Page 28 of The Vintage Dress Shop in Primrose Hill
‘Yes, Australia.’ Sophy nodded. ‘Can’t wait.’ being with Charles was thrilling but so were the pictures that her grandmother Jean had emailed overnight of the imaginatively named Lamby, a lamb that they’d had to hand-rear last year.‘We always get a couple of lambs each year who need to be bottle-fed for whatever reason. Reckon you’d be up for it?’
Sophy had planned to steer clear of the sheep but bottle-feeding a cute lamb was an entirely different matter. ‘It’s going to be challenging but lots of fun too. So many different experiences, whereas every day here feels the same.’
‘I’m sure communing with the sheep will be very exciting, very fulfilling,’ Charles said in a deadpan voice, as if he were sure of no such thing and it wasn’t as if all Sophy would be doing in Australia was sheep wrangling.
‘I’m starting off at the sheep station but then I’m going to Sydney to see my friend Radha. I’m probably going to settle in Sydney. She lives right by Bondi Beach. Spends half her time there. But I also want to go to Melbourne to stay with one of my aunts. Melbourne’s meant to be very cool, very arty,’ Sophy said, a little wistfully because she was neither of those things.‘There are so many places I want to visit. And I’ve always wanted to live by the sea.’
‘But first, the sheep station,’ Charles pointed out.
‘Well yes, but that’s because it will be my grandparents’ fiftieth wedding anniversary.’ With some effort because her hands were still weighted down with rings and bracelets, Sophy pulled out her phone. ‘I’ve set up a countdown and everything!’
She had no one willing to share her excitement and anticipation of her new Antipodean life. Caroline seemed to think it was a phase that Sophy was going through, much like the time she’d gone vegetarian for all of two days when she was fourteen. Cress refused to talk about it, even going so far as to clamp her hands over her ears, and Egan, when Sophy had informed him of the news, had sneered, ‘Yeah, like that’s really going to happen.’
Of course, she might have gone travelling and ended up in Australia years before if Egan hadn’t asked her to move in with him. At the time, Sophy had thought it was because he couldn’t bear to be without her. That it might not be a declaration of love, but it was a sign of Egan’s commitment to their relationship. She’d never imagined that it was really because he was hoping to make some extra money by charging her rent.
But even when times were good with Egan, and especially when they were bad, Sophy often wondered what would have happened if she had gone to Australia with Radha back then. How her life would be different. Howshewould be different.
It was her big ‘what if’ moment and Sophy was fed up with ‘what ifs’, but, when she tried to explain that to people, to Cress, or her mum, they immediately countered with all the reasons why she shouldn’t go to Australia.
But Charles was an impartial third party. It was no skin off his exquisitely aquiline nose if Sophy was heading halfway round the world for the foreseeable.And given her excruciating comment the other night, it would do no harm to remind Charles that she was going to Australia and that she was very, very enthusiastic about going to Australia. So clearly she wasn’t in love with him. A medium-sized crush wasn’t the same thing at all.
‘Do you want to see the countdown?’ she asked him a little desperately.
He shook his head, his face impassive. ‘I think we’d better get all this frippery off you.’
The removing of the jewels was brisk and businesslike, the strange and lovely intimacy of earlier gone. Charles even explained about the difference between princess cut, emerald cut and baguette cut stones as he packed away his spoils, though Sophy barely took in what he was saying. She just liked the shapes his mouth made as he talked, how his passion for his job was written all over his face.
It was just as well that it was a medium-sized, unrequited crush and nothing more, because there was no way a man like Charles would ever be interested in someone like Sophy. Not when his tastes ran toVogueeditors and impossibly elegant Frenchwomen.
‘Don’t look so sad,’ Charles said when he emerged from his little cubbyhole after locking away all those pretty pieces. ‘I’m sure one day you’ll find someone who’ll buy you a tiara. Or better yet, you could buy one for yourself.’
‘From my wages from the sheep station,’ Sophy said dryly.
Charles shuddered again. ‘Don’t.’ Then he visibly brightened. ‘I promised you lunch, didn’t I? Are you hungry?’
Sophy could always eat. Even when she’d been absolutely in despair a few weeks before, her appetite had remained the one constant in her life.
She expected Charles to take her somewhere chic. Probably Japanese. Definitely minimalist. But once they’d descended the hundreds ofstairs and were out on the street, he steered her round the corner to a shabby-looking café.
Not Japanese then. And definitely not minimalist.
‘I know it looks rough but this place does the best bagels in London. Even better than Brick Lane,’ he said, as he held the door open for Sophy and a rush of homely cooking smells rose up to greet her.
When Sophy had lived in her Manor House houseshare, there had been many times that she’d stopped off at Brick Lane on the way home from a Saturday night out to buy bagels for Sunday brunch. ‘That’s a bold claim.’
‘One that I’m more than happy to stand by,’ Charles said and Sophy was pleased that they were back to their jokey banter as he worked his way through a salt beef bagel with all the trimmings and she happily munched on a bagel with smoked salmon and cream cheese that was larger than her head.
They kept the conversation light but, when Charles mentioned popping into the shop on Friday, she couldn’t help but sigh a little.
‘Do you really not like working there?’ he asked softly.
Sophy sighed again. ‘It’s not that. And like you say, it’s only going to be for a little while and also, Johnno’s doing me a favour and I don’t want to be ungrateful. But they don’t really need me.’
‘I’m sure they do. You wouldn’t believe how busy it’s going to be once the unholy trifecta of wedding season and prom season and garden party season starts.’
‘I don’t fit in there,’ Sophy admitted, not just to Charles but to herself as well. ‘I’m a people person. I actually like dealing with the public as long as the public aren’t being rude, but that shop… I just don’t get it.’
‘Don’t get what?’ Charles paused with one half of his bagel held aloft.
