Dragonwell Dead

11

“I beefed up our luncheon menu today,” announced Haley, “since we’ve got special guests coming in.”

“All our guests are special,” snapped Drayton. He was leery of Leah Shalimar ever since he’d found out she was a garden docent. And was undoubtedly feeling jumpy about Charlie’s presence, too.

Haley rolled her eyes. “You know what I mean.” She’d called Theodosia and Drayton into the kitchen to go over the menu, even though Drayton remained, as Haley would say, “in a mood.” Charlie was out front, prowling the tables with teapots in hand.

“What have you got?” asked Theodosia. Now that Leah Shalimar seemed to be on the docket as a potential suspect, she, too, wished the woman wasn’t coming in today.

“We’ll start with chilled strawberry soup,” said Haley, “accompanied by sliced pear and Stilton cheese tea sandwiches. Then an entrée of pan-seared salmon with white asparagus and butter sauce.”

“What about dessert?” demanded an impatient Drayton. Whenever they had a larger group coming in Drayton seemed to get more than a little unnerved.

“Dessert scones,” said Haley. “Chocolate chip scones with Devonshire cream and black raspberry jam. Oh, and I’ll probably do a batch of lemon jumble cookies, too.”

“Lovely,” said Theodosia. “I’m sure all our guests will be delighted.”

“That’s right,” said Drayton. “The operative word here is all.”

The bell over the front door tinkled and Drayton pulled back the green curtain to take a peek. He turned back to Theodosia and Haley. “Expensive cobalt-blue suit, model thin, lots of clanking gold jewelry?”

“That’s her,” said Theodosia, hurriedly brushing past him to go greet Leah Shalimar.

“Looks awfully high maintenance,” murmured Drayton.

“But does she look dangerous?” whispered Haley.

“Welcome to the Indigo Tea Shop,” said Theodosia, putting a friendly smile on her face.

“Hell-oooo,” chirped Leah Shalimar. “I hope you don’t mind that I’m a tiny bit early. But I wanted to write out place cards and, of course, I brought along hostess gifts. Darling little Rigaud candles. Don’t you just adore them?”

Theodosia, who’d never purchased a seventy-dollar candle in her entire life, said, “I’m sure your guests will be thrilled.”

“My, this is a sweet little place,” said Leah, looking around as Theodosia led her to her table. “So cute and cozy.” Then her eyes caught sight of the gleaming china and floral centerpiece. “And I adore this table setting. So very elegant.”

“Due in no small part to the Valentina Chintz china by Royal Patrician and an ample bouquet of Anna roses and nerine lilies,” said Drayton.

“Leah,” said Theodosia, “this is Drayton Conneley, our master tea blender and catering manager.”

“Hello,” said Leah, extending a hand and suddenly turning all her intensity on him.

“Delighted to meet you,” said Drayton. He grasped her hand in both of his and flashed a warm smile. “Besides setting a lovely table for you and your guests, we also have a superb menu planned.”

“Oh, please don’t tell me!” begged Leah. “Let it be a surprise. I simply adore surprises.”

“As you wish,” said Drayton. He pulled out a chair for Leah, waited for her to be seated, then sat down next to her. “Now . . . we have an ample repertoire of marvelous teas, but I’ve taken the liberty of selecting a few extra special ones for you today.”

“I’m a complete neophyte when it comes to tea,” admitted Leah. “So I’m going to have to leave the choices in your most capable hands.”

“Then may I suggest we start with a Hyson tea,” said Drayton, “a light, fragrant Chinese green tea.”

Leah nodded enthusiastically. “That sounds wonderful.”

“Moving on,” said Drayton, “perhaps a Taiwanese Keemun, which is always lovely with a food course. And to compliment dessert, may I recommend our Orchid Lights house blend. It’s a semi-fermented oolong with crushed orchid flowers. It’s actually a sort of sneak peak at what we’re serving this Saturday night at the Heritage Society.”

“Good heavens,” marveled Leah. “Three different teas?”

“For three different courses,” responded Drayton. “Of course, if any of your guests prefer to stick with just one tea, that’s certainly fine, too. Not too many rules when it comes to tea; one should always drink what one enjoys.”

“I love it,” declared Leah, seemingly entranced with Drayton. “You know,” she said, studying him. “You’d be very good in sales. Have you ever done any work in financial sales?”

“Dear lady,” said Drayton, giving her a baleful look, “I can barely manage a simple calculator.”

“No, no.” Leah laughed. “I already have a staff who do all the tedious number crunching. What’s most critical in today’s financial arena is building trust with potential clients.”

She peered at him speculatively. “You, Drayton, appear to possess that rather elusive quality.”

“I really don’t think so,” said Drayton. He was clearly flummoxed by her words.

