Page 131 of The Wedding Dress Repair Shop
‘I think at this point, we’d all like to know where he’d got to,’ said Thom.
‘He’d drunkenly driven off the road and through a hedge, so it was a while till he was spotted. Hesaidhe’d gone for help, but I suspect he thought he’d killed Charlie, lost his head and was running off back to London.’
‘So, it was just a drunken fight?’ Pearl asked.
‘Yes, and Charlie actually got his head wound by falling against the corner of the coffee table. So no one got charged with anything and the story just fizzled out.’
She looked at me. ‘I’ve told you all this already, Garland, but what Ididn’tsay was that when I arrived at the cottage it was clear Nick and Charlie had been sharing the bedroom and, from what Charlie let slip in his ramblings, had been having a long affair. The argument was because Charlie threatened to stand up in church and tell everyone. He was, not surprisingly, jealous.’
‘But … if Nick is gay, why was he marrying you?’ I asked.
‘He is bisexual. He told me so when he turned up a few weeks later to apologize. He said he loved me, though actually, I think my money was a big part of the attraction. I’d inherited a lot from my father and was in line to be Uncle Hugo’s heir, too. That’s when I hit him,’ she added, with satisfaction. ‘I feltsomuch better after that; I quite forgave him, especially since it added a bit of spice to my novels and led to my huge success!’
She grinned round at us. ‘There’s a sort of happy-ever-after to the story too, because eventually Nick and Charlie got back together again and settled down. I see them at events sometimes.’
‘So if they’re together, I don’t suppose they really mind you telling the whole story now,’ Simon said.
‘No, because it’s not like I’m outing them or anything. I think Charlie, at least, saw the funny side, so I expect they’ll turn up to the opening.’
‘It’s going to be a memorable day in more ways than one!’ Thom said.
‘I saw your article in the Sunday supplement this morning, Honey,’ Pearl said. ‘It was very clever how you tied the new book in with the museum and the vanishing bride.’
‘I’ve done a lot of publicity already and there’s even more lined up next week, including a trip to London for the book launch on Thursday, publication day. It all helps sell books and if it also helps solve the mystery of what happened to Amy Weston and promotes the museum at the same time, that’s an added bonus.’
Then she described the donation box for the foyer she was having made in the shape of the wedding cake house we used as a logo.
‘It might part the visitors from their spare change. Derek has been trawling the internet for even more amusing wedding-related gifts we can sell in the shop, too.’
‘I’ll have the museum website finished in the week before opening,’ promised Pearl. ‘There’s a page for the online shop, but we can go live with that later.’
‘Mybig job for the next two days will be blinging up the charity shop wedding dress, ready for when the TV team come back on Wednesday,’ I said.
‘What are you going to do to it?’ Honey asked.
‘Well, it washed beautifully, but I had to remove the fabric roses from the skirt and veil because they’d gone a bit limp and grey, so I’ll have to replace them.’
‘I can help with those,’ volunteered Simon. ‘I may even have something to match in stock. I’ll come across tomorrow and take the old ones, to see what I can do.’
‘Simon, you’re being such a help!’ I said gratefully. ‘If you can come up with new roses, then there’s only a jewelled belt for me to make, and perhaps a scattering of crystals on the skirt, under the first layer of tulle.’
‘Will there be time for that?’ said Thom.
‘There will if I use Hotfix crystals – but don’t mention to George when he’s here that I glued anything on!’
‘I still think it’ll take time, so I’ve got a feeling we won’t see much of you for the next couple of days,’ he said.
‘But it’s bound to be finished by Tuesday evening, so you can come to the book group?’ Pearl suggested.
‘It will have to be finished then, with the TV shoot the next day – so yes, I’ll be there!’ I said.
*
Not surprisingly, I was up and working on Dress 14 at the crack of dawn on Monday morning – and actually, dawn didn’t so much crack as delicately expand itself behind the rooftops in pale candyfloss pink.
I shook out a few creases – oh, the joy of polyester! – and then slipped it on to a dummy over the voluminous underskirt.
It was eye-dazzlingly white, but after some rummaging in my boxes of remnants, I found a piece of white silk satin in exactly the same shade, which I turned into a belt, wider at the front and made to tie at the back. Then I began to embellish it with clear crystals and pearls, sewn on by hand.
