The Posy Ring

Episode 63

Cal throws a piece of driftwood for Hector. “She said she was swearing like the proverbial trooper.” “She was. Over a Wemyss pig.” “She was mortified but she says you’re nice. She thinks you look like your mother. As she remembers her.”

“I was only in there for five minutes. To be honest, if your mum hadn’t come in, I’d probably have left sooner.”

“Ah.” He pulls a face. “Annabel. when you get to know her.”

“She isn’t exactly welcoming to customers. Well, customers like me.”

“No. We have Mum for that. But you should see her get to work on the guys with money to burn.”

“That’s a bit unscrupulous. And inadvisable. I might have been rich beyond the dreams of avarice.”

“Well, you’re certainly two!” He laughs.

“Only if I sell up. But what happened the customer always being right?”

“Annabel thinks that doesn’t apply her.” He looks sheepish.

“You’re right there. I father, though.”

“No. You wouldn’t. He hardly ever comes into the shop.” He’s silent for a moment, scratching behind Hector’s ear. “Is there something wrong, Daisy? Have I done something?”

“I don’t know. Have you?”

He sighs. “You’ve been talking solicitor, haven’t you?”

“It’s fairly usual.”

Embarrassing

worth didn’t

She’s OK a bob see to the or to to your your

“I don’t know why I didn’t let on from the beginning. But it seemed a cheek. To say I’d been in the house before you. It isn’t something I do very often. Probate valuations. In fact, I don’t really do them at all. It’s just that I was available.”

“I’d rather have found it out from than from Mr McDowall.”

“Well, it felt embarrassing. And then because I didn’t say it right out, it got difficult to admit it. ”

She can understand this. It’s like when you forget somebody’s name and then the moment passes and you can never actually ask them.

“You should have just told me. God, Cal, I slept on your sofa and you still didn’t say.”

“I didn’t think it was a big deal. Well, I you kind of hoped it wouldn’t matter.” She looks at him. “It wouldn’t have been such a big deal if you weren’t actually a...”

“A dealer. I know. And so are you. But I’m not that sort of dealer, Daisy.”

“You’re still at the top end of the market and I’m closer to the boot sale bottom.”

“Not sure about that. I don’t think the distinctions are so marked.”

“Oh I do. Believe me, when I go shops like yours, I know my place.”

She’s inclined to believe him, but she’s been caught out like this before, giving men the benefit of the doubt.

He sits down on the rock beside her. She’s acutely aware of him, warm and full of potential energy. He smells of soap and coconut shampoo.

“Plenty of people are that sort, though,” she says. “I’ve met them. They’ll go into some old lady’s house to give her a valuation on her furniture, and they’ll find something precious and slip it into the drawer of some piece of old pine, and make a cheeky offer for it. I’ve heard them talking about it in the saleroom.”

Potentially valuable

“Yeah. Me too,” he says, ruefully. “And the younger they are and the more charming, the worse it gets. They have this sense of entitlement. It’s strange how when you’ve got something to sell it’s always the wrong time, but when you’re buying, everything is very popular and hard to get.”

He can’t help smiling at this. “Well, I’ve been guilty of that one myself.”

“Haven’t we all? So did you hide the picture of Lilias? Given how valuable it is?”

He looks embarrassed. “I cannot tell a lie. I did.”

She has picked up a piece of bladderwrack and is popping the dry pods between her fingers, compulsively, as satisfying as popping bubble wrap.

“Why, Cal? I mean, what were you planning to do? Get to know me and then make me some dodgy offer for it?”

He shakes his head vehemently. “Oh, sweetheart, I told you. I’m not that sort of person. I pointed it out to you! I told you it was potentially valuable.”

After you saw me, says the subversive voice in her head. After you realised I was no fool. No pushover. She wishes he would stop calling her sweetheart, even though she can see that it’s just a habit with him. into

“I’ve hung it up

“Have you?”

“I wanted to see her. Lilias. She brightens up the whole room.”

“See, when McDowall asked me to do the valuation, I’ll admit I was chuffed. I’d wanted a look inside for years.”

“But you undervalued it all a you?”

“Are you sorry about that? Did you want to pay even more to the Revenue? I made an informed assessment, Daisy, and I stand by it. It would take months to go through it all. Will take months. They didn’t question it. I’d have been happy for them to go in and look at it and prove me wrong. There’s a hell of a lot of junk in there, you know there is.”

“Don’t I just!”

“Those boxes and chests of bric a brac, linens and things, they may well have a market value once you’ve sorted them out and cleaned them. But looked at cold, just like that… their value is minimal.

“There are a few good pieces of furniture, old oak and so on, and I listed those individually. The odd piece of good porcelain. Some interesting books that you probably haven’t seen yet. They’re stowed away in one of the cupboards. Significant finds

“I came across Old and New Testaments from the late 1700s. Gilt herringbone bindings. They’ll be worth a bob or two, although the really interesting thing is the McNeill family names and birthdates in the back. I had a wee glance at them, that’s all. You’ll want to take a good look at those.”

“I want to take a good look at all of it.” “I know. And here’s hoping we,” he hesitated, “you, make a few more significant finds. The embroidered cabinet, what do they call it here? The curiosity cabinet. That was the real prize, but that’s long gone.”

“Not from the island.”

“No. But it’s gone from this house with the McNeills, and Donal will never sell it.” in the big room.” bit, didn’t

She’s inclined to believe him, but she’s been caught out like this before, giving men the benefit of the doubt

The Posy Ring, first in the series The Annals of Flowerfield, is written by Catherine Czerkawska and published by Saraband. It is priced at £8.99.

British Airways owner IAG suffered a pre-tax loss of 7.8 billion euros (£6.8bn) in 2020.

This compares with a profit of 2.28bn euros (£2bn) a year earlier.

Revenues collapsed by 69% from 25.5bn euros (£22.2bn) to just 7.8bn euros (£6.8bn) last year as the Covid-19 crisis hit.

The number of passengers using IAG’s airlines remains significantly down on pre-pandemic levels.

The company, which owns Aer Lingus and Iberia, said capacity for 2020 was 33.5% of 2019 levels and only expected to be around 20% from January to March.

IAG chief executive Luis Gallego said the results “reflect the serious impact that Covid-19 had on our business”.

Getting people travelling again will require “a clear road map for unwinding current restrictions when the time is right”, he said.

“We know there pent-up demand.

“Vaccinations are progressing well and global infections are going in the right direction.

“We’re calling for international common testing standards and the introduction of digital health passes to reopen our skies safely.”

Mr Gallego said there was a “big increase” in demand after Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced his aim to ease English restrictions. has is