Page 108 of The Wedding Dress Repair Shop
Up-Heythram Hall was a long stone building with mullioned windows, and set in an isolated spot on the outskirts of a small village.
The park around it seemed to consist only of scrubby grassland grazed by sheep and a few windblown and spindly trees and shrubs. It quite cast down my spirits, for it was even bleaker and more remote than the parsonage where I had been raised … and on the long journey north, after the rush of getting married and arranging to leave my old life, I had time to ponder the enormous step I had taken.
Guy’s brother, Rafe, and his wife, Sophia, received us coldly but civilly. Where Guy was wiry and energetic, Rafe was spindly and languid – a confirmed invalid, as Guy had told me and seeming to revel in it. His wife was sour-faced and haughty, although she might have been pretty had her expression been pleasanter, but there was no sweetness in her disposition to make it so.
They were childless and, since they had been married some fifteen years, likely to remain so. Now that my sanity had returned a little, I privately hoped my fate would prove the same.
Guy is merry and laughs at his brother, teases Sophia and calls the house a mausoleum … with which opinion I would have to agree.
I was discovering much more about my new husband: he had a most impetuous nature and was in high feather at having succeeded in so summarily carrying me off, against my better judgement and the advice not only of my devoted Sara, but that of Aurelius Blake, who had spoken to me with sincerity and kindness on the subject, before it became clear that nothing could alter my course.
Our marriage accomplished, Guy now began to fret that if he did not get back to his regiment soon, he would, as he put it, miss all the fun, although I would not describe the heat of battle thus!
34
Totally Chilled
The electricians were back early on Monday morning, working in the Rosa-May Room, and when I popped out to tell them I’d unlocked the staff room door so they could make tea, I found someone had screwed a handsome brass plate on the door that read:
The Rosa-May Garland
Collection
I’d expected the next delivery from Priceless Interiors to come late in the morning, like the last one, but I’d barely started on Dress 5 – a sixties mini-dress – when Honey sent me a text to say they’d arrived and, after that, the rest of the morning was all bustle and chaos.
When they’d finally departed, bearing some of the contents of Honey’s attic away with them, she and Derek came back and we had a good look at the new units upstairs, before I helped strip off the red tape from the floor, which had marked where each was to stand. We left the smaller areas of yellow tape for the moment, because Honey hoped Priceless Interiors would find her a few smaller cabinets to fill in the gaps.
‘It’s so exciting now the museum’s really taking shape!’ I enthused.
‘Yes, a couple of days for the electricians to sort out the lighting up here and then it’s pretty well finished,’ said Derek.
‘Perhaps by midweek, you might be able to start setting up the first displays?’ suggested Honey, with her usual optimism.
‘I’ll have to wait for all the workmen to leave first, because of dust. Then it’ll need a good clean through, but yes, after that, there’s no reason why I shouldn’t make a start.’
‘I’ve got Viv to help me finish writing the stories behind the dresses for the big display boards now,’ Honey said. ‘We’ll send the stories to Pearl as well, because that idea of hers for a three-fold leaflet was a good one. There’s the first glossy guidebook to work on, too. I’ll include some of your new information and photos in that.’
‘If it’s going to be printed in time for the opening, I don’t suppose I’ll have completed all the collection in time.’
‘That doesn’t matter, I’m going to subtitle the first brochure as a work in progress, with behind-the-scenes information and photos. I’ll just keep updating that as we get more exhibits. There can be a proper guidebook later. And it’ll all add to the museum revenue.’
The electricians had now moved upstairs, so we left them in peace and went down again.
‘Priceless Interiors told me they might already have found a couple more dark wood display units for the shop and, if they look suitable, they’re going to send me some pics when they get back,’ Honey said. ‘I want one of those rotating metal stands for my paperbacks in the shop, too. We’ll look those up in the office, Derek, so come on, we’ve got work to do!’
*
After the Victorian excesses of the last costume, the white Swinging Sixties mini-dress looked more like a child’s party frock!
It had quite a funny story behind it, too, which had made the local newspapers.
It had been a very small, quiet church wedding, with no family present, just a few friends. When the vicar got to the part where he asked the congregation if anyone knew of any reason for the marriage not to take place, a man and a woman, who were sitting separately right at the back of the church, suddenly stood up simultaneously and said they had! Confusion reigned and then the vicar took the young couple, plus the two objectors, into the vestry to sort it all out.
It transpired that both the groom and bride had made very early and short-lived marriages, but not told each other about them, thinking that since they were so long ago and they’d since started new lives in a different place, they would get away with it!
So, this was a dress from a marriage that never was, but it did have a strangely happy ending, because after a while the four protagonists retired to the nearest pub and, after a few drinks, things calmed down. The fact that an instant attraction seemed to have sprung up between the estranged spouses might have helped, because eventually there were two divorces and then two weddings!
I only had the dress from the first wedding, the one that never quite happened, but I did have a wedding photo from the second ceremony, when the bride had gone for the whole hippie look in flowing muslin.
