Page 116 of The Wedding Dress Repair Shop
It didn’t take me long to examine those, and after lunch I updated the catalogue and was just putting the archive box away when Honey brought Cassy Chance over to meet me. It was just as well the charity shop wedding dress had already drip-dried by then, because she wanted to see it.
Cassy was a tall, fair, athletic-looking woman of about my own age, with a disarmingly freckled face and friendly smile, but also with a pair of cool and calculating grey-blue eyes and a brisk let’s-get-on-with-it manner. Not that that was having any effect on Honey, of course, who seemed to have arranged everything to suit herself.
Cassy had had a tour of the museum and heard some of the stories behind the dresses and the Rosa-May collection. She said shelovedmy Titania dress and wasn’t I a clever little thing?
I reallyhatebeing called ‘little’ …
‘Cassy wanted to check out your workroom, to see if it would be suitable for the reveal,’ Honey said.
‘The reveal?’
‘You know, when I bring back the upcycled outfits and some accessories and show them to you. Then you put them on and are blown away by what I’ve done with them, that kind of thing,’ explained Cassy. ‘This room will do very well,’ she added, looking around appraisingly. ‘And Honey says you’ll do the changes to your outfit and the wedding dress yourself.’
‘Yes, I’d prefer that,’ I said, and then fetched the dress and suit to show her.
‘I don’t want to add anything to the suit, but I have some Bakelite jewellery that will look interesting with it, so I’ll only need shoes.’
‘I can sort those, if you give me your size … and maybe you could make some kind of fascinator or hairband?’
‘Hairband, possibly,’ I agreed, then told her what embellishments I intended adding to the wedding dress.
‘Fine, you can go ahead with that once we’ve done the shoot of you and Honey finding your outfits in the shop. We’ve been doing an internet search for something for Honey to wear, so we’ll bring an outfit up with us.’
‘They’re coming back next Friday, Garland, and they’ll film us in Ormskirk finding our outfits, then come back here for shots of Cassy arriving to meet us for the first time and discuss what we need. Then that’s it until they return for the reveal and some filming inside the museum when it’s almost ready to open,’ Honey explained.
‘Isn’t that going to involve a lot of acting?’ I said dubiously. ‘I mean, we’re going to have to pretend to find the dress and our outfits, andthenpretend we’ve never met you before when you come back here!’
‘You’ll be fine,’ Cassy said breezily. ‘It’ll only take a couple of days to film, too, and then later a crew will dash up to catch the actual moment the museum opens, with you both mingling with everyone, and the wedding dress on display in the foyer, too, of course,’ Cassy reeled off. ‘The credits will roll over that at the end. It’s going to make for a great and unusual twist on the regular kind of story!’
I must have looked as reluctant as I felt, because Honey saidencouragingly, ‘It really won’t take up much of your time, Garland, don’t worry.’
‘I wish the museum was opening earlier so we could move this episode to the start of the series,’ Cassy said. ‘But maybe if we get most of it in the can, we can add the closing scenes quickly and still get it out earlier.’
‘Is that even possible?’ I asked, surprised.
‘If you’re determined enough, anything is possible,’ she said, showing all her tombstone-sized white teeth in the kind of smile the wolf probably gave Little Red Riding Hood before gobbling her up.
Rosa-May
Guy had visited his medical man again just before we left London and was persuaded that on our return there, two weeks hence, he would be passed fit for service.
Indeed, he now began to burn with impatience to be off and, as I wrote to Letty, I too longed to shake the dust of Up-Heythram Hall, with its grim, chilly air, lack of congenial society within easy distance, and grudging hospitality, from my feet.
Sophia constantly found fault with my attire, deeming it showy and not at all the thing for the country. But most of my possessions remained packed up, to be stored here – and I certainly had no occasion to wear the beautiful evening dress, inspired by my Titania costume, in which I had first captivated Guy! Sara carefully laid up my finery with lavender against the moths, and we hoped that would keep them at bay till our return.
*
But only a few days after our arrival, events took a sudden turn and our plans were totally overset, for Guy was urgently recalled and was packed and gone the same day!
He left with the promise that he would send his man back for me as soon as possible, but he turned a deaf ear to my entreaties to take me with him as far as London, where I could lodge with Sara and her sister until I could join him. He said it were better I was here, with his family, but I found it hard to believe that he could abandon me to those who were still uncongenial strangers, so soon after I became a bride!
But so it was – and as days turned to weeks, my only amusement has been the writing of this account of my life to date.
36
Will to Succeed
I met Pearl, Simon and Thom in the Pink Elephant just after five on Friday, to tell them how the meeting with the TV person went. Having a light early supper there saved me the effort of cooking anything later, too.
