Page 26 of The Little Flower Shop By the Sea
Beryl and Willow begin to walk silently towards us.
As I steel myself against the women’s approach, I’ve never been so glad to hear the dulcet tones of the local constabulary asking: ‘Good morning, ladies. Can I be of any assistance here?’
Woody! Thank goodness.
‘Police Constable Woods, just the person,’ the Barbour-jacket woman says, smiling sweetly. ‘These girls won’t allow us access to the flower shop.’
As Woody looks at us, he jumps in surprise, firstly at seeing me again, and then at Amber barricading the door.
‘Is this true, ladies?’ he asks.
‘It sure is!’ Amber cries. ‘We will not, we will not be moved!’ she sings.
‘What my friend means, Woody,’ I say sweetly, ‘if you don’t mind me calling you that?’
He nods.
‘What Amber means is, I own this flower shop now and the shop will be closed until further notice.’
Woody looks back at Barbour-jacket woman. ‘Well, Harriet?’
‘What proof does she have?’ Harriet demands. ‘Aren’t you going to ask her that, PC Woods?’
Woody turns back to me. ‘She has a point.’
‘I have a key,’ I say, reaching into my pocket. ‘I think that’s proof enough.’
‘Well, I have a key right here too,’ Harriet says, holding up a key on a piece of rope.
Woody begins to look a bit panicky.
‘This was my grandmother’s shop. I’m Poppy, her granddaughter, and I’ve inherited it. You can ask Amber here, or Ant and Dec up the road, or Rita and Richie in the Merry Mermaid or —’
‘Or me.’
Jake.
Woody turns to see Jake and Miley standing on the opposite pavement watching the proceedings.
‘I can vouch for Poppy; her mother phoned me to say she’d be coming down to take over the shop a few days ago.’ He walks over towards us. ‘And as for you, Harriet, I’m surprised Caroline didn’t phone and tell you that you wouldn’t be needed today. She knew all about Poppy taking over the shop last night.’
I notice when Jake speaks to Harriet how coy she is with him to begin with, but then when he imparts the news about Caroline, she immediately begins to bristle.
‘Caroline knew?’ she demands. ‘Then why didn’t she say?’
‘Why do you think?’ Jake says with a shrug of his shoulders. ‘To cause trouble, as always. She likes to do that when she doesn’t get her own way.’
Harriet quickly evaluates the situation, working out how she can extricate herself without losing face.
‘If what you say is correct, and you, Poppy, are indeed the new owner of The Daisy Chain, then I must apologise to you.’ She holds out her hand to me, and I shake it. She nods firmly. ‘As you have heard, it is our president, Caroline, who is apparently to blame for this mix-up. Although I’m sure this is a complete oversight on Caroline’s part – she was very much involved with the shop to begin with, but lately she hasn’t had quite so much time…’
Jake coughs loudly.
‘… it is unforgivable,’ Harriet continues, after giving Jake a steely glare, ‘that the St Felix Women’s Guild should welcome you here to our town in this way. I do hope you can find it in your heart to forgive us.’
I nod, a little taken aback by her speech. ‘Yes, of course. Apology accepted.’
Woody, standing next to us watching all this, bursts into spontaneous applause, then hurriedly hides his hands behind his back and adopts the typical policeman’s stance while his cheeks flush bright red.
