Chasing Marigolds

Chapter One

There were few things more comforting than a nice, steaming cup of tea if you asked Marigold Randall. Especially after a trying morning. And it had been nothing if not a trying morning. An aggrieved woman affronted at the fact that they didn't have the latest Fifty Shades book (Marigold steadfastly refused to refer to them as novels), followed by a tense half an hour on the phone with her shippers as the order she'd expected two days before still hadn't arrived, and the usual bunch of tourists milling around complaining about the stock. Not to mention the inventory count that needed sorting that evening. Marigold sighed at that, knowing she'd put it off as long as she could. She was tired, more than a touch cranky, and in desperate need of a break. How was it only five past noon?

It had been a blessing to flip the 'Closed for Lunch' sign and disappear in the backroom. The electric kettle steamed steadily as the water within came to a rolling boil. A splash of milk and a strainer full of English Breakfast had her chipped 'I'm just here for the tea' mug ready to go. The ritual of it was nearly as soothing as the tea itself, a throwback to childhood when all her ails could be cured with a cuppa and her mum's loving embrace.

Marigold allowed her mind to wander as the tea steeped. She'd been the sole owner/operator of The Blank Page since her grandfather's death five years before. It wasn't a large shop, nor a particularly trendy one. Focusing primarily on second hand and hard to find books, the shop had done a fairly decent trade in the small, North London neighborhood it had been located in for the last forty-odd years. Started by Laurence Randall shortly after the loss of his wife, The Blank Page had grown steadily as the years passed. Marigold had spent many a summer and school holiday in her youth helping run the shop, everything from sorting and stacking shelves to running the till.

A bibliophile at heart, she'd never felt more at home nor at ease than she did at The Blank Page. Once she'd graduated university with a degree in Literature that her parents warned she'd never actually be able to use, Marigold gladly accepted the assistant position offered her by her grandfather. It wasn't a glamourous job by half, but it was one she adored. And in it, she thrived.

Laurence was a shrewd but strangely whimsical business man and under his watchful care, The Blank Page had flourished despite challenges, setbacks, and recessions. He'd embraced change that he could understand and thus had been lamentably ignorant of anything to do with the internet. Being a primarily brick and mortar business, Laurence had scoffed when Marigold mentioned the idea of online sales as a way to bolster sales and ensure the shop's future.

It had taken time and not a few clashes of will before Laurence could admit that possibly his granddaughter had been on to something. With a steadiness that he couldn't begin to fathom, the online side of The Blank Page's business began to boom. Soon enough it was all he and Marigold could do to keep pace with the influx of orders that continued to come their way. They'd had to hire on two part time workers (mainly students needing a bit of supplemental income) to help handle orders as they came in, freeing both Laurence and Marigold to run the storefront and manage the hundreds of other small tasks that needed doing around the shop. It also gave Marigold the ability to fulfill the teaching requirements she'd taken on to help cover her bills and rent.

She'd loved teaching, despite her initial wariness. It certainly had the tendency to be draining. But at least at the University level, most of the students in her lectures had a keen interest in literature. It wasn't something she'd thought about doing full time nor something she'd been actively pursuing but when the opportunity fell in her lap, she couldn't ignore it. As much as she loved running the shop with her grandfather, it wasn't enough to truly keep her afloat. So she'd stuck with it, teaching two classes a term and spending the majority of her free time juggling grading assignments and working at the shop.