Page 95 of The Wedding Dress Repair Shop
‘It would – I mean, itis,’ I replied, thinking she’d probably rung to ask after Golightly again.
However, she immediately launched into an account of a phone call Marco had made to her that morning.
‘He got my number from the letting agency, so they’ll be getting a piece of my mind, and no mistake!’ she said grimly.
It was like Marco to weasel private information out of people!
‘What did he want?’ I asked, though I was fairly sure I already knew the answer.
‘My address, because he seemed to assume you were with me in Scotland, of all things! So, of course, I told him you were not, though he took a bit of convincing.’
‘He’s mad! I can’t imagine why he should think I was with you,’ I said. ‘But I’m sorry he bothered you.’
‘Nae bother! I told him I didn’t know where you were, and wouldn’t tell him even if I did.’
‘Quite right. Idon’twant him to know, though he might work it out eventually. He’s been trying to contact me and I’ve been ignoring him in the hope he’ll lose interest and stop.’
‘Since he is so persistent, perhaps it might be best to reply to him just the once, to tell him to cease bothering you?’
‘I think I might have to,’ I agreed, and then told her all about Golightly’s adventures in the great outdoors.
*
Thursday was officially my day off, but I wanted to carry on working in the morning, before my trip to Jericho’s End with Pearl, Thom and Simon.
First, though, since it was market day, I went out very early and bought fruit, salad and some rather nice cheese, before searching out the fabric stall I’d spotted last time.
It had had a lot of vintage-style furnishing fabric, and I hoped I might find something there I could cover the sofa in.
I fancied something over-the-top chintzy, and by great good fortune the woman on the stall had an end roll that wasperfect, though I’d probably have to cover the cushions in something different, to tone with it.
I staggered back home with the bags and the bolt of cloth, which was almost as tall as I am, and as I thankfully let myself into the cottage Golightly nearly sent me flying by coming out to meet me and twining himself round my ankles.
There was a time for random gestures of feline affection, and this was not one of them … unless, of course, he really was trying to trip me up.
After I’d put everything away, I spread the fabric over the back of the sofa to admire the effect, which was everything I wanted. I’d wash and press the old cover, then take it apart to make a pattern from it and, once the pieces were cut out, it would just be a question of machine-sewing a lot of long seams.
But meanwhile, it was still early and the call of the workroom and the next of the dresses was irresistible.
Dress 3
The Bombed Bride
1940
This was another war bride, but a later one, and a sadder story.
The young couple were both Londoners and had been engaged before the start of the war. He became a fighter pilot, while she moved out of London to the country when the German bombing raids got severe, to work on her uncle’s farm.
They decided to get married in the village church while he was on leave in mid-September of 1940 and the bride hadalready had her dress made from the silk of a damaged parachute her fiancé had given her.
Honey had made a note at that point, saying that so far as she could discover, this was the first instance of parachute silk being used for a wedding dress. Perhaps the newspaper reporting of the events that followed put other brides off the idea, in case it was unlucky, for one German plane, unable to get through to drop his bombs on London, instead released them over the village just as the wedding was taking place.
One landed right next to the church, at the moment when the groom was taking the bride’s hand to put the ring on her finger … and when the surviving members of the congregation dug them out, they were still holding hands, crushed to death under the rubble.
They were buried together in the churchyard and the gravestone engraved with the words: ‘In death, they were not divided.’
It was all so sad that as I carefully laid the dress out on the table, I felt tears come into my eyes.
