“He can’t possibly do that. He’ll be a laughing stock!”
There had been much talk of this kind since Reggie, dozy article that he was, had come into a bit of money. A bit – well, quite a lot, if truth be told, though he was vague about the exact amount. Typical of Reggie, people said – comes into a fortune and doesn’t even know how much. The consensus of opinion, though, was that there was enough to set him up for life, properly invested. And what does the fool do? He buys himself a racehorse.
“So what have you named this nag, Reggie old boy?”
“He’s called Pink Gladiolus.”
“Ye gods! You can’t call it that!”
“It’s Latin,” said Reggie, disappointed with this reception. “It means a little sword. I thought it sounded positive. Thrusting. And I have heard you chaps speak of the Pink Gladiolus, whatever it is, in terms of great approval.”
Too much education and not enough sense was Reggie’s trouble, people said. The Pink Gladiolus, in point of fact, was a club of rather questionable reputation known to all the young gentlemen, although not frequented by Reggie himself.
Reggie looked hurt – wounded, even – but at heart he was smiling. The racehorse was, for him, a mere distraction. He had known people would laugh at that name. It was all part of the plan. Placed it firmly in their minds. He had bought the Pink Gladiolus Club very secretly. And he planned to take a great deal of money from all his laughing friends in the gambling den he proposed to set up there.
Acting like an idiot could be very profitable, and he had played the part a long while – which was how he had come into the ‘bit of money’ in the first place.
Reggie kept up the pretence. “You’ll change your tune when Pink Gladiolus wins the Derby,” he said, sulkily. How they laughed. But however the horse fared, Reggie knew he’d be winning the jackpot shortly.

Kathy Sharp is the author of fabulous fantasy novel Isle of Larus http://tinyurl.com/olfyskv and the exciting sequel Sea of Clouds http://amzn.to/1wYCPH0