Jill brought out a second handful of flowers from the other pocket of her raincoat and let them trickle on to the chest. ‘What on earth have you been doing?’ Philip asked as he shut the front door. ‘Embezzling from the Earl Haig Fund? Don’t tell me you’ve betrayed your sacred trust?’ Jill smiled at him. ‘I paid good money for these. Nearly a pound in assorted change.’ ‘But why so many? Isn’t it a little ostentatious? Most people make do with one or two.’ Charlotte came into the hall of Troy House, her eyebrows arching in surprise at the sight of the poppies. ‘We only sold about six,’ Jill explained. ‘So I thought I’d better make a bulk purchase just before we got back to Chandos Lodge.’ ‘How’s Jack?’ Charlotte asked. There was something in her voice that suggested that she did not care for Philip to exchange badinage – especially, perhaps, with Jill. ‘Rather glum,’ Jill said. ‘A lot of unsold poppies would have made him even more depressed.
