Flick took his hand. ‘For us too.’
Luke looked down at her and she smiled up at him happily. Either she was playing the part really well or she had somehow completely fallen in love with him over the last few minutes. He sighed, softly. He was a fool if he thought it was the latter.
‘Well, now we know why you’re fighting her corner so hard,’ Ethel said.
‘I’m fighting her corner because it’s the right thing to do. Unless we change we’ll lose this place forever.’
‘Well, I actually came down to tell Flick that I won’t be taking part. I won’t be producing cheap tat for the tourists, that’s not who I am. I’m very happy here and I’ll be sad to go but I’m not lowering myself to that.’
Luke felt Flick visibly deflate next to him. ‘Oh, I, erm… It’s such a shame you feel this way. Is there anything we can do to change your mind?’
‘No. I’m an excellent quilter. I won best quilter in the south-west six years in a row and two years ago I won best quilter in England. When people buy quilts from me, they are buying quilts from an award-winning, professional quilter and that comes with a price tag.’
‘No one is doubting your credentials,’ Flick said, weirdly still holding Luke’s hand. ‘Your quilts areprobably the most beautiful quilts I’ve ever seen in my life. The attention to detail, the exquisite embroidery, it’s incredible. I have no doubt at all that they are worth the high price tag. But the problem is, right now, no one is buying them. Unless you’re selling them online or somewhere else I don’t know about, you haven’t made a single sale in six months. Or more. You have hundreds of them in your studio, all stacked up in piles. And yes, the complete lack of footfall is a big part of that but when we open the café and the gift shop that will bring people here, we have to give them something to buy. Ninety-nine percent of the people who will walk through those doors will not have three thousand pounds to spend on a piece of art. And I don’t want you to produce tat. You could embroider and frame small pictures of animals. Baby animals are very popular decorations for nurseries. It could still be your high-quality embroidery but on a much smaller scale.’
‘How small?’ Ethel said.
‘Six inches?’ Flick tried.
Ethel didn’t say anything and Luke could see she was wavering.
‘Why don’t we display your award-winning quilts on the walls and I’ll take photos of the rest and we can project them onto the walls in a kind of slideshow?’ Luke quickly offered. ‘We can carefully pack away the rest in storage and display some of your embroidery pieces instead.’
Ethel sighed. ‘I did enjoy creating some embroiderypictures of baby Australian animals when my great-niece had a baby.’
‘Couldn’t we at least get you to try embroidering some animal pictures and see if it’s something you would like to do long term? You can still do your quilts as well,’ Flick said.
‘How about a deal?’ Ethel said. ‘If I sell one of my quilts at full price within one month of the café reopening, you’ll leave me be to continue making them?’
‘OK,’ Flick said, cautiously. ‘But we will have to reassess in six months’ time. One a month is fine, but one a year is not feasible.’
Ethel nodded her head to concede this. ‘But in the meantime I will make twenty embroidered animal pictures and we’ll see how well they sell in the first month too.’
‘They have to be less than thirty pounds,’ Flick reminded her.
Ethel scowled but nodded. ‘Very well. We’ll give it one month.’
With that, she walked out. Flick still continued to hold Luke’s hand even when there was no one there to see it, making his heart do weird things in his chest.
‘Well, that was a success,’ Flick said.
‘The kiss or our conversation with Ethel?’
She grinned at him. ‘Oh, the kiss was very successful. I wasn’t expecting the hottest kiss of my life.’
‘I am sorry.’
She looked at him in surprise. ‘For what?’
‘Well, I know we talked about kissing but I got a bitcarried away and it turned into something a bit more… pornographic. I’m sorry, that’s not what you signed up for when you agreed to help me.’
She frowned in confusion. ‘You’re… You’re apologising for kissing me with passion and desire?’
‘Well, it wasn’t real, was it?’
Her face fell. She let go of his hand and took a step back and then another. ‘No, of course not. It meant nothing, obviously.’ She took another step back. ‘I just meant it was successful because it clearly sent Natalia packing. We were very convincing. We do that a few more times and your fan club will get the message.’ She started walking towards the door. ‘And thanks for your help with Ethel.’
‘Flick…’
