‘There’s a man at the door with a bulb in a pot,’ J reported. ‘Will only speak to you. I s’pose it’s a tulip.’

John turned at the word ‘tulip’. ‘I’ll come at once.’

The man was waiting in the hall. John drew him into the front room, J following, and they closed the door.

‘What d’you have for me?’

‘A Semper Augustus,’ the man said softly. From the depths of his pocket he produced a letter. ‘This attests to it.’

‘D’you think we’re fools?’ J demanded. ‘Where would you get a Semper Augustus from? How would they ever let it out of the country?’

The man looked shifty. ‘This attests to it,’ he repeated. ‘A letter for you alone, signed Van Meer.’

John broke the seal and read. He nodded at J. ‘It does,’ he said. ‘He swears to me that there is a bulb in that pot from the original Semper Augustus. How did it come to your hands?’

‘I’m merely the courier, master,’ the man said uncomfortably. ‘There was a bankruptcy in a house. Whose house need not concern you. The bailiffs took goods, but there was a man who did not know his job and did not spot the bulbs.’ He gave a sly smile. ‘I heard the mistress bundled them into a crock with a string of onions. So here they are, available for sale. The bankrupt gentleman, whose name we don’t mention, wanted them offered out of Holland. He thought of you and commissioned me to bring them to you. Cash,’ he added.

‘We’ll pay when we see the blooms and not before,’ J said.

‘The letter certifies them,’ the man said. ‘And I have orders to give you only a day to decide and then take them elsewhere. There are other great gardeners in England, gentlemen.’

‘They are all friends of ours,’ J growled. ‘And if I think this is an onion, they will think so too.’

The man smiled. He was completely confident. ‘It is no onion. But if you spread it on your bread it will be the most expensive dinner you have ever eaten.’

‘May I take it from the pot?’ John asked.

The man flinched a little, and it was that which convinced J as much as anything that the bulb was indeed the priceless Semper.

‘Very well,’ he said. ‘But have a care … I’d let no other man disturb it.’