Page 6 of The Little Shop on Silver Linings Street
‘Is Bea here yet?’ he asked without even so much as a hello. The slightly forced lightness in his tone made Daisy’s ears prick up.
‘No, should she be?’
Bertie checked his watch. ‘She’s popping in apparently.’ He shivered. ‘God, it’s raw out there today. I don’t suppose it’s anything other than a rallying the troops speech, and her annual inspection of the Christmas decorations, which look superb as usual, Daisy.’
Kit wasn’t fooled either. ‘And the fact that she chooses to do it the day after you provided her with sales figures is a coincidence, is it?’ His eyes narrowed. ‘What’s going on, Bertie?’
He shrugged. ‘Nothing that I’m aware of. Sales are down, but you know that, it’s not a secret. I think it’s more a case of Mother wanting us all to pull together on this one. Not something we’re especially good at, as well you know. She’s asked Lawrence to drop in too, lend some weight to the argument and all that.’
Kit’s head shot up. ‘Lawrence is coming in?’ He rolled his eyes. ‘Oh, fantastic… Never mind the weight, but we can certainly count on him to lend the argument.’
Daisy ignored him even though he was right. Lawrence was the eldest Buchanan brother, an arrogant bully who treated her with very little respect most of the time. Not like Bertie, who at least acknowledged that she did do some things right.
‘Are you really sure that’s all it is?’ she asked anxiously.
Bertie was about to answer when Lawrence strode in, looking most put out at having to make an appearance. He was much taller than his brothers, his height accentuated by his formal suit and long, imposing overcoat, which flapped about his legs as he walked. He nodded at both Kit and Bertie and then, sweeping the room with a critical gaze, he focused his attention on Daisy. He opened his mouth to say something and then thought better of it, instead carrying on through into the back room.
‘I do hope that someone has bought some decent coffee,’ came his voice through the door.
‘No, I…’ Daisy looked anxiously at Bertie. That was normally her job, but she’d had no idea that everyone would be coming in today and wasn’t at all prepared. In fact, she wasn’t sure there would even be enough milk left.
Bertie raised a placatory hand and disappeared after his brother, leaving Kit staring at her, his expression unreadable. She turned away and continued with her polishing.
Bea arrived moments later, dressed for the Arctic, her habitual tweed trouser suit topped with a plum-coloured cloak, its deep fur ruff matching the mittens she also wore. Despite her diminutive size she cut an imposing figure, jet-black hair piled high on her head, held with any number of diamante clips. They gleamed under the bright lights as her piercing blue eyes swept the room.
‘Daisy,’ she said, smiling broadly. ‘You’ve done a marvellous job, as always. It all looks quite delightful.’
Daisy smiled, thankful at least for the normality of the greeting from Bea. She was about to add her agreement when the door to the back room opened and Bertie and Lawrence stepped through. She groaned inwardly. Judging by the uneasy atmosphere and the fact that all three brothers were present at once, it could only mean one thing. Bea was about to make an announcement.
Bea’s announcements were always highly theatrical and invariably meant more work for Daisy. Work which supposedly would be shared, but which somehow only ever fell to her to put into practice. As the eldest brother, Lawrence was particularly good at bending Bea’s ear but, because he rarely stepped foot on the shop floor and his ideas had no grounding in experience, they usually came to naught, despite Daisy’s best efforts.
Daisy looked across at Kit who was standing a little awkwardly, a watchful eye on his brothers. She realised why as she took in the expressions on their faces. There was none of the usual arrogance that Lawrence displayed, and Bertie looked most sombre. In fact, they looked bewildered to have found themselves called to a meeting at all, which meant that they also had no idea what Bea was going to say… Daisy’s heart began to beat a little faster.
Bea pulled her mittens from her hands and swung her cloak from her shoulders, dumping everything on top of one of the counters. She placed a hand reverently on the glass and then looked about her with an expression of wonder. Her fingers lifted from the counter and, as if she were a small child exploring a magical kingdom for the first time, she glided around the room, touching here, and stroking there. Small gasps and sighs punctuated her movements until she had completed a full circuit of the room and was back where she started, standing in front of the Christmas tree. She raised both arms in the air, looking at her audience expectantly, her bright blue eyes sparkling with excitement.
‘Oh, I shall miss all of this!’ she announced, her face lit by an enormous smile.
Daisy was so busy watching the theatrics of the show Bea was putting on for them that she almost missed what she had said.
‘Why, where are you going?’ Daisy couldn’t remember when she had last seen Bea so animated.
Bea’s eyes twinkled even brighter as she looked from one expectant face to the next. ‘I’m going to retire!’ she said gleefully. ‘After Christmas. Charles and I are going to live in Spain.’
Daisy looked at Kit, who was white as a sheet, and then at Lawrence. As the eldest brother he normally assumed the role of spokesperson for the family, but she could tell that this had come as much of a shock to him as it was to her. Daisy opened her mouth to speak but Lawrence beat her to it.
‘Who the bloody hell is Charles?’ he said, glaring at his mother and looking at Bertie for clues. But even Bertie, the unacknowledged favourite, looked stricken.
Bea drew herself up. ‘Charles is my new beau,’ she replied. ‘He has asked me to marry him and move to Spain, and I have agreed.’
‘Since when?’ exploded Lawrence. ‘This is utterly ridiculous, Mother. None of us even know who this man is—’ He broke off to glare at Daisy. ‘Oh, I bet you knew though, didn’t you?’ he accused her.
Daisy shook her head rapidly, wondering why it felt as if her whole world had suddenly fallen apart.
Lawrence looked across at Bertie and Kit and, receiving confirmation that neither of them knew anything about Bea’s new boyfriend either, turned back to his mother. ‘Well how long have you known him? You can’t just up sticks and disappear like that.’
But Bea had held up her hand for silence, excitement still gleaming in her eyes, but framed with a steely determination Daisy knew of old.
‘And this, Lawrence, is precisely why I didn’t tell you. Because, I knew you would react in exactly this way and, quite frankly, it’s none of your business.’ She looked at each of her children in turn. ‘As you know I have been on my own for eighteen years since your father died and, in that time, I have had very little in the way of male company. Bringing you up and running the business has taken all of my energy but, as you are also very well aware, I am sixty on New Year’s Eve and the time has come to put my own needs first.’ She smiled at Daisy. ‘Don’t look so worried, dear, everything is going to be all right.’
