Flowers

Casual Introductions

Rhiannon telephoned Mrs Maxine Hubbard: Mrs Hubbard, I would like you to come to the café across the road from the record shop and bring Miss Penelope Styles with you. There is someone I would like you to meet.

Mrs Hubbard: We will be there in 20 minutes.

When Mrs Hubbard and Penelope Styles arrived, they joined Rhiannon in a booth at the back of the café. Rhiannon then went to the café counter and spoke to Mrs Café Manager: Come and join us for a pot of tea. I have some news for you.

Mrs Café Manager promptly joined Mrs Hubbard and Penelope Styles at the Rhiannon booth.

Rhiannon spoke to her companions: This is nothing more than a friendly meeting of people who have businesses in the neighbourhood. With the assistance of Penelope Styles, Mrs Hubbard will be running Floraville, my new business venture, a florist. Mrs Café Manager runs this lovely café.

If ever you or your café need flowers, Mrs Café Manager, you might consider seeing if Mrs Hubbard and Penelope Styles can assist. Similarly, you ladies might consider eating and drinking at this café. Local businesses helping each other is in all of our interests.

It also would not hurt the business of the record store that employs me, if prospective customers were sent my way.

Mrs Café Manager: Flowers, Rhiannon?

Rhiannon: Flowers, Mrs Café Manager. Records and flowers. And I thought drinking tea at your café was the best way to introduce you to each other.

Mrs Café Manager: Would you ladies care for a muffin to celebrate this news?

Mrs Hubbard: Tea and muffins, Rhiannon. An interesting and pleasant way to celebrate your new venture.

Penelope Styles: Tea and muffins are good for me.

Rhiannon: Tea and muffins, Mrs Café Manager. With pleasure.

Mrs Café Manager: Tea and muffins it is then.

In less than 5 minutes Mrs Café Manager was back with muffins and a fresh pot of tea.

The ladies chatted and got to know each other a little better for the next half hour and then they returned to their respective workplaces.

Complications with The Flower Wholesaler

A few days later Lady Harriet Windsor called in to the office of Nicky Parsons and they had a conversation.

Lady Harriet: I have just read some interesting intelligence. A wholesale company that supplies flowers to retail florists, at least in part, seems to be funding Iron Curtain operatives.

Parsons: Flowers. That is a bit creative. Do we need to take a closer look at this wholesale flower supplier?

Lady Harriet: I think that would be a good idea.

The meeting was interrupted by a telephone call from Rhiannon to Nicky Parsons: The café across the road from the record shop would be a good place for us to get together while I share some news with you. Is this evening after work convenient?

Parsons: A catch up to share news, OK. Should I bring Harriet and Emily with me?

Rhiannon: That is an excellent idea. Thank you.

Parsons: We will be there just before 6:00 pm.

Nicky then telephoned Emily: Are you free to come to my office for a short chat?

Emily: I will be there in 5 minutes.

Upon her arrival Nicky said: Rhiannon has invited us for a catch up at the café across the road from her record shop. I said we will be there just before 6:00 pm. Are you going to join us?

Emily: The Stuffy Shirts and Rhiannon catching up sounds good to me.

Parsons: Harriet also has some interesting intelligence. A wholesale flower supplier is funding our Iron Curtain trouble makers.

Emily: A flower wholesaler. That is a bit sneaky.

Parsons: Perhaps we should pay them a not so sneaky visit.

Harriet: It is not a long time before we have to leave to meet Rhiannon. We could pack up a little early today and go to see Rhiannon.

Emily: Rhiannon sounds better than flowers for the Iron Curtain.

Parsons: It looks like we are packing up for the day. See you back here shortly.

The Café Catch-Up

The Stuffy Shirts found themselves a booth at the Rhiannon café and Rhiannon soon joined them.

Rhiannon: Ladies, I have some news. I now have a florist business, Floraville, a retail florist run by Mrs Maxine Hubbard, an experienced florist, and Miss Penelope Styles, a reformed Tea Drinker.

Nicky Parsons: Flowers.

Rhiannon: Flowers. It is a good business direction and it has utility for my network.

Emily: Congratulations.

Harriet: I should also say congratulations. Tell me your wholesaler is not Flowers From The Market.

