Page 127 of The Wedding Dress Repair Shop
I knew very well that this would cost more than everything else we’d bought put together, but I said nothing on film.
Our finds were all taken back to their van to be transported to the museum, while we went on to a dress agency in search of Honey’s outfit. It was quite a big place, occupying the upper floor of what might once have been an old barn behind a pub. There were some interesting little shops on the lower floor, which I’d much rather have explored.
I’d already realized Honey was a natural in front of the camera and Cassy was in danger of being completely upstaged.
True to form, as soon as we got there and the filming began, she said, ‘Like Garland, I want to go totally vintage for my outfit, only in a different style.’
‘The vintage rail is over here,’ said Cassy, leading the way and then starting to riffle through the clothes, pulling things out for Honey to see, including two velvet trouser suits.
Honey immediately pounced on one of them. ‘Yves Saint Laurent – and I’msureit would fit me!’
Cassy suggested she try on both trouser suits and also a slinky dark red dress with sequin detail, but Honey dug her heels in over that last one and said she never wore dresses in winter any more because she couldn’t be bothered with tights.
The boxy jacket of the dark blue trouser suit had shoulder pads and the shape didn’t suit Honey in the least. The YSL one, on the other hand, was perfect!
It had high-waisted, straight-leg trousers and a jacket cut on long, fluid lines, with three buttons.
‘That’s it!’ said Cassy. ‘And I’ll find you a lovely vintage top to go underneath – but you’ll have to wait for the reveal to find out what that’s like!’
Honey rather regretfully watched her lovely suit being borne off to the van by one of the team, and then we got into her car and headed back home for a quick lunch and change of clothes for the next shoot, although as Honey pointed out to Cassy,that was pointless in her case since she almost always wore black jeans and a T-shirt.
I just changed my top to a moss-green one and added dark green malachite earrings, which would have to do.
Cassy and the crew turned up and, after a quick look around, shot the scene where Honey and I go out on to the museum steps to meet Cassy for the first time. The sun helpfully came out from behind a big, lavender-grey cloud at the appropriate moment.
After that they invaded my workroom and shot the scene where we were supposed to tell Cassy all about the museum, the wedding dress we needed for the foyer and how lovely it would be if she could help us to find outfits for the museum opening.
I found the whole experience very bizarre, especially doing it out of sequence, but Honey was in her element.
When they’d stopped filming, I explained to Cassy how I meant to embellish the wedding dress and about my hairband thing, while Milly stood by scribbling notes, so Cassy would be able to present it all as her own work when she came back for the next session.
‘That’s it, then, for the moment,’ she said finally, but accepted Honey’s offer of sandwiches and coffee in Pelican House before they set off back to London.
I heaved a big sigh of relief once they’d all headed off through the Rosa-May Garland Room towards the passage. Honey might thrive on this kind of thing, but I felt like a bit of chewed string. Even though it wasn’t yet quite four, I closed up the workroom and retired to my cottage to chill. Early dinner and a quiet night in with Golightly, while watching an old romcom, sounded the perfect antidote to me.
*
Before I went to bed I thought I’d read a bit more of Rosa-May’s journal, which seemed to be developing darker and more ominous overtones, but Golightly scuppered that by jumping on to the keyboard, so I gave up.
He curled up on my knees instead and began making the weirdest noise yet, which quite worried me until I realized it was another variation on his purring.
*
I was up early on Saturday to repair the minor tears in the mermaid dress. Then it was going out exactly as it was, fascinatingly and totally wrecked.
When it was completed, I arranged it on its mannequin upstairs and had just gone back down again when Thom rang to tell me he’d finished the Maria Marten marionette and suggested he bring it over, together with the William Corder one.
So I said fine and went to let him in by way of the cottage. There were a couple of free pegs under a shelf on one wall of the workroom and I got him to hang the marionettes there, so I didn’t forget them.
‘But as I said, there’s no hurry to make the costumes.’
‘Now I’ve finished my sofa covers, I need another project. This will make a nice change. I found—’
I broke off as Honey appeared in the doorway to the staff room. One glance at her face told me she was furious about something!
‘What’s up, Honey?’
‘You know I let Amy Weston’s mother know the museum opening date and about all the publicity I’d be doing over the next couple of weeks, including talking about Amy’s story?’ she said. ‘Well, instead of waiting for my publicity campaign tostart, she went and pre-empted me by giving the story to a local paper! She emailed me with links, as if I was going to be pleased about it.’