“Loveday and Luxor has recently stepped up our caliber of financial products,” continued Leah. We are now branch-ing out into foreign currency futures contracts. You’ve heard of FOREX?”

“Not really,” said Drayton. “Sounds quite complicated.”

“Not in the least,” said Leah. “Foreign currency futures basically give clients a unique opportunity to speculate on the value of various world currencies.”

“Mm-hm,” said Drayton, his eyes beginning to drift away.

“And I was thinking,” continued Leah, “that you’d be the perfect front man to manage cold calls and set up meetings.”

That woke Drayton up. “But I work here.”

“I haven’t worked in this industry all that long, either,” confessed Leah. “In fact, I used to be in high-end auto sales. Lexus, Mercedes, Porsche.” Now she dropped her voice to a conspiratorial whisper. “But I can assure you, Drayton, that Loveday and Luxor’s commission schedule is far more generous than anything you can earn serving tea.” Leah smiled brightly at Drayton. Then, as if to signal that the matter was a fait accompli, she pulled out a large black Montblanc pen and began scribbling names on her place cards.

As the lunch hour wore on, Leah Shalimar’s luncheon appeared to be a smashing success even though Drayton huffed and harrumphed in the background.

“She was rude to me,” Drayton complained to Theodosia. “Telling me I’d make a good front man for her silly financial product and insinuating that I could make a lot more money working for her.” Drayton snatched up a half dozen small glass plates of chocolate chip scones centered on white paper doilies, and dropped them onto his silver tray with a clatter. “Leah Shalimar assumes money is the most important thing in life.”

“I hope this doesn’t come as a shock to you,” said Theodosia, as she garnished the chocolate chip scones with fresh mint leaves, “but an awful lot of people share that feeling.”

Some of her old coworkers had scoffed at her when she’d left her lucrative job in marketing to take a flier at running a tea shop. Of course, Theodosia’s little flier had pretty much turned into a home run.

“Hey,” said Haley, as she scooped dollops of Devonshire cream into fancy cut-glass dishes, “money can be a good thing. There’s a reason I’m studying business administration.”

“But money’s not the only thing,” said Drayton as he lurched out of the kitchen. “It shouldn’t rule your life.”

Haley glanced quickly at Theodosia. “Drayton’s really steamed.”

“I don’t blame him,” said Theodosia, arranging a tray of truffles. “Leah Shalimar basically tried to devalue what he does. What’s near and dear to Drayton’s heart. And that’s very disrespectful.”

But Leah Shalimar proved to be a master of diplomacy as well as sales. She managed to broadly compliment all her guests, elicit delighted peals of laughter, keep the conversation lively, and pitch her new futures contracts. All at the same time.

Theodosia didn’t catch all the details of Leah’s pitch, but she heard enough as she moved about the tea shop. It appeared that foreign exchange currency futures were now the hot new investment in the global financial market. Leah cautioned that there was a limited time to buy in, with the initial investment being a minimum of fifty thousand dollars. But returns promised to be sky-high.

Theodosia shook her head. Way too rich for my blood, she decided, although the women sitting at Leah Shalimar’s table looked quite moneyed. A couple were dressed in St. John knits, one in an Ungaro tweed suit, and the rest, including Leah, seemed equally well heeled. One woman, Theodosia was fairly positive, was the board chairman of the symphony orchestra.

I wonder if this is the new financial product Mark Congdon had been going to head up, Theodosia mused to herself. Has to be. Although Leah looks like she’s off to a successful and rousing start.

Once the chocolate chip scones and lemon jumble cookies had been served and enjoyed by all, Leah’s group proceeded to get up from their table and wander about the tea room to indulge in a little shopping. Theodosia had stocked her antique cupboards with teacups and saucers, pieces of old silver, antique teapots, glass slippers perfect for serving Devonshire cream, and sterling silver pendants of miniature teacups and teapots.

Of course, Theodosia’s own creations were scattered about the Indigo Tea Shop as well. A large maple cabinet held stacks of silk-screened pastel T-shirts that Theodosia had designed herself. These were cotton shirts adorned with a whimsical drawing of a tea cup with a curlicue of steam rising above it and the words Tea Shirt. Some shirts featured a tea kettle and the words Let off a little steam!

Other shelves displayed Theodosia’s proprietary T-Bath line. This included such delights as Green Tea Feet Treat, Lavender Luxury Lotion, and a tea-scented aromatherapy spray that, after much debate, they’d laughingly named Assam Enchanted Evening.

“Did you really design all this adorable packaging, too?”

asked one of Leah’s guests. She held up a package of T-Bath Green Tea Soak with its elegant celadon-green wrapper and typography done in a Japanese dry brush style. “It’s so elegant and Zen-like,” she exclaimed.

