‘Are you trying to say atelier? It’s French for both shop and workroom.’
‘Yes, that. It has a skylight so no more ruining your eyes in this dark, dank basement – where, by the way, I can see three mousetraps without even having to look for them.’
‘We do have a terrible problem with mice,’ Cress said mildly, but Sophy could see even the talk of vintage frocks was yet to put a fire in her belly. Sophy would settle for even a low flame.
‘It’s in Primrose Hill, right by the canal, which is much easier to get to from your place,’ she went on. Cress lived in Finchley. ‘Just a few stops on the Northern line and of course you’ll be working with me, your favourite stepsister and, quite frankly, Cress, I really need a friend in that place.’
‘Why? Are they mean? Are all the people that work there really intimidating and know everything about fashion and will mock me terribly if I mispronounce Balenciaga or Lucien Lelong?’
Sophy immediately realised her mistake and frantically backtracked. ‘Well, I don’t know who either of those people are but the women in the shopare really nice. Really nice. But they’re all very obsessed with vintage fashion. It’s all they ever talk about.’ Sophy crossed her fingers behind her back, even as she knew a moment of doubt. Was it fair to put Cress in close proximity to Phoebe? God, Phoebe would eat her alive. ‘Look, Cress, you would love the actual job. You’re wasted here. You know you are. You’re always saying how much you hate it.’
Cress looked around anxiously in case anyone had heard that last bit, but she was as usual stuck down in the basement on her own. She’d once said to Sophy that there were times when she felt like the Radio FourWoman’s Hourpresenters were her only work friends. ‘I have very specific skills,’ she said. ‘I don’t mean to be big-headed but I don’t think you could afford me, and I really can’t manage on any less than I get here.’
‘How much do you get here?’ Sophy asked. It was something she’d often wondered and had decided that maybe the fusty old benefactor who’d donated the premises had also left the museum enough money that Cress was paid a pretty hefty wage.
With a put-upon air, Cress wrote something down on a Post-it note and pushed it at Sophy, who read the figure with disbelief. Sophy used to think that she was poorly paid considering she was senior sales associate of an Oxford Street flagship store, but…
‘I know it’s a lot…’
‘Oh my God, Cress! That isn’t even minimum wage. Freddy, he’s Johnno’s business guy, says he can pay you this much.’ It was Sophy’s turn to write a number on the Post-it note and push it back.
Cress gasped like she’d just pricked her finger. ‘This…this is beyond the dreams of avarice.’
‘So, you’ll come and work with me then?’
Cress still wouldn’t seal the deal, even though it thenturned out that she was on a zero-hours contract and that she was pretty sure the mice had fleas because she had some unexplained bites on her ankle. Eventually she agreed to visit the shop the next day, though even that was a battle.
‘I can’t say I have a dentist’s appointment if I don’t have a dentist’s appointment. That would be wrong. And have I mentioned the cassocks…?’
‘If you don’t, I’m going to get that black dress that looks like the one Audrey Hepburn wore in the opening scenes ofBreakfast at Tiffany’sand I’m going to unpick the hem with my nail scissors,’ Sophy threatened.
‘You wouldn’t,’ Cress said, aghast, and of course Sophy wouldn’t. Phoebe would then kill her, painfully and slowly, with said nail scissors – but Cress didn’t know that, and reluctantly she agreed to fake an emergency dentist’s appointment.
‘Though it’s tempting fate. I bet I get toothache before the day’s out,’ she said mournfully as Sophy sent a location pin to her phone.
Chapter Five
Cress’s introduction to The Vintage Dress Shop didn’t get off to the best start. Sophy met her at Chalk Farm station and she could see from her stepsister’s face, as grey as the leaden March skies, that Cress was regretting her decision to scope out another job.
‘I’ve been at the museum for nearly ten years. It’s not very loyal to just up and leave, is it?’ she asked Sophy fretfully as they crossed over the bridge.
‘It’s not very loyal after nearly ten years to have you on a zero-hours contract, either.’ Sophy could have said a lot more but she didn’t. In times of turmoil and potential change, Cress needed very gentle handling. Still, there was one thing she needed to mention. ‘Just so you know, Phoebe, the manageress, she can be a little bit prickly. Just a little bit.’
Which was a lie; Phoebe was as prickly as a whole desert full of cacti. Cress’s face went from grey to bedsheet white.
‘Oh God, why do I let you talk me into these things?’ she murmured. ‘This is like the time you persuaded me to get a day ticket to that festival and it rained and was so cold that the Red Cross had to hand out those silver foil blankets. And we got food poisoning from the falafels.’
‘This isnothinglike that time,’ Sophy said. Even though the skies were still overcast, Primrose Hill was looking pretty. She pointed out the fancy interiors shop and her favourite café for getting exorbitantly priced coffee, ‘and if you go down there, then you hit the canal. Did I mention that there’s a little patio at the shop with canalsideviews? Lovely in summertime.’
Cress made a non-committal ‘hmm’ and then they got to the shop and when she saw that perfect black strapless tulle dress in the window, her face stopped looking quite so pinched. Though Sophy could feel her own face tightening up as she opened the door and gestured to Cress to step inside.
Cress took a few tentative steps towards the door so Sophy had to give her a good shove to get her properly over the threshold, where they were met by Phoebe and that Charles in alilactweed suit. Lilac tweed! It looked good on him, making his blue eyes and thick blond hair really pop. He was sitting on one of the sofas drinking tea from one of the fine bone-china cups that Sophy never used because they were only big enough for a thimbleful of liquid, if that, and she was terrified of breaking one.
‘…there are quite a few estate sales coming up. Always good for wedding dresses,’ Charles was saying while Phoebe nodded eagerly.
‘You know I adore a thirties silhouette and of course anything with that fifties nipped-in waist. Hides a multitude of sins on some of the more…metabolically challenged of our brides,’ Phoebe added.
Charles nudged her with his elbow. ‘That’s almost tactful for you, Pheebs. Has Freddy finally sent you to a sensitivity training workshop?’ he asked. Sophy would never have dared to tease Phoebe, but Phoebe just rolled her eyes and nudged him back. Then her lighter mood disappeared as she saw Sophy standing there with Cress cowering behind her.
