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‘I’m not sure what you’re doing here, to be honest. You’re such a slip of a thing, and Berlin’s a challenging place.

It moves fast, it never stands still and it’s very easy to get swept away.

Tougher people than you have made a mess of things because they can’t take the pace of it.

But here you apparently are, so at least take my advice and be careful. Don’t let the city swallow you up.’

Lili’s landlady had looked at her new lodger and seen a timid country mouse.

Lili had let her. She knew exactly why she’d come to Berlin: to shed her old skin and find a safer one.

If being perceived as little and quiet and uncomfortable with questions kept those questions away, Lili would play the mouse as long as she needed to.

And a place that never stands still is exactly what I was hoping to find.

Lili hadn’t said that of course. She also hadn’t said, ‘Don’t worry about me – I’m no stranger to cities.

’ Or explained that Leipzig – where Lili had lived her whole life until she arrived at the Berlin boarding house which would be her new home – was also cosmopolitan and bustling.

She’d thanked her landlady for the warning instead and promised to do as she asked and be careful.

And she’d hoped very much that the woman’s assessment of Berlin’s whirling tempo was right.

Which it was. Leipzig is a sleepy little village compared to this.

Spittelmarkt – the area of Berlin which Lili had chosen as her new starting point – burst with an energy that would rival a monkey house.

The streets heaved with cars and trams and buses, and with people whose busy lives apparently demanded that they outrun the traffic.

Lili quickly realised that stopping to take her bearings would be a mistake.

That asking for directions would require a megaphone.

Even the crowds edging the pavements and waiting for the policeman to blow his trumpet and create a safe passage across the road surged up on their toes.

Spittelmarkt was colourful and loud and chaotic.

And anonymous and thrilling and perfect.

Lili leaped forward with the rest as the cars squealed to a halt, steering herself towards a flower shop whose name was listed in the folder crammed into her bag.

She let the crowd carry her and reached her goal without mishap, slipping under the shop’s striped awning to take a closer look and planting her feet squarely against the oncoming tide.

Luckily, given that she had no great desire to plunge into the crowds again, this shop was far more promising than the others she’d seen. This one ticked every box on her list.

The window displays were as exuberant at close quarters as they’d looked from a distance.

There wasn’t a spare inch of space on the shelves.

Silver buckets jostled for room with brightly painted ceramic and glass vases.

Every container was full to the brim with bunches of frilly yellow daffodils and scarlet tulips, with roses in every shade of pink from blush to deep crimson and great swathes of almond blossom.

The window held the flowers’ perfume at bay, but Lili knew from experience that it would be heady and sweet, its onslaught as vivid as the colours.

She peered closer, pressing her face against the well-polished panes.

From what she could see of the shop and the cool green and aqua tiles covering its walls, the interior had also been crafted with care.

It would have been a haven of calm, if it hadn’t been jammed solid with customers.

As Lili pushed the door open, the clamour spilled out, drowning the bell’s soft chime. The order requests and the cries of, ‘I’m coming,’ and, ‘Give me a minute and I’ll get to you,’ rising up from behind the besieged counter were relentless.

Which is perfect too.

As Lili had hoped, the shop wasn’t only pretty to look at; business was thriving.

Its location close to the U-Bahn station made it the ideal choice for the workers flowing in and out of the area who were in need of a bunch of flowers to say I love you or I’m sorry with more elegance than their clumsy words ever could.

Who will disappear just as quickly if no one sorts out this muddle.

Lili had been wondering how to introduce herself to the shop’s owner and now she knew.

She wriggled her way through the foot-tapping customers until she reached the counter’s hinged opening.

Then she slipped through that, deposited her hat and coat on a nearby stool, and grabbed a handful of the stems scattered across the marble top.

‘Let me help you.’

Lili didn’t wait for a response from the frazzled woman trying to hold back the throng.

She added the last blooms to an almost finished bunch and tied a pink ribbon round the bundle with a practised hand, taking orders from the next two people in line as she did so.

