Free Molly's Millions by Victoria Connelly Page A

and it didn’t look very promising. He couldn’t see anything that looked like the sunshine daisy.
    ‘Can I help?’ asked a middle-aged lady wearing a jumper with a field of sheep on it, despite the intensity of the sun outside.
    ‘Yes,’ Tom began, giving her his best smile. ‘I’m looking for a particular flower. It’s kind of like a big daisy.’
    ‘Any particular colour?’
    ‘Yellow – like a summer sun.’
    The lady came out from behind the counter and bent over some buckets at the back of the shop whereupon Tom noticed a hungry-looking sheepdog climbing up her spine.
    ‘How about these?’ she said, standing up with a bunch of the sunshine daisies in her hand.
    ‘That’s them!’ Tom said, a smile filling his face at how easyhis first task had been. ‘What exactly are they?’
    ‘Gerbera,’ the lady said.
    ‘Gerbera? Could you write that down for me, please?’
    The lady pulled out a business card and wrote the name down.
    ‘Are they quite common?’
    ‘Oh yes!’ the lady enthused. ‘Different colours too if you want. Pink, red, orange—’
    ‘No, no – yellow’s what I want.’
    ‘How many bunches?’
    ‘Just one.’
    ‘One bunch?’
    ‘Er – no, just one, please.’
    ‘One flower?’
    ‘Yes please,’ Tom flexed his charmer smile again, ‘if that’s all right.’
    The lady blushed and handed Tom a single flower and the business card. ‘Thank you very much,’ he said as he paid. ‘So these are quite popular at the moment?’
    The lady nodded.
    ‘And have you had many orders for the yellow ones? I mean, from one person?’
    She eyed him, as if realising that he wasn’t just interested in the flowers. ‘How do you mean?’
    ‘Has anyone been ordering these yellow gerbera?’
    There was a pause as the lady thought. ‘Oh!’ she suddenly said, ‘have you got a secret admirer, then?’
    Tom laughed but, before staunchly denying it, thought he could use it to his benefit. ‘As a matter of fact, yes.’
    ‘I see!’ the lady smiled, blushing again. ‘And you want me to disclose who the young lady is?’
    Tom widened his eyes most appealingly. ‘That would be extremely kind of you.’
    ‘Well,’ the lady said, straightening her back and squaring her shoulders as if suddenly feeling important, ‘I can tell you that I’ve had no such requests. I’ve sold a couple of bunches but they were to men.’
    ‘Oh,’ Tom said, the smile slipping from his face, and his eyes narrowing down to their normal size. ‘Nobody else?’
    She shook her head. ‘Sorry to disappoint you. Perhaps you could try The Bloom Room – in Kirkby Milthwaite.’
    Tom nodded. ‘Thanks for your help,’ he said and then, just for the hell of it, beamed her a smile again, just to see her blush.
    ‘Any news?’ Flora asked as Tom got back into the car.
    ‘Well, I’ve found out that this is called a gerbera,’ he said, handing her the flower.
    Flora screwed up her nose. ‘What a horrible name.’
    ‘Yes,’ Tom said, ‘a horrible name for such a beautiful flower. I’m just going to call it a sunshine daisy.’
    ‘That’s much nicer,’ Flora agreed.
    After finding Kirkby Milthwaite in the road atlas, Tom pulled out and, once again, navigated round the labyrinthine lanes that laced across the Eden Valley. Flora sat twirling the sunshine daisy like a beautiful wand and Tom wondered what he was going to do with the flower. It wouldn’t last very long in the heat of the car. Should he press it like Barton’s wife had done? He could always buy another – the lady in the florist’s had said that they were popular enough, but that meant watching this one dry out and die. Ah well, he thought, it was all in the name of research.
    ‘Look!’ Flora suddenly shouted, ‘there’s a florist’s. Can Icome in with you this time?’
    ‘Well,’ Tom said, pulling up alongside the kerb, ‘you could if it wasn’t closed.’ Tom sighed. Just as he’d been thinking things were going his way for a change.