Page 67 of The Wedding Dress Repair Shop
‘I strongly suspect all we’ll find is broken furniture, useless junk and spiders,’ she said, and then her eye was caught by a marionette hanging on a peg right behind the bench, its face turned to the wall.
‘Is that the William Corder marionette I saw before?’
‘Yes, I’ve strung it now,’ Thom said. ‘I’ll get on with the next one when I’ve finished with the Alchemist here.’
I was about to ask him if he could turn it so we could see the face, when Honey, who was still staring at it, said, ‘I think I feel another plot idea materializing:Strung Up with Hate…’
She snatched up a biro from the workbench, pushed up her left sleeve and added it to the tracings of thoughts already there.
Thom looked slightly startled by this, but I was now quite used to it, although I didn’t even want tothinkabout where she’d run with that idea.
‘I’m coming up the home straight with the first draft ofArmed with Poison– I’m a fast worker once the ideas take shape. It won’t take me long to beat it into submission after that, and then I can get on with the next.’
I shuddered slightly. ‘Weren’t you going to writeThe Bloody Brideafter that one – orThe Bloody Bridegroom?’
‘Probably, but I’ve always got two or three plots simmering on the back burner.’
‘When I was going to bed last night I saw a light on in the upstairs room at the back of Pelican House,’ I said. ‘I thought that was probably you, working.’
‘Yes, I find my mind is most creative in the small hours, and also I like the feeling of being high up, and sort of perched over the garden. My desk is in the overhanging window and I often wonder what’s holding it up.’
‘Perhaps you ought to find out?’ I suggested, slightly alarmed, although I suppose ithadstayed put since Tudor times.
She shrugged. ‘Live dangerously. Unlike me, Viv is a daytime writer. She’s going to work in the garden room off the kitchen. It has an outside door, so she can potter about out there as the fancy takes her.’
‘Is she going to make her home with you now, then?’ I asked.
‘I hope so. We’re going to try it for a few months and see. Her husband’s niece would like to rent her cottage, so we’ll have to pop down there and sort things out at some point soon. We can have any furniture and personal possessions she wants packed up and brought here. There’s plenty of room for it. She wants her own desk and bookshelves in the garden room, too, and all her favourite reference books.’
‘I quite like being surrounded by big, illustrated reference books when I’m working on a new project,’ I said. ‘And I must get a big desk for the workroom and a proper filing cabinet.’
‘Uncle Hugo was a silver surfer and I had his office furniture moved into the first attic when I moved in. That’s when I spotted Rosa-May’s two trunks. You could have a look on Sunday, Garland, and see if it is any use.’
‘Thank you, that would be great.’
‘We might find a few bits and pieces of furniture you’d like for the cottage, too – you never know – although most of what I could see was massive, dark mahogany and Victorian.’
She rolled down her sleeve and tossed the pen back on the bench.
‘Well, I must love you and leave you. I’m doing a live radio interview by phone for a book programme in half an hour and I want to get into the right frame of mind,andwarn Derek not to vacuum outside my study door while I’m at it.’
‘And I’ve just remembered I abandoned my shopping on the doorstep,’ I said, following her out into the sunshine, which still had a lot of warmth in it.
‘It’s Italian night at the pub on Thursdays – Pearl, Simon and I always go, so why not join us?’ Thom suggested to me. ‘I’ve seen you there a few times too, Honey.’
‘I might persuade Viv to come, though she cooks so well the incentive isn’t really there any more,’ she said. ‘Butyoushould go, Garland – meet more people.’
‘I’ll have to see. I’m going to start setting up the workroom today. The cutting table will arrive this afternoon.’
‘Text me if you decide to come to the pub and I’ll wait for you,’ suggested Thom. ‘I usually go over just before seven.’
‘OK, but don’t wait for me if I haven’t texted by then,’ I said,and went off to rescue the abandoned shopping, which fortunately this time did not contain anything frozen.
*
Later, I had a quick look around the market before the cutting table was due to arrive.
There was the usual interesting mix of stalls and I bought some fruit and cheese, then found someone selling fabric remnants – always irresistible. On my way back, I impulse-bought a stack of inexpensive wicker wastepaper baskets, which I thought I could stand bolts of cloth upright in, instead of just leaning them in a corner.
