Page 48 of The Wedding Dress Repair Shop
Music played as the visitors strolled about, greeting friends, staring at newcomers and sipping the water – which I tried and found to be quite disgusting.
Lady Bugle introduced me to those of her acquaintance present, including her greatest friend, Mrs Gorringe, who, most fortunately, had her granddaughter Leticia staying with her. Letty was a merry, brown-haired girl, only a little older than I, and was staying with her grandmother in order to obtain a little town polish before she came out during the London Season in the following year.
Practically from the moment we set eyes on each other, we became bosom friends and this added immeasurably to my enjoyment of Bath.
We were allowed to walk out together, accompanied only by Letty’s maid, who was a young and silly girl who did not question where we went or what we did, in the way that Hannah had done, though our excursions were innocent enough: to the library, to promenade in the park, or gaze into milliners’ windows. Letty, who had sufficient pin money to buy herself any small trifles that took her fancy, often made small purchases, but I was determined not to weaken and spend the money the squire had given me, which I was sure I would need for my eventual escape, should I find a way of attaining my dream of going on the stage.
*
Letty and I soon confided our secret dreams to each other, though they were, of course, very different.
Letty, who was both pretty and had a modest fortune, expected to make a good marriage after her first London Season. Meanwhile, her grandmother took her to dances held at the Assembly Rooms, as well as to the theatre. On one occasion, to my great delight, I was allowed to go with her, in order to see a benefit performance ofMacbethwith the inestimable Mrs Siddons reprising one of her most acclaimed roles.
Though she was no longer young and at the height of her powers, I was nonetheless quite overcome by her performance. In this I was not alone, for I saw grown men weeping and several ladies in the audience fell into hysterics and had to be removed.
17
Ebb and Flow
I washed up and then went through into my new workroom, leaving Golightly fast asleep in his box. Perhaps he felt safe in there. Who knew? But I hoped it meant he was a bit more chilled about his new surroundings.
There were three keys on my ring, one each for the front door and the workroom, and the third, as I discovered when I tried it, for the door through into the museum.
I resisted the urge to open it because, tempting as it was to take a quick peek, I thought I’d leave my first glimpse until Honey arrived to show me round.
Instead, I filled in the time by starting to rearrange my workspace, which was so big that all the sewing machines, equipment and materials, which had taken up most of the living room and all of the box room in my flat, rattled around in there.
There was plenty of space along the walls for long workbenches, as well as that longed-for cutting table in the middle, and perhaps a computer workstation in the window. The storage room behind would easily take my two hanging rails, with plenty of room to spare for an ironing board – and what luxuryit would be to be able to leave that up all the time and not have to put it away!
The removal men had lined up my three dressmaker’s dummies in one corner, as if they were queuing for a bus and, for some whimsical reason of their own, had placed a polystyrene head at the base of each. They looked oddly grisly, palely loitering there, and I thought they might give Honey ideas for an even more gruesome plot, so I moved the heads to one of the shelves at the museum end of the room.
I began yet another list, headed ‘Workshop’, and wrote: cutting table, workbenches, computer desk … filing cabinet?
I had one trestle table, which I put up, but it looked pathetically small and lost, even with the sewing machines lined up next to it.
That still left a big stack of boxes, bundles and bolts of cloth sitting in the middle of the room like a strange island.
The list of things to source online had grown quite a lot longer by the time Honey tapped at the adjoining door and I let her in.
She was dressed head to foot in black, which seemed to be her favourite colour – a cowl-neck tunic over skinny jeans. The only bit of colour was a covetable pair of carved jade earrings.
‘Hi, Garland!’ she said, and then cast a look around the room. ‘I see you’re getting sorted out already. Are you settling into the cottage OK, too?’
‘Yes, and I love it! I’ve unpacked everything in there except the books and bric-a-brac, but I was saving this room as a treat, because setting it all up ready to start work will be such fun!’
‘If you say so,’ she said. ‘Has this room got everything you need? I had extra electric sockets put in and there’s already a sink in the back room.’
‘It’s perfect and sobig! I’ll be able to have a large cuttingtable, as well as two longer benches and a desk – and still have lots of room to spare.’
‘Do send me the links to anything you need to buy for work and I’ll get Derek to order them as museum business expenses.’
‘I think I should pay for anything I need like that myself, really,’ I objected. ‘I mean, I’ll be using it for my own work, too.’
‘Oh, we can swing it as an expense, don’t worry,’ she said. ‘You won’t have much time for your own work till the museum opens, anyway – and it sounds as if you might be making the costumes for Thom’s marionettes, too, doesn’t it?’
She gave her twisted grin. ‘Simon was obviously reluctant to take it on after his grandmother retired to Brighton, and he sounded desperate to hand it over to someone else!’
‘No, I don’t think it’s his thing, really, but I don’t mind if I do get landed with it. It’ll be a doddle after the miniature costume mannequins. Thom said I should go and see the first of the marionettes he’s carved forThe Murder in the Red Barn,’ I added, and she gave me a sharp sideways glance.
