Page 18 of A Secret Cornish Wish
Rose lowers the dress. ‘This isn’t working for you, is it?’ she asks, looking me directly in the eye, so I have no choice but to tell the truth.
‘I’m really sorry, Rose. It’s so kind of you to have me here and to offer me your dresses. They’re all very beautiful, and I’m sure would have looked amazing on you back then.’
‘But they’re just not your cup of tea?’
I shake my head.
‘Not a problem, dear. Not a problem at all. Let me just go and hang them back up again.’
Rose lifts all the hangers from the sofa and, with a rustling of net petticoats, escorts them back to her bedroom.
I feel awful. I didn’t even try one on.
I get up and go over to the French windows once more and look out at the view. The tide is coming in and the waves are strong and high as they roll into the bay.
Wait, what’s that?I see something splashing about in the sea a little way out from the beach. There it is again! It’s the same thing I saw on Saturday when I was having my lunch – a large fishlike tail flipping about in the water.
I’m about to step out onto the balcony to see if I can see it any better when Rose returns.
‘I was just hanging the dresses up in my old wardrobe, when I noticed this at the back,’ she says as I turn away from the view back towards her. ‘This dress was my mother’s, so it’s not from the same era as mine. It’s from the late 1920s, I think, possibly early thirties? I wondered if it might be more your thing?’
I look at the dress she’s holding up – it shimmers in the sunlight coming in through the window behind me. The dress is covered in rows and rows of overlapping blue, green and turquoise sequins, which make it look like the scales of a fish as it catches the light.
‘It’s a flapper dress – I think.’ Rose frowns. ‘I was always a bit too . . . I like to call itcurvy, to wear it. But you would be able to carry it off much better than I ever could.’
Rose is clearly referring to my figure, which, unlike Mandy’s voluptuous curves, is fairly straight up and down. So a dress like Rose is holding would likely hang on me like its hanging on its silk, padded hanger right now.
‘I can see by your expression that you like this one a little more,’ Rose says while I gaze at the dress. ‘Why don’t you try it on?’
‘It’s like a fish,’ I say, walking towards her. ‘A fish’s scales, I mean – the colours are beautiful, especially when it catches the light.’
‘I’ve always thought so too.’ Rose looks at the dress with me. ‘Go on, try it, Frankie. What have you to lose? My bedroom is just across the hall there.’
I take the dress from Rose and head into her bedroom. I slip off my uniform, then I unzip the back of the dress and pull it up over my legs and hips. Finally, I place my arms through the delicate narrow straps, pulling them up onto my shoulders, where, to my surprise, they sit perfectly.
In fact, the whole dress seems to fit perfectly. It’s neither too big nor too tight anywhere. It’s as if it was made for me.
Rose knocks on the door. ‘Are you decent?’
‘Yes, come in.’
‘Well.’ She pauses in the doorway as she sees me. ‘Don’t you look a treat!’
‘It does seem to fit quite well.’
‘It fits you perfectly, Frankie. Turn around for me?’
I spin slowly around so Rose can see the dress from all angles.
‘You look simply beautiful,’ Rose says, looking pleased. ‘It’s like there’s a beautiful mermaid standing in my bedroom.’
I stare at her for a moment. I’ve not told Rose anything about our act at all – let alone the name.
‘Oh, have I said the wrong thing?’ she asks anxiously.
I shake my head. ‘No, you’ve said the best thing actually. Not only does this dress fit me perfectly, but it will also be perfect for the entire evening.’
I look in Rose’s antique walnut mirror again.
