‘The c-contest is only a y-year away. Even in h-hothouses, I d-do not have t-time to g-grow the t-trees from the s-seeds I c-collected.’

James leaned back slightly in his chair. ‘You wish to take a forest,’ he said. ‘And yet only a short while ago it was you who accused me of pillaging.’

Beatrice flushed, appalled. Suddenly the accusation of pillaging seemed like the worst crime a person might be accused of, and she regretted suggesting to James that he was guilty of such a thing.

‘I a-a-apologise for th-that,’ she said stiffly.

‘I appreciate it.’

‘I w-w-would n-n-n-never p-p-p—’

All of a sudden she could not even say the word. Her distress was making her stutter worse, so she took a deep breath, relieved that James stayed silent and gave her the chance to compose herself.

‘I w-would not d-do that,’ she finally said. ‘I h-have b-been in c-correspondence with a p-private c-collector in Ch-China. They are p-prepared to s-sell me their t-trees. The p-problem is b-b-bringing them s-safely h-home.’

‘I see. In that case, please allow me to apologise also. I ought to have known better, but we are all of us fools sometimes. What you wish to do will be difficult, but I believe it can be done. It will be devilishly expensive, of course.’

Beatrice waved a hand. Price was no object. She had plenty of money – it was expertise she lacked.

‘In order to help I would need to be present for the journey,’ James said.

Beatrice shook her head. ‘But I w-wish to f-fetch the t-trees myself. C-Can you n-not just p-provide me w-with instructions?’

‘It is not as simple as that, I’m afraid.’

Beatrice felt an old resentment beginning to stir. ‘They are m-my trees,’ she insisted. ‘And I m-must be th-there to t-take c-care of th-them. I want them to t-trust me. Anything y-you have d-done with y-your orchids, I c-can do t-too, if y-you will only t-tell me how.’

‘Regrettably,’ James replied, ‘I cannot simply tell you how to speak Chinese. Forgive the presumption, but I expect you are not fluent in Mandarin?’

Beatrice shook her head. She had picked up a smattering of several languages during her travels abroad, but she did not have an ear for languages and had found Chinese quite impossible to get her tongue around, even for the most basic of phrases.

‘There are no shortcuts for some things,’ James said. ‘Of course you could drink the plum juice in the hope that it bestows you with the skill, but my understanding is that the knowledge the plums give you is quite random. You may learn how to speak Chinese, but you might just as well learn how to dance the can-can.’

Beatrice had no idea what he was talking about. ‘C-Can-can?’