Page 57 of The House at Hope Corner
‘You two haven’t had the easiest of starts,’ continued Grace, ‘what with Fraser’s heart attack and the situation with the farm. But you’re on the same side, don’t forget, and I’ve never seen Ned so besotted with anyone as you. He might not always show it… Hannah isn’t a particularly demonstrative person, as you may have discovered, and hearts are not generally worn on sleeves in the Jamieson household, but it’s how he feels, just the same.’
Flora nodded, feeling overwhelming relief at Grace’s words. After all, she had no reason to deceive Flora. Well, if she’d felt stupid before, she certainly felt more foolish now. But then something else occurred to her.
‘Just now you saidthe situation with the farm… What did you mean?’
Grace had turned to pour water into two mugs. She paused for a second or two, and then faced Flora again, clearly weighing something up.
‘I know about the debt,’ said Flora, immediately seeing the look of relief on Grace’s face. ‘Is that what you meant?’
There was a sombre nod. ‘I did. And, I might add, something else that Ned has been berating himself for, not that it’s his fault by any stretch of the imagination. It’s no one’s fault actually and he might not have handled it particularly well, but it’s easy to be critical when it’s someone else’s life you’re passing judgement on.’
Flora nodded. The time had passed for blame and judgement. It was what they did next that counted. And she should know that, just as well as Ned.
‘I’ve known Ned since he was a child,’ added Grace. ‘And there are times in any child’s life when a conversation needs to be had with someone, anyone, who is not your parent. And so it was the case with Ned.’ She smiled at the memory. ‘When he needed to confess to a guilty secret, a bit of naughtiness that was playing on his conscience, usually because he’d kicked a ball through a window and sworn blind he hadn’t, it was me he came to. And I guess, somewhere over the years, that child grew up into the man you know and love, but my door has always been open.’
She smiled fondly at Flora. ‘And now it’s always open to you too, Flora. Always remember that. And also remember that, here in the country, our houses may not always be that close geographically speaking, but we’re a tight-knit community, which often means that everyone knows everyone else’s business and, if you’re not careful, secrets don’t remain secrets for very long. There have been things in my life that I haven’t wished to be in the public domain and Ned and his parents have kept my counsel over the years. I do the same for them and that’s really all there is to it.’
Flora grinned at her. ‘Is that last statement code for “don’t tell Caroline”?’
Grace handed her a mug of tea. ‘Well spotted.’ She gestured towards the biscuit tin. ‘Now, tell me everything about your meeting up at The Castle with Kate, I’m dying to know.’
* * *
It wasn’t until Flora pushed open the door to the farmhouse some while later that she realised she had never asked what the brilliant news was that Grace had to share. Or the not so brilliant news either.
Chapter Twenty-One
‘I want to get as much worked out as we can before we say anything to your parents,’ said Flora. ‘Kate’s response was amazing but that isn’t going to be enough to keep us in business.’
It was the afternoon of the next day and she and Ned were hidden away in the study. It was the only place they could be sure they wouldn’t be interrupted.
Ned grinned at her. ‘See, I knew you were smart. I don’t mind admitting I’m not looking forward to that conversation one little bit.’
Flora looked down at her notebook and bit her lip. ‘Do you really think they’re going to hate the idea?’
‘I think there’s a massive difference between dairy farming and flower farming, that’s all I’m saying.I’mfinding it hard to get my head around.’
‘Which is why I’m grateful for all your questions,’ replied Flora. ‘I need to know what the answers are, otherwise I might as well give up now.’
Ned snuggled closer to her. ‘Right, come on then, let’s recap over what you’ve got so far.’
‘So, for starters, I’ve drawn up a list of hotels in the area. Now, I don’t think we should approach anyone other than The Castle for wedding business, because I wantthemto think they’re getting a deal no one else has. ButIalso want the cachet of having them as our exclusive client. That will say a lot to prospective brides everywhere. With any luck they’ll be begging to have us provide their flowers. I do think we should still approach the other hotels though, just for floral arrangements and the like.’ Flora turned a page. ‘Then there are the florists. Quite a number within a reasonable distance, but I’ve checked the distances to the other wholesalers and it’s comparable. There’s no reason why they shouldn’t use us, and I think, if we can be open to the public and trade customers all day and every day as far as possible; people might enjoy coming to see what we have growing.’
‘Provided we have something growing.’
Flora tutted. ‘Yes, I’m coming to that.’ She consulted her list. ‘Now, as far as other avenues for trade go, we’ll need a website obviously but I’ve contacted my previous company and, really, that’s quite a minor detail. I’d link everything with my Etsy site and social media and, although we won’t be able to deliver orders for flowers nationally for a while, I really think it’s something we should aim towards. And I also think we should emphasise that our flowers will be locally grown, traditional British varieties.’
Ned was staring at her open-mouthed.
‘I need to look into the logistics of this a little more but we could also offer an area for Pick Your Own flowers and even run a flower box scheme, a bit like fruit and veg boxes… possibly even hijack an existing company and use them to deliver for us. Being able to offer added value is always appealing.’
‘I’d never have thought of half these things.’
‘I wanted to do all this when I still had Daisy Doolittles but there was just me and it was too much on my own.’ She flicked her finger gently against the tip of Ned’s nose. ‘Now there’s all of us.’
‘There are,’ agreed Ned firmly. ‘Although with everything you’ve got planned I’m not sure just the four of us are going to be enough. We might need a whole army!’ He caught hold of her fingers, bringing them to his lips to kiss. ‘It was tough enough before even when Dad was fit. I know he’ll be back up to speed soon but how we’ll see to the cows plus everything you’ve got planned, I don’t know. We’d better get in training.’
Flora stared at the wide smile on his face, feeling a ripple of confusion at his words. Her own smile began to falter.
