Page 5 of The Little Shop on Silver Linings Street
‘I’ll take this one,’ said Mr Bennett.
Daisy nodded, looking back to see that he had indeed chosen the very necklace she had suggested, but she smiled and told him that he had made an excellent choice, just as she always did. She took the pendant from him and withdrew its presentation box from under the counter, carefully nestling the gem inside before holding it up for inspection one last time. Then she closed the lid decisively.
‘Do come over to the desk,’ she said, trying to listen to what was being said to Kit. She ushered Mr Bennett to a seat and took the one opposite, pulling the sales pad towards her. Buchanans had never operated a till in the shop. Bea said that was far too common, so sales were handwritten and the customer provided with a proper written receipt. Then again, Mr Bennett was just about to hand over one and a half thousand pounds, so perhaps he did deserve a little more than a torn-off slip of paper.
Kit was shaking his head. ‘A flower, did you say? Um…’ He looked vaguely around the shop. ‘I don’t think we have anything like that really. What sort of flower?’
Daisy rolled her eyes as she wrote. Kit was lovely, but he had no imagination, that was the problem. The shop was full of precious stones, set into rings, bracelets, necklaces, earrings, any one of them could be described as being flower-like… almost… if you knew how to tailor your description of a piece to match the customer’s expectation. She signed the receipt with a flourish and passed it across the desk, holding out her hand for Mr Bennett’s credit card. Just a couple more minutes and then she would be free to attend to the gentleman herself – if he was still around, that was.
The shop door tinkled again as she got to her feet – the couple had gone – and she glanced at the clock on the wall. It was half past four and dark outside now; she doubted very much that they would see many more customers that afternoon. But short of dragging them in off the street there wasn’t much that Daisy could do.
‘Oh, I see… No, sorry, nothing like that…’
Daisy looked up as Kit spoke again, smiling at his customer who was still looking very unsure. He held her look for a moment and then turned away.
‘Well, thanks anyway. It was just a thought.’
The man nodded at Kit and his bright red boots had almost carried him to the door when he turned back for a moment, his face suddenly transformed by a brilliant smile as he beamed at Daisy.
‘Merry Christmas,’ he said. And then he was gone.
Daisy stared down at the credit-card reader in her hand, momentarily blown off course by the intensity of the stranger’s gaze. They hadn’t even spoken and yet Daisy felt as if she knew him, or, rather curiously, had known him, for a very long time.
She shook her head, concentrating on the task in hand, and seconds later she was standing by the door, her own face wreathed in smiles.
‘And you have a wonderful Christmas too, Mr Bennett, and Mrs Bennett of course. It’s been lovely seeing you as always.’ She held the shop door open for her customer, feeling a blast of frozen air from outside as she did so. She watched him leave, staring after him lost in thought as he disappeared almost immediately into the throng of shoppers.
With a shiver she closed the door and returned to where Kit had sat back down again, an open book in his hand. She went and stood in front of him.
‘Um…?’ she said.
He looked up, a wary expression crossing his face. It often did whenever she spoke to him directly.
‘I think we’re supposed to be asking everyone who comes in if we can help them,’ she said. ‘Like that couple… I think they might have been looking for wedding rings.’
‘Were they?’ he gulped. ‘I just thought they wanted to be left alone to browse.’
Daisy sighed. ‘Well they spent most of their time by that counter,’ she added, pointing. ‘The one where the rings are… You could have asked them.’
He regarded her for a moment with his pale green eyes, light-brown hair flopping over his face. ‘Well, yes, I suppose I could have done. But I decided that between the two of them, one at least would have asked for help if they needed it.’
‘Yes, but sometimes people don’t know what they want, and they need a little encouragement.’
He dipped his head slightly, in acknowledgement, but not necessarily in agreement, she noticed.
‘And what about the other man – the one you did speak to? What did he want? Only if it’s something we don’t have I always like to let Bea know.’ She fidgeted nervously.
This time it was Kit’s turn to sigh. ‘He didn’t know what he wanted actually… something floral possibly, or botanical, something light…’ He paused for a moment, thinking. ‘Somethingetherealwas what he actually said.’
‘Ethereal?’ Daisy frowned. ‘In a jeweller’s shop?’ She looked around her, grudgingly acknowledging Kit’s difficulty.
‘He wondered whether we might be able to make him something,’ added Kit. ‘Although he realised that might be difficult seeing as he had no way of describing what he wanted, only that he would know it when he saw it.’
Daisy nodded, but by now was no longer listening. If only she hadn’t been busy with Mr Bennett, she might have been able to help the man with the beaming smile. He was after something special, that much was obvious, and she would have loved to find out more. She turned away, a wistful expression on her face. Maybe one day she might be able to help him with a design of her own...
She could feel Kit’s eyes on her back as she crossed the room to put away the necklaces she had left out. He probably thought her soppy, and she had a sudden cheeky impulse to turn around and stick her tongue out at him to see if she could make him laugh. But she daren’t; he was Bea’s son, after all. A glance at the clock confirmed that the afternoon was coming to a close and she automatically collected the glass polish from under the counter so that she could clear away the greasy smudges from the display cabinets in readiness for the following day.
Daisy was just about to start on the second cabinet when the doorbell’s jolly tinkle announced another customer. Except it wasn’t a customer, it was Bertie. Twice in as many days was unheard of.
