The Blue Rose

‘You gave him the right name,’ said Kate, smiling.

‘What was the outcome?’ Alex asked.

‘He got off with probation, thankfully. Anyway, I know the Law Society will find you just the right man.’

‘Or woman,’ said Kate.

‘Well, of course,’ Kingston quickly corrected himself.

Contorting his long limbs like a giant cricket, Kingston squirmed expertly into the cramped quarters of his highly polished TR4, slamming the door with authority. ‘You know, once word gets out about this rose,’ he shouted over the noise of the engine, ‘your world will never be quite the same.’ Then, with a wave of his gloved hand, he was gone.

As the gurgling exhaust of his sports car faded into the distance, an exhausted Alex and a thoroughly bemused Kate stared at each other for a few seconds, then started laughing, helplessly. It was an outburst of both relief and pent-up exhilaration.

Hand in hand, they walked back into the house.

Chapter Five

Any fool would trade his left toe for a blue rose – it’s worth a potential fortune. Worldwide, twenty-five billion dollars are spent on cut flowers annually, one fifth of that on roses.

Rayford Reddell, rose grower, author

Kate brushed some breadcrumbs off the table into the palm of her hand. ‘More tea, Alex?’

‘Just a drop, thanks.’

They’d finished breakfast and Alex was engrossed in the Sunday Telegraph.

The day before, on the Law Society’s website, Alex had obtained the phone numbers and addresses of several lawyers they were recommending. Alex picked Christopher Adell of the firm Sheridan, Adell and Broughton, Lincoln’s Inn Fields, London.

Kate walked over to the counter and flicked the crumbs into the sink. Glancing up at the wall clock, she flipped the switch on the electric kettle. ‘Alex, it’s almost eight. You’d better start getting ready, you know what Mrs Hendrickson is like.’

‘Only too bloody well,’ Alex mumbled, still reading. ‘Frankly, I think she has a lot of gall insisting we meet at the building site on a weekend.’

‘Come on, Alex, it’s only a couple of hours.’ She looked across the kitchen at him. ‘You’ve had your nose stuck in that page for five minutes. What’s so interesting?’

‘It’s a story about the Eden Project down in Cornwall.’

‘The humongous greenhouses?’

‘Right. They’re calling it one of the world’s architectural marvels. We should definitely go down and take a look.’

She poured the hot water into the teapot, took it to the table, and sat down. ‘We could make a weekend of it, do the lost garden at Heligan, too.’

‘That would be fun.’ Alex folded the paper and put it down. ‘Save this would you, love, I want to check out their website later.’

‘Maybe that’s where the blue rose will end up,’ she said, pouring tea into their cups.

‘On that subject, I’ll try to set up a meeting with Christopher Adell. Is Thursday or Friday okay for you?’

‘Yes, that’s fine.’

‘And you’re tracking down Mrs Cooke today?’

‘Right.’

‘Still strikes me as a bit of a waste of time.’

‘Why do you say that?’

‘Well, didn’t Kingston say he was pretty much convinced that it was a fluke of nature?’

Kate smiled. ‘Surely, you mean an “aberration”?’

Alex rolled his eyes. ‘Okay.’

‘Regardless, Alex, there’s still the long shot that it wasn’t.’ She paused momentarily. ‘If the rose does turn out to have something to do with Mrs Cooke, in fairness, don’t you think she should get some of the money?’

‘Kate, the rose is on our property. We own the property now, not Mrs Cooke. Don’t worry, the rose is ours all right.’

‘But it would be unfair. What if it was the other way around? I bet you’d feel differently.’

‘At this point it’s immaterial. I don’t think we should be concerning ourselves about it right now. Let the lawyer deal with it.’

‘I suppose you’re right,’ Kate said, with a shrug.

‘I was thinking,’ Alex said, doodling a lopsided rose on a corner of the newspaper. ‘If this rose is everything we think it is, then we can’t go on calling it…’ He paused and stage-whispered the next three words: ‘…the blue rose. We must give it a pseudonym – a nickname of some kind.’

‘Any suggestions?’

‘Blue Streak? Blue Moon? How about Baby Blue?’

‘I don’t think we should use the word “blue”.’

‘Okay, then what’s the bluest of all blues?’ Alex asked, chin resting on his clenched fist.

‘Sapphire – I suppose.’

‘I like that, Kate. Sapphire. It has a nice feel to it and nobody will have the slightest notion of what or who we are referring to.’

‘Next time we talk with Kingston, we should tell him.’

‘Speaking of Kingston, do you think we should keep him in our camp for a while? Formally, I mean.’

‘I think he considers himself already in. Didn’t you notice yesterday, he used the word “we” more than once?’

‘Maybe we should have him sign a confidentiality statement.’

‘I was thinking more like putting him on some kind of retainer? We may need his services down the road.’

‘It makes sense. After all, he’s the only other person right now who knows about the rose – oops! I mean, Sapphire.’ A perplexed look flashed across Alex’s face. ‘Good Lord. Was he ever alone out there with the rose? It just occurred to me – he could have taken a cutting. It would have been so easy.’

‘Oh, Alex, he wouldn’t do that, surely.’

‘If I were a botanist suddenly confronted with the greatest horticultural discovery of the century, I might be tempted.’

Kate shook her head. ‘No, he was never alone out there, I’m sure of it. Anyway, I trust him – he is a professor, after all.’

‘A professor? I can’t see why that puts him above temptation. Though I’ll admit in his case it would be a stretch to think of him as being that unscrupulous. But from now on, as he said, we can’t be too careful. The last thing we need is dozens of blue clones out there.’

‘Talking of cuttings, we must ask Vicky to take some for us. That was one of the first things Kingston asked about. I’d attempt it myself, but I never seem to have much success with propagating roses.’

Kate walked to the door with Alex, to see him off. She took his hand, squeezing it gently, as they stood on the porch. ‘Alex,’ she said, avoiding his gaze, ‘is it just me, or is this blue rose thing starting to take over our lives? You and I haven’t talked about anything else since we found it.’

‘Come on, Kate, it’s only been a couple of days! In any case, it’s hardly small change we’re talking about. With the megabucks at stake that everybody seems so sure of, I think it’s more than reasonable to expect some inconvenience, a few disruptions. Anyway, once the whole business is in the hands