The Auction House – Part 1: Lot 42

"Lot forty-two," said Harriet. "A blue and white vase, nineteenth century, some wear. Who will start me at ten pounds?"

The saleroom was packed and warm, rows of bidders in raincoats, phones held up, a man in the back doing a crossword. Harriet stood at the high podium with her gavel, in a black dress and a pair of heels she regretted. She was thirty-two, a junior auctioneer at a London auction house, quick and brisk, with her hair pinned up and a very good voice.

At the side of the room, by the lot-board, Dev held up the vase for the audience to see. He was thirty-six, the head porter, tall, lean, with a quiet face, a brown apron and white cotton gloves, standing very straight. He had carried ten thousand lots in his career. He looked at the vase in his hands with an expression of deep pessimism.

"Ten," said a voice. "Ten pounds."

"Twelve," said another.

Harriet blinked. She glanced at Dev. He raised an eyebrow, a tiny movement, with a trace of a smile. He had bet her a coffee, that morning, that the vase would not make twelve pounds.

"Fifteen," said a woman in a green coat.

"Twenty."

"Thirty."

"Fifty," said the man in the back, putting down his crossword.

The room stirred. Harriet's voice quickened. "Fifty pounds. Sixty. Eighty. A hundred. I have a hundred in the room..."

The vase sold for four thousand two hundred pounds, to a phone bidder in Singapore.

There was a stunned silence, and then a ripple of applause. Dev set the vase gently on the table, face expressionless, and gave Harriet a slow, deadpan bow. She tried not to laugh and failed. She had to pretend to cough.

Afterwards, in the corridor, he handed her a coffee.

"You won," he said.

"It was a vase."

"It was a bet."

"I bet it'd make more than twelve."

"You lost nothing."

"Can I ask you something?" said Harriet.

"Yes."

"How did you know?"

"I didn't," said Dev. "I just wanted to see you smile."

"Green?" she said, a lot number, a light.

"Green," said Dev, going faintly pink. "Very green. Lot forty-three."

Continue the story: Part 2 – Hammer Price.