Page 40 of The Wedding Dress Repair Shop
‘Sounds … interesting,’ Pearl said. ‘Pop in tomorrow, if you have time and if you’ve recovered enough,’ she added.
‘Thanks – I’ll see how it goes,’ I said.
Viv had quietly melted away into the kitchen, so I asked Honey to give her my thanks for a lovely dinner and headed for the hall.
‘I’ll walk back with you,’ Thom said.
‘No, don’t. I’d much rather just go alone,’ I replied quickly and probably rudely. ‘There’s no need to break the party up on my account. Goodnight, everyone!’
Honey saw me out. ‘Just text if you need anything, but otherwise, how about if I come over tomorrow after lunch and show you the museum? Or would you rather leave it till you’ve settled in? I don’t expect you to officially start work till Monday, by the way.’
‘I’m dying to see it, so tomorrow would be great,’ I told her.
‘Then I’ll come through the building and tap on the door to your workroom at one, shall I?’
‘OK,’ I agreed and, wishing her goodnight, went down the steps and turned through the arch to the mews, feeling a slight sense of escape, although I wasn’t sure from what.
This time I spotted the swinging sign for the bookshop, even if it was too dark to read. There was just one lamp in themiddle of the mews garden and the gleam of the lights I’d left on in the cottage beckoned me home.
I decided to buy a decent pocket torch tomorrow to light up the dark places … and there were still a few dark places in my life that needed illuminating.
But not tonight.
Rosa-May
Bath appeared to me bewilderingly huge and bustling, though I saw little enough of it for the first few days, for my godmother was confined to her bed with a head cold, assiduously tended by her aged, sour and very jealous maid, Hannah.
My sole excursion in those first days was to go, escorted by Hannah, to visit a reading room and circulating library in Milsom Street, in order to change Lady Bugle’s books. It seemed also to be a fashionable meeting place where many fine ladies and gentlemen were gathered. I felt like a drab little sparrow, in my hand-me-down brown pelisse and an outmoded gown of Kitty’s, which I had somewhat inexpertly adapted to fit my much smaller frame. Add to this an unadorned straw bonnet with brown ribbons and a pair of stout, well-worn country boots, and you will well understand why no one took the least bit of notice of me.
I, of course, took in everything! The modish clothes of the ladies and the window of a milliner’s shop on the way home, where I would have lingered, had Hannah but let me.
However, things improved a little once Lady Bugle hadrecovered enough to leave her room,and, having tutted over my meagreand inadequate wardrobe, summoned a dressmaker to furnish me with clothing more suited to my new position.
I had no say in choosing the fabrics or pattern of these garments, of course, but even though everything was to be in depressingly dull shades, and cut with utmost modesty, it was at least all new!
A cloak, simple bonnets, walking boots, slippers, gloves and stockings were brought to the house for approval – my benefactor’s, not mine.
There was nothing among my new possessions to excite the soul of a young girl – for I was then still but sixteen years old – and on examining my reflection in the spotted mirror in my chamber, I thought it was certain that no one would take me for anything other than what I was: a poor relation, at the beck and call of her employer, although there had not, in truth, been a great deal for me to do.
I read sermons and worthy and deeply tedious novels to her by the hour, while she dozed on the sofa, and I answered her correspondence at her direction.
Such duties were not onerous, just very, very dull, and I longed for a letter from Sara, bearing more exciting news than any I would have to impart in return.
15
First Nights
I’d shut the living-room door to the hall when I went out, leaving Golightly with the run of the kitchen and utility room, and since I intended doing that every night, he’d have to get used to it. I wasn’t prepared to share my bed with him permanently … or any other male creature, come to that.
Right now, the single life and throwing myself into my fascinating new job seemed far more attractive prospects.
I found Golightly sitting just inside the living-room door, looking abandoned and pathetic, as if he’d been there for hours, although beyond him I could see a cat-sized dent in the seat cushion of his favourite armchair, and when I skirted round him to touch it, it was still warm.
‘You complete fraud!’ I told him, and he shuffled round to fix his yellow eyes on me, which still held a ‘You left me all alone in a strange place and I didn’t know if you’d ever come back’ expression.
‘I’m not falling for it,’ I said, and he pulled one of his horrendous faces at me.
‘If the wind changes, you’ll be stuck with that expression,’ Iwarned him, before going into the kitchen, where I could see through the open utility room door that he’d made use of his litter tray again and also polished off every last remaining morsel of his dry food. It’s a mystery why he always looks half-starved.
