Page 133 of The Wedding Dress Repair Shop
She’d been dark-haired in the old photograph, so probably suited her head-to-foot crimson costume.
White was not then the most popular colour for a wedding dress, especially if, like this one, it would be put into regular use later.
While I was still contemplating the strange ways of love, Honey came in via the staff room, yawning heavily, and said this was way too early for her and she’d be glad when thingscalmed down in a couple of weeks and she could sink back into her nice, comfortable routine of killing people in print.
‘It’s after half past nine, not that early,’ I pointed out, but she said itwasif you were usually wide awake into the early hours.
‘But the post has been andI’vehad a printed anonymous letter that looks just like the one Sonia Weston got, except it doesn’t call me an old witch.’
‘Really? What does yours say?’
She shrugged. ‘Just that if I don’t take Amy Weston’s dress off display and shut up about it, I’ll be sorry.’
‘That’s definitely a threat,’ I said worriedly. ‘And after all the museum publicity, everyone must realize you live here in Great Mumming. Are you going to take it to the police?’
‘I don’t think so. Amy’s mum didn’t. Besides, I’ve had far worse threats on social media, obviously thinking I was some kind of man-hater.’ She gave that slightly wicked, tilted grin and added: ‘But Idolike men, even if I couldn’t eat a whole one.’
‘Seriously, Honey,’ I persisted, ‘I do think you should give it to the police.’
‘No, I feel sure it’s only an empty threat, probably sent by Amy’s fiancé, though itisinteresting.’
She didn’t say in what way, but just then we were interrupted by the arrival of the TV van pulling into the disabled spaces in front of the museum and after that the pace was just non-stop.
*
Three hours later, we’d done the scene where we greeted Cassy on the steps of the museum, the one where the clothes were being carried in from the van, as if they had brought them with them, and then the ‘reveal’ scene in my workroom, where thewedding dress and veil went back on the dummy I’d just removed them from, to be admired by us.
After that, Honey and I took turns to go behind a screen and emerge wearing our new outfits. The shoes they’d had dyed to match my dress and jacket did look lovely, as did Simon’s hairband, which I had to admire as if I’d never seen it before!
They’d found Honey a blackberry-coloured sequined top from the fifties to wear under her black velvet YSL trouser suit and she wore her own black suede boots with it. She looked very striking, with her bobbed black hair, dark eyes, natural pallor and bold red lipstick: a verycouturevampire.
Before the reveal I’d explained to Cassy what I’d done to the wedding dress and about the hairband, so she could relay that back to us as if she’d carried out the work herself … and it all got just as confusing as the day we filmed in Ormskirk, so I only hoped they managed to put all the bits together in the right order.
The final footage they shot was of me in the foyer, putting the wedding dress and veil on to the mannequin in the window; then that was it, as far as I was concerned. Honey took them round the museum so they could film some of the costumes already on display, and then they were to have sandwiches and coffee in Pelican House before setting off back to London.
Honey had woken up again and was still full of energy and enthusiasm when I retreated into my workroom and thankfully closed the door behind me, limp as a wet lettuce.
She was setting out for London later too, as soon as the TV crew had gone, although I didn’t think she’d be hitching a lift with them. The back of a van certainly wasn’t her style!
*
Thursday dawned bright, sunny but cooler. There was definitely a hint of autumn and woodsmoke in the air now.
I hoped the weather was the same in London, and that Honey would have a lovely day of events leading up to the evening’s launch ofBloody Young Men.
She’d be back on Friday, and the thought of how pleased she’d be to find I’d finished the penultimate dress of the collection spurred me on.
The box for the Bartered Bride’s costume was huge, even though it didn’t contain the modest hooped petticoat it needed under the skirt. That hadn’t survived, but I’d ordered one after my earlier brief examination, and it was already on the more generously proportioned of my new dressmaker’s dummies.
The waist of the bodice wasn’t tiny, but the dress was definitely made for someone with the generous hourglass figure that was fashionable in the mid-Victorian era.
I caught a hint of old lavender when I opened the lid and began to take out the various parts of the costume. This was a dress with several separate elements, a sort of Victorian mix-and-match.
The separate bodice, sleeves and skirt of the dress were made in bright crimson silk satin, trimmed with red lace. The bodice, which had small cap sleeves, was corseted and curved down into a point front and back over the skirt, which would flare out over its hooped petticoat.
That was the basic gown, but there was also a pair of long, close-fitting sleeves, with white lace at the cuffs, designed to fit under the cap ones, and appear part of the dress.
And then, as if this were not enough, there was an overdress of very thin red muslin with self-coloured floral embroidery and red and white lace trim, which went high up to the neck and down to the end of the sleeves.
