In the Garden, d/a
They sit on the bridge by the water in Stourhead gardens, not far from his home in Wiltshire. It is early autumn still but the leaves are already changing colours. Brilliant red, bright yellow and fiery orange hues dance in the lake’s reflection. He can see her face in the water too - her eyes are bright, her face flush from their walk.
She likes taking walks. He knows where to find her each morning - walking the circuit around her aunt’s house. Her parents hadn’t been well-off and her aunt has even less to provide her young niece in terms of a proper garden path, but she is always there, circling the house again and again. It seemed dreadfully boring to him, but he finds he doesn’t mind it so much now.
He isn’t quite sure why he proposed this walk. He just knows that it was right thing to do - her eyes had lit up and her smile had consumed him and he had thought, they should take long walks all the time.
And everything is going so well that he is caught off-guard when she asks him about Ginny and he falls into the lake.