Page 99 of The Wedding Dress Repair Shop
‘Did you hear that, too, Thom?’ I whispered. ‘Wings and … voices laughing?’
‘Are you away with the fairies, Garland?’ asked Simon, breaking the spell. I hadn’t heard the other two approaching, but there they stood, still hand in hand.
‘Pearl swore she once saw one here – or an angel,’ he continued.
I gave a sort of shiver, but it wasn’t fear or cold, just a coming back to reality.
Thom let me go and said, ‘It’s a place steeped in old magic and it’s easy to believe in an alternative reality up here.’
‘That’s how I feel, too,’ Pearl agreed, and now I saw her more closely, she looked strangely abstracted, as if some new idea had come into her and she wasn’t sure what to make of it.
‘Come on, let’s go and visit the real angels up at the church,’she added, seeming to give herself a sort of mental shake, but I noticed she didn’t release her hand from Simon’s until we reached the better path below the falls.
I suspected it had only just occurred to her that Simon was in love with her, and that she herself might have feelings other than those of friendship towards him. But mixed up with that was probably a feeling that, by acknowledging it, she would somehow be betraying the love she’d had for her late husband.
If so, that was at least a step in the right direction … so long as Simon didn’t try and rush things.
*
Despite Pearl’s protests, Thom drove us up to the church by way of the scary back road he’d mentioned earlier – and it really was scary, because as well as being narrow, rough and steep, with hairpin bends, there was a deep storm drain on one side and a sheer drop on the other.
Eventually it brought us out on the edge of the larger village of Thorstane, where, by some historical quirk, the ancient little church of St Gabriel’s, with its squat, square tower and air of having grown there, lay just outside the parish boundary.
‘Jo-Jo has two even smaller churches in the middle of nowhere, as well as this one,’ Pearl said.
‘If this is the parish church for Jericho’s End, the parishioners must have had a lot of stamina to climb up the hill to it,’ I said.
‘Oh, there’s a much easier path running up from behind the pub. They used to use that,’ Simon said.
The church was unlocked. There was no sign of the vicar, or of anyone else, just a great sense of age and peace.
The interior was simple, with white-painted walls, dark wooden pews with carved ends, and beautiful old windows, especially the Gabriel one.
He occupied the window behind the altar, centre stage, as it were.
‘You can tell who it is because he’s holding a lily,’ Pearl informed me.
‘Yeah, and that banner with his name on is a dead giveaway, too,’ put in Simon with a grin, and Pearl gave him a look. He said hastily, ‘Nice white frock, though.’
‘Robe,’ she said, though the corner of her mouth twitched.
‘I like all the jolly little angels flying around in the top part,’ Thom said. ‘The one in the pink robe is my favourite.’
I peered upwards. ‘I think I like the one in yellow. He looks as if he’s about to blow a raspberry.’
‘I sit and look at that window every Sunday morning,’ said Simon. ‘Generations of villagers must have done that too, so it’s not surprising there’s this whole angel or fairy business over the waterfall.’
‘Perhaps not,’ I said, thinking the church would be a lovely venue for a wedding – one with just the closest of family and friends in attendance.
I crossed my fingers and hoped it might be Pearl and Simon’s, one of these days.
*
When we got back to the mews, Pearl said she had some work to do and would see us all in the pub later, then vanished into her cottage, leaving Simon looking after her like a kicked puppy.
‘I’ll see you later, too. I must go and spend some time withGolightly,’ I said, and turned away, although Thom paused to say something to Simon before catching me up.
‘What did you say to him?’ I asked curiously.
