Needles and Pearls by Gil McNeil Read Free Book Online

will be surprised, I think?’
    ‘Yes. And bloody livid. She’ll be on our case big time now.’
    ‘Porca Madonna.’
    ‘Oh yes. Double
porca,
I’d say, and very little
Madonna.’
    Gran’s already arrived when I get to the shop; I think she’s rather enjoyed being free of it since I took over, but today is clearly an exception with news of the wedding breaking on the High Street. She’s holding court with her friend Betty,and Elsie’s in attendance, and she’s already been to see the Vicar about the church, and now they’re talking about flowers while I’m wedged in the window trying to get a small knitted penguin to stop falling over. A fairly steady stream of old ladies wheel their trollies in during the morning, desperate for snippets, and there’s a great deal of lobbying for carnations and freesias before they all go next door to see Mrs Davies, who’s run the florist’s shop for years and does all the local weddings.
    I’m re-arranging the Scottish tweeds, which Elsie has put into unfortunate colour combinations, so I’m separating the sage-greens from the heather-purples, with a buffer zone of slate-grey and oatmeal, while Elsie watches. She’s not that keen on me Moving Stock; but we’ve negotiated an uneasy truce over the past few months, which involves me trying to stop the shop looking like a colour-blind nutter has thrown balls of wool into random heaps, while she stands with her arms folded and watches me, in between putting the kettle on and making cups of tea and eating custard creams. I’m trying to make sure we’ve always got biscuits in the tin and it’s costing me a fortune, but they’re a key part of my staff-training plan.
    Elsie can be incredibly domineering when she wants to be, but she’s very kind, underneath it all, and completely reliable, so I can’t afford to lose her. She knows everybody, and since she only lives two streets away she’s always around to nip in if I can’t open up, or I need her to do an extra shift. But I know all her bossing and sulking really got to Gran over the years, so I’m trying not to let her do the same to me, and the biscuits are definitely helping.
    Gran comes back from the florist’s humming.
    ‘You wouldn’t believe the price of some of those bouquets.’
    Betty nods.
    ‘It’s terrible, you’d never think a few roses and a few ferns would add up to nearly fifty pounds, would you? They should be ashamed of themselves.’
    ‘Yes, but she says she’ll do me something special. Isn’t that kind of her? I’ve got the brochure in my bag. Shall I show you?’
    ‘Lovely, Gran. Just let me finish this.’
    Elsie leans forwards slightly, desperate to be involved.
    ‘Shall I put the kettle on, Mary? There’s such a lot to organise, isn’t there? I know what it was like with my Martin, not that she would let me do it properly, insisted on the church near her parents, which wasn’t a patch on ours. Horrible concrete thing. And the flowers were terrible. I tried to tell him, you know. I could see what she was like right from the start – only out for what she could get. Still, he’s learned his lesson the hard way, and he can’t say I didn’t try to warn him.’
    Gran and Betty nod sympathetically: although why it still matters what Martin’s wife Patricia chose for their wedding is beyond me; particularly since they’re divorced and she’s moved in with the area sales manager at the company where Martin used to work. Apparently she’s insisting on being called Patsy now, and wearing a gold ankle chain.
    ‘Will you be doing lunch or tea for the reception, Mary? I always think a tea’s nice, and that way you don’t have to provide a big meal. Some people will eat you out of house and home if you let them.’
    If there’s anyone in Broadgate who knows how to snork their way through a wedding buffet better than Elsie then I’d like to meet them.
    ‘I thought we’d have a tea, and then maybe a quiet dinner for the