She shook her head in a perfect imitation of her mother as a man requested a horribly clashing colour combination and guided him effortlessly towards a prettier choice.

She plucked and prinked and wrapped until every bouquet leaving the shop looked as if it had cost twice its value.

And when the last customer finally left, she pushed her thick honey-blond hair back into its bun, picked up a broom and began sweeping the fallen leaves and tissue-paper trimmings into a neat pile.

Her mother had kept high standards: leaving an untidy floor at the end of the day was as unacceptable as adding orange flowers to a wedding arrangement.

The woman who had battled at Lili’s side for the last hour sighed with relief.

‘Well, whoever you are, you’re a treasure and a godsend – the last hour of the day always seems to run away with me.

I assume you’ve come about the assistant’s position?

’ She nodded to a sign pinned on the door.

‘It’s yours obviously, and thank goodness for it.

And I can’t promise anything, but I’ll put in a good word for you with the new owners, if any new owners ever appear.

Money’s tight out there, even for a business as solid as this one. ’

And there it was: the third perfect moment of a perfect day, and the key to Lili’s new life.

Work hard and be a good German. That’s all that matters in the end. That’s what will count when this nonsense is over.

Her father had clung hard to those rules his whole life. Now they were all Lili had to guide her, even if hard work and being the very best German he could be hadn’t saved him.

And this isn’t the time to be dwelling on that.

Lili pushed his voice out of her head. The tears her father’s memory inevitably caused would turn her even younger than the eighteen years she could claim, and that wouldn’t help her case. She put the broom down, wiped her hand on her skirt and stuck it out for the startled woman to shake.

‘That’s a really kind offer, so thank you. But I haven’t come about the job. I’ve come to see the books.’

It was done.

There were still lawyers to consult and contracts to sign, but – with a deposit that had made the owner’s eyes shine and finally stop saying, ‘But you’re barely more than a child’ – the flower shop was now firmly Lili’s.

It was a heady moment, and a relief after visiting three other businesses who were struggling to get by and not what she wanted at all. She was glad the pavements had quietened a little when she stepped back outside – she needed a moment to stand still.

My new life starts here.

She stared at the shop, her heart bursting with wonder.

It’s mine. She patted the wood trim and the glass and glanced up at the sign: Berlin Blooms. That had a nice ring; that could stay.

The aqua and green tiles could stay too, but the window displays, as pretty and eye-catching as they were, needed more drama.

Lili’s head instantly filled with centrepieces which would change with the seasons.

A fountain of cherry blossom in April; a rainbow of roses in June.

With bouquets fit for every purpose and wallet, wrapped in crisp tissue paper and trailing ribbons which matched the seasons – lemon for spring, orange for autumn, and crimson and gold for Christmas.

Mother would love it; she’d shine in there.

Lili caught her breath in a gulp as a vision of Marie laughing behind the counter rose up and wrong-footed her. Her mother had always had such a zest for life, but the illness that snatched her away far too soon had cared nothing for that.

I’ll bring her back; I’ll bring her here.

Lili blinked away her tears and slipped her hand into her bag where she kept the fading photograph of her mother tucked into an inside pocket. She’d find an artist who could copy it and capture Marie’s beauty.

I’ll put her painting behind the counter so she’s always with me, cheering me on.

That thought brought the sun out again and lifted her mood. This was a day for celebration after all, not one for letting sorrows – old or new – take hold of her.

‘Storm! Storm! Storm!’

Lili whirled round as rough voices swelled in the distance. It was a mistake; it had to be. Her hearing was playing tricks on her. She’d been lost in Leipzig and grief for a moment or two, but that part of her life was over. That was, after all, what she’d come to Berlin to escape.

‘I understand the impulse to leave Leipzig after what you’ve suffered, my dear, truly I do, especially as you’ve no family left here.

And you certainly have ample resources if that’s the route you choose.

But give it some thought; that’s all I ask.

Don’t just run – make some kind of a plan.

Because they’re everywhere, Lili. They’re not some sickness confined to Leipzig.

And there’s no guarantee that things will go any better for our kind in Berlin. ’