Page 91 of The Wedding Dress Repair Shop
I petered out at this point and looked uncertainly at her. She had been nodding and making encouraging noises throughout, but it must have seemed a tangled and incoherent story.
‘I’m so sorry for unloading all that on to you,’ I said. ‘I don’t suppose it even made sense!’
‘Oh yes, I managed to follow it perfectly,’ she assured me. ‘What a terrible trauma you and Thom suffered as children, when your parents were killed – and poor Thom had already lost his own mother by then, too.’
She shook her head sadly. ‘It was bound to affect all your future relationships. And then, of course, I can understand why he would have been hurt and angry that you had taken up with this Marco.’
‘He didn’t believe me when I assured him Marco had changed. I was sure at the time that Thom was holding something back and now I know what it was: the affair Mirrie was having with Marco when she was married to Leo.’
‘I see. And since the three of them had become so close on the film sets, that must have been a severe blow to him,’ she said. ‘But he should not have held that information back from you.’
‘No, he shouldn’t … though I was so madly in love with Marco at the time, it might not have made any difference,’ I said honestly. ‘I think if Leo hadn’t died, Thom wouldn’t have completely cut contact with me, although of course I can see now that with Marco around, our relationship could never have been the same.’
‘Very true – but do drink your tea before it gets cold,’ Jo-Jo urged me, and I suddenly realized that I must have been eatingmy way through my confession, because the cake stand before me was almost empty!
‘So,’ she said, pouring herself a last cup from the teapot, ‘Thom vanished up here to make a new life for himself and you stayed in London with Marco, pursuing your own career?’
‘We got engaged and I threw myself into my work. Then when the Rosa-May Garland exhibition opened at the V&A, I took Marco to see it and it inspired him to write a new play,A Midsummer Night’s Madness.’
I stopped and looked uncertainly at her. ‘If you don’t mind listening to me going on, I think I’d better tell you about the last part of the sorry saga.’
‘Yes, do go on if you want to,’ she urged. ‘I’m very happy to listen.’
‘Thom, Honey, Pearl and Simon all know this part,’ I said, and launched into the scene at the theatre, which had brought down the final curtain on my engagement and my career.
When I’d finished, Jo-Jo leaned forward and patted my hand, saying warmly, ‘You poor child!’
There was such kindness and understanding in her voice that it brought tears to my eyes.
‘I hope Great Mumming will provide a safe and happy haven for you, just as it has for Thom, and I’ll pray that you find it in your heart to forgive him for leaving you in an agony of worry about him for so long.’
How well she understood me!
‘Ihaveforgiven him with my head, it’s just my heart that’s taking a little time,’ I said wryly. ‘When I saw him standing there in his workshop doorway on the day I arrived, I felt such a rush of mixed emotions that I wanted to kill him and hug him at the same time!’
‘I can imagine,’ she said with a twinkle. ‘But I’m sure Godmeant you to find each other again, and forgiveness will come in time.’
‘I expect it will, but we can’t turn back the clock and resume the same close friendship we had before, can we? Things seem the same on the surface but … perhaps not underneath.’
‘No, you can’t pick up where you left off, but there’s no reason why you shouldn’t create a new and stronger relationship, is there?’
‘That is pretty much what Thom suggested the other day.’
‘Then why not try? The foundations are there. If you accept that he did what he did because he thought it was in your best interest, however misguidedly, you should be able to forgive him.’
‘I can try,’ I agreed.
‘I think you have something worth the attempt, Garland.’
She looked at the table, empty apart from used crockery and crumbs, and sighed deeply. ‘My inner woman is replenished, and now I’m off to visit my former parishioner – and if it’s a good day, she will know who I am … and if it’s a bad one, she’ll just eat the box of chocolates I take her and stare at me as if she’s never seen me before!’
Then she added benignly: ‘Thank you so much for sharing your story with me, and may the Lord bless you and help you find the way to happiness and contentment.’
The booth did feel as if it had been a confessional and I’d certainly indulged in a long bout of spiritual blood-letting.
As I watched her leave, I felt quite shattered, but also, quite suddenly, filled with a burst of probably totally unfounded optimism!
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