Chapter 7: The Seeds of Narragansett
Over the next two months, the rhythm of life at Sea-Lavender Farm transformed Tess and Leo.
Tess possessed an innate, extraordinary gift for botany. Her mother had been a landscape gardener before her passing, teaching Tess the delicate science of soil pH, root grafting, and organic propagation.
Under Eleanor Harrington’s guidance, Tess took charge of the farm’s historic glass conservatory.
She spent her mornings propagating rare coastal sea-lavender and heritage roses, her hands deep in the rich, dark compost, while Leo sat on a wooden bench sketching birds and doing his schoolwork in the warm sunlight.
""Plants don't lie, Tess,"" Eleanor said one afternoon as they pruned a row of English tea roses. ""If you give them honest water and clean soil, they bloom. Human beings are the same. You were planted in rocky ground for twenty years, but your roots are strong.""
Tess wiped a smudge of earth from her brow, looking out through the glass panes at the sparkling blue waters of the bay.
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For the first time in her life, her chest was completely free of the suffocating dread that had shadowed every day of her youth. She was no longer surviving; she was growing.
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