Page 28 of The Wedding Dress Repair Shop
Then Honey asked me tactfully if I was OK for money to pay the mortgage and bills until the flat sold, and also the removal expenses, which was so kind of her, though I still had enough savings to cover everything.
‘How are you getting here yourself? I never asked you if you had a car.’
‘I haven’t. I’ve never learned to drive. I’ll get a train to the nearest station, wherever that is.’
‘Oh, nonsense! I’ll arrange a car and driver when I know the date!’ she said, and wouldn’t take no for an answer.
So that was that sorted. I would travel up like a lady on the day I wanted to move and be there when my belongings arrived.
Despite my inner turmoil over everything that had happened and the suddenness with which my life had so radically changed direction, it was all starting to get very exciting!
*
I’d told Honey that I hadn’t heard anything from Marco directly, but described what Wilfric had said in his email, and that I’d also posted my engagement ring through Marco’s door.
But then I was woken in the early hours two nights running by my phone buzzing on the bedside table.
Each time, it stopped before I could get to it, and each time it was Marco’s number.
I suspected he was writing late in his study and, as he’d done so often in the past, rung me to angst about his new play, bounce ideas off me, or just wanted me to tell him how brilliant he was.
It had only been a reflex action and he’d cut the connection as soon as he’d realized what he was doing.
It was all jangling to the nerves, so after the second time I severed even this tenuous connection between us by turning my phone off at night.
He’d have to finish this play without me and, unless he’d been listening to my advice about following upA Midsummer Night’s Madnesswith another supernatural thriller, and insteadgone back to the stuff his arty friends told him he should be writing, this one might just be his swansong.
Despite the lack of sleep and all the other things I had to do, I’d worked hard on the little costume mannequin over the weekend and finished it, ready to deliver to the V&A. I arranged to see George while I was there: confession time.
And then there would be nothing to stay for, so I’d decided to move on the day the play opened: Monday, 3 September. A time for new beginnings …
11
Cat Flap
I delivered the costume mannequin to the museum shop as soon as it opened on the Monday morning, then had a quick last look at the Rosa-May Garland exhibition, which was to close at the end of September, when everything would be returned to Honey.
Then I had coffee with George in his tiny little office – behind the scenes at the museum, as it were.
His first words, once the coffee was poured and a plate of those scrummy biscuits with a thick coating of dark Belgian chocolate offered, were: ‘I’ve been hearing some very odd rumours about you, Garland – quite unbelievable.’
The cat had apparently already jumped out of the bag.
‘I think you may have to believe them, although I meant to tell you myself,’ I said, putting down my cup and then resolutely describing what had happened.Allof it. I didn’t hold back on the details.
He heard me out, sipping his coffee and occasionally shaking his head, or murmuring ‘Dear, dear!’ in a mildly shocked tone.
‘Do drink your coffee before it goes cold,’ he said when Ifinally came to a stop. ‘And have a biscuit – chocolate always seems very calming, somehow, and you do seem to have been having quite a time of it.’
‘That’s the understatement of the year!’ I said wryly, taking one. ‘And I still can’t believe I behaved so unprofessionally. I mean, destroying the costume after all that painstaking work! But I must have been in a blind rage, because I don’t even remember doing it!’
‘Of course I can’t condone your actions, but clearly you acted under extreme provocation and I expect, after what you overheard, in a state of shock.’
‘Yes, when I overheard Mirrie telling Wilfric how she and Marco had plotted to borrow my wedding dress for the photo shoot and that he was intending to finish with me once the play opened – well, I went sort of numb and icy cold. When I’d dashed into Mirrie’s dressing room and locked the door behind me, the next thing I knew, I had the dressmaking shears in my hand and the costume was in tatters.’
‘That must have been a terrible moment for you, dear Garland, but as I said, you acted under extreme provocation and weren’t really responsible for your actions.’
‘I could hardly believe what I’d done!’