Rhiannon: My wholesaler is Flowers From The Market.

Harriet: Happenstance is never far away from us. We think your flowers may have an Iron Curtain problem.

Parsons: Intelligence seems to suggest that Flowers From The Market is funding Iron Curtain operatives.

Rhiannon: I have no sense of humour when it comes to people challenging my new way of life.

Emily: It looks like we are back together to shut down this flower wholesaler.

Parsons: The good news for you, Rhiannon, is that MI6 will pay you for your efforts.

Harriet: My plan is to have MI6 shut down and then sell the wholesale flower business to someone they can scrutinise. Rhiannon can keep her retail florist business and MI6 will keep an eye on the wholesaler.

Parsons: I like your plan.

Emily: I can definitely work with that plan.

Harriet: When we get to work tomorrow we can work out an overview of disrupting the Iron Curtain funding wholesaler. Let us enjoy the rest of the evening with Rhiannon.

Rhiannon: I like your plan and I am keen to assist.

Emily: Work tomorrow, enjoy tonight. I like it.

Parsons: It is good to see you, Rhiannon, and welcome back. Let us enjoy the evening.

Rhiannon Visits Floraville

Floraville enjoyed the pleasure of an early visit from Rhiannon the next day, although pleasure was hardly the motivation for the visit.

Rhiannon: Ladies, My friends at MI6 tell me we have a problem and I am a long way from happy about it. The problem is not you Mrs Hubbard. The problem is the communists who seem to have infiltrated your flower supplier and have done it to fund operatives that threaten us. It is an understatement to say that I do not take kindly to anyone who threatens my new life.

Mrs Hubbard, I would be very grateful if you could put together all you may have on Flowers From The Market, your flowers wholesaler. I am happy to help you where I can. I will then provide that material to MI6 and then a plan will be hatched to rid us of the problem they have brought to our door.

Mrs Hubbard: I can give you the contact details of the wholesaler and the times they usually make deliveries here. It will not take me long to find that information.

Rhiannon: That would be excellent, Mrs Hubbard. I will then leave with your information and allow you to return to your day. I am sure MI6 will be grateful for the assistance.

Mrs Hubbard: I will put the information in an envelope for you, Rhiannon. No one else needs to see it. And then you can give it to your friends.

Rhiannon: There is a smooch on your cheek from me, Mrs Hubbard.

Through their chuckles, Mrs Hubbard and Penelope Styles wished Rhiannon a good day.

Tea, Muffins and Intelligence

Rhiannon promptly telephoned Nicky Parsons: Tea, Muffins and Intelligence, Agent Parsons. My neighbourhood café awaits your attendance.

Parsons: The Stuffy Shirts will be there in 30 minutes.

Over tea and muffins, Rhiannon gave the envelope to Nicky Parsons and discussion ensued about how to deal with the problem wholesaler.

Harriet: I will get the MI6 finance people to look closely at Flowers From The Market.

Emily: This is tricky. MI6 have to raid and shut down the communists, then sell the wholesale flower business to someone they can scrutinise. All while not disrupting the businesses of the retail florists.

Harriet: MI6 will have to find someone to run the wholesale flowers supplier until the sale is completed.

Parsons: I will talk to the Boss when we get back to the office.

The Stuffy Shirts Meet with The Boss

As soon as The Stuffy Shirts arrived at the secretary to The Boss, she greeted them with: Ladies, I will let him know you want to see him.

Laughter ensued from The Stuffy Shirts.

The Boss appeared: Agents, My office awaits you.

Nicky Parsons: “Harriet has some interesting intelligence that a wholesale flowers supply company seems to be funding Iron Curtain operatives.

Rhiannon the ordinary record shop girl now has a retail florist business and its flowers are supplied by that same flower wholesaler.

Rhiannon has also given us good information about the business that supplies her florist with flowers.

“MI6 have to raid and shut down the communists, then sell the wholesale flower business to someone they can scrutinise. All while not disrupting the businesses of the retail florists. MI6 will have to find someone to run the wholesale flowers supplier until the sale is completed.”

The Boss: I know someone who can run it.

Emily: That is why you are the Boss.

The Boss: (Through laughter) From one enigma to another.

Rhiannon is never far away from you, is she?

