Page 13 of The Little Island Flower Stall
The lack of a reply was all the reply Bella needed. Perhaps she was dismissing the skill her aunt had perfected through decades of practice, but neither she nor her aunt had been given a great deal of choice in the matter. Bella would have to get good, and quickly, or what was the point in her being here?
Carnations followed from the van, then fussy chrysanthemums, delicate gypsophila, aromatic branches of eucalyptus leaves, bold lilies and gerbera. Celestine had put the order in the day before, and Bella only had the delivery note to tell her what to expect in it. There were some flowers she couldn’t name, and that only added to the sense of incompetence that the delivery driver had unwittingly stirred in her. Could she do this? She didn’t want to let Celestine down.
‘Right…’ The woman slammed the doors of the van and nodded shortly at Bella. ‘That should be everything. Give my best to Celestine, won’t you?’
‘I will, thank you.’
The van pulled away, leaving Bella standing on the still, silent promenade. A man walking a dog nodded an acknowledgement her way before heading to the mist-shrouded beach. There were other stalls nearby: one that sold crab sandwiches and drinks, an ice cream and slushy van and a shack that dealt in beach goods. Nobody had arrived at any of those yet, however. Now that she considered it, Bay Blooms,her aunt’s flower stall, was in strange company. At some point, her aunt had decided that what the promenade needed, alongside the crab sandwiches and buckets and spades, was a flower vendor. Then again, however Bellalooked at it, there was no denying that the stall had survived for all these years and was still trading. It was more than a lot of businesses back in Shrewsbury had managed to do, so she was clearly getting something right.
‘I see Laura has been already.’
Bella frowned as she turned to see Celestine arrive on her scooter.
‘I thought you were going to take it easy, not get up at the crack of dawn.’
‘It’s hardly the crack of dawn – it’s almost eight.’
‘Early enough. Too early to call it a rest. If you’re here because you’re worried about me, I can manage, you know. I’ve only got to put the delivery away; I could have waited for you to arrive at nine like we’d arranged before I did anything else.’
‘You might get some early customers.’
Bella tried not to let her frown deepen. That hardly seemed likely – the promenade seemed pretty dead as far as she could tell, and there wasn’t much sign of that changing during the next hour or so.
‘I can see I really am going to have problems with you,’ she said wryly.
‘I’m here now – I might as well be useful.’
‘Where are you going to put the scooter? It won’t fit inside.’
‘I’m going to stay outside with it for the time being. Pull that little table out; we’ll use it out here so I can teach you some basic arrangements.’
Bella did as she’d been asked. Despite telling Celestine to stay in bed, it did make undeniable sense for her aunt to get her up to speed before the customers started to arrive.
‘And that box, and that tray,’ Celestine added once the table was out.
‘Hadn’t I better get these crates out of the sun?’ Bella asked.
‘Oh, yes, of course…’ Celestine said vaguely as she got herself comfortable at the fold-away table now sitting on the promenade next to her scooter. ‘Not too hot yet, but I’m sure it will be up properly soon. Make sure they’re well-watered.’
When Bella had done all that, she returned to the table to find Celestine had already set out little piles of various flowers and foliage, along with ribbons and twine and bits of extra decoration.
‘You might want to get the camping seat,’ she said.
They spent the following hour chatting easily, Celestine demonstrating various combinations and then pulling them apart so that Bella could try to replicate what she’d seen. Celestine explained the colour wheel and how different blooms went together by shape or scent as well as by colour, which ones would damage each other if they were in the same bouquet, the timescales of each flower staying fresh and the peak conditions they needed to be kept in. Bella had to admit there was a lot to remember and she decided to buy a notebook from somewhere later so she could get Celestine to go over some of it again while she wrote it down.
The time went by so quickly and so pleasantly, despite requiring more brainpower than she’d ever imagined flowers could require, that she barely noticed the sun clearing the mist from the beach, or that by now, other stallholders were arriving to open up. She’d made three bouquets in a row that Celestine had stated were good enough to sell, adding that Bella was, of course, a natural.
‘And why wouldn’t you be?’ she’d added with a smile. ‘It’s in the blood, after all. You’ll need some more practice to make the more elaborate displays, but these are perfectly lovely for informal sorts of occasions.’
The sense of achievement pushed a smile across Bella’s face that she wouldn’t be able to shake for some hours.
‘Could you bring some more out for me?’ Celestine asked. ‘I might as well make some bouquets up while I’m sitting here.’
‘You’re not going home?’
‘I don’t want to leave you by yourself today – it’s your first day.’
‘I can manage. I mean to say, by all means make some bouquets to get me started, but I can run the stall after that.’
