Page 94 of The Wedding Dress Repair Shop
The only other thing in the box was a long, folded veil – in fact, very long, when I laid it out on the table, with a very pretty front of fabric flowers.
It was absorbing work and I’d only stopped long enough fora quick sandwich and coffee at lunchtime, because the howling of my stomach sounded like a whole pack of ravening wolves.
Later, when I’d just carefully packed everything back into the box and replaced it on the shelf in the back room, I became conscious of the distant sound of workmen doing something or other, coming from the direction of the museum.
Then I heard Honey call from the staff room: ‘Garland, are you there? If you aren’t in the middle of anything, do come out and see the new sign they’ve just put up!’
‘On my way,’ I called back, and went out through the foyer, where both pairs of double doors were open, and down the steps, to admire the large new sign, which read:
THE WEDDING HOUSE
A LITTLE MUSEUM
OF BRIDAL MISFORTUNE
The logo of a wedding cake house, split down the middle, from top to bottom, was painted on one side and it gave the opening times and days underneath.
‘Perfect,’ I said. ‘And those pots look wonderful too,’ I added, noticing that they had now been planted up with large, bushy curry plants.
‘I thought the whitish foliage and yellow flowers would look interesting against the antique effect of the terracotta pots,’ Honey said. ‘The gardener was all for clipped box trees but I find those so boring – and box smells horrible, anyway.’
She pointed out two car parking spaces for the disabled just outside the door. ‘Those can be booked in advance via the website, and everyone else can park in the market square. Getting a wheelchair over these cobbles would be hell. I’m having a ramp made for one side of the steps, too.’
‘You seem to have thought of everything!’
‘There’ll always be something I’ve forgotten and there are still a few small finishing touches to the inside of the museum to be done, too. The display units will have to be fitted when they arrive and the electricians will sort out the lighting inside them. I want a spotlight shining down on the Bloody Bride’s dress.’
‘Then all I have to do is fill them up with the dresses,’ I said. ‘Easy-peasy!’
She grinned. ‘With all the ones you’ll have finished by then, anyway. How are you getting on? Derek showed me the latest list of mannequins we need, so I know you’ve made a good start.’
‘Well, they’re all measured, but now I’ve begun a more detailed examination of each one, so that’ll take a lot longer. Some of them are more complicated than others, or will need extra attention,’ I said. ‘I’ve just completed the first one, from 1918, and it really needs nothing much more than a gentle pressing before it goes on display.’
‘I’m sure by opening day you’ll have completed work on most of the dresses. And don’t forget we’ll already have the kernel of the collection ready to go out: the Rosa-May material, my dress, yours and the Bloody Bride’s!’
‘That’s true,’ I conceded. ‘I hadn’t thought of it like that. Everything still has to be set up, though – not to mention the reception desk and shop.’
Honey made a gesture as if brushing my objections away like cobwebs. ‘The first of the renovated display units arrives this Friday and most of the rest at the start of next week, so, providing we meet all the rules and regulations relating to buildings open to the public, there should be no problem. I’ll set Derek on to that. He so enjoys wrestling with bureaucracy.’
I hoped she was right and I said I, too, would do my best, but without cutting any conservation corners, since George, when he came to visit, was bound to notice.
‘Fair enough,’ Honey said breezily. ‘And anyway, I expect once we open we’ll get a stream of donated dresses, so your work will be ongoing. In fact,’ she added, ‘we’ll probably start to get more once I mention the museum when I’m promoting my new paperback,Bloody Young Men. It comes out on October the fourth, not much more than a week before the museum opens its door.’
I was feeling a bit dazed by now, but she was unstoppable. ‘Of course, I’ll be including the story behind the Bloody Bride’s dress, too. It would be great if the mystery got resolved through the museum, wouldn’t it?’
‘Yes, it would, but don’t you think you should start calling her by her name, Amy Weston, rather than her tabloid tag? What withBloody Young Men, it might all be a bit too much …’
‘You’re right, and of course I need to remember that sheisa real person and not a fictional one. Still, any publicity might stir up people’s memories and resolve the riddle.’
‘Or it might just stir up a lot of murky stuff,’ I said, and then shivered slightly, for no particular reason.
*
Before I finally stopped work for the day, I switched on the computer and updated the museum catalogue with all the new information from my notes.
Then, as I got up to stretch, thinking about my dinner and a quiet evening in, my mobile rang and it was Miss McNabb.
‘Would that be you, Garland?’ she asked, sounding even more Scottish than before, if that was possible.