Harriet: Rhiannon was an unexpected development on both counts. Her business venture and her relationship with us help us here.

The Boss: Did I hear you say that Rhiannon would accompany you on the raid of the flowers wholesaler? It sounds like her kind of work.

Nicky Parsons: I like the relationship we have with you, Sir.

The Boss: I will give Harriet the details of the chap who will run the wholesale flowers business after I have had a chat with him.

Thank you for the visit, agents, and enjoy your day.

The Stuffy Shirts Have a Meeting

The Stuffy Shirts adjourned to the office of Nicky Parsons.

After they each took their seats, Emily spoke: I am sure all spy agencies are run like this one.

Nicky: I can definitely see other spy agencies not only having a boss who encourages creativity, but who actively contributes to that creativity.

Harriet: Perhaps it is my royal blood, I will content myself with this spy agency. I have no need to test the waters elsewhere.

Emily: I have no wish to break up The Stuffy Shirts, Your Ladyship.

Nicky: I have travelled through time. I am not going to another spy agency.

Harriet: Then we shall do our best to enjoy our enigmatic lives in this spy agency.

Nicky: Speaking entirely for myself, I am rather annoyed that Rhiannon has had her new life imposed upon by the communists. This job lets me do something about that and I intend to do so.

Harriet: If I had an ambiguity about shutting down that wholesale flowers operation before, I certainly have none now.

Emily: I have absolutely no problem at all in Rhiannon being Rhiannon to those communists and I am happy to help her.

Harriet: It would be a dreadful shame if those communists were to suffer injuries in the raid.

Nicky: It is a dirty job. Accidents happen. I will make sure Rhiannon is with us.

Nicky telephoned Rhiannon: Rhiannon, our raid on Flowers From The Market will be ready to go on Thursday. Are you interested in joining us? I am sure we could use your assistance.

Rhiannon: I am in, with bells on.

Nicky: If you can be at MI6 headquarters by 10:00 am, we will coordinate the raid with you.

We will also ensure you are provided with the kind of material you need to be prepared for such an adventure.

Rhiannon: Most kind of you, Nicky. 10:00 am Thursday. Have a good day.

Nicky: Ladies, we shall be Stuffy Shirts plus one.

Emily: Excellent news.

Harriet: Excellent news, indeed.

The Flowers From The Market Raid

The Stuffy Shirts travelled together in the same MI6 vehicle to the Flowers From The Market warehouse. There was little conversation in the vehicle and none from Rhiannon. She seemed more than a little focussed.

Several MI6 teams breached the Flowers From The Market warehouse. The Stuffy Shirts went in through the front door, with Nicky Parsons taking the lead.

Rounding up and securing the trouble making communists was not a difficult task. The raid seemed to have confused them.

Rhiannon waited until they were all secured, then she went to work She lined them up, resplendent in their handcuffs, and had a chat with them.

Rhiannon: Never threaten my life or my business.

She then shot each of them in their left knee.

Nicky Parsons: You communists have a choice. You can come with me and cooperate fully with MI6 or I will leave you here and my friend will finish her work.

A chorus of “MI6" greeted Nicky Parsons.

Nicky Parsons: MI6 has the kind of hospitality you communists are going to learn to enjoy.

The new Flowers From The Market friends of MI6 were promptly put in MI6 motor vehicles and taken to MI6 headquarters.

Emily: You know what this means?

Harriet: It is time for tea and muffins.

Nicky: Join us for tea and muffins, Rhiannon.

Rhiannon: I would like to stop in at Floraville and tell them of the good news.

Nicky: No problems.

The quick stop at Floraville saw Rhiannon greet both Mrs Hubbard and Penelope Styles alone in the store. Rhiannon walked up to Mrs Hubbard and kissed her on her cheek.

Rhiannon: Thank you, Mrs Hubbard. We just took care of the problem with Flowers From The Market and your help was valuable. My friends tell me the business can return to normal.

Mrs Hubbard: That is good news, Rhiannon.

Rhiannon: I will now leave you ladies to return to your business and I will return to mine.

Mrs Hubbard and Penelope Styles: Thank you, Rhiannon.

Rhiannon then returned to The Stuffy Shirts and they all subsequently undertook the important business of tea and muffins.