Jack scoffed, hoisting the pail. “Never rains on Lavender Hill. You know the rhyme.”

The first drop fell not as water, but as a petal. A single, deep-violet lavender blossom drifted down and landed on Jack’s nose. Then another. Then a hundred. The sky didn’t open with water—it shattered with lavender. A torrent of purple petals, thick as a blizzard, pouring from the clouds in fragrant, swirling drifts.

“Jack!” Jill cried, grabbing for him.

But Jill was right.