“I did,” said Theodosia. “But I’m even more proud of the contents. All the tea-infused products are extremely gentle and soothing.”

“Do you have a good facial moisturizer?”

“Right over here.”

Just as merchandise was being heaped onto the counter and diaphanous sheets of indigo blue gift wrap were floating everywhere, an entire jitney packed full of tourists stopped in front of the shop and a dozen women came tumbling in for tea and treats.

“Good lord,” cried Drayton, clutching a sweetgrass basket filled with T-Bath products, “we’ve hit the jackpot.”

While the women oohed and aahed and shopped, Theodosia edged over toward Leah Shalimar.

“Looks like you had a successful luncheon,” said Theodosia. Although she wasn’t thrilled by the way Leah had initially “hustled” Drayton, the woman was still a guest in her tea shop.

Leah, who was picking out a half dozen teacups and saucers to take home as gifts, nodded in agreement. “We had a great time, thanks to you and your fine staff.”

Theodosia took one of the cup-and-saucer sets from Leah and nestled it inside a small hexagon-shaped gift box. “We just did what we set out to do. Provide a quiet respite from the twenty-four-seven go-go world and serve a delicious luncheon with as much panache as we can muster.” Theodosia favored Leah with a crooked grin. “Of course, some days we muster more panache than others.”

“You are a dear.” Leah laughed. “But, seriously, I think I may have learned a valuable lesson from all this.”

“Which is . . . ?” asked Theodosia.

Leah cocked her head and gave Theodosia what appeared to be a rather heartfelt look. “I learned that slowing down isn’t necessarily a bad thing. That I don’t always have to op-erate in hyper mode. Which probably applies to my sales pitch, too.”

“Does this mean you’re switching from coffee to tea?”

asked Theodosia. “And FYI, green teas and oolongs are far lower in caffeine. And herbal teas don’t contain any caffeine at all.”

“Which is probably why I feel so relaxed,” admitted Leah. She paused, looked about again with a faint smile on her face. “But seriously, I meant what I said. Your little place is a sort of oasis of calm. A reminder that we shouldn’t be afraid to take time for ourselves, to feed our bodies as well as our souls.”

“That’s a lovely thought,” said Theodosia. “And very well put.”

“Now I just have to live by those words,” said Leah. “And pitch my little heart out on these futures contracts.”

“Is that what Mark would have been selling, too?” asked Theodosia.

Leah nodded. With Theodosia’s words, a look of sadness had fallen across her face. “Dear Mark,” she murmured. “We surely miss him.”

Here’s my opening, Theodosia decided.

“Leah,” said Theodosia. “Were you at Carthage Place Plantation this past Sunday?”

Now Leah looked sadder than ever. “Yes, I was. I stopped by with my dear friend Zoe Miller. But we were only there for maybe fifteen or twenty minutes at best. Then we drove on to visit the gardens at Magnolia Plantation.”

“So you missed all the commotion,” said Theodosia, realizing that calling it a commotion was probably a major under-statement.

Leah nodded her head sadly. “I did. Although it would have been a horrendous shock to have witnessed Mark’s collapse.”

“That went well,” said Haley, as the last of their luncheon crowd finally departed.

“It did, didn’t it,” said Drayton, a self-satisfied look on his lined face.

Standing behind the old brass cash register, Theodosia was busy tallying the receipts. “Do you know we sold an extra six hundred dollars just in house tea blends, antiques, sweetgrass baskets, and T-Bath products?” she asked them.

“As well as every single truffle.”

“Seriously?” asked Haley. “They even bought my truffles?”

“Every last one,” said Theodosia. “Miss Dimple will be jumping for joy at our good fortune.” Miss Dimple was their sharp-as-a-tack octogenarian bookkeeper who helped with monthly financial projections as well as occasionally serving lunches in the tea shop.

“So now what?” asked Drayton, glancing about at tables heaped with dirty dishes, low-burning candles, and empty shelves that called out for restocking. “KP duty I suppose.”

He spun on his heels and called out, “Oh, Charlie.”

“Guys,” said Theodosia. “Would either of you mind if I bugged out early?”

“Huh?” said Haley.

“I . . . uh . . . want to have a little chat with Angie Congdon,” said Theodosia. “Remember?”

“Oh sure,” said Haley. “Yeah, you better go do that. Charlie and I can take care of all this. And Drayton, too, if he can keep up with us.”

“Haley Parker, don’t you dare talk down to me,” said Drayton. “I’ll have you know I’m in the prime of my life. Middle-aged, in fact.”

Haley winked at Drayton as she scooped up dishes and shoved them into a plastic bin. “Sure you are, Drayton. Just as long as you plan on living to be a hundred and thirty!”