Clara waved goodbye to the removal

Clara waved goodbye to the removal men as the van trundled down the drive.She sat on the front step of her newly-purchased home exhausted from moving house, but content. Her new life in the quiet solitude of a country village was about to begin and she was very excited about the prospect. The house was comfortable, with enough space to accommodate her city friends when they came, but the garden was a tangled mess of weeds after years of neglect. Turning it into her own private Eden would be the first big project in her new home. Despite being worn out from her busy day of moving, Clara slept fitfully that night. It wasn't because of the unfamiliarity of her new surroundings, sleeping in a house so very different from her plush apartment overlooking the Thames. Nor was it because of the strange silence of the night in the countryside. No, Clara was too busy planning her attack on the web of weeds in her garden, imagining the colourful beds of flowers, the fruit trees and evergreen shrubs she would plant. She awoke early and with more energy than she expected under the circumstances. After a light breakfast she headed straight for the garden. It was a warm day and it wasn't long before Clara was perspiring heavily as she pulled out the thick weeds that had invaded almost every inch of the garden. Her back ached and even though she wore padded gloves, she could feel the blisters starting to form on her fingers. The job was going to be a lot harder than she had thought. "That'll be a lot of work for one person. You could do with some help." Clara looked up to see a smartly dressed man of about sixty standing by her garden gate. He was tall and stood ram rod straight, which gave him the air of a military officer.