produced by different dye-producing plants, and eaten a leisurely picnic lunch on an area of clover-rich lawn next to the pond, enjoying the calm surroundings and warm autumnal afternoon, before they even considered leaving for the second garden.

At a nod from her fiancé, Celia opened the door in the brick wall side of the glasshouse and ushered them through. They stepped into a spacious, whitewashed room furnished with tables, stoves, vats and a large copper still. Light reflected off carefully placed mirrors, illuminating the room with an odd glow.

"This is my workroom," said Celia. "One of them, anyway. I have another at the other garden in the same place. The hospital is between them."

Ebony and Jack followed the quiet girl across the room and through another door at the far corner, in the direction of the other garden. This one led into a corridor that had the look of hospital corridors everywhere. Whitewashed on one side and half a wall of glass on the other, the corridor made the most of the natural light. It seemed to extend along the full length of the building. Occasional doors broke the monotony of the white wall, but it was not until they had passed the first two that Jack noticed the darker shadow betraying a larger break in the wall. Soon they stood in a central atrium, staircase gently curving upward on either side. The view out of the window wall now revealed a neatly laid out ornamental garden that had undoubtedly been planted with useful herbs and flowers, but none of which were visible over the low hedges.

"This wasn't built as a hospital," said Jack. It was very definitely a statement, not a question.

"What makes you say that?" KC asked, still grinning, but a little more fixedly.

"Come on, KC," Ebony chipped in with a pitying look. "Even I know you ought to be able to get a wheelchair round a hospital at least, and those steps on the other side of that door, do not look wheelchair friendly!"

"Plus, there's no reception desk," said Jack. "No obvious lift for wheeled chairs or beds either."

"No signs," added Ebony. "Not even spaces where they might have been."

"No emergency response area, no names on doors, not even..."

"Okay, so it wasn't built as a hospital," KC conceded. "Not the emergency kind anyway. We found an old medic station in the village that we think served as that. This is our hospital though. It's close to our main sources of medicines. Most of our patients either come to the smaller rooms on either side of here for treatment, or are able to climb the stairs if they need to stay for a while. We have one wheelchair for moving patients who can't walk, and, if you look closely, you'll see one side of the left staircase actually has small ramps joining the stairs."

They looked and found that the wide, shallow steps were indeed linked together on one side by wedges of wood.

"All this managed by one healer?" Jack asked. "That seems a lot of work."

"Oh, I have helpers," said Celia. "I just tell them what needs doing and they follow my instructions. Come up and have a look: we have one broken leg in one ward and an infected cut in the other."

"I'll pass, thanks," said Ebony, not unkindly but wearily. Jack spotted the change in her voice, and in her healer's demeanour.

"Of course, you must be tired. It will be a while before you are back to full strength," Celia soothed, taking Ebony's arm and guiding her back towards the work room. "We have some single rooms here if you would rather stay here tonight. The light is poor on the ground floor, but it's enough for sleeping in and we could move you upstairs tomorrow."

"I don't need a hospital, or some unknown attendant hovering over me night and day," snapped Ebony, regaining her arm. She caught a look from Jack and sighed. "I appreciate your help, I just don't like being fussed over," she added in a softer tone.

"That's good," said Celia, folding her arms and walking beside Ebony. "It's amazing how many of my patients like nothing better!"

The walk back took less time than either Ebony or Jack expected, and they arrived on the other side of the building they had spent the previous night in, so Jack's attempts to once again make a mental map of the village were utterly in vain. The buildings were all so similar he hadn't even realised they were back until KC had opened a door and ushered them inside. The room they entered this time was a long hall with a large table in the centre, and another at the far end with what looked like books and scrolls on it. They cut across the corner of the hall and moved into the multi-purpose room they had first encountered the previous night, then that morning at breakfast. Alice was seated at the desk in the corner and Amber was busy in the kitchen. She nodded to them as they entered, but said nothing and returned her attention to the task at hand. They made their way over to the furniture around the fireplace and sat down. Alice soon joined them.

"She's okay," she said quietly, inclining her head towards Amber. "Just needs time, space and something to keep her hands occupied. Bray's asleep. Cerrin's keeping an eye on him, if he's not asleep too. I have been reliably informed that dinner will be ready in about a half hour."

"Has she spoken to you about..." Jack's hushed voice trailed off. Alice shook her head.

"While we wait, then," said Ebony, making no attempt to quell her usual volume, "maybe you can tell us all about this military base you're living in."