Page 110 of The Wedding Dress Repair Shop
‘I just came back in to have another look at the dress I’ve been working on.’
‘You must be shattered, because you were already tired enough to fall asleep on Baz’s shoulder at the book group last night. Thom said you reminded him of the sleepy dormouse inAlice in Wonderland.’
‘I was a bit past it,’ I admitted. ‘It was nice of him to see me home before you all went to the pub, though. I’m even more tired now, but also sort of edgy and restless, if you know what I mean.’
‘I do, so I want you to come over and have dinner with me. It’s just fish pie and I’ll put it in the oven now. You don’t have to talk much, or stay long, if you don’t want to. It’ll just save you having to cook anything.’
‘That’s really kind of you and I’d love to,’ I said gratefully, and went to change and tell a zonked and unresponsive Golightly that I was leaving him to his own devices for a bit.
Pearl had a glass of red wine waiting for me and made me sit down in her cosy sitting room, while she finished off the dinner. We ate it in her kitchen, which was much longer than mine, with a table at the back in front of the window on to the tiny yard, just like Thom’s, and probably Simon’s, too, if I’d been awake enough to notice my surroundings the previous evening at the book group.
We talked books while we ate, but when we’d finished off the meal with apple tart and thick cream, and returned to the sitting room with our coffee, Pearl said, ‘Now, if you feel like it, tell me what’s been happening in the last couple of days. You were too shattered to make sense at Simon’s last night.’
‘Oh, all kinds of things. It’s been non-stop since Monday morning,’ I said. I filled her in on the delicate Victorian dress I was working on, and everything that had been going on at the museum, before taking a gulp of wine. ‘Honey and Derek have been constantly popping in and out of the museum, though they don’t usually bother me – unlike Marco, who emailed me on Monday evening, suggesting we should get together again. He seems to think if we could meet, he’d be able to explain everything.’
‘That would take a bit of doing!’ she said. ‘He must be deluded.’
‘I’m sure he does believe his own version of events, though even if it was true, it doesn’t excuse his actions in letting Mirrieborrow my wedding dress and having an affair with her, however much or little it meant!’
‘So, did you reply this time?’
‘Yes, threatening him with the police if he kept on stalking me. I think that should fix him once and for all.’
‘Quite right too! That has to be the end of it.’
‘I hope so. I’ve got more than enough to think about without him hanging around my neck like an albatross … and I don’t know why albatrosses should hang around necks anyway.’
‘I suppose now the electricians have finished, you can start putting some of the costumes on display, as you finish with them?’
‘I can, now Derek’s had a clean through after them. When he’d finished, he insisted on showing me all the different ways you could angle the spotlights inside the bigger display cases, although, to be honest, I was totally past taking it in by then. All I really wanted to do was get back to working on that dress!’
‘You said it had been a challenge!’
‘That was mostly due to all the remodelling when the bride had the dress from her first wedding altered for her second.’
‘Frugal!’ commented Pearl. ‘And a bit … weird.’
‘I know, but she wasn’t wealthy so perhaps she was just being practical. Hers is a bittersweet sort of story, really. She was widowed young and never really got over it. Not to mention that her late husband made her promise on his deathbed that she would never remarry.’
‘I think that’s a very selfish thing to do,’ said Pearl. ‘Neil told me he hoped I’d find someone else and remarry. Not that I’ve even given it a thought since …’ she added.
‘He sounds a lovely man,’ I said warmly. ‘But it took theVictorian bride decades to get round to remarrying. Her groom was a former suitor who’d become a devoted family friend when she married her first husband.’
‘Faithful Dobbin, like inVanity Fair?’ suggested Pearl.
‘Yes, but he didn’t get his reward until they were both quite elderly and frail. She was increasingly struggling to manage on a reduced income and he was wealthy and wanted to look after her.’
‘Sweet!’
‘It was, and they seem to have had a few happy years together, even if she didn’t exactly sound like a ray of sunshine: apparently she’d worn mourning all those years and although she came out of it for the wedding, that was only as far as dyeing her original light green dress a very dark emerald.’
‘Maybe she lightened up a bit after that,’ Pearl suggested. ‘She wouldn’t have to reuse old clothes any more. She could go berserk in lavender, grey or heliotrope.’
‘I expect she did, but it’s such a lucky chance that we have not only the wedding dress, but both sets of wedding photographs, although the first one is in faded sepia.’
Pearl shared the last of the wine between us and said, ‘I still have my wedding dress, though I don’t look at it any more. It was made for me by an aunt, so it was exactly what I wanted – plain and unfussy.’
‘I’m sure you looked lovely.’
