Page 21 of The Little Shop on Silver Linings Street
‘Honestly? I don’t know that either. You’ll think me a poor little rich boy, but I’ve never even thought about how I would support myself.’ He gave a bitter laugh. ‘What an admission to have to make.’
‘Well, at least you have admitted it,’ replied Daisy. ‘That’s half the battle at least, surely? Plenty of time to get your head out of the sand and contemplate the road ahead.’
‘Head out of my arse, more like.’
Daisy smiled. It had been on the tip of her tongue to say that but she had decided on the rather more polite option.
‘Well, whichever it is, let’s just assume for a minute that you do get to run Buchanans. What would you do then? Wouldyougive Lawrence and Kit a job?’
Bertie turned his head briefly to look at her. ‘You know, if you could just tell me what would be your ideal piece of jewellery, this would be an awful lot easier. So, come on, what would you like?’
‘You didn’t answer my question.’
‘You didn’t answer mine.’
They smiled at one another.
‘Come on, I’d like to know. What would you do?’ repeated Daisy.
Bertie tapped out a rhythm on the steering wheel with his fingers.
‘I’d give Kit a job. Because Kit’s as hopeless as I am, just in a different way. Lawrence I’m not sure about. I probably would, just to keep the peace.’ He slid a glance at her. ‘See, I told you I was a hopeless businessman.’
‘Actually, I think you’d be good for Buchanans. You’d bring a little more modernity to the place and because, by your own admission, you don’t know what you’re doing, you’d come to the business with fresh eyes, rather than being bound by conventional ideas or wisdom about what running the place should entail. I think that might be what it needs.’
‘And what else does it need?’
Daisy had often thought about what she would do if she had a business to run, but never about Buchanans; it wasn’t hers to consider. She smiled and shrugged.
Bertie gave a frustrated sigh. ‘Well, you’re no use,’ he said. ‘But now, as I’ve answered your question, you can at least give me a clue about the type of jewellery you’d like.’
She grinned. ‘I hadn’t really thought about it.’
‘Favourite colour at least.’
‘Blue.’
‘Well, that’s easy then… sapphires.’
‘Ah, but is it? It could be sapphires, but then again it could be lapis lazuli, topaz or aquamarine. Or even tanzanite, a wee bit of chalcedony…’
Bertie groaned.
‘I’m sorry. But even if I knew I couldn’t tell you, could I? How would that be fair?’
He squinted across at her. ‘We could go to a jeweller’s or something and you could point out a few things…’ He let the sentence dangle between them.
‘Bertie, I couldn’t. It’s not in the spirit of the thing and, besides, Bea’s not daft, she’d see through that in a minute. Don’t forget, you need to be able to tell her why it’s the perfect piece of jewellery for me as well.’
‘Well then you could tell me that too…’
‘I couldn’t, and you know it.’ She looked across at him, but he was smiling and she couldn’t blame him for trying it on. If she were in his shoes she probably would have done the same.
‘I mean it though, I couldn’t actually tell you because it’s not somethingI’veever really thought about. I don’t own things, you see, well not much anyway, and neither do I wish to. I live a very small life, Bertie.’
‘So perhaps we’re both on a quest then?’
She thought about his words for a moment. ‘Yes, perhaps we are.’
