“You are brilliant Evelyn! Positively brilliant,” Lady Elizabeth exclaimed.

“This is good news, m'lady?” Evelyn asked with a smile. It couldn’t be anything except good news. 

“Yes! Lord Daniel has sent my father a marriage proposal for me, and now my father is debating the better offer. I’m sure Lord Daniel will win in the end,” her face lost its big grin. “But I do worry that my father might decide on the Count’s offer. He might calculate out that the Count is a better offer and not care about my feelings at all,” her lips pursed and she leaned forward. “And Lord Daniel didn’t send me a return letter yet,” she whispered.

She was clearly nervous that something was wrong, so Evelyn gently took the hand leaning on her counter. “Lady Elizabeth, he’s probably very busy preparing his proposal and gifts for your father. I’m certain he will come to you soon with a flower in hand and a sweet personal marriage proposal for you.” 

“I hope you’re right,” Elizabeth breathed and leaned against the counter like a wilting flower. “I’m just afraid He’s doing this as a friend to save me and doesn’t actually love me. What if he’s not sending me any sort of communication because he’s trying to figure out how to nicely tell me he doesn’t love me?”

And this was why the ship hadn’t already sailed. Evelyn had tried multiple tactics already. There was the time Evelyn had made sure Elizabeth had ended up in the garden without a coat on (in fairly mild weather), and made sure Lord Ramett had gone out to help her search for Elizabeth. She was certain something would happen that time, but nope. Or the time Elizabeth got injured and Lord Ramett had carried Lady Elizabeth to her room. Evelyn’s heart had swooned at the sight, but then he’d immediately left to leave Elizabeth’s care to her. This truly was the hardest ship to captain. 

Evelyn had an idea. “Do not worry. Lord Ramett will meet you on the first day of the flower festival with flowers in hand.”

“How can you be so sure of that?” Elizabeth asked, her voice a taunt thread of cotton.

“Have any of my schemes failed so far?” Evelyn retorted with a wink and a smile.

“Nooo,” Elizabeth drew out the word as she thought about it. “But none of them have worked as well as you promised they would.”

Evelyn sighed. Elizabeth was right. She tried all sorts of by the book plots, but this was why she was going off the books this time. No more missed opportunities. This ship would leave the port by the end of the flower festival and that was that. “Lord Ramett is a courteous and gracious man. He is too careful for more normal plots to work. But this time it will because you will have a wedding date scheduled by the end of the flower festival.”

Elizabeth looked up at her with a growing smile like a flower blossom blooming. “Evelyn,  you really are the best.”

As the Lady got ready to leave she noticed Richard sweeping a corner of the room. “Who’s the new employee?” she asked.

Evelyn looked over at the man she had temporarily forgotten about. “Oh, he’s not an employee. He came here to learn to clean.”

Lady Elizabeth glared at the poor man who looked like he was trying to become moss on the wall. “Don’t speak a word of what you’ve heard today to anyone. If gossip gets out, I’ll know who said it.”

The poor man nodded pitifully. “Don’t worry m’lady. I didn’t hear or see anything. I don’t have a loose tongue and I wouldn’t want it to get any shorter.”

The Lady Elizabeth Lafett used all of her stature and regal bearing to stare him down silently. She then turned away and left the room like a stately tree. She stopped at the door and turned back to look at Evelyn. “I can’t wait to see your scheme this time Evelyn.” Her haughty expression softened to a smile and a little wave before she was gone through the door. 

Richard collapsed into a bush, he knees up against his face. “Will she come after me?” His words were quiet enough Evelyn almost didn’t hear them.

“Don’t worry. As long as you don’t say anything about her being here or what you heard you will be fine. John sees her every day,” as she said his name she started to think about her plan. Someone needed to deliver a letter to Lord Daniel Ramett. She would need John to watch the shop while she took the letter to the local general store to pay for one of their boys to run the letter. 

She pulled out a piece of paper and wrote up a letter telling Lord Daniel Ramett to pick up his flower order at Evelyn’s shop in the early morning of the flower festival. Either he would pick it up and she would tell him straight to his face that the flower order was for his proposal to the Lady, or he would send someone else to pick it up, and she would have a letter ready to go with it. Either way the man would be giving flowers to Lady Elizabeth on the day of the flower festival. 

John came back into the main shop and Evelyn waved him over to the counter. “Will you man the counter for me? I need to run a quick errand.”

He looked as if he was going to say something, then looked at Richard, and shrugged. “Sure.”

“Thanks!” Evelyn called out as she rushed off down the side street toward the main street where the general store was. 

It was a big building with an eclectic collection of goods and services. If something wasn’t for sale in the town, tell the General Store and they would find it even if it took their traders months to track it down. Granted you would pay for it, but it was useful to have such a store in the town. 

She paid Mr Miller, the store owner, 3 coppers for one of the boys he employed to run the letter to the Ramett estate. The letter was sealed with the store seal, and the boy was off. 

She hurried back to her store, and made it close enough to see the red headed Marie heading into the store. 

It was normally Mark who came to visit for flowers for Marie. What was Marie doing at the store today?