Right. My first falsehood. Those roses above are not the actual roses at the Convent. Those were long since removed after an unfortunate "incident". More about that later.
So.
Angelika would clean my suit? Never possible, and I would not be able to repay her. I was broke and I knew the nuns wouldn't approve of it, not those sort of personal transactions between the "Help".
"Angelika. Thank you, but I can't really give you anything in return."
She looked around, past the Yew, past me, and gazed at the garden.
"I want flowers. Every day for my room, for a...a fortnight, I think is said."
I looked around and saw the beautiful beds I tended. The very reason my back aches in middle-age today. Brilliant! Thousands of roses, flowers of all kind everywhere.
As a bankrupt gardener it was now my only resource. It was perfect payment in kind.
"Shit sure! No problemo!"
She tilted her head as if in utter incomprehension. So many misfires of my English that day.
"I mean yes. We can do that. But your room, I can't really go..."
"Yes. I speak to Sister Aquinas. We have an understanding. Men are not normally allowed to visit those quarters for..."
"But I'm not very normal! Common, I suppose, but not very normal."
"Good. Yes. I know that. I work something out now. Get changed. Clean. Meet me in the laundry chamber."
Next, a description of my "chamber". Getting changed, and the trip to the laundry-room.